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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Trump Controversy Inside Camp; Trump and Gold Star Parents; Cop Charged in Connection with ISIS; Money in Iran. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 3, 2016 - 12:00   ET

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


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[12:00:25] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello on this Wednesday. Thanks so much for being here. I'm Ana Cabrera, in today for Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

We are just 97 days now before an election that Donald Trump is now claiming will be rigged. The Republican nominee for president is once again stirring up outrage, concern, even confusion in his own party. A source telling CNN that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus is incredibly upset that Trump went out of his way yesterday not to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan in his Wisconsin congressional primary. Trump also saying in the same interview he will not endorse GOP Senator John McCain. All of this after both lawmakers publicly endorsed him, Trump, with clear reservations, however.

And there's not just drama outside the campaign, but apparently there's some turmoil inside, too. CNN has learned aides and staff members, including campaign chief Paul Manafort, quote, 'feel like they're wasting their time." This coming from one source following Trump's feud with the Khans, whose son, as you know, died in Iraq.

I want to dig into all this with our chief political correspondent Dana Bash and two of CNN's senior political reporters, Manu Raju and Nia-Malika Henderson.

I know, Dana, that you just got off a phone call. The Trump campaign responding to these claims that there's a lot of turmoil or frustration inside the campaign. What are you learning?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. My phone rang and it was from within Trump Tower. Not just - it was Jason Miller, the communications director for the campaign, who was joined by pretty much all of, or most of, Trump's senior staff, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Jason Miller, of course, Hope Hicks, Steven Miller, who was a policy advisor and speech writer, all calling for one purpose, to tell me that they're not frustrated and that - to make clear that the reporting that I had that Paul Manafort and others were kind of getting fed up with the fact that their candidate was off message is not true and they wanted to prove it by calling and sounding unfrustrated. I think I just made up a word.

But I just want to tell you a little bit more about what Paul Manafort said to me, and that is that the frustration that they have is with the media. They feel that the media are not covering this - the campaigns in an equitable way and that there's plenty of stuff that we could be focused on with regard to Hillary Clinton that we're not.

As you can imagine, Ana, I pushed back on that, saying that some of the more extraordinary things that have happened with Hillary Clinton, the biggest of which was her interview on Sunday about her e-mails, we did focus on. But, frankly, when their candidate, Donald Trump, makes comments about not just gold star parents but then goes on to do an interview and talking about withholding an endorsement of the House speaker, then that is, obviously, a distraction.

So they pushed back on this on the phone call, but also made something clear that is very important. They said, watch Donald Trump's speech at 3:00. He's going to talk about Hillary Clinton. He's going to talk about the Clinton Foundation, about issues that they feel, frankly, they didn't say this on the call, but I'm reading between the lines here, that are more beneficial for the candidate to be talking about. So they're suggesting that that is something that they're going to try to redirect without saying those words.

The other thing that Paul Manafort said to me is that the Khan thing shouldn't have been that important in the context of the broader campaign because they're insisting that there are other things that play and that that was a distraction. So -

CABRERA: Of course they want -

BASH: It sounds as though they're trying to redirect -

CABRERA: Yes.

BASH: And we'll see what happens at 3:00 when Donald Trump takes to the stage at his rally in Florida.

CABRERA: Of course they want to redirect, Dana.

BASH: Yes.

CABRERA: But I feel like we're hearing mixed messages from people within this campaign because I understand that you are also hearing from sources within Trump's world that they're asking for help to get the campaign back on track. What more can you tell us about that?

BASH: That's right. That is something that the campaign denies, but I am told by a source familiar with some of these conversations that a caller or calls went out last night from Trump world, now we're still doing reporting on what exactly that means, "Trump world," but calls went out to some of the - I call them the Trump whisperers. People who are close to Donald Trump, whom Donald Trump listens to, the Newt Gingrich, the Rudy Giuliani, the Chris Christies of the world, to try to convince the candidate to try to get back on track.

I'm not clear where those conversations went, if those - if any conversations subsequently happened between those individuals. I would imagine the answer is yes because these are people who talk to Donald Trump quite frequently. But we do know that it sounds as though the campaign is setting the stage for Donald Trump to try to reset, although they're not calling it that, this afternoon. [12:05:13] CABRERA: I mean one thing we do know for sure is that Trump

did come out and say he's not ready, he's not there yet to endorse Paul Ryan. Maybe taking a dig at him in a way that he felt he was, in some way, insulted when Paul Ryan initially was asked if he would endorse Trump and then later withheld a said, I'm not there yet, and then eventually did endorse him.

But, Manu, I want to ask you this question because here we are less than 100 days before the election and it seems like Trump is trying to pick a fight with people in his own party.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, and that's what's surprising and really angering a lot of Republicans here in town. Why they wonder. I mean this is a party that came to such a hard time came to grips with Donald Trump as their nominee, really struggled publically and privately to get behind him. And most of them, by and large, have gotten behind him. And most notably Paul Ryan, even though he initially resisted, but he did endorse Donald Trump. He spoke on Donald Trump's behalf at the convention. The party seemed to be in a place where they could unite behind him.

But by doing this, he's just simply reopening old wounds and also underscoring the main criticism against Donald Trump, that he is - hangs on to perceived slights. He seems to have thin skin. And that he doesn't forget things in the past that when he believes people have done him wrong. So all of those things don't play well particularly when a lot - a big part of the - the presidential debate going forward is about temperament and by going after your own party it makes it hard to make the case that you can let some of these fights in the past go.

CABRERA: Let me read a quote from former Obama adviser, CNN's senior political commentator David Axelrod. Today he said this. "If Donald Trump were trying to lose this election, and I'm not saying he is, but if he were, I'm not sure he'd behave any differently than he has in the last few days."

So, Nia-Malika, I mean, what do you make of this? Have you seen anything like this before?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: No. And it's funny because this has kind of been an ongoing debate about Donald Trump's strategy, whether or not he is engaging himself in self- sabotage. Does he really want to be president or is this exercise just an exercise in whether - or how well he can do or how badly he can do?

But I do think a lot of that is essentially sort of wishful thinking. Donald Trump believes, it seems, that whatever strategy he's employed so far, the strategy that got him here against all of the predictions of the establishment and a lot of pundits as well, he believes that's a winning strategy. So that is what he is doubling down on.

I think Dana is right, there is frustration within the campaign and in some ways there always has been because he is so unpredictable. That "Washington Post" article yesterday, for instance, it caught a lot of people in Trump world off guard. They didn't know necessarily that he was going to do that and certainly didn't know what the contents of that was going to be. So on the one hand you have all of these Republicans inside Trump world and outside of Trump world wanting him to sting stick to a message, believing that he, in fact, could have a winning message against Hillary Clinton, but he has so far been unable to stick to a message and is always kind of pulled off course either by his own doing or he's just distracted by something a reporter says and wants to make a point on something.

So, yes, a lot of frustration I think among Republicans about whether or not they'll see the Donald Trump they want to see and the Donald Trump they think can win this election.

CABRERA: Dana, as I understand it, your sources are saying that some GOP officials really do believe it's possible Trump might be just drumming up all this drama strategically, laying the groundwork to either pull out of the race and avoid a loss or set up blame if he does lose. Again, GOP officials are saying this. Is there any, I guess, truth or meat to the idea of Trump actually leaving this election before Election Day?

BASH: Yes. I mean I'm glad you asked it that way because we he no reporting or any indication that that's seriously being considered by Donald Trump. However, what we are reporting and what we are hearing from Republican officials is that because in the words of one official who told me that he's so mercurial (ph), he being Donald Trump, they just don't know and so they're trying to prepare for what happens if.

Now, when I say "they," I'm not necessarily talking about the apparatus of the RNC. I'm talking about individuals who are officials within the party who are kind of doing their own thing and, you know, people who have knowledge of the rules and how these things work. You know, it is possible. I won't bore you with all the details of how - how it would happen now it - because it's also very vague, but I think the most important thing is not so much that Donald Trump is actively considering dropping out before the election, but it is the concern among Republicans that they just don't know. Maybe he will. And they want to be prepared for it.

[12:10:09] CABRERA: All right, thank you so much to our Dana Bash, Manu Raju and Nia-Malika Henderson. I appreciate the conversation. We know you're working those sources and who knows what's going to change before the end of this show.

Up next, Trump's promises to rebuild the military, to help veterans groups, to fix the VA have gotten huge cheers at his rallies, but is all that now being undercut by his confrontation with a gold star family? We'll discuss.

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CABRERA: I want to continue our discussion now on the conflicts, the controversies around and even inside the Trump campaign. Joining me now to discuss, CNN political commentator and political anchor for Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis, and from "The Washington Post," Philip Rucker, who elicited some of those interesting comments, the Trump non-endorsements of Paul Ryan and John McCain in his wide ranging interview yesterday. Thanks, gentlemen, for joining us.

Errol, I'll start with you, because this is the story that just won't quit, the story of the Khans and their fight with Donald Trump. It's become personal now and, you know, Trump had a chance to think about how this has unfolded over the past few days and instead of coming out and maybe apologizing, like some have suggesting he should, this is what he says in the most recent interview. Listen.

[12:15:13] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I don't regret anything. I said nice things about the son. And I feel that very strongly. But, of course, I was hit very hard from the stage and, you know, it's just one of those things. But I don't - no, I don't regret anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: "I don't regret anything," he says. This was his big opening for him to just say, I shouldn't have said, you know, some of the comments that would offend multiple military families, gold star families. I mean nothing against them. But yet he digs his heels in even more. Why?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Listen, "I don't regret anything" is one of his watch words both in business and apparently in politics. And, really, all the way through the primary process he had that same kind of attitude, which is that everybody, the pundits and the media and everybody would tell him, this is what political behavior would dictate, both because it's wise and because it's moral and because it's ethical and so forth. And he would just sort of go in his own direction and he won. And he won again and again and again. And, you know, what's missing now is he doesn't have a chance to validate that. He's taking a very big risk here that he's right and everybody else is wrong but he won't know until November 8th. I mean there will be some indications along the way in the polling and so forth.

CABRERA: So you think this is a strategic play by him -

LOUIS: This is -

CABRERA: Not just him being him?

LOUIS: This is - well, it's booth. I mean that is his strategy. His strategy is to be himself and run a spectacular success in the primary season. There's a theory out there and it's a big gamble but the theory is that he can use the same attitude, the same strategy, the same statements, the same I don't care attitude when it comes to the normal political behavior we would all expect and he says that it will pay off for him. I personally don't think that that's a wise gamble, but that's his choice to make. He's made that choice and we'll find out, of course, in November whether or not it pays off.

CABRERA: Philip, you just sat down with Donald Trump for an interview with "Washington Post," and I'm wondering what your biggest takeaways were from that conversation? PHILIP RUCKER, "WASHINGTON POST": Well, I - clearly the biggest news from the interview was his refusal to endorse Paul Ryan, the House speaker, and Senator John McCain, who's one of the highest ranking, most established statesmen in the party. And it's a pretty extraordinary breach of political decorum and it's a real break from the effort to showcase party unity just two weeks ago at the Republican Convention in Cleveland. I think it shows that Trump is his own man and if somebody is going to hurt him in any way, he's going to fight back. It can't be lost on us that Paul Ryan, John McCain, as well as Senator Kelly Ayotte, who Trump also attacked in the interview with me, put out statements over the weekend criticizing how he had handled the confrontation with the Khan family. And so I just see this as Trump trying to cause a little trouble and a little bit of payback here.

CABRERA: We know Trump now doesn't regret those comments he said about Khan, as we played for you. But he did say yesterday that he regrets not serving in the military. And we, during this show, talked about his campaign event in Virginia where that veteran gave Donald Trump his Purple Heart. And Mr. Khan was asked about that issue. Listen to how he responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KHIZR KHAN, FATHER OF FALLEN U.S. SOLDIER: Donald Trump, you had the time. You did not serve. You know what you should have done, and listen to me, and I want his surrogates to listen to me. You should have pinned that back to that veteran's chest and should have hugged him and thanked him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Well, a U.S. congresswoman, Iraq War veteran and double amputee Tammy Duckworth didn't like what she saw and how Trump responded with accepting that Purple Heart either and this is what she tweeted out, a picture of herself, and says, "this is how one usually looks when you are awarded the Purple Heart. Nothing easy about it."

So, Errol, what does Trump need to do to squash any questions about his support of the military?

LOUIS: I think what he needs to do is listen to some of the advisers who are around him. I know some of the team that are around him, and they can guide him through this. There are protocols. There are traditions. You know, he is making war on multiple institutions, not just the Republican Party, but, you know, the media, and to a certain extent the military, or at least military traditions that have sort of endured for a while, notably when he condemned John McCain.

So you can pick a fight with everybody. But if you want to sort of take a different direction, gather up some of these votes, quiet some of these controversies, he's got all the advice that you could pay for, you know? And not just because he's got money. I mean he's got a lot of good advisers who can walk him through the analytics, what the polls say, what the traditions are, what will get you from here to there most easily. But Donald Trump is his own key strategist and that is the big mistake that leads him away from all of this great advice that he has hired now (ph).

CABRERA: We say it's a mistake, but he's had success by following his way of doing things throughout the primary. We'll see if it happens in the general election now.

[12:20:01] LOUIS: Exactly right.

CABRERA: It's quite interesting, shall we say.

Errol Louis and Philip Rucker, our thanks to both of you for weighing in here.

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, they've both made their cases. Of course, they have the Republican and Democratic Conventions for a huge stage to talk to all of you. But there are a couple of other candidates who also want the job. Tonight, you're going to hear from the Libertarian ticket. CNN's Anderson Cooper moderates a town hall with Gary Johnson and William Weld. That's at 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Up next, it's never happened in the U.S. until now. A police officer charged with trying to help ISIS. We'll have the details coming up right after a quick break. Stay with us.

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[12:25:04] CABRERA: A police officer trying to help ISIS. That's the accusation against a Washington, D.C., transit officer. And this is significant because it's the first case of a U.S. police officer charged with attempting to assist the terrorist group. Now the U.S. attorney says Nicholas Young talked to undercover FBI agents. He tried to buy gift cards to help ISIS with recruiting.

CNN's justice correspondent Evan Perez is joining me now from Washington.

Evan, what more are we learning about what this transit police officer allegedly did.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, the remarkable thing about this case is that it's been under investigation for six years. In other words, the FBI and the Metro Transit Police Department have known about his activities and have been keeping an eye on him. They've used confidential informants. They're used undercover police officers to try to figure out what he was up to. And it wasn't until recently that he bought these gift cards, $245 worth of gift cards that could be redeemed for using messaging apps overseas, that they finally decided that they had enough evidence to arrest him. He was arrested earlier this morning. And we're told by the Washington Metropolitan Transit Police Department that they fired him after his arrest this morning.

Now, another interesting thing about him is that he traveled - he told informants that he traveled to Libya back in 2011 twice. One of the times he was turned away at the border, but a second time he was able to get through. And when he was searched by the custom officers on his way back into the United States, they found that he had all kinds of vests, the Kevlar vests and so on, things that he would use as a police officer, but he said he was over there trying to fight against the Gadhafi regime.

There's also, in his background, a couple of interesting associations. He was friends with Zachary Chesser (ph), who's now serving a prison sentence for his association with the Shabaab group in Somalia, and he is known for making threats against the creators of the "South Park" TV show. And a second guy by the name of Amin el-Khalifi (ph), and he's also in prison right now. He tried to blow himself up outside of the U.S. Capitol. It turned out that it was an FBI sting operation. So a lot here that the FBI has been working on for the last six years before they finally arrested this guy today.

CABRERA: All right, Evan Perez, thanks for bringing us up to speed.

Now, the U.S. government today has denied that a pile of money delivered to Iran earlier this year had anything to do with four Americans who were released from jail in Iran around the same time. We're talking about reports of $400 million, stacks of cash on pallets not in U.S. dollars but a number of other foreign currencies that were flown into Tehran on the exact same day that four U.S. citizens were set free. Among them, "Washington Post" reporter Jason Rezaian. Now, American diplomats say this was not a ransom. It's simply coincidence.

Elise Labott is our global affairs correspondent. She's been looking into this.

Elise, how does the U.S. State Department explain the timing?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, what we know about these negotiations was this payment was part of a $1.7 billion settlement about a decades-old claim for a failed arms deal with Iran around the time of the Shah. So it is true that a lot of this all happened together. But we had a statement from State Department Spokesman John Kirby this morning that said, "the funds that were transferred to Iran were related solely to the settlement of a longstanding claim at the U.S./Iran claims tribunal at The Hague."

And so he went on to say that this was not a quid pro quo and you heard White House Spokesman Josh Earnest just say that just moments ago. But, obviously, the timing is coincidental because while these negotiations about that settlement were going on, the U.S. was also negotiating at the same time to release those four prisoners and that Iranian nuclear deal. So officials say, yes, all of this dovetailed together and came together at the same time. No quid pro quo. But certainly the Iranians were looking for something to happen at that time to make it look as if they were getting something.

CABRERA: And it raises some eyebrows back home. In fact, the RNC just put out a statement just moments ago and I want to read a part of it, quoting it, saying that this arrangement was a major breach of U.S. policy. So when you look at the arrangement, explain why they decided to fly in all this money seemingly almost in a covert way, different currencies? I mean is this typical in terms of how the U.S. government makes payments to other countries? LABOTT: Well, it's certainly not. And you'll remember back at the

time, President Obama kind of admitted to the settlement of the claim and that the U.S. was going to be paying this in increments. But what he did not say is that a secret plane loaded with $400 million in foreign currency was on the way, kind of really skirting around U.S. sanctions. Now, the reason for that is because existing U.S. sanctions prohibit any financial transactions with dollars. And so what the U.S. had to do was to access the money in the central banks of Switzerland and The Netherlands and so that's why they used Swiss francs and also euros.

[12:30:13] Now, why did it have to be in cash?