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Report: Ex-Fox Chief Roger Ailes Spent Millions on Enemies; Clinton Responds to Trump's Economic Plan; Clinton Says Trump Will Give "Super-Big Tax Breaks" to Rich; Jeb Bush's Son Breaks with Father And Endorses Trump; Charity Offers Free Soccer Clinics to Thousands. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired August 8, 2016 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:35:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Yet another new bombshell in the Roger Ailes Fox News scandal. So "New York" magazine, they're at it again. They reported the ousted Fox News chairman had a so-called black room at Fox's headquarters in New York, and out of that so- called black room, Roger Ailes ran amounts to like black ops employing private detectives, political operatives to spy on his political enemies.
His critics, folks who they were looking into, other journalists. According to this report he paid for it out of his Fox News budget. This comes after one of the network's female anchors, Gretchen Carlson, hit Ailes and Fox with a lawsuit claiming sexual harassment. According to this "New York" magazine report, the Ailes run black room was discovered when Fox executives started looking through the news division's financial records following Ailes' ousting.
That was written, again, by Gabe Sherman. So let's bring in CNN Senior Media Correspondent, host of Reliable Sources, who has been all over this as well, Brian Stelter, and CNN legal analyst Paul Callan. So just more coming out including this black room, what exactly in Gabe's piece, I mean I've read it. What was he doing?
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Some of this reporters have suspected for a while. Now we're hearing it was even worse, even more elaborate than we thought at the time. This was according to Gabriel Sherman's story sort of secret room inside Fox News where Ailes conducted his private investigations. Sometimes hiring private investigators to tail journalists and things like that.
BALDWIN: And their wives.
STELTER: That's right. And I've confirmed that yes there were five consultants to Ailes who were dismissed in the past week that left the company. They were basically being paid by Ailes through the Fox News budget for various tasks. Some of them were just friends of Roger with no-show jobs.
People in the building always wondered what are these people doing? What are their real jobs? It was always unclear. According to Sherman's report it was because they were doing this strange off-the- books operation for Ailes. BALDWIN: So then I'm wondering who would have been cutting the checks,
who would have known about that? And how is this legal?
PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's like that movie "Citizen Kane" where we're discovering Rosebud in the basement and we're trying to find out what it is. His running this black ops operation according to the story and his defense will be that this is perfectly legal, because there's a thin line between investigative journalism and using a private investigator to get background material.
He is going to say, he was using these investigators to develop stories and provide input to the news division. But I think in the long run when all of this stuff is fully investigated you'll look at three things. One, was there tax fraud of some kind? Because if Ailes was doing this for his personal benefit, and the benefit of his business operation didn't declare it as income, that could be a tax fraud.
The second thing, I would be looking at, is it a political contribution of in-kind services.? Let's say he was backing a particularly conservative candidate that he liked using these investigators, feeding them information rather than using it for stories you could have political implications.
STELTER: One of them was a political coach for Republican candidates.
CALLAN: Exactly, but I think the final one is the most serious and interesting. That is are we looking at blackmail and extortion. Because if he's using private detectives to stir up and get dirt on political and opponents in the business and is using that information illegally there could be a violation of criminal law in that area. But it all depends on what the investigation reveals.
STELTER: I mean people do play politics in TV, in TV and in politics people play hardball but this is different. This sounds almost Nixonian. Ailes was an advisor many years ago to Richard Nixon. You have to wonder, even though Ailes has been denying these harassment allegations, if he sometimes had things to hide, if he was using these friends, these consultants to help hide it for him over the years.
BALDWIN: So final question, yes we're reporting on it, I wouldn't say incessantly, but if this happened at another cable network, how do you think they would they be covering it?
STELTER: I think Jon Favreau, an Obama aide, pointed out on twitter the other day, if this had happened on another cable channel like MSNBC or CNN, Fox News would be covering it every single hour of every day and he's right about.
CALLAN: And I think Brian Stelter and Brooke Baldwin would be followed by a private detective probably if Fox were covering it.
STELTER: I knew Fox had done shady stuff against me as a reporter. They knew they leaked things to other websites, I knew they had nasty stuff on blogs but I had no idea they had private investigators following other journalists. It really is chilling. BALDWIN: Brian Stelter and Paul Callan, thank you two very much.
Coming up next, Hillary Clinton, she just started speaking in St. Petersburg, Florida. Here she is and what her campaign is calling a sharp rebuttal to Donald Trump's economic speech today. We will take it live momentarily. Quick break, we're back after this.
[15:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: All right, let's take you to this rally, St. Petersburg, Florida. Here she is. Hillary Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HILLARY CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FOR THE UNITED STATES: I've got an idea for young people. Because I meet young people all the time who say they want to start a small business, but they can't get credit because they have student loans.
I'm going to make it possible for you not only everyone with student loans to pay them down with a lower interest rate and end the payment after ten years. But if you're going to start a business, we are going to put a moratorium on your student loan payments so you can actually borrow the money to get the business started.
[15:45:01] You can tell I'm pretty excited about what we can do to start new businesses and create more jobs. You can tell I am pretty excited about what we can do to start new businesses and create more jobs. I think America's best years are ahead of us. I have no doubt about that.
But I can't do any of this without your help. There is, as Bill Nelson says, a really big difference between me and Donald Trump. Now you know, I have pointed out what my plans are, what I think will help more people and how we will pay for them. Well so today in Detroit he's got, I don't know, dozen or so economic advisors he just named, hedge fund guys, billionaire guys, six guys named Steve.
And so they wrote him a speech and he delivered in Detroit. Now they tried to make his old tired ideas sound new but here's what we all know because we heard it again. His tax plans will give super big tax breaks to large corporations and
the really wealthy just like him and the guys who wrote the speech.
He wants to roll back regulations on Wall Street. He wants to eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which has saved billions of dollars for Americans. He wants to basically repackage trickle-down economics. You know that old saying "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me"?
Trickle-down economics doesn't help our economy grow. It does not help the vast majority of Americans but it does really well for people already at the top. Well, we're going to turn that upside down. We're going to make the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes for a change.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BALDWIN: All right so this is the beginning of the sharp rebuttal we heard about from a Clinton senior advisor. This is a preview, if you will, of her big economic speech where she, just like Mr. Trump today, will be in Detroit outlining what it will be like as far as jobs and Americans and the economy in the first 100 days in the White House if she wins. So we'll take that, obviously, on Thursday.
Meantime, Jeb Bush's son has now officially joined the Trump train folks, despite the fact that Mr. Trump has called his dad, his grandfather, his mom, insulted them, hear why he says he is supporting Donald Trump. And why a lot of big-name Republicans are not following his lead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:52:11] BALDWIN: Pretty safe to say Donald Trump has never been fan of his former Republican primary rival Jeb Bush. That is not stopping Governor Bush's son from backing and now endorsing the Republican nominee.
Bush's oldest son, George P. Bush is now urging Republicans in his home state of Texas to support Trump. The Texas Land Commissioner says it is time to unify.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE P. BUSH, TEXAS LAND COMMISSIONER: And you from Team Bush it's bitter pill to swallow but you know what? You get back up and you help the man who won and you make sure that we stop Hillary Clinton.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: And in case you forgot, during the primaries it got brutal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He is asleep at the wheel, folks. Very, very, very low energy Jeb Bush. His family is so ashamed. He's got that vicious streak. He is a gutless guy. Jeb bush is a total lightweight. We have to get rid of the Bushes of the world. They are weak, ineffective.
BALDWIN: But wait there is a whole lot more of those colorful insults. Here is small list we have for you. No honor. Low energy. Clueless, hypocrite. Failure. Desperate. Sad, weak. Needs help from mommy. Remember that one? Pathetic. Sad sack. Poor. Puppet. Soft. Total embarrassment. Confused, and a basket case.
From Donald Trump toward Jeb Bush. The list goes on and on. Joining me now, CNN Presidential Historian and former Director of the Nixon Presidential Library, Tim Neftali, here is my question. Knowing that Trump insulted his dad, his mom, his
granddad, what do you think that co conversation was like, when he said, dad, I got to do this.
TIM NEFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: This is a Bush rite of passage. Every Bush generation has had to have this conversation. George H.W. Bush turned against the policies of his father, Prescott Bush, and they both understood.
After George H.W. Bush was defeated for his reelection, he talked to his sons and said to Jeb and George W., you do whatever you have to do to be elected. Which included praising Ronald Reagan and soft peddling the daddy Bush years. I'm certain that Jeb Bush went to his son and said, George P., you're part of the Texas GOP Victory Committee, we need Republicans to be elected down the ticket.
If you have to say something about respecting the nominee of our party, you know it won't hurt me at all. This is a Bush family tradition, for the Bush family blood is much thicker than politics.
BALDWIN: You say it matters in Texas. I was talking to someone who was in the room, who is Texas Republican, who said, yes indeed he thinks George P. Bush endorsement of Donald Trump will matter. Do you think it'll matter outside of Texas for the never Trumpers? 60 seconds.
[15:55:00] NEFTALI: Won't matter at all. But what matters is that if George P. wants to run for governor of Texas, which I think are in his plans at some point, the fact that he was loyal to the party will matter a lot. That is what this is all about, it's George P.'s future, not Donald Trump's future.
BALDWIN: Tim Neftali, thank you very much.
NEFTALI: My pleasure.
BALDWIN: And let's just take a quick moment here to look at this week's CNN hero. Scotsman Davey Duke. He was homeless when soccer as he refers to it as football motivated him to transform his life and now he is doing the same for thousands of others.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVEY DUKE, HOMELESS SOCCER PLAYER: When you're homeless you lose more than just the roof above your head. You lose your dignity. Your self- esteem. You isolate yourself. Football gives you a place where you belong. Confidence, fitness, friendships. Got me my life back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Awesome. See his full story at CNNheros.com. And while you are there, please nominate someone you think should be a CNN Hero.
Coming up next, Dr. Ben Carson sits down with CNN for a live interview. We will get his take on Trump's economic speech in Detroit and the rebuttal Hillary Clinton is giving right now. We'll be right back.
