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Trump Battles Khans; Trump on Ukraine; Zika Reported in Florida. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired August 1, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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


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[14:00:08] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me on this Monday afternoon.

Count them with me, 99 - 99 days until you decide who the next president of the United States will be. And Donald Trump begin this week trying to emerge from a pile of controversies. His talk of Putin not invading Ukraine when, p.s., Putin already has. He's called to move the presidential debates for reasons never cited before. Most intensely here, his response to the parents of a fallen Muslim American soldier, Humayun Khan. The outrage against Trump regarding the Khans has come from actually his own party's leadership and, moments ago, President Obama said this about families like the Khans, families who have lost loved ones killed in action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because I understood that our gold star families have made a sacrifice that most of us cannot even begin to imagine. They represent the very best of our country. They continue to inspire us every day, every moment. They serve as a powerful reminder of the true strength of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So that was the president just a second ago as Captain Khan's father here actually was on "New Day" this morning. And we'll see that in just a moment, talking about why he called out Mr. Trump during the Democratic National Convention last week in Philadelphia. He said Trump had sacrificed nothing and that he offered his pocket Constitution for Trump to read. Trump called Humayun Khan a hero, but to his father Trump tweeted this, let me quote. "Mr. Khan, who does not know me, viciously attacked me from the stage of the DNC and is now all over TV doing the same. Nice." Trump also said this about sacrifices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think I've made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I've created thousands and thousands of jobs. Tens of thousands of jobs. Built great structures. I've done - I've had - I've had tremendous success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's begin with our political director here at CNN, David Chalian.

And, David, let me just also point out to our viewers that the VFW, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, just put out a statement support the gold star families who want an apology and saying Trump's, quote, "history of lashing out after being attacked is out of bounds." We know Trump just gave a speech to the VFW last week. We know he held that fundraiser instead of attending a Republican debate a couple of months ago. If he does not apologize, how will this affect him?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, I wouldn't expect an apology. That's not Donald Trump's style at all. I would be very surprised at that.

Listen, I think that we have seen this cycle a few times now where Donald Trump says something, gets into a controversial political battle, there is blowback from his own party on it, then they are in a bind to both continue to support his candidacy, but admonish him for the controversial comments. And Trump tries to plow throw it. And I think that that is the cycle that we're in right now, Brooke. I mean what is different here is that you're dealing with one of the most sacred portions of America, and that is our gold star families whose loved ones, you know, gave the ultimate sacrifice while serving to protect us.

BALDWIN: A lot of people jumped on Mr. Trump when he criticized John McCain, and I just want to read, you know, a portion of this powerful statement that Senator McCain put out today, but yet to your point, I think this is - this is different. So this is what John McCain had said today. And let me just read a portion of it.

"In recent days, Donald Trump disparaged a fallen soldier's parents, he has suggested that the likes of their son should not be allowed in the United States, to say nothing of entering its service. I cannot emphasize enough how deeply I disagree with Mr. Trump's statement. I hope Americans understand that the remarks do not represent the views of our Republican Party, its officers or candidates."

He goes on, "I claim no moral superiority over Donald Trump. I have a long and well-known public and private record for which I will have to answer at the final judgment. And I repose my hope in the promise of mercy and the moderation of age. I challenge the nominee to set the example for what our country can and should represent.

Arizona is watching. It is time for Donald Trump to set the example for our country and the future of the Republican Party. While our party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us."

I'd love to just have you speaking to this statement because when you read it in full it's incredibly strong. It is, you know, Senator McCain saying, Mr. Trump, you're wrong. And to your point about how this is different because this is sacred ground here, what sort of support could Mr. Trump lose? [14:05:15] CHALIAN: Well, he doesn't lose John McCain's support, which

I think is worth noting, Brooke. So, yes, it's a really strong statement and, yes, he does challenge Mr. Trump to lead the country and the party away from this kind of rhetoric. And yet what it does not end with is a repudiation of the Trump candidacy or John McCain saying he sees no way to vote for Donald Trump in the fall.

So - so in that respect, it's not different. But I do think that what you have to watch for - and this is the stage of the campaign that we're at right now. We know that Donald Trump has an unbelievably loyal base of voters, and that base of voters is even bigger than it was in the primaries because there are Americans that didn't participate in the primary process that do subscribe fully and support Donald Trump's philosophy. But that will not be enough to win an election, so you've got to start looking for, where does Donald Trump add voters to his coalition and I think moments like this make it very difficult to see where he adds coalition. He may not lose anyone, but I don't see where he adds with controversies like this.

BALDWIN: In these key final 99 days. David Chalian, thank you so much, as always.

CHALIAN: Sure.

BALDWIN: And we mentioned gold star families. You know, a band of gold star families, they're demanding that Mr. Trump apologize. They wrote this letter to Trump posting it on the website votevets.org and this is what they write. Quote - to Mr. Trump, "your recent comments regarding the Khan family were repugnant and personally offensive to us. When you question a mother's pain by implying that her religion, not her grief, kept her from addressing an arena of people, you are attacking us. When you say your job building buildings is akin to our sacrifice, you are attacking our sacrifice. You are not just attacking us, you are cheapening the sacrifice made by those we lost. You are minimizing the risk our service members make for all of us. This goes beyond politics. It is about a sense of decency, a kind of decency you mock as 'political correctness.' We feel we must speak out and demand you apologize to the Khans, to all gold star families and to all Americans for your offensive and frankly anti-American comments."

My next guest signed the letter. His brother, Army Sergeant Shane Duffy was killed in 2008 fighting the war in Iraq. Kevin Duffy is also with votevets.org, which is a non-partisan PAC that has publicly denounced Donald Trump.

And so, Kevin, thank you so much for joining me. I truly, truly appreciate it.

KEVIN DUFFY, YOUNGER BROTHER, SGT. SHANE DUFFY, KILLED IN 2008 IN IRAQ: Thank you so much, Brooke, for having me on. I appreciate all the things that you personally have done for gold star families and veterans.

BALDWIN: I know we played in a softball together a couple of years ago at Fenway, Massachusetts Fallen Heroes -

DUFFY: Yes.

BALDWIN: So I know we know one another sort of, so I just - I appreciate you. And I also just - my condolences all these years later obviously with regard to your brother.

But let me begin - before we get into -

DUFFY: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: You're welcome. The back and forth over all of this, I want to ask about your brother and the phone call. Do you remember that day, the words when Shane was killed?

DUFFY: So I was actually - I was living in Rhode Island at the time and I remember all I - all I could hear from my sister when she had called is that there were two people at the door and it's about Shane. And I was at the time - I was - you know, I wasn't driving at the time, so I actually ran from Providence to our house in Massachusetts. I actually got picked up about halfway. And got home and found out that there was a casualty officer there and - and it was - to be honest, you know, it was the worst day of my life I hope ever. I don't have any - I don't wish anybody that news. And as some gold star family members says, you know, that this is not the club that you want to be a part of. You know, it's very - I love that my brother was willing to sacrifice his life, but I wish that he was here with his daughter, to be honest.

BALDWIN: You just mentioned the word "sacrifice." I wanted to ask you about that. Because this word, Kevin, has been tossed around and as the brother of one of our nation's heroes, how do you personally explain "sacrifice"?

DUFFY: Well, it's not, you know, donating to foundations. It's not giving people jobs. I mean if you're making money off of the thing that you call sacrifice, I think that is - is, you know - and I understand soldiers get paid, right? But the - it's not the same. You know, creating jobs is not a sacrifice. And not to personally attack Mr. Trump, because I don't want to become Twitter fodder, but to say that - to defend your comments against, you know, Mrs. Khan, Captain Khan's mother, with the fact that you've also made sacrifices and who are they to - it's not the same and it's just ignorant. It is - it is - it's absolutely ignorant. And - and for other people that have come on, commentators, to say that, you know, Mr. Khan's attacks were vicious attacks and that - and he was being manipulated by Democratic powers, is ludicrous because they also had a gold star mother of one of the Benghazi victims.

[14:10:48] And you keep on hearing these comments, is it a guilty conscience? Are they feeling guilty that they exploited somebody and hoping that the Democrats did as well? I mean, the fact - to think that gold star family members are blank sheets of paper and that were so naive that we can be manipulated by whatever populist politician that decides to run for president is - it's - that's - it goes beyond the race for the American presidency and it's as - I believe Kristen Cavanaugh (ph), who was a Marine that spoke at the DNC, this is no longer a judgment of Donald Trump' character, this is a judgment of - on the American character. And are we willing to elect somebody that will question a gold star mother's grieving and try to exploit their religion as a reason as for her mourning over him - I have an accent - her mourning over her lost son. It's disgusting and it's disgusting that people are willing to get up and go on all of the TV shows, which I've been watching today, and say things like - McHughes (ph) is her name? McHughes. But on one - one of the people had said that she speaks for all gold star family members and that the Khan's don't speak - you know, the idea that the Khans are talking about Mr. Trump specifically and that standing up for the Khan's is standing up against Mr. Trump and that we want Hillary Clinton to be elected is also a fallacy. You can support not attacking gold star family members, like John McCain did -

BALDWIN: Right.

DUFFY: And not support Hillary Clinton. I mean the thing is, is that you have a gentleman that attacks a gold star mother that previously had said that people that get captured are not heroes or that's not heroic. Well, as a gold star family member, when you belittle a gold star father and mother and question their sacrifice or question their constitutional right to say what they want, whether it's on a DNC stage or not, it begs the question, where are you, as a patriot? And like you're willing to throw under the bus John McCain, who is - you might not agree with policies. I don't agree with everything that John McCain does, but I'll tell you what, he's an American hero, just like Bob Dole was. And to attack them - and he's in your same party. To attack them and to say he's some type of - he's not an American hero and to put that out to the American psyche, it's - is that where we want to go with this country? Is that - is that the type of message that the GOP wants their presidential candidate to be putting out there and - and -

BALDWIN: Right. And that's a piece of the question and I'm glad you mentioned, whether it's the DNC stage and the RNC stage. And I just wanted to sit here and listen to you. I mean this is something only you can speak from your heart about.

DUFFY: I'm so sorry, Brooke. I know -

BALDWIN: No, no, no, I appreciate you. And I just want to tell our viewers, you know, we'll be speaking with a mother who lost her son in Benghazi, who spoke at the RNC, just to hear both perspectives, both people irked at the other, you know, candidate. But bottom line, you know, just hearing from so many people, including yourself, it's just not OK.

Kevin Duffy, thank you so much. I really, really appreciate all of your time.

DUFFY: Thank you, Brooke. Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you so much.

In addition to all of this with Mr. Trump and these gold star families here, you also have this, that he says Vladimir Putin will not invade Ukraine even though Putin already has. Now Trump is trying to clean it up. We have the back-and-forth for you. We'll discuss that.

Also ahead, "The Washington Post" giving Hillary Clinton four Pinocchios for her remarks on a Sunday show. We will play for you what she said.

And just a reminder, we are watching and waiting to see Donald Trump speaking live just a short time from now.

I'm Brooke Baldwin, and this is CNN.

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[14:18:58] BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

A little bit of confusion today about what Donald Trump knows with regard to the Russian occupation of Ukraine. It all started with this answer over the weekend on ABC News to a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I have my own ideas. He's not going into Ukraine. OK, just so you 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. You 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 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)

BALDWIN: His comments bringing about a wave of ridicule from critics who say this is more evidence that Mr. Trump doesn't have a handle on foreign policy. Trump is trying to clarify his position. Let me read you his tweet. Quote, "when 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." All right, so that's the response from Mr. Trump.

[14:20:13] Joining me now, Carl Higbie, conservative pundit, Donald Trump supporter, and former Navy SEAL. Peter Beinart is also with us today, CNN political commentator and contributor to "The Atlantic."

So, gentlemen, good to see both of you. CARL HIGBIE, FORMER NAVY SEAL: Thanks for having us.

BALDWIN: Beginning with you. What was that with, you know, George Stephanopoulos? Was he misspeaking? I mean you can understand why people are jumping on this and saying, he doesn't know what he's talking about.

HIGBIE: Right, and I think we always look at how Trump says things. He doesn't always say things perfectly. He speaks from the heart. He speaks, you know, from the gut emotion that he has right there. But I think what we saw here was the fact that Trump says, "when I'm president." He cleared it up in a tweet. He's done this before. When I'm president, Putin's going to get out of the Ukraine.

BALDWIN: Do you think he was speaking from the heart and from his gut and that's what he meant?

PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, he said, "Putin is not going to go into Ukraine." And I think if you look at the larger context of his statements on foreign policy in general, the guy who didn't know what Brexit meant, he didn't know what the nuclear triad was twice. So I think the evidence we have based on Donald Trump's record suggests it's quite likely, in fact, that his understanding of what actually happened in Ukraine is quite thin.

HIGBIE: Well, I think here's another thing, too is, let's look at the broader - he said broader picture. Let's look at the broader picture. Why did Putin go into the Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula? It's because Putin's been subsidizing their natural gas. So if you want to get Putin out of there, it's going to take a tough negotiator like Donald Trump, when he gets in the presidency, to say -

BALDWIN: How would he know how to do that?

HIGBIE: Well, I mean, look, this is a negotiation. It's a business negotiation. Putin wants to protect his assets in the natural gas industry in the Crimea peninsula. He just does. So you bring someone like Donald Trump in there who knows, understands business, especially the petroleum industry, he can come in and say, look, let's work out a deal that's going to be profitable for you, profitable for Ukraine, if they want to break away and have economic freedom from your natural gas, let's find out how we can make it worth it, but let's get you out of there.

BALDWIN: But isn't negotiating a deal, let's say - he's a successful businessman negotiating a deal over some property or real estate.

HIGBIE: Right.

BALDWIN: It's quite another thing than negotiating with the leader of Russia over, you know, Ukraine.

HIGBIE: Right. But Putin has always projected strength and I think he'll respect strength. Donald Trump does that. Barack Obama doesn't. So with the red line in the sand in Syria, he - Putin felt he could walk all over Obama, any foreign policy, any ideas he had. He won't be able to do that with Trump.

BALDWIN: What are your questions?

BEINART: Well, I guess the strange part of that answer to me is that Trump is suggesting that he's going to recognize Russian annexation of Crimea. You're saying that he's going to be the one who's going to get Russia out of Crimea. I mean the entire direction of this campaign series of statement that Putin has made and the history of Paul Manafort, running the campaign, very, very close to pro-Russian oligarchs (ph) in Ukraine. The removing of the language in the platform about arming the Ukrainian opposition suggests that Donald Trump wants to pursue a softer line not the harder line that you're suggesting.

HIGBIE: Well, I think we need to also look at the fact that Donald Trump here has been committed to the fact that he's willing to use force on certain things, but he also is a fair negotiator. He will negotiate wherever possible. Look, he's not a military - didn't vote for Iraq like Hillary Clinton did. He wants to completely mandate that any type of thing go through negotiations first and he's been very successful in the private sector through negotiations.

BEINART: We could debate whether with the six bankruptcies, you know, he'd probably - he'd be a richer man if he had -

HIGBIE: How many successful businesses did he have?

BEINART: Donald Trump?

HIGBIE: Yes.

BEINART: Well, I don't know how many he had, but -

HIGBIE: Exactly. Over 900.

BEINART: OK, OK, OK. Yes, well, we also know that if he had simply taken his father's money and put in in the S&P 500, he'd have more money than he does today. But I think Brooke's larger point -

HIGBIE: Then 10,000 people would haven't jobs.

BEINART: Brooke's larger point was, that negotiating with other real estate companies in New York is not the same as negotiating with foreign leaders. And in negotiating with foreign leaders, knowing something actually matters, right? And Donald Trump has shown again and again he doesn't really even know basic things about the world. That troubles me.

HIGBIE: Well, it's funny, you talk about knowing basic things.

BEINART: Yes.

HIGBIE: You just sat here and smashed Donald Trump for seven bankruptcies but you didn't know how many -

BEINART: Actually I said six. Six or seven. HIGBIE: Yes, it is seven. But you didn't know the fact that he had over 900 companies, successful companies, but didn't -

BEINART: No, no, no, but I'm not - I'm not running - I'm not running for the job of expert on Donald Trump's real estate expert (ph).

HIGBIE: Right.

BEINART: Donald Trump is running for the job of commander in chief. He needs to know something about other countries, doesn't he?

HIGBIE: Yes, I think -

BEINART: I mean doesn't it bother you he didn't know what the nuclear triad was and then six months later when he was asked again he still didn't know?

HIGBIE: Doesn't it bother you that Hillary Clinton -

BEINART: No, no, answer my - why don't you answer my question?

HIGBIE: Why don't you answer mine?

BEINART: No, no, because I'll talk to you about Hillary Clinton as much as you want, but answer my question, does it bother you?

HIGBIE: Not really, because I think that - this guy has been a politician for a year. Hillary Clinton has been a politician for, what, 30 - 35 years or something like that. She still doesn't know a great deal of things. Donald Trump is learning very quickly and he's going to make the right decisions when he's in office, unlike somebody (ph) else (ph).

BEINART: I have lots of concerns -

BALDWIN: Final round. You wrap it.

BEINART: I have lots of concerns about Hillary Clinton, but it seems to me no longer how long you've been a politician, if you're running for president, you should know what the nuclear triad --- you should know where we have our nuclear weapons.

BALDWIN: OK. OK. Peter and Carl, I appreciate it very much.

HIGBIE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Both perspectives. You want to hear them both.

Coming up, breaking news now, the Zika virus, Zika, now spreading in Florida, as we were first reporting Friday. In a rare move today, the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control, is advising pregnant women to avoid this one section of Miami where the virus has been found.

[14:25:12] Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is there in Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil.

How unusual is this, Sanjay?

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't know that I've ever heard of this happening before where the CDC basically, because of an infectious disease, has told people to avoid a particular American neighborhood. I don't know that that's ever happened before. So this is a pretty big deal, no question about it.

Frightening, as you might imagine, Brooke, if you are someone who is pregnant living in that area or if you're someone who has been pregnant and traveled to that area since June 15th. That is also what the CDC is saying is that going back to June 15th they suspect that these mosquitos were circulating. So if you're a pregnant person and traveled to this area, and hopefully you're looking at a map, you can see what where we're talking about specifically around the Miami area, if you've traveled to that area since June 15th and you're pregnant, you should get tested as well.

Now, again, this hasn't happened before, Brooke, in terms of these types of recommendation, but as you and I have talked about, this is not unexpected. We have known for some time that because the mosquito that transmits the Zika virus already is present in certain areas of the United States, south Florida, south Texas, Louisiana, some other areas as well, that the Zika virus was going to be here and was going to start transmitting locally, as we call it, meaning transmitting by mosquitos. So not unexpected, but, still, you know, pretty - a somewhat remarkable development in the world of health and infectious diseases.

BALDWIN: It's a big deal. You know, once upon a time we were just talking about maybe where you are and now we're talking Miami. We have the details and we threw the map up, but for people watching, go to cnn.com and you'll know precisely what part of Miami we're talking about.

Dr. Gupta, in Rio, thank you so much for now. I know we're talking a little later.

Coming up next, more leaks are coming. That warning from the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, who says his organization is getting ready to publish more material related to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Also ahead, Clinton's comment that fact checkers at "The Washington Post" Clinton gave four Pinocchio, their worst possible rating.

And soon Donald Trump holding a town hall in Ohio. Ohio, one of three key battleground states his campaign plans to focus on over the next 99 days.

Stay with me.

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