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Explosions at Turkish Airport; Donald Trump Delivers Trade Address. Aired 15-15:30p ET

Aired June 28, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:03]

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No.

I mean, look, when you're making a speech as detailed as this, and laying out a seven-point plan, and citing specific rules within that plan of how to withdraw from the TPP or NAFTA, and citing Bill Clinton's support of NAFTA from December of 1993, you want to make sure you have all the facts right.

And that's why the teleprompter was used today. The facts are very clear. The speech was delivered clearly, articulately, and again the best speech of the campaign so far.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: And chief political correspondent Dana Bash, it was interesting how he -- how Trump framed Hillary Clinton as running a campaign of fear. That seems like a relatively new tactic.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It does.

But I think, broadly, Pamela, the -- I'm in the Capitol right now and you could almost hear Republicans here exhaling as they listened to the speech, not necessarily because all Republicans agree with him on trade. This is an issue that scrambles the Republican Party, just like it does the Democratic Party, that they're really split on whether free trade is a good idea, as George W. Bush did, or whether the more populist wing should prevail that now is obviously led now by Donald Trump.

But just the fact that he gave such a detailed, such a cogent policy, pure policy speech, on an issue that is his sweet spot, there is no doubt about it, is exactly the kind of thing that Republicans have been begging him to do, not insult people, not kind of give the kind of -- frankly, the kind of speech that a lot of his supporters love for him to give.

The other just little bit of behind-the-scenes color here I could give you, something that we have not seen, never mind getting prepared remarks, which we did as reporters, but also prepared remarks with detailed footnotes, citations from where he's getting these facts and figures, a new Trump campaign.

BROWN: All right, so you heard Dana say that, Guy Cecil. We have heard the other panelists say this was his best speech to date. It was clear. It's concise. How concerned should the Hillary Clinton camp be?

GUY CECIL, PRIORITIES USA ACTION: Not very.

I think the fact is that you believe what Donald Trump is telling you requires for you to completely ignore his life's work. And, actually, not to shock people, but Corey and I actually agree on one point. Donald Trump knows a lot about this. Donald Trump attacked folks for outsourcing, yet almost all of his products are made in Bangladesh, China and Mexico.

Donald Trump said that the most important thing that we need to do is build America's infrastructure with steel, but Donald Trump left out that he redesigned an entire building in order to avoid using Pennsylvania steel.

And, lastly, he talks about cheaters. Well, Donald Trump, we know, has at least in four years not paid any taxes, cheating the American people. So, for all the talk about protecting American workers, the last person I would want protecting people like my family is Donald Trump.

BROWN: All right, let's look at this tweet that Hillary Clinton just put out. It says: "Trump speaking about outsourcing right now. Here's one of his shirts, made in Bangladesh."

This is in line with what she said. Other products, his ties were made in China.

Corey Lewandowski, how do you respond?

LEWANDOWSKI: Look, Trump, the businessman, is somebody who wanted to make sure he had an obligation to his family and his business to make their best profits available.

And that's different than Trump the president. What he's talking about now is bringing American jobs back here. And it is very different when you're in the private sector. When you are in the private sector, you have an obligation to your family and to your company to grow that company and provide good wages.

And so if that opportunity was such where he had to go and find a product because he couldn't get it manufacture here in the United States, that's very different than being the chief executive officer of our country and bringing those manufacturing jobs back here.

(CROSSTALK)

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: But, Corey, isn't his whole argument that he is...

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Corey, his whole argument is, he is a businessman. So, he's going to do that as president.

(CROSSTALK) BROWN: Ali, go ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Corey, his whole point is that he is a businessman, so that's the experience he is going to use in his presidency.

I want to point out a few inaccuracies in his speech. President Reagan was an absolute free trader who four times in eight years brought in trade restrictions, and all times, they were temporary. The NAFTA agreement between Canada and Mexico was negotiated and put through by President George H.W. Bush.

He tried to fast-track it before his term ended on -- in January of 1993, and he couldn't do it in time, which is why Bill Clinton had to pick it up. And Bill Clinton added two side notes to that deal to add protections for U.S. workers.

And his seven-point plan is a four-point plan, because he divided China into three points, and he divided other trade manipulations into two points. he wants to pull out of the TPP, which is, by the way, supported by the majority of Republican congressmen in Congress.

So there are a lot of things about this that, if the best speech Donald Trump has given, if it's indicative of the type of policy speech he's going to be delivering, we are in for a very boring four, five months.

And people who check facts are going to be very, very busy.

BROWN: Corey, I will let you respond.

LEWANDOWSKI: Look, here's the difference.

[15:05:00]

LEWANDOWSKI: Hillary Clinton has no plan. She supported the TPP 45 different times.

Now, all of a sudden, the AFL-CIO is against it. And now she's trying to change her position and say she's always been against it. That's just not factually true. Her husband signed NAFTA. It's been a terrible trade deal. We have seen one-third of the jobs in Pennsylvania already shipped overseas; 69,000 jobs have gone by the wayside. Two million jobs nationwide have gone by the wayside.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Because of productivity, Corey. Corey, you know that.

(CROSSTALK)

LEWANDOWSKI: The bottom line is, Hillary Clinton continues to support a terrible deal.

(CROSSTALK) VELSHI: CNN Money has done a great piece on manufacturing in America.

It is up on every measure, as it is in Germany, as it is in China, because China at Foxconn uses robots to put your iPhone together.

(CROSSTALK)

LEWANDOWSKI: ... that two million jobs have been extracted.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: I want to also go to another point that Donald Trump made when it came to Hillary Clinton.

And he basically said he forced her hand when it came to trade based on what she said a few years ago about TPP and what she's saying now. Let's listen -- take a listen to what she said in 2012.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This TPP sets the gold standard in trade agreements to open free, transparent, fair trade, the kind of environment that has the rule of law and a level playing field.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, Guy, I mean, who forced her hand? Did Donald Trump have any role in it?

VELSHI: No, Bernie Sanders did.

CECIL: No, the fact is that, throughout this entire process, the one thing Hillary has been pretty consistent and clear about is that she wanted the TPP process to protect workers' rights and provide a level playing field for the American people.

Corey keeps talking about the AFL-CIO, as if they should be the arbiter in this. The fact of the matter is, the AFL-CIO has endorsed Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump. In every measure, when you look at this speech, when you look at the history of Donald Trump's experience, his business record, all of the pabulum he's been spreading throughout the course of this campaign, the fact is, he's not on the side of the workers.

Corey said he's designing to wage wages. Donald Trump fails to pay his workers, hundreds and thousands of contractors and individuals who are never paid by Donald Trump after they completed their jobs. This is not just about trade. This is about the character of a person who in no way, shape or form is looking out for the American worker. He is looking out for Donald Trump, Trump enterprises, Scottish golf carts, whatever else he is talking about peddling as a part of this campaign.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Corey, before we go to you -- listen, Guy.

Corey, I'm going to need to press the pause button on you. I just want to clarify, Guy. You were saying that Donald Trump didn't force her hand, but that Bernie Sanders forced her hand on TPP?

VELSHI: I said that.

CECIL: Yes. I don't think you heard that coming from me.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: No, that came from me.

BROWN: OK.

VELSHI: That was in the middle of the campaign. It was in the middle to primary campaign. Donald Trump was not the factor in the whole thing. Bernie Sanders was. Hillary Clinton did flip-flop on that, but that's something Donald Trump can't take credit for.

BROWN: OK, Guy, your reaction to that then.

CECIL: Well, I think the fact is that Donald Trump pretended to lay out Hillary Clinton's comprehensive trade record.

Everybody on the panel has failed to point out that when Hillary was actually given the chance in her own right as a United States senator, she voted against trade agreements. She has a measured approach to this. She wants to make sure that we open up trade, yes, but that we protect American worker, that we protect American jobs, that we provide a level playing field for American products.

And she opposes TPP because in the final form, it failed to meet those standards. And that continues to ignore the fact that Donald Trump has built his entire career by outsourcing jobs, not by building American companies. He wasn't in Pennsylvania making ties. He wasn't in Ohio developing tuxedo shirts to sell on the open market.

He chose Bangladesh, China, Mexico, the exact thing that he is attacking workers for around the country.

BROWN: Gloria, how much will this debate resonate with voters moving forward?

(CROSSTALK)

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think it is at the center of the campaign, as David was saying earlier.

I think what Donald Trump was trying to do in his speech today was portray Hillary Clinton as a member of the financial elite who believe in globalism, who don't care about American workers, and trying to portray himself, because he needs these Rust Belt workers, he needs the white working-class voters in a state like Pennsylvania, in a state like Ohio, and to say to them, I will make your life better, and in the end, that will be good for your pocketbook, it will be good for wages, it will be good for manufacturing in this country.

You have a debate that is black and white here. And although Hillary Clinton has moved on the TPP, she did say it was the gold standard. And I do believe -- and I agree with Ali -- that it was Bernie Sanders' populist campaign who pushed her on that issue and who pushed her on trade.

[15:10:03]

And it is a grievance, as I was saying before, that unites the right and the left, that I think this is going to be at the centerpiece of the campaign, when you talk about income inequality and when you talk about a way that make sure that American workers earn better wages, two vastly different solutions from two vastly different politicians.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: All right, I want to go to the sound bite.

David, go ahead and jump in.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Sorry.

I just wanted to say, because we have mentioned Bernie Sanders a couple times here. And I just want to mention, remember, she's still -- Hillary Clinton is still sort of getting hit by the left on this. Bernie Sanders is trying to create a fight over the Democratic Party platform to get opposition to the TPP firmly in there.

And if you -- I was like looking up as Donald Trump was speaking about Hillary Clinton's past support of China going into the WTO or her support for NAFTA, the way that Donald Trump cited those two what he called Clinton legacy items. And the Sanders campaign brought those two things up repeatedly...

BROWN: Absolutely.

CHALIAN: ... during the course of this campaign. So, she's now sort of getting this from both sides.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Go ahead. Dana?

BASH: Well, Pam, I was just going to say, it is almost as if for her on this issue, her primary fight hasn't ended, because she is having, as David said, the same exact policy argument.

She's just doing it, ironically, with her Republican opponent, who is to the left of her many ways, even though I'm sure Guy would disagree with me, but to the left of her at least rhetorically on this issue, just as Bernie Sanders was. It is not something we are used to seeing in general elections, where Republicans in recent years have tended to be more free trade.

But one thing I also want to add to this is that whether or not people kind of seize on to Guy's argument that, yes, he is saying that is he for the worker, but he makes his own materials in China and other places abroad and outsources, or whether or not his argument that he is for the American worker, whichever one of those really seizes the day is going to be I think the telltale sign for who succeeds here.

And that's why you see Hillary Clinton and her supporters like Guy trying to define him early as somebody who doesn't mean what he is saying. His actions don't underscore and sort of belie what he is arguing rhetorically.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: An interesting discussion.

Gloria, we actually have to take a quick break.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: But we're going to come back with all of you to talk more about Trump's speech and what he had to say about Brexit. We will be right back. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:24]

BROWN: Welcome back.

Breaking news now. Take a look here, anti-Brexit protests breaking out in London right now, this as Donald Trump just touted his position on the vote. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was on the right side of that issue, as you know, with the people. I was there. I said it was going to happen. I felt it, while Hillary, as always, stood with the elites, and both she and President Obama predicted that one and many others totally wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The leader of the Brexit campaign also just spoke about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to our own Richard Quest.

Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Our viewers in the United States who are watching now and wondering what on earth is going to happen to Britain, how can Britain thrive -- I didn't say survive -- I say thrive -- outside the European Union, when the banks are being decimated in the share price and the threats have been very severe and the pound has fallen 15 -- 13, 14 percent.

NIGEL FARAGE, U.K. INDEPENDENCE PARTY LEADER: Yesterday -- and the FTSE is up 3 percent today, 12 percent up since its lows in February.

Sterling is marginally lower than it was in February. So can we stop this nonsense about the markets? The pound has been in a bear market since July 2014. Fact.

Now, American viewers, imagine if NAFTA was a political union. Imagine if a court in Mexico could overrule anything the Congress did. Imagine if you had free movement of people with Mexico? How would you feel? You wouldn't like it. And what we're doing in the U.K., we are reasserting our democratic rights. And in terms of business and trade, we will go on trading.

QUEST: You are starting to sound in some way with the similar policies to Donald Trump. Now, he admires the Brexit result. He said it was fantastic, it was brilliant. Do you admire Donald Trump in this U.S. presidential election?

FARAGE: Donald Trump dares to talk about things that other people want to brush under the carpet, but what Mr. Trump is doing in America is very different from what I'm trying to do in the United Kingdom.

My problem in politics is far greater than Donald Trump's. We literally have lost our sovereignty, lost our borders, lost our ability to regulate.

QUEST: He would say the same thing about U.S. borders.

FARAGE: Well, the problem that you have got in the U.S. is illegal immigration. Our problem is legal immigration to half-a-billion people.

QUEST: So you wouldn't be looking to him for too much support, because on one the hand he also says if the becomes president of the United States, Barack Obama's going to the back of the trade queue wouldn't happen. You would be at the front of the queue.

(CROSSTALK)

QUEST: So, in many ways, you must hope he becomes president.

FARAGE: Look, I think for the United Kingdom, I think Trump will be better for us than Barack Obama has been. Of that, there is no doubt.

QUEST: And against Hillary Clinton, or you are not going to take sides at this early stage?

FARAGE: There is nothing on earth that could persuade me ever to vote for Hillary Clinton.

QUEST: You sure you don't want to think about that?

(CROSSTALK)

FARAGE: No, no, absolutely not.

QUEST: I mean, just so you don't actually... FARAGE: I mean, she represents the political elite. It is almost as if she feels she has a sort of divine right to have that job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right, I want to bring back our panel.

And first to you, Ali Velshi, because we just heard what Donald Trump had to say about Brexit, saying that he was on the right side of the issue.

But at the same time, we are seeing how this has impacted world markets.

VELSHI: Right.

BROWN: We know the U.K.'s credit rating has been downgraded. Could this backfire for Donald Trump?

VELSHI: Well, I think it all depends on what happens after Brexit.

One of the reasons we have seen such turmoil in stock markets is because nobody actually knows what happens next. Does the U.K. come apart? Does anyone else try and get out of the E.U.? How are they going to negotiate?

[15:20:07]

I wouldn't -- if I were Donald Trump, I would keep a little bit of space between me and talking great or bad Brexit is. I think the issue though is that he is tapping into a concern about globalization which was certainly a part of the leave campaign in Britain.

And it certainly is a part of the concern that Americans have with their trade deals, initially with free trade with Canada, then NAFTA, now with TPP. And that is the idea that if you are in a rich country with high wages, and you get into trade agreements with countries with lower wages, there tends to be some loss of jobs.

And there is a valid frustration. Now, that doesn't mean globalization is entirely broken. When he talks about jobs lost have been manufacturing, some of our jobs have been lost to globalization. Some of them, most of them have been lost to technology gains.

And that's something he's not really prepared to talk about. In Germany, they address that very well. So, I think there is an underlying fear of these trade deals and what they do to workers, high-wage workers in industrialized countries, that it would be rise wise for Hillary Clinton to try and get her head around and provide an answer to.

Nobody is really able to answer that very well. GDP goes up, corporate profits go up when you get into these trade deals, but working-class wages and manufacturing wages tend not to.

BROWN: And, Corey, I should say that the Dow is up big today after a few rough days. But what do you think? Will Trump continue touting his endorsement of Brexit come September, October, or should he maybe put a little distance between himself and Brexit, as Ali just alluded to?

LEWANDOWSKI: Well, what I think is that the people -- 17.4 million people voted in a binary decision to get out of the European Union.

And the reason for that is because they didn't feel that they controlled their own destiny anymore. And I think what have here in the United States is something very similar. You have got a broken Washington where people out in the heartland don't think that they can control their own destiny, that they send money to Washington and no one knows where it goes.

And we see the waste, fraud and abuse time and time again. And if you look at the last "Wall Street Journal" poll, if you ask the people who is going to fundamentally bring change to Washington, 56 percent of the people say they want a fundamental change. And of that 56 percent, 64 percent of those people want Donald Trump to be the next president, because they know that he is the only one who is actually going to change the system.

I think that's what you saw in Europe. I think that's what you will see here in the United States.

BROWN: And, Guy, he really used Brexit to draw a stark line between himself and Hillary Clinton, say, I put America first, just as the Brits did for their country. Hillary Clinton puts other nations first.

How effective was that?

CECIL: Well, I think the larger question is, who has the plan to actually move the country forward and to address the economic insecurity and anxieties that people feel? Who has a plan to build infrastructure, to reeducate our workers, to develop a manufacturing base, to implement a new technology platform to expand opportunity for people across the country?

And on every demonstrable measure, Hillary Clinton has a plan, and Donald Trump has words. And so I think at the end of the day it will ultimately accrue to Hillary's benefit, because she directly addresses in real terms the challenges that people are facing.

BORGER: You know, Pamela, I think that Trump's speech today, as he called it a declaration of American independence, is a clear reference to everything that's gone on in Britain in the past days.

And he's clearly building upon that and building upon this notion of the working class rising up against the elites, taking their country back, taking trade back. And I would also point out that while we have been talking about this, my colleague Jeff Zeleny points out that the United States Chamber of Commerce, which is known as a Republican stalwart here, tweeted that, under Trump's trade plans, we'd see higher prices, fewer jobs and a weaker economy. Now, this is from a Republican -- generally Republican organization,

establishment organization, tweeting against the Republican nominee on a major piece of economic policy. That's something I don't think we have seen before.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Got to get some to breaking news.

I have to thank the six of you all to come.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: No, that's all right.

We have some breaking news out of Turkey. There are two explosions at the airport in Istanbul. Stand by for that.

Up next: anti-Brexit protests breaking out in London.

All right, we're going to take a quick break, and we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:06]

BROWN: We have some breaking news just into CNN.

We're getting word of two explosions and multiple injuries at the Istanbul Airport.

Journalist Diana Magnay is following the story from London.

Diana, what can you tell us? Diana Magnay in London for us. Diana, are you there?

All right, so we're waiting to get in touch with Diana.

But Ali Velshi also joins us. I know you are familiar with this airport. What can you tell me about it, Ali?

VELSHI: It is the third biggest airport in all of Europe. It is on the European side of Istanbul.

Only London and Paris are busier airports. I think about 60 million passengers a year go through it. Very much like Emirates made Dubai a hub for traveling internationally, Turkish Airlines has made that Ataturk Airport into that sort of hub.

So, many times, when you go to points east, whether it's in the Middle East or Asia, Istanbul has made itself into a hub. As a result, it has a very high profile. It's type of airport that you don't mind getting to a few hours earlier before your flight. Sometimes, you have to because of security. But there is high-end shopping. All of the major European and American brands are in the airport. And I often say, when I'm in that airport, it is like being in the bar from "Star Wars." It's every shape and color and size of people and international dress that you have ever seen.

So, what Turkey is to Asia and Europe and the Middle East, this very mixed place, that airport is really an international hub. It is used by businesspeople and diplomats from all over the world. As you know, Turkey has now -- this is probably the third major -- I may be getting it wrong, but about the third major attack in Istanbul this year.

This was a place considered very safe and under the good government control. Turkey has got two things going on. It is fighting ISIS, although a little bit tepidly, but it is really fighting the Kurdish independence movement in that country. And those are people who have been targeting the government.

So most of the attacks -- don't know what the evidence is, but the government tends to blame on Kurdish separatist movements in Turkey, which has really succeeded in making this tourist haven a very difficult and dangerous place to go.

But to actually have attacked the airport, Istanbul Airport, Ataturk Airport, is a very, very secure environment. I have traveled there sometimes several times a year. It is very surprising to see that there would be something that involves multiple injuries at that airport. But it is -- just to keep in mind, it's the third biggest airport in all of Europe. It is bigger than Frankfurt.

BROWN: Wow. That really puts it in perspective.

And, right now, we're getting our first pictures and video in of the aftermath of these two explosions that caused multiple injuries. There, you see ambulances, people standing around obviously looking distraught.

Bob Baer, a former CIA operative, joins us now.

When you hear this, Bob, the third biggest airport in Europe, in Istanbul, we're hearing about two explosions, multiple injuries, what comes to mind for you?

BOB BAER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, right now, I'm looking at the Islamic State, simply because there's been so many attacks in the last few days. There was one in Yemen particularly devastating.

There's been several in Lebanon. And then you have the Islamic State, who has also been after Jordan. They attacked a border post. A total of 12 Jordanian officials have been killed.

We are going to have to wait and see what the Turks say. It could be the Kurds. We just don't know at this point, but Turkey is really in the sights of both the Kurds and the Islamic State.

BROWN: And how surprising is it to you? We heard Ali say that, look, this is considered a very safe place. There's tons of security around for travelers.

How surprising is it for you that they were able to pull this off, whoever was behind this?

BAER: Well, I think what we have to face is that hiding explosives is fairly easy, as well as the detonators.

And anybody who is sophisticated at it, especially vests, suicide vests, or even in suitcases, can get this through. The best security in the world cannot stop this stuff, especially...