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Ryan Battles for Seat Days after Trump's Endorsement; Trump/Republicans Slam Clinton After Iranian Nuclear Scientist Executed; Clinton Demands Congress Return to Vote on Zika Funding; Photo Shows Orlando Shooter's Father Behind Clinton at Rally; Girls Hurt in Ferris Wheel Accident. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired August 9, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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


DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And interesting I'll tell you, I sort of think it goes into bank accounts, right? You know, I sort of think they take it, they probably use some for this, some for that. You can do a lot of things.

And Obama said that he did it because we don't have a working account with Iran. Do you believe that? How long does it take to set up an account? Right? You don't have a working account, you set up an account, right?

You set up an account and it takes about - look, what's going on in this country - folks, folks, what's going on in this country is insane. And we have people running our country that don't know what they're doing, they're grossly incompetent, and it's time. We have to make change, real change. Not Obama change, we have to make change.

Whether it's Bergdahl (ph), we get Bergdahl (ph) who was a traitor, and they get five of the greatest killers that they've wanted for eight years. We get Bergdahl -- I call it the five for one trade. For the Iran deal, where we get nothing, we get nothing.

They get ultimately, they have the path, beautiful path, they'll get way, way earlier than that. They'll get nuclear weapons, so if you get Trump you're going to see a lot of changes to that deal. That'll happen fast.

(APPLAUSE)

You're going to see some big changes and what I really -- I mean, I saw where President Obama said that the $400 million in cash was not, had nothing to do with the release of the hostages, right? It really doesn't work, does it? Does it? I mean, remember Obamacare, "you're going to keep your doctor, you're going to keep your plan, over and over again, you're going to keep your doctor." It was a lie.

And in fact, if he didn't make the lie, he would have never gotten it approved because most Democrats, many of the Democrats didn't want to do it. It was only that, that got them to sign it and to approve it. And it was a lie.

[14:32:26] BROKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so, just keep in mind, Donald Trump, just as recent as Friday night, just finally endorsed the most powerful Republican in Congress, house Speaker Paul Ryan, who, by the way, is facing a primary fight today in his home state of Wisconsin. Speaker Ryan hoping to avoid any kind of upset against virtually a political unknown, Paul Nehlen, an insurgent challenger seeking a Trump bump in this Republican primary, which should have been a low-profile election victory but suddenly drawing a lot of attention.

Manu Raju is in Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin.

This is pretty much a done deal for Speaker Ryan, yes?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: There is a pretty low turnout so far, which is consistent with what we're seeing in an August primary. We did talk to an election official. It is a little bit higher than typical low turnout primaries but still low. We aren't really seeing a groundswell of support to suggest that there is something that could be a major upset. Of course we won't know until all the votes are counted but interestingly a lot of these voters are split on the issue of Donald Trump here. We spoke to several of them outside this polling station. A lot of them -- one gentleman told me that he was angry at Donald Trump for the way he attacked Paul Ryan, the way he withheld his endorsement of Paul Ryan and the way he went after Ted Cruz and said that he would not vote for Donald Trump this fall. And other voters said, look, it is time for Republicans to unite, time to stop disagreeing. Even if you have disagreements, if you oppose Donald Trump now you're going to help elect Hillary Clinton. So even among regular voters here in this Janesville district you are seeing this debate play out about Donald Trump and it just shows the level of effort that Donald Trump needs to put in to unite his party, not just the party establishment, but regular rank and file voters -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: Manu Raju, thank you.

You mentioned Hillary Clinton. Any minute now, she is set to speak in Florida, a key battleground state. She is expected to call on Congress to return to Washington, come back from vacation. What exactly is she asking them for. We'll have that for you.

[14:34:38] Also ahead, new answers today after a 10-year-old boy died on the world's tallest water slide. What investigators are now saying happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. This is CNN.

A deadly case of alleged espionage. An Iranian nuclear scientist accused of spying for the United States has been executed. Now the blame game over his death is spilling into the race for the White House. Donald Trump and a number of his fellow Republicans are slamming Hillary Clinton, saying that, as secretary of state, she received messages mentioning him -- his name specifically -- on her personal e-mail server. Now Trump is blasting Hillary Clinton with this tweet, "Many people are saying that the Iranians killed a scientist because of Hillary Clinton's hacked e-mails." Jim Sciutto.

Jim, we know his name popped up no those e-mails but as far as any connection between his death and Hillary Clinton, is there anything?

[14:40:07] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Short answer is -- no. It just doesn't match up with the facts. Again, a few things. One, her public comments on this topic were very similar to the e-mail. There was nothing secret revealed, in effect, in those e-mails that wasn't already in the public sphere. That's one point.

These e-mails were released through a FOIA request. They were not -- it was not redacted. It went through a process, which includes the intelligence agencies and State Department to go through and take out any sensitive information. And that reference was not taken out. If it was a sensitivity they would have done it, or if they made a mistake in that judgment, that went to the interagency. It was not Hillary Clinton's judgment.

And finally, just for the record, this scientist was warned by U.S. officials before the returning to Iran that his life might be in danger. So there's some factual issues with the e-mails themselves, but also with the timeline of how this played out.

On the other hand -- this is a fair point, Brooke. What it does get to is that in these e-mails, when you're a secretary of state, there are often sensitive topics that come up. And this is another sensitive topic.

The causality that Trump tries to establish here just doesn't match up with the facts, but it does speak to the larger issue that you want these kinds of discussions to be protected in any way that they can.

BALDWIN: Right. Right. Iran's former president wrote a letter to President Obama about this ruling allowing families of people killed in attacks linked to Iran to collect damages from the country's several billion dollars in frozen assets. What do you know about that letter, what would the country be responsible for paying then this family that you are talking about?

SCIUTTO: Well, this is an issue, one, that it's really not going to go anywhere. Because Ahmadinejad is not the most likely voice to connection a channel between the U.S. and Iran, the level of discussion and communication now just two, three years ago we wouldn't even imagine it. Right? That one phone call you had in New York a couple years ago between the two presidents. Now they are speaking regularly, but not via Ahmadinejad. You can get a bit of a sense of that, because the White House response was really no response on this letter. They referred it to the State Department. I think that gives you a sense of how seriously they are taking that personal appeal.

BALDWIN: Jim Sciutto, thank you so much on both of those points.

SCIUTTO: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Just ahead, I want to show you a picture. See the man in the spotlight, mustache, red hat behind Hillary Clinton at her rally in Florida? That is the father of the Orlando nightclub shooter. Why was he at her rally, and did the Clinton campaign even know he was there?

Plus, secrets, spying, payoffs and, quote, "twirling." Brand-new accusations against FOX News and its former CEO, including audiotapes of alleged harassment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:4720] BALDWIN: We saw Donald Trump speaking at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Now we know that Hillary Clinton is currently on her way to tour a health care facility in Miami. Keep in mind, Miami, this is specifically the neighborhood where a number of people have been infected with the Zika Virus by the mosquitoes down there. Hillary Clinton is going to in this address call upon Congress to, even though they're on summer recess, get back to Washington and take part in an important Zika vote on funding. Though lawmakers are not actually due back to work until after Labor Day. Her call to Congress comes on a day when Texas is actually reporting its first death related to the Zika Virus. A newborn there tested positive for Zika died at the hospital.

CNN's senior Washington correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, is with the Clinton campaign in Miami, which has become ground zero really for the U.S. spread of Zika.

Specifically, Hillary Clinton will call on Congress to come back. Tell me about this vote.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, this is one of those days where the presidential campaign actually backs reality as it so often does in a general election phase here. Secretary Clinton is going to be calling on Congress, as you said, to come back from their recess and vote on the president's request for 1.9 billion in funding for Zika, or weeks and months. There, of course, like any fight in Washington, both sides are to blame here, in part. There's finger pointing on both sides. She of course is going to be calling on Republican leaders of Congress to call everyone back to Washington and approve this funding. This is unlikely to work. We see a lot of these things happen in the month of August. But what it does for her campaign, the reason she is doing this, Brooke, it allows her to look presidential and actually focus on something that is really having a major impact. You said, is spreading with the first reported in Texas as well. She'll be making her comments here in the Wynwood section of Miami in a few moments talking about the need for Congress to get its act together and reach a bipartisan solution.

BALDWIN: As we wait for that, meantime, she held a rally in Kissimmee, Florida. We have spotlighted this man behind her in the red hat and mustache who turns out to be, this is the father of the man who murdered those 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, unbeknownst to the Clinton campaign. What are they saying about this?

[14:49:55] ZELENY: Brooke, so awkward and such a strange situation. He is sitting right behind her. I was at that rally. There were some 3,000 people there so I don't spot him but a Florida reporter who's seen him before and talked to him. So they went up and talked to him afterward as he drove back down to his home in south Florida. He said, look, I support Hillary invited to in rally because I am a Democrat. He's given some small contributions to local Democratic efforts over the years.

But the Clinton campaign certainly embarrassed by this. They're trying to down play it and say, look, we did not know that he was in attendance pat all. We didn't know he was on stage until it was called to our attention afterward. They aren't disavowing his support of all because, of course, he's a citizen. He can support who he wants in this campaign. But it is certainly an awkward moment, particularly because he was sitting right behind her, and people are picked to sit behind candidates for part of the backdrop. Certainly, he did become part of the backdrop.

BALDWIN: Right. Jeff Zeleny, thank you.

We'll be listening and watching for Hillary Clinton momentarily. We'll take her live as well.

Meantime, yet another powerful Republican says she will not vote for Donald Trump this coming November. We'll talk exclusively with Maine Senator Susan Collins, who says she's deeply concerned about his lack of self-restraint, his temperament.

But first, if you are an Olympic swimmer, you probably know your best time. If you're a gymnast, you know when you land a great back tuck. But if you are a boxer, turns out you don't know much about how you punch. One company is trying to change all that.

Vanessa Yurkevich was tested out with an Olympic boxer, Richardson Hitchens.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When did you decide that you wanted to go to the Olympics?

RICHARDSON HITCHENS, OLYMPIC BOXER: 2012. When I seen Marcus Brown go to the Olympics, the gold medal. That's the only thing on my mind. Gold medal, gold medal, gold medal. That's only thing I can think.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): When you are a swimmer, you are measured by a time. When you are a gymnast, you know if you stick it. But boxing is different. It is traditionally a low-tech support. Data is virtually nonexistent.

(on camera): In the sport do you guys talk about numbers? Like hey, I can punch this fast, I can punch with this much velocity?

HITCHENS: No. But we do try and compare like who's fastest and stuff but we never really had nothing to show us, oh, I punch faster than you or I can prove it.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): This company wants to make that kind of data available to boxers. A system has been created that uses sensors to record a boxer's average speed, how much punches and the type of punch they throw most.

(on camera): These are the sensors that are going to go on your hands, then transmitted to a phone so you knew everything.

(voice-over): We had Richardson put it to the test.

(on camera): Go!

(voice-over): Wayne State University measured the punching speed of seven Olympic boxers. The average, 20.4 miles per hour.

(LAUGHTER)

(on camera): Time. So your average speed was 16.3. You threw about 25 punches. Knowing that you're 16.3 on this past round, in your mind, you'd want to pick it up?

HITCHENS: Yeah.

YURKEVICH: Why?

HITCHENS: So I'll be faster. Gives me that hunger to learn and things to work on.

YURKEVICH: Now you know sort of what the average is from the other people in the Olympics. You can kind of prepare?

HITCHENS: Yeah. You can compare and break records.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:57:49] BALDWIN: A Kansas water park is still closed today as police offer details in the tragic death of a 10-year-old boy. He died while riding the world's slide. Police are coming out now and saying it was a neck injury that took his life. When you look at this ride, here's what we can tell you. It is more than 168 feet in height. This slide is taller than Niagara Falls. It is taller than the top of the statue of liberty. There is a 50-foot drop. And police say it was that drop where Caleb Schwab lost his life. The slide opened in 2014. The big grand opening was delayed three separate times after safety test runs.

Now we have information on this, another accident within 24 hours in Tennessee, these three little girls were hurt, one severely, when their ferris wheel cage flipped over, dropped them some 45 feet to the ground. Witnesses told our CNN affiliate, WJHL, that the cable got caught as the ferris wheel lifted upwards.

Let me bring in David Soucie, our CNN safety analyst and former FAA safety inspector.

Just back on this water slide first though, David, it is like I can't even imagine. Just can't imagine it, period. But my question is, all these thrill-seeker rides, the biggest, the tallest, do you think they're too extreme?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: You know, that's really good question, Brooke. If you look at the safety culture and history of fairs and rides of these kinds it is really quite good. In fact, it's comparable to the airlines and one in nine million injuries. So it is a very good safety record on these fairs.

But the slide itself, cautions and those things that are done to make sure -- you mentioned safety tests, those are all done with local authorities. Each state, each local authority that has that oversight is different in each state. So it is not really a combined group that says, hey, here's our safety standards, other than the manufacture of them which they do. But the operations and the maintenance of them are maintained locally. So there's some big risks as far as how they're maintained, what type of people are allowed to get on the rides and how they're briefed before they get on the rides themselves.

BALDWIN: OK --