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EARLY START

Is Trump Flip-Flopping On Immigration?; Is It Too Late For Trump To Pivot?; Louisiana Battered By Epic Flooding; Turkey Reeling From Weekend Wedding Bombing; Farewell To Rio Games. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired August 22, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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


[05:00:01] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: That is a lot better than the 1.6 million low wage jobs and the 1.5 million high wage jobs added during the same period of time. This is a big reversal from the three years after the recession when the economy added plenty low wage jobs and high wage jobs, but virtually nothing in the middle.

Middle class jobs are characterized as workers making $30,000 to $50,000 a year. The biggest industries for those jobs over the past two years, construction, transportation and education. So the tide turning on mid wage jobs.

All right, the "Ben-Hur" remake is struggling right out of the starting gate. Opening in theaters this weekend, "Ben-Hur" raked in just $11.3 million. The movie will have to make up a lot of ground to breakeven with the $100 million production budget. The film was produced as a joint venture between Paramount Pictures and MGM.

The reviews weren't great and many critics say the long drawn out chariot race is the film's only highlight. When you make $11 million in the opening weekend and you spent $100 million to make it that gives producers indigestion.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: It's tough to remake a classic.

EARLY START continues right now.

ROMANS: Is Donald Trump ready to make the biggest policy reversal of his campaign? He may be backing away support for a deportation force to remove undocumented immigrants from the U.S. What his campaign manager said to fan the flames moments away.

ROMANS: Parts of Louisiana desperate for help this morning more than a week after devastating floods. Now President Obama is preparing to head to the region, but some say it is too late.

SANCHEZ: And the games of the XXXI Olympiad coming to a close in Rio. Who shined brightest on the final day as Ryan Lochte keeps trying to explain the mess that landed him and other swimmers in hot water. I thought he drew more to explain that mess that was his gray hair during the Olympics.

ROMANS: That's the least of his problems.

SANCHEZ: Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Boris Sanchez. ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday, August 22nd. It is 5:00 a.m. in the east. This morning, the Trump campaign is remaining ambiguous about what could be the most stunning reversal of his campaign if it happens.

Sources present at the Hispanic round table on Saturday at Trump Tower say the Republican candidate was not firm on what has been a center piece of his campaign, a foundation of his campaign, the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

Some at that round table were even left with the impression that Trump would consider a path to legalization. Others were there, they didn't get that idea. On CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION," his new campaign manager was not committal.

CNN's Chris Frates has the latest from Washington.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Boris. You may remember that Donald Trump campaigned hard in the primaries on his plan to deport the 11 million immigrants who are in this country illegally.

But on Sunday, Trump's new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, signaled Trump's hard line stance may be softening. Here is CNN's Dana Bash pressing Conway on the "STATE OF THE UNION."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Let me play something from what Mr. Donald Trump has said previously. Listen to what he said back in November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You have a deportation force and you're going to do it humanely --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) out of their homes, how?

TRUMP: They are going back where they came. If they came from a certain country, they go back to that country. That's the way it's supposed to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So does Donald Trump still support that? A deportation force removing the 11 million or so undocumented immigrants?

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: What he supports and if you go back to his convention speech a month ago, Dana, what he supports is to make sure that we enforce the law and we are respectful of those Americans who are looking for well-paying jobs and that we are fair and humane for those who live among us in this country. As the weeks unfold, he will lay out the specifics of that plan that he would implement as president of the United States. BASH: Will that plan include a deportation force? The kind that you just heard in the sound bite and he talked about during the Republican primaries?

CONWAY: To be determined.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRATES: Now questions about Trump's immigration positions come after the meeting with Hispanic leaders on Saturday where he reportedly told attendees he plans to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants.

Now this would be a huge reversal for Trump who campaigned on the idea of creating a deportation force that would expel undocumented immigrants from the country. But not everyone who attended that meeting walked away with the same impression.

That somehow Trump is open to granting legal status to undocumented immigrants. In fact, one meeting attendee told CNN that Trump talked about treating people who are in this illegally in a fair, humane and a legal way.

But he didn't interpret that to mean Trump wanted to grant them legal status. Now Trump plans to focus on immigration all this weeks. So we will likely hear more directly from Trump himself in the coming days. Boris, Christine, back to you.

[05:05:03]ROMANS: All right, Chris Frates, three little words, to be determined, the big news from the weekend. Joining us here to help us break down Trump's immigration position and a flip flop here and what that may tell us about a shift in direction for the whole campaign, senior media correspondent, Brian Stelter. He is host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES" and in Washington, our good friend, political economist, Greg Valliere. He is the chief strategist for Horizon Investments.

Greg, I want to get your feelings here "to be determined," a mass deportation force," this is the foundation of the Donald Trump campaign. This is one of the reasons why he is packing thousands of people cheering fans into these campaign rallies. Now is he backing away from this?

GREGORY VALLIERE, POLITICAL ECONOMIST: Could be. Good morning, Christine. Nice to see you. I think Kellyanne Conway has made a huge difference. Maybe a bit too much to say we have a big momentum swing. I think his free fall has been stopped. I think a lot of the focus this week will be actually a little positive rather than totally negative.

SANCHEZ: Brian, I wanted to ask you this. Obviously Donald Trump relying on immigrations one of the platforms, one of the main things he riles up supporters at rallies with during the campaign. You mentioned the potential leaks earlier that have come from the campaign.

Suggesting that he may be softening his stance. We heard about those "New York Times" tapes even where in a meeting with them he said that maybe he was not as hard line on immigration as he is in person on the campaign trail. What's the reality here behind all of this? How much comes from Donald Trump and from outside sources trying to guide him?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Trump would not be the first politician trying to have it both ways. We are used to this. Candidates like John Kerry in 2004 were attacked for flip flopping. Would this be flip flopping or not? Well, Donald Trump hadn't been held to that same kind of standard.

He has been overtime been quoted saying the opposite of his positions and it hasn't really stuck to him. This could be different, though, because this is as you are saying, a pillar of his entire campaign.

And yet I would note that Breitbart, which is where his new CEO comes from is pushing back on these stories and saying no. The headline is no, Donald Trump is not succumbing to amnesty. It will be up to Trump to clarify this today or tomorrow as he talks about immigration this week.

ROMANS: Yes, so this is what we are all talking about this morning. Clearly the Trump campaign is really trying to talk about the stamina and the health issues of Hillary Clinton. They have been trying to talk about the Clinton Foundation. They are trying to stay on the attack this week against her.

I want you to listen to what Rudy Giuliani said on "Fox News Sunday" bringing up this idea that Hillary Clinton is unfit to be president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR: She has an entire media empire that constantly demonizes Donald Trump and fails to point out that she hasn't had a press conference in 300 days or 200 days or 100 days. I don't know how long. Fails to point out several signs of illness by her. Go online --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her campaign and a number of people defending her saying there is nothing factual to the claims about her health. That is speculation at best.

GIULIANI: Go online and put down Hillary Clinton illness and take a look at the videos for yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: So Greg Valliere, a couple of things, it has been 261 days since she had a full pledged press conference. It's something that we point out often here. Rudy Giuliani, we do say that. We know that.

Second, this whole idea that she is unfit physically to be president. Brian Fallon from her campaign immediately tweeted out, "Google, Rudy Giuliani and health issues and see what comes up."

You, Greg, say the Clinton Foundation is the liability for Hillary Clinton here. More so than this whole health thing. VALLIERE: You know, on the health thing, I mean, consider the source with Giuliani who will be the attack pitbull, I guess. Maybe Trump will get softer, but not Giuliani. Giuliani said a couple weeks ago there were no terrorist incidents until Barack Obama became president. Hello, 9/11. So you consider the source for Giuliana. I would say that the Clinton Foundation is a real albatross. I don't think this will get better. I think it's going to start to really hurt her.

ROMANS: You do. Do you think it is a problem, Brian? I mean, a lot of people saying why wait until after she becomes president to wind down this whole thing?

STELTER: There are two stories that are not going away for Hillary Clinton's campaign. One is her e-mails and the other is the foundation. I don't think it will change minds among supporters. She will not lose a single vote because of these stories. But the e-mails and the foundation are the two twin issues that Donald Trump can continue to prosecute between now and Election Day.

ROMANS: All right, guys, we will have you back in about 30 minutes. Thanks for getting up early for us. We'll talk to you very, very soon.

SANCHEZ: President Obama back from summer vacation on Martha's Vineyard, but he won't be at the White House for long. The president travels to flood ravaged Baton Rouge tomorrow and he is under fire for not cutting his vacation short and going there last week.

[05:10:13]Donald Trump beat him to the punch. He and his running mate, Mike Pence, visited the state on Friday. Louisiana's Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards says he is grateful for the attention that it brought.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D), LOUISIANA: It helped to shine a spotlight on Louisiana and on the dire situation that we have here and it was helpful. I would tell you that I also appreciated the good phone call that I had with Governor Pence, who was sincere and genuine when he called and we spoke for a long time on Friday morning about their desire to be helpful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: And the situation is still dire in Louisiana. More than 60,000 homes across 20 parishes have been damaged by floodwaters. Over 106,000 people and households have already registered for assistance from FEMA. The death toll is at 13 and it is raining yet again. We have more from CNN's Polo Sandoval.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Boris, these occasional downpours are adding insult to injuries for so many families who are simply trying to clear out their homes of all the damaged material and gets on with the rebuilding process.

Behind me is a snapshot of what you would see if you were to drive the streets of Southern Louisiana. We have seen yard after yard where debris piled high. Much of this, of course, old furniture, damaged furniture, and of course, even in some cases, some of the things that are hard to replace.

New numbers from the state of Louisiana now suggesting that just over 60,000 homes have been damaged in some way. Those are some preliminary numbers, guys. It is important to remember that since FEMA officials are expected to eventually make it on to the streets and begin an official tally of how many homes were damaged by the floods.

Because that will play a significant factor in deciding just how much federal funding will be made available to residents. We are in one community where a majority of residents do have flood insurance.

Only about 12 percent of the total homes affected are covered by that kind of insurance. However, many people here don't have insurance for the contents. What you see behind me. That is where officials hope the federal government will step up and that is the message that many people here hope that the president hears when he visits this region.

ROMANS: All right, Polo Sandoval, thank you for that.

To money now, new campaign finance numbers show Hillary Clinton with a big lead over Donald Trump heading into the last three months of the presidential race. Clinton has $58.4 million in cash on hand.

When you add in joint accounts super PACs and outside groups, that number is $140 million. The Trump campaign has more than $38 million in the bank, $78 million including his supporting funds. Clinton brought in $51 million from donors last month. She spent $38 million during the month. Trump's campaign had $36 million and spent $18 million in July.

SANCHEZ: A bit of international news, dozens were killed in a terror attack in a wedding in Turkey. It is not just the death toll that is grabbing headlines, but the age of the bomber. That's next.

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[05:17:34]

SANCHEZ: ISIS is the prime suspect in the bombing at a Kurdish wedding in Turkey over the weekend. But what makes the attack especially disturbing is the age of the suicide bomber. Later this week, Vice President Joe Biden travels to Turkey to deal with the repercussion of that attempted coup against the government of the NATO ally.

Let's go live to Turkey now and bring in CNN senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman. Ben, this attack we understand took place fewer than 30 miles from the border with Syria. Do we know why this wedding was a target?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Specifically no. In fact, ISIS even though Turkish officials say they believe ISIS is responsible. It has not claimed responsibility. It does appear that their aim was just as is often the case with ISIS, to inflict maximum damage and horror. In that, they certainly succeeded.

There is the horror of the suggestion by Turkish officials that the bomber may have been a boy or girl between the ages of 12 and 14. The horror compounded by the news we heard from a Turkish official this morning that of the more than 50 people killed in the attack, 22 were under the age of 14.

Now it's important to keep in mind that ISIS does have a unit called the "Cubs of the Caliphate." They have been trained in the use of military tactics. They have been indoctrinated, brainwashed and they've also been trained in suicide bombing as well.

We have seen in Iraq and other places that ISIS is not above using children as bombers. In March of this year, outside of Baghdad, a child suicide bomber went to a football game and killed dozens of children. Many of them in similar to him in age -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Ben Wedeman reporting from Turkey. Joe Biden is set to visit the country on Wednesday. I'm sure ISIS will be on the agenda. Ben, thank you.

ROMANS: All right, 19 minutes past the hour. The Rio Olympics now in the history books, but what is next for Ryan Lochte? He is still trying to explain why he claims to be a robbery victim. We have more about all of that and all of the good stuff, too, from Rio next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:24:22]

ROMANS: All right, the Rio Olympics are now history. The 2016 summer games wrapping up last night with a traditional closing ceremony that included a giant Brazilian samba party. The U.S. men's basketball team captured the final gold medal in Rio, the 46th gold for Team USA.

As the Rio games ended, American swimmer, Ryan Lochte was still making news. Now admitting he, quote, "over exaggerated" the Rio robbery story.

CNN's Coy Wire live in Rio with the details. Coy has been up all night at a samba party and now he is here for us to give us the wrap. Hey.

[05:25:00]COY WIRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Christine. I still have my party pants on. This city has media coverage highlighting the negatives here and they certainly exists. I can say that these games were certainly a success. The athletes here in Rio stole the show.

Not the negativity leading into the games, Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, Usain Bolt, it was amazing to witness all of their greatness. One thing we all know by now is that Rio knows how to party.

Brazil won the most medals in their Olympic history. Part of the reason for an incredible celebration at the closing ceremony last night, a giant samba party. Simone Biles carrying the American flag. Not a better person to represent the stars and stripes.

The highlight of the night had to be the torch being passed from Rio to Tokyo who will host the games in 2020. The prime minister of Japan, dressed as the video character, Super Mario. It would be a great time in Tokyo.

There were some events yesterday too. I got to see the last gold medal of the games being handed out. USA men's basketball after whopping Serbia by 30 points. They earned the third straight gold medal. A wonderful moment to end the games for the USA.

In what is the crazy moment of these games, the Mongolian wrestling coaches and left their wrestler on the outside, looking in for a bronze medal, one coach stripped down to his underwear and heaved their clothes at the judges in protest. The crowd chanting Mongolia.

So what an exciting way to end the games. There was a big distraction at this year's game. Ryan Lochte after issuing a written apology for his role in the gas station incident, which then turned into a full blown international incident last week.

Lochte talked to NBC's Matt Lauer which aired Saturday night. Lochte admitted to not telling the truth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT LAUER, NBC: You said at some point after you refused to sit down, the security guard put the gun to your forehead and cocked it. That didn't happen?

RYAN LOCHTE, U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMER: That didn't happen. That's why I over exaggerated that part.

LAUER: Why did you do that?

LOCHTE: I don't know why. You know, it was still hours after the incident happened. I was still intoxicated. I was still under the influence. I'm not making me being in intoxicated an excuse. I'm not doing that at all. I mean, it was my fault.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Hopefully we can all forget about that moment, guys, and think of the good. One of the good was moments was the USA accumulating 121 medals in the games. Our closest competitor had only 70. That was China, but it was a sad day in Copacabana. The skies are weeping. The last day of the games, the first ever South American Olympic Games have some to an end.

ROMANS: And Brazil won the gold in soccer. That was awesome to see Neymar crying on the field. I'm glad they had a cool finish to the games. Coy, nice to see you. Thanks.

SANCHEZ: The next Olympic event is going to be getting Coy and company back on the plane. Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to build a deportation force to remove 11 million undocumented immigrants from the U.S. But now signs are emerging that he may be ready to back away from that commitment. The very latest from the 2016 race next.

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