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CNN NEWSROOM

Clinton Comments on Investigation; Trump on Putin; Russian Helicopter Shot Down; Distracted Driving. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired August 1, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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


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[09:32:49] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.

Donald Trump's rough weekend is all anyone is talking about. It totally overshadowed an interview with Hillary Clinton on Fox. In that interview, she address an FBI investigation into her private e-mail server. When asked about the FBI director's characterization that Clinton was reckless and - or careless and negligent with classified information, this is how she responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Director Comey said that my answers were truthful and what I've said is consistent with what I have told the American people. That there were decisions discussed and made to classify retroactively certain of the e-mails. I was communicating with over 300 people in my e-mailing. They certainly did not believe, and had no reason to believe, that what they were sending was classified.

What I believe is, number one, I made a mistake not using two different e-mail addresses. I have said that. And I repeat it again today. It is certainly not anything that I ever would do again. I take classification seriously. I relied on and had every reason to rely on the judgments of the professionals with whom I worked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So let's talk about this. Charmaine Yoest is a former advisor to President Ronald Reagan and a former presidential - and to former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, and Bernard Whitman is author of "52 Reasons to Vote for Hillary." He's also a former Clinton pollster.

Welcome to both of you.

BERNARD WHITMAN, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: Thank you.

CHARMAINE YOEST, FORMER REAGAN ADVISER: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, so, Bernard, the debates are coming. Is it enough for Clinton to continue to say, it was a mistake and I'll never do it again?

WHITMAN: Well, I mean that's not all she's been saying. This has been going on for over a year. She's made very, very clear that she made a mistake. She shouldn't have done it. If she knew now what she knew - if she knew then what she knows now, she never would have done it. I think that the FBI has fully investigated.

COSTELLO: But surely she knew then, right?

WHITMAN: Congress has investigated it. The State Department has investigated it. I think that she made a mistake. She's come clean with the American people. And I think, frankly, we should move on and talk about some of the fundamental issues that are facing the country, the economy, foreign policy, health care, jobs and the list goes on and on and on. All the Republicans have is this e-mail gate and they're going to continue to dredge it up.

[09:35:07] COSTELLO: Charmaine, how did you respond - I mean what was going through your mind when you were listening to Hillary Clinton's response?

YOEST: I thought this was classic Hillary, to dodge and weave and evade and, most importantly to spin and to reframe something by telling the American people that the FBI director said something he did not say. He said that she was terribly careless with American foreign policy secrets and classified material. He didn't exonerate her and say that she had - that she had - that she had said what she said. She told us that she didn't send classified material, versus - over e-mail, and he said that she, in fact, did. We know - and, frankly, we still have 30,000 e-mails that were wiped clean off of her system in a way that the FBI Director Comey said appeared to be, well, that were unretrievable forensically. So, you know, there's still a lot of questions among the American people as to exactly what she did and how she did it and why she did it, and she's definitely white washing this.

COSTELLO: And, Bernard, I do think Charmaine is right about that. I've talked with many moderate Republicans who were thinking of voting Clinton until that e-mail controversy hit full force again. Should she explain in detail why she made the decision to use her personal server?

WHITMAN: I think that she's made - look, I don't really think it's that complicated. I think she said, you know what, I did it for ease, to carry one device. She didn't really think about it too much. Her predecessors had done it. The people in the State Department knew about it. And I think that she never imagined that it would cause all of this concern that it has. And, ultimately -

YOEST: Bernard, that's the problem, is she should have imagined. She was the secretary of state. She is the one, you know, that is responsible for all that happens and fails to happen. So for her to start saying and dodging and weaving and saying that it wasn't her fault, that was her job. That's her number one job is to protect people in the -

WHITMAN: No, her job is not the CIO of the State Department. That's simply not true. Her job is not CIO of the State Department.

YOEST: Her job is national - a big part of her job is national security. You were talking earlier about the fact that we should be talking about fundamental issues. I completely agree. A fundamental issue is our national security. The fact that she has exposed to foreign countries our national secrets, people in the field, her (INAUDIBLE) -

WHITMAN: That's not true.

COSTELLO: There's no evidence of that.

WHITMAN: There's not a shred of evidence - there's not a shred of evidence that she did that and it just goes to show you -

COSTELLO: Charmaine, there's no evidence of that.

YOEST: The FBI director said that she was careless -

COSTELLO: Said it was a good possibility, but he didn't say there was any evidence that any classified information got to -

YOEST: A good possibly makes me very -

WHITMAN: And this goes to show -

YOEST: You have to wonder why anyone would join the CIA or go into clandestine service when we had a secretary of state who was, as he said, careless with classified material. It's very concerning as an American citizen looking at voting for her, putting her, you know, giving her the access -

WHITMAN: This is exactly -

YOEST: Of the presidency of the United States when she has shown bad judgement.

COSTELLO: OK, Bernard, last word and then I've got to go.

WHITMAN: The last thing the Republicans want to do is talk about their nominee because he attacks the American people, he degrades the parents of fallen soldiers, and no one will come to his defense, which is why the only thing Republicans have to talk about is Hillary Clinton's e-mail server. I think at the end of the day, Americans will actually vote for Hillary Clinton and excuse that one mistake.

YOEST: Well, that's you dodging and changing the subject.

COSTELLO: All right, I've got to leave it there. Bernard Whitman, Charmaine Yoest, thanks to both of you.

YOEST: Thanks, Carol.

WHITMAN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin is not going into Ukraine, but that happened two years ago. So, what did Trump mean? He tells us via Twitter.

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[09:42:31] COSTELLO: Donald Trump had a rough 72 hours, In addition to his ongoing feud with the family of a fallen soldier, Trump is raising eyebrows after insisting Russian President Vladimir Putin will not make a military move in Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I have my own ideas. He's not going into Ukraine, OK, just so understand. He's not going to go into Ukraine, all right. You can mark it down. You can put it down. You can take it any way you want.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS: Well, he's already there, isn't he?

TRUMP: OK. Well, he's there in a certain way, but I'm not there yet. We have Obama there. and, frankly, that whole part of the world is a mess under Obama, with all the strength that you're talking about, and all of the power of NATO and all of this, in the meantime, he's going where he takes - he takes Crimea. He's sort of, I mean -

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you said you might recognize that.

TRUMP: I'm going to take a look at it. But, you know, the people of Crimea, from what I've heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, here's the thing. Putin did make a military move when he seized the country's Crimean peninsula in 2014. So let's help you clarify this even more. I want to bring in CNN's Phil Mattingly.

Hi, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol.

A lot to unpack there.

COSTELLO: Yes.

MATTINGLY: No question about it. Look, to start with, Donald Trump is out on Twitter right now trying to clarify what he meant to say in that interview with ABC yesterday. He put out two tweets just now. The first one saying, when I - quote, "what I said in an interview that Putin is 'not going into Ukraine, you can mark it down,' I am saying, if I am president. Already in Crimea." Then following that up with, "so with all of the Obama tough talk on Russia and the Ukraine, they have already taken Crimea and continue to push. That's what I said." So Donald Trump now trying to spin this as he was criticizing the current administration's lack of ability to do anything to kind of block Vladimir Putin and the annexation of Crimea, and that will all change when he's president of the United States. What has come across, though, and to Clinton officials, but also to

Republican in foreign policy, Carol, that I've been speaking to, is it appeared for a moment that he wasn't totally sure exactly what was going on. And he also appeared to echo a talking point that Vladimir Putin has put out as the rationale for his annexation of Crimea, when he said it seemed like people in that area were supportive of that. That is exactly what Vladimir Putin has said as the rationale for annexing Crimea.

Now, it's important to note, U.S. officials and their allies have condemned this annexation. They have sanctioned Russia throughout the course of this time. And the Clinton campaign now out with a statement saying, quote, "what is he talking about. Russia is already in Ukraine. Does he not know that? What else doesn't he know? This is scary stuff, but it shouldn't surprise us. This comes on the heels of his tacit invitation to the Russians to invade our NATO allies in Europe."

[09:45:04] And, Carol, what's worth noting here is this plays directly into a narrative that the Clinton campaign is really trying to push, that Donald Trump doesn't have the makeup to be sitting in the Oval Office. You talk about his questioning of NATO countries like countries in the Baltics. You talk about a lot of the issues that he's been discussing, particularly as it relates to Russia. The Clinton campaign is more than happy to foment this idea that Donald Trump is too close to Vladimir Putin, is supportive of Vladimir Putin. And when it comes to Ukraine, as his campaign chairman, who worked for Victiana Kovich (ph), Paul Manafort, for a long period of time, had to make the idea - put that idea out there that this is something deliberate and this is something that would deliberately undermine U.S. intentions.

COSTELLO: Just - just to make it crystal clear what Russia did, it went into a sovereign nation -

MATTINGLY: Right.

COSTELLO: And took control of part of that nation for its own.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

COSTELLO: So is Donald Trump intimating that that would be an OK thing to do?

MATTINGLY: Well, what he's tweeting today is that, as president, it would not be. But it's worth noting, Carol, that he has said, and he's said in that interview, that he would have to look into the idea of allowing Crimea -

COSTELLO: That the people of Crimea -

MATTINGLY: To remain a part of Russia. And, again, the U.S. has sanctioned Russia and all the European allies have sanctioned Russia exactly because of that act. So that would be a distinct - a distinct shift in policy. One that Republicans are very against. And I would note, Republican officials have criticized the Obama administration vehemently for not doing enough when it comes to trying to push back on what Vladimir Putin has done in Ukraine and Crimea.

COSTELLO: All right, Phil Mattingly, thanks so much.

A Russian helicopter is shot down in Syria, killing all five crew members on board. They had just finished delivering humanitarian supplies to the embattled city of Aleppo. CNN's senior international correspondent Matthew Chance live from Moscow with more on this.

Hi, Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, that's right. Well, certainly what the - the Russian defense ministry say that they were just coming back from delivering humanitarian supplies to Aleppo. There's been a siege of Aleppo that's been underway, the city in northern Syria, in which the government are laying siege to areas of the city held by anti-government rebels and the - the Russian armed forces have been backing the Syrian government with air strikes.

You can see the pictures that have come to us on social media. A black plume of smoke rising into the air around twisted wreckage of this MI- 8 helicopter. It's a transport helicopter. Although in military situations like this, they are often armed and it seemed from the picture that this helicopter was armed.

What we know for certain is that there were at least five people on board. The Russian defense ministry has come out and said this. And the Kremlin has said now, taking control of this media messaging of the situation, that all five people on board are now dead. That makes it the biggest single loss of life for the Russians in Syria since they began their intervention there in September of last year, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Matthew Chance reporting live from Moscow.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a whole new world of distracted driving. Why texting and driving was just the beginning.

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[09:52:16] COSTELLO: A teenager crashes her truck into a power pole in California just the day before this was caught on a police body cam in Baltimore. A man hits a parked police car and keeps driving. His response when police stopped him, this is what I get for playing that game. That's right, police say both drivers were playing Pokemon Go. Kelly Wallace has more about the evolving dangers of the distracted driver.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT BOEVE, ANDREA'S HUSBAND: Andrea was the perfect mom. She loved kids. I loved kids. We were going to have more kids. It was the high of life. We were settled, loving what we did, raising a family and a new - and breaking ground on a new home. In the blink of an eye it was - our world changed.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On June 30, 2014, Andrea Boeve took her darling girls, then 11 months and four years old, for a bike ride right near their home in rural Steam, Minnesota. Her husband Matt was doing some dangerous work on the family's farm.

BOEVE: I had a two-way radio that kept in contact with one of my guys to keep me safe, you know. And all of a sudden over the two-way, my mom said, Matt, where are you? And I could just hear it on mom's voice right away. And she said that the - Andrea and the girls were in an accident.

DISPATCHER: 911, where's your emergency?

CALLER: There's a girl who I think got hit by a car.

WALLACE (on camera): What was that like when you get to the hospital and see Claire?

BOEVE: It was something I'll never forget because I was told she was OK and so it was - it was horrible. No parent should have to go through that.

WALLACE: What do you tell the girls?

BOEVE: For any parent to go to their four-year-old and their 11-month- old and say, mommy's in heaven, is something - I don't know. That's been the hardest part.

WALLACE (voice-over): A driver, Chris Weber, a South Dakota National Guardsman and father of two, admitted he designed to make a payment on his phone. He says he looked down at his phone and heard a thud. He says he never saw Andrea and the girls.

CHRIS WEBER, DISTRACTED DRIVER: I failed, number one, because I was on my phone. I was distracted that day.

BOEVE: I just knew he was on his phone. And my gut told me that even before I got to the scene. I knew it. And it's tough. It's so preventable. I mean, we are addicted to our phones. Anything can happen. And that anything happened to us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Such a tragedy. Every day more than eight people are killed in this country due to some form of distracted driving, Carol. And to give you a sense of how dangerous it is, just reading your text, you know, a text for a few seconds is the equivalent of driving the length of a football field pretty much with your eyes off the road. Almost like with your eyes off the - eyes closed.

[09:55:15] COSTELLO: And you wonder why people keep doing it. I mean we have laws prevented people from using their phones while driving, but people do it anyway.

WALLACE: It's addiction. And we're going to talk about it this week. You know, we are instinctively drawn to these phones. We hear the ping and we can't turn away. There's something that - that we know it's dangerous but so many of us do it anyway. COSTELLO: Kelly Wallace, thank you so much.

WALLACE: Thank you.

COSTELLO: And Kelly's special, by the way, distracted - "Driving While Distracted" airs this Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

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