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Hillary Clinton Delivers Remarks on Race Relations, Unity in Illinois. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 13, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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


HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Their stories didn't get national media coverage, but their families and communities are mourning, too.

[13:00:07] And at the same time, we need to listen to the dedicated, principled police officers working hard every day to rebuild trust with the communities they serve and protect. Our men and women in blue put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe and keep our democracy strong.

Remember what Michael Krol, Michael Smith, Lorne Ahrens, Brent Thompson and Patrick Zamarripa were doing when they died. They were protecting a peaceful march. They were people cloaked in authority making sure their fellow citizens could exercise their right to protest authority.

And there is nothing more vital to our democracy than that. And they gave their lives for it.

David Brown, the Dallas police chief, said that when it comes to overcoming systemic racism and so many other problems in society, we ask too much of the police and too little of everyone else. I think he's absolutely right. This is our problem, and we all need to work together to solve it.

We also need to listen to the families crying out for relief from gun violence. President Obama's trip to Dallas yesterday was the 11th time he has spoken to a city in mourning after a mass shooting. The wrong people keep getting their hands on guns and not just any guns -- military weapons like the kind that the Dallas killer had which allowed him to out-gun the police.

And the vast majority of gun owners agree we have to come together around common sense steps to prevent gun violence. If we're looking for common ground, this is common ground. And I hope that we will from Washington to Springfield to everywhere across America come to agreement about that.

Now, I understand that just saying these things together may upset some people. I'm talking about police reform just a few days after a horrific attack on police officers. I'm talking about courageous, honorable police officers just a few days after officer- involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota. I'm bringing up guns in a country where just talking about

comprehensive background checks and getting assault weapons off the streets gets you demonized. But all these things can be true at the same time. We do need criminal justice reform to save lives and make sure all Americans are treated as equals in rights and dignity.

We do need to support our police departments that are trying to get it right and honor the men and women who protect us every day. We do need to do more to stop gun violence. We may disagree about how to do these things, but surely we can all agree with those basic premises. And I hope and pray the past week has showed us how true they are.

Now, these are the issues on many of our minds right now. And if we stop there, that would leave us with plenty of work to do. So I wish I could say that was everything that we must address. But these events are taking place against a much broader backdrop of fear and anxiety. So I think we have to face all of it.

CLINTON: We do need to make sure our economy works for everyone, not just those at the top. The changes that have roiled our economy over the past few decades are not just numbers on a page that economists study. They are real forces that families are dealing with up close and personal every day.

[13:05:00] Not long ago, I met with factory workers here in Illinois, whose jobs are being sent abroad, and heard how painful the consequences have been for them and their families.

I've talked to workers across our country who have seen good jobs lost to technologies, who keep being told to get more training, even though that often doesn't lead to a good new job on the other end.

These economic disruptions have stripped too many people of their sense of security and dignity, and that can have devastating consequences.

We have to ask ourselves, why are drug addiction and suicide on the rise in parts of our country? That's not just about economics. It is about something deeper that is connected to economics -- a sense of dislocation, even a pessimism about whether America still holds anything for them, or cares about them at all.

That's why I pledge that in my first 100 days as president, we will make the biggest investment in new good-paying jobs since World War II. We need more jobs you can support a family on, especially in places that have been left out and left behind, from Coal Country, to Indian Country, to inner cities, to every place that has been hollowed out when a factory closed or a mine shut down. Because everyone in America deserves that fair chance in the race of life that President Lincoln described.

Now, I realize that our politics have contributed to the sense of division that many Americans feel right now. And as someone in the middle of a hotly-fought political campaign, I cannot stand here and claim that my words and actions haven't sometimes fueled the partisanship that often stands in the way of progress.

So I recognize I have to do better, too. I'm running for president with the belief that we need to face up to these challenges and fix them in order to become a stronger, fairer country. And in times like these, we need a president who can help pull us together, not split us apart.

(APPLAUSE) And that is why I believe Donald Trump is so dangerous. His campaign is as divisive as any we have seen in our lifetime. It is built on stoking mistrust and pitting American against American. It is there in everything he says, and everything he promises to do as president.

It is there in how he wants to ban Muslims from coming to the United States and toyed with creating a database to track Muslims in America. It is there in the way he demeans women, in his promotion of an anti-Semitic image pushed by neo-Nazis, and in the months that he spent trying to discredit the citizenship and legitimacy of our first black president.

Last night, in an interview, he said that he understands systemic bias against black people because, and I quote, "Even against me, the system is rigged," unquote. Went on to say, "I can relate to it very much myself."

CLINTON: Even this, the killing of people, is somehow all about him. It is there in his proposals on immigration. He says he'll round up 11 million people and kick them out. He's actually described a special deportation force that would go around America, pulling people out of their homes and workplaces, pulling children out of school.

[13:10:14] I got a letter from a mother the other day who said her adopted son asked her with a shaky voice if President Trump would send him back to Ethiopia. When kids are scared by political candidates and policy debates, it is a sign that something has gone badly wrong.

And we see it in the violence that Donald Trump encouraged toward protesters at his rallies and the strange things he has said about the violence that will occur if we don't elect him. He says that if he doesn't win in November, "We," and again, I quote, "won't even have a country anymore. America's not going to continue to survive." I do not know what he's talking about.

(LAUGHTER)

But...

(APPLAUSE)

I do know we don't need that kind of fearmongering, not now, not ever. And he's gone even further than that. He has taken aim at some of our most cherished Democratic values and institutions. He wants to revoke the citizenship of 4 million Americans born in

this country to immigrant parents and eliminate the bedrock principle, enshrined in the 14th Amendment, that if you're born in America, you're a citizen of America.

He said that a distinguished American born in Indiana, a judge, can't be trusted to do his job because his parents were Mexican. He called him a "Mexican judge" over and over again.

He knew the judge had been born in Indiana. But it was a cynical, calculated attempt to fan the flames of racial division and designed to undermine people's faith in our judicial system.

Why would someone running for president want to do that? And even that's not all. He says, as commander in chief, he would order our troops to commit war crimes and insisted they would follow his orders, even though that goes against decades of military training and the military code.

He's banished members of the press who have criticized had him. Is there any doubt he would do the same as president? Imagine if he had not just Twitter and cable news to go after his critics and opponents, but also the IRS, or for that matter, our entire military.

Given what we have seen and heard, do any of us think he'd be restrained? And he has shown contempt for and ignorance of our Constitution.

Last week he met with House Republicans in Washington to try to assuage their serious concerns about him. One member asked whether he'd protect Article One, which defines the separation of powers between Congress and the Executive Branch.

Here's the answer he reportedly gave. "I want to protect Article One, Article Two, Article Twelve." Well, here's the thing. There is no Article Twelve.

(LAUGHTER)

Not even close. That was a serious question from an elected representative and he either didn't care enough to answer it seriously, or he didn't know where to begin. Even the most stalwart Republicans were alarmed by that. And well, they and we should be.

CLINTON: The very first thing a new president does is take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. To do that with any meaning, you've got to know what's in it.

[13:15:00] And you have to respect what's in it.

(APPLAUSE)

I do wish Donald Trump would listen to other people once in a while. He might actually learn something. But he's made it clear that's not his thing. As he has said, he only listens to himself. This man is the nominee of the party of Lincoln. We are watching it become the party of Trump. And that's not just a huge loss for our democracy, it is a threat to it. Because Donald Trump's campaign adds up to an ugly, dangerous message to America -- a message that you should be afraid, afraid of people's whose ethnicity is different or religious faith is different, or who were born in a different country or hold different political beliefs.

Make no mistake, there are things to fear in this world and we need to be clear-eyed about them. But we are each other's countrymen and -women. We share this miraculous country. This land and its heritage is yours, mine, and everyone's willing to pledge allegiance and understand the solemn responsibilities of American citizenship.

That's what "indivisible" means, that big word that every grade school student knows, that we're in this together even if that's not always easy. So let's think better of each other. Let's hold together in the face of our challenges, not turn on each other or tear each other down.

Let's put ourselves in the shoes of police officers, kissing their kids and spouses goodbye every day and heading off to a dangerous job we need them to do. Let's put ourselves in the shoes of African Americans and Latinos and try as best as we can to imagine what it would be like if we had to have the talk with our kids about how carefully they need to act...

(APPLAUSE)

... how carefully they need to act because the slightest wrong move could get them hurt or killed.

And yes, let's put ourselves in the shoes of Donald Trump's supporters. We may disagree on the causes and the solutions to the challenges we face, but I believe, like anyone else, they're trying to figure out their place in a fast-changing America. They want to know how to make a good living and how to give their kids better futures and opportunities.

That's why we've got to reclaim the promise of America for all our people no matter who they vote for. And let's be more than allies to each other. Let's take on each other's struggles as our own. My life's work is built on the conviction that we are stronger together, not separated into factions or sides, not shouting over each other, but together.

Our economy is stronger when everyone contributes to it and everyone can benefit from the work they do. Our communities are stronger when we all pull together to solve our problems and restore our faith in each other, and by doing so in the promise of America.

CLINTON: Our country is stronger when we work with friends and allies to promote peace, prosperity and security around the world. This is an idea that goes back to the founding of America, when 13 separate colonies found a way despite their differences to join together as one nation.

[13:20:07] They knew they were not stronger on their own and neither are we.

I've had the great delight of seeing the musical "Hamilton." And I hope more people at least get a chance to listen to the score and to hear the words. There is a great song by the character playing George Washington, who sings "History's eyes are on us." That was true then and that's true today.

If we do this right, and if we have the hard conversations we need to have, we will become stronger still, like steel tempered by fire. Now, don't get me wrong; fierce debates are part of who we are. They started at my dinner table with my father and have continued ever since. It is who we are.

You're reminded of that when you read history, when you think about the Lincoln-Douglas debates, debate over the right way forward. And sometimes we have to balance competing values like freedom and order, justice and security, these are complementary values of American life. That isn't easy.

Previous generations have had to overcome terrible challenges, and no one more so than Abraham Lincoln. But in the end, if we do the work, we will cease to be divided. We, in fact, will be indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

And we will remain, in President Lincoln's words, "The last best hope of Earth." Thank you, all, very much.

(APPLAUSE)

[13:22:23] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, wrapping up a half hour speech at the old state house in Springfield, Illinois. That's the site, by the way, where President Abraham Lincoln delivered his "house divided" speech against slavery. Hillary Clinton spoke about trying to heal the country after the tragedies in Minnesota, Louisiana and Dallas.

Let's bring in our panel. Our CNN political analyst David Gregory is with us, the host of "The David Gregory Show" podcast, and our CNN senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson.

Nia, this was a double pronged speech by the former secretary of state, talking about race in America right now. She said, "there is too much violence and hate in our country. America's long struggle with race is far from finished. There is still a great division and we need honesty and courage," she said, "to take a hard look at our attitude." That was part one of her speech. Part two was a blistering attack against Donald Trump, saying that he is simply so dangerous to the future of the United States he must not, she said, be elected president.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, and she talked about some of the evolution of the Republican Party from being the party of Lincoln to now being the party of Trump. And she really went down memory lane in terms of low lights, what many people think are low lights from Trump's campaign, some of the things he said about Judge Curiel, some of the things he said about Muslims.

You know, I think it was somber at times. It was a sobering reminder, I think, of a lot of the problems that the country still has that were -- you know, that go back to slavery. So I think notable that she went back to Lincoln. Lincoln was also somebody that Obama often talked about. He delivered his acceptance speech there as well.

So -- but I also think it was reflective too. She, at one point, said that she herself hadn't always done a good job in terms of bridging the divide. She said that she had also fueled partisanship at some point and that she could do better.

You know, I think we're at this time, what does it mean to have a president to deal with race? What does it mean to have a white president deal with race, right? We've had Obama, who had all these expectations in terms of race. We're now in this post-Obama phase. Some people think, some Democrats believe, including Michael Eric Dyson, think that someone like Hillary Clinton would maybe be better in terms of race than President Obama because she can talk directly to white people in a way that President Obama might not have been able to.

BLITZER: And one line in her speech, David, you heard it, Nia heard it, "we need to listen to those who say black lives matter."

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, that was particularly important because that -- you know, Black Lives Matter, the movement has become divisive, you know, in a lot of quarters. The response to that is, hey, wait a minute, that's racist, all lives matter. And I thought she contextualized that in a very articulate way saying, for a lot of African-Americans, they feel their lives do not matter at all. That they are disposable. And that's a conversation we need to have.

[13:25:18] I thought this was a very deft and thoughtful speech on her part. Deft politically because she wants to wrap herself in the cloak of Lincoln as a unifier, but really it was the payoff today, the party of Lincoln is now becoming the party of Trump, be very, very afraid.

She's also, I think, trying to stay close to President Obama, who I think, in the aftermath of Dallas and these other shootings, is trying to have an inclusive, very difficult conversation, which in our political environment is not easy. Outside of our political environment is not easy. And I think she's trying to really plug into that.

BLITZER: Yes, and she made that transition, speaking about race and the issues we've all been focusing in on over this past week, to Donald Trump. And as you point out, this is the nominee of the party of Lincoln, becoming now the party of Trump. And that is a threat, she said, to our democracy.

HENDERSON: Yes, and she said that he was dangerous and essentially sort of fomenting division, and someone who probably couldn't bring the country together. But she also did something else there, as she was trying to encourage Americans listening to this speech to put themselves in the -- the shoes of police officers. Put themselves in the shoes of African-Americans and Latinos who have issues and concerns about police officers. She also said, put yourselves in the shoes of Trump supporters --

GREGORY: Right.

HENDERSON: And some of the changing ways that they're dealing with, some of the changing demographics and economic --

GREGORY: But that could also be seen as a little condescending. I heard that. I'm like, you know, you may think they're all crazy, but, you know, they're -- they're trying to find their way, too, let's try to understand them. But in essence, I think -- first of all, I think this is a prelude to her convention speech.

HENDERSON: Yes, I think that's right.

GREGORY: I think we've heard a lot of those themes. And, two, I think she's trying to be big. Anybody who wants to be president needs to be big. They need to be presidential. They need to transcend the political moment. And she's trying to make, obviously, Donald Trump look small and look dangerous.

We've heard the word "dangerous" from her I think every day on the campaign trail. As I talk to not only the campaign folks but others in the super pac world supporting her, that is the impression, that's the defining characteristic they want voters to be left with over the summer. And hopefully, in their view, that will create a lead that will be insurmountable.

HENDERSON: Yes. I mean a lot of the polls that we're getting, I mean it's still early. I mean this is a neck and neck race. They have been running millions of dollars in ads in some of these swing states, the Clinton campaign has. The Trump campaign, not really up on the air in any of these swing state. But if you look at the polls now, it's still a dead heat. They want to frame Donald Trump early and often in this way that David is talking about as a threat.

BLITZER: Yes, in key battlegrounds states --

HENDERSON: In key battleground states.

BLITZER: Like Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio --

HENDERSON: Pennsylvania, Ohio --

BLITZER: It is neck and neck according to that new Quinnipiac University poll that was just released today.

HENDERSON: Yes.

BLITZER: Guys, don't go too far away, David Gregory and Nia-Malika Henderson.

I want to discuss the Hillary Clinton speech now. Donald Trump's impending vice presidential decision. Joining us is the national spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, Katrina Pierson.

Katrina, thanks very much for joining us.

KATRINA PIERSON, NATIONAL SPOKESWOMAN, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Let me get your reaction, first of all, to part one of Hillary Clinton's speech. The words she said about race in America. She said, "America's long struggle with race is far from finished. There's too much violence and hate in our country. Divisions still hold our country apart." You heard what she had to stay. I want to get your reaction, the reaction of the Trump campaign.

PIERSON: Well, you know, Hillary Clinton did point out a lot of symptoms that the black community in particular have been experiencing. Unfortunately, the part she leaves out is it's broadly a symptom of a greater problem, which is severe lack of leadership when it comes to policies that actually affect the black community's life. Illegal immigration that has impacted the black community very heavily, whether if it's driving down wages, taking jobs, overcrowding the school system, health facilities, even church resources. That has a huge impact in the African-American community.

But not to mention, you know, we can go all the way back to education. A lot of these communities have very poor public education, even though we have spent billions of dollars in this failed public education system. Mr. Trump wants school choice. He wants to put the education back into the hands of these parents. A lot of these federal policies have trapped so many people in these communities without giving them a way out. Mr. Trump's policies are very different. You notice, Hillary Clinton didn't name one policy that would actually help the economic burden in the black community.

BLITZER: She did say that there has to be a much better dialogue. People have to start listening to each other.

PIERSON: Dialogue.

BLITZER: And she also said, and I want to get your reaction to this, she said, "we need to listen to those who say black lives matter." Your reaction?

[13:29:53] PIERSON: Well, Mr. Trump has always listened to everyone and he has said that for a very long time. And he does listen to everyone. And he asks perspectives from people who aren't even necessarily a part of the campaign because he does want a better understanding. And he even mentioned that you really can't understand what's going on inside the African-American community or even as someone who is black, he says, unless you are black.