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CNN NEWSROOM

Trump Intensifies Attacks on Clinton Over E-mails; President Obama Leaves to Tour Flood-Ravaged Louisiana. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 23, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Scrutiny in the 2016 campaign as Hillary and Bill Clinton face sharp criticism from their Republican rivals. Among them, of course, Donald Trump, who is postponing a high-profile immigration speech this week and turning his focus to Clinton's actions while she was secretary of state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The amounts involved, the favors done and the significant number of times it was done require an expedited investigation by a special prosecutor immediately, immediately, immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Jessica Schneider has more on Clinton's response to all of this. Good morning.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, Donald Trump is hitting Hillary Clinton from all angles. He's now elevating her e-mail scandal to a point where he's calling for a special prosecutor to launch an expedited investigation, says the Justice Department can't be trusted.

Hillary Clinton, though, was all laughs in late-night, brushing off the continuing controversy over her e-mails and also those health rumors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": The State Department said that they have to release 15,000 e-mails by the deadline. It's a couple of days before the debate. Are you concerned about that?

HILARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No. No, I mean, they --

KIMMEL: Because I would be terrified if my e-mails were released.

CLINTON: But, Jimmy, my e-mails are so boring.

KIMMEL: Yes. Mine aren't.

CLINTON: And, I mean, I'm embarrassed about that. They're so boring. And so we've already released, I don't know, 30,000-plus. So what's a few more? Take my pulse while I'm talking to you. KIMMEL: OK.

CLINTON: So -- make sure I'm alive.

KIMMEL: Oh, my god. There's nothing there.

CLINTON: There's nothing there. What did I say? Back in October the "National Enquirer" said I would be dead in six months. So with every breath I take, I feel like it's --

KIMMEL: You have a new lease on life.

CLINTON: Yes. A new lease on life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: And all jokes aside, when it comes to medical records, both candidates have released the bare minimum. Trump and Clinton made letters from their doctors public about a year ago. But there has not been a release of any more elaborate medical documentation up until now -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jessica Schneider, thanks for that report. I appreciate it.

Mr. Trump is not just hitting Mrs. Clinton on her e-mails, but he's hitting her on her foundation and her health, and also on law and order. He told FOX News he could end violence in our cities quickly by allowing police to be tough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When I was in Chicago, I got to meet a couple of very top police. I said, how do you stop this? How do you stop this? If you were put in charge to a specific person, do you think you could stop it? He said, Mr. Trump, I'd be able to stop it in one week. And I believed him 100 percent.

BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: How? Did he tell you how he would be able to stop it in one week?

TRUMP: No. He just -- he wants to use tough -- he wants to use tough police tactics, which is OK.

O'REILLY: But you have to have a warrant to arrest people.

TRUMP: When you have people being killed.

O'REILLY: You can't beat them up. You have to have a warrant to arrest them. You have to have --

TRUMP: All I know is this. I went to a top police officer in Chicago who is not the police chief. And he -- I could see by the way he was dealing with his people, he was a rough, tough guy, they respected him greatly. I said, how do you think you'd do it? He said, Mr. Trump, within one week we could stop much of this. O'REILLY: But he didn't tell you exactly, precisely how. Because

that's what people want to know.

TRUMP: No, and I didn't ask him because I'm not the mayor of Chicago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. So let's talk about all of this with John Philips, a Trump supporter and talk show radio host, Rebecca Berg who's the national political reporter for RealClearPolitics, and Krystal Ball, a Clinton supporter and senior fellow at the New Leaders Council.

Welcome to all of you.

JOHN PHILIPS, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Good morning.

KRYSTAL BALL, CLINTON SUPPORTER: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. So, John, let's start with the exchange we just heard. Did you get what Mr. Trump was talking about?

PHILIPS: Yes. It looks like his position on crime is a lot closer to Bill Clinton's than Hillary Clinton's. Bill Clinton of course supported sentencing guidelines at the federal level, he supported militarizing our police, he supported the death penalty. And there's now a push in this country to decriminalize a lot of lower-level crimes. There's a push to reduce the prison population.

Well, that's exactly the opposite of what worked in the 1990s to lower the crime rate when big city mayors like Rudy Giuliani in New York and Richard Reardon in Los Angeles adopted the James Q. Wilson Policy of Broken Windows, where they went after low-level crime, they identified who were committing the crimes, they put them in jail, and they allowed these cities to bounce back and lower the crime rate to the point to where the people who replaced them for mayor ran on platforms of dealing with the high cost of housing because the crime rate was so low.

COSTELLO: So make it clear for us then, John. What is Mr. Trump's plan?

PHILIPS: Mr. Trump is supporting the cops. Mr. Trump is opposed to lowering the prison population, as we've seen --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: He wants to put more people in jail, right?

PHILIPS: Yes, yes.

COSTELLO: OK.

PHILIPS: You identify who's breaking the law. You put them in jail and you keep them in jail. And we can say that we believe in prison reform and we can say we can believe in sentencing reform, but the reality is, when you say that you're in favor of sentencing reform, you're in favor of putting criminals back on the streets. That's a recipe for disaster. Talk to any cop on the beat, they'll confirm that.

[10:05:02] COSTELLO: Krystal, your thoughts?

BALL: Well, I think it's important to remember, first of all, the '90s were a very different time. Crime actually was on the rise at a much higher level than it is now. Now we actually see crime declining. And it's also important to keep in mind that we have more people as a percentage of our population incarcerated than any other major country on the planet. That is not a recipe for success. And of course we know from statistics that communities of color are disproportionately targeted.

So Hillary Clinton absolutely supports the police, has worked with police officers to find out what are the best reforms. But people on both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, have recognized, and Bill Clinton himself who did institute some of these policies, have recognized, that we've got to chart a better way, both in terms of quality of life in our country and also in terms of budgetary impact. We can't afford to keep putting people in prison as an answer to every problem in society.

COSTELLO: OK. And -- Rebecca, Mr. Trump was again, he was in Akron, Ohio, last night and he held this big rally. Akron, Ohio, has a very large African-American population, 30 percent of the city is black. And he tried to reach out again to African-Americans. Here's part of what he said. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The Democrats have failed completely in the inner cities. Poverty, rejection, horrible education, no housing, no homes, no ownership. Crime at levels that nobody's seen. You could go to war zones in countries that we're fighting and it's safer than living in some of our inner cities. They're run by the Democrats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So coupled with the getting tough on crime and allowing police to be tough, does -- is what Donald said -- is what Donald Trump said last night, will it resonate with African-American voters, Rebecca?

REBECCA BERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, these are really two different issues we're talking about, Carol. His new message on minorities, trying to reach out, at least sounding like he's reaching out to African-American voters, to Hispanic voters, is a very concerted strategy on Donald Trump's part. Not necessarily to bring some of those voters over to his side. Because let's face it, these groups usually vote in droves for Democrats. But it would help him to potentially assuage some concerns among Republicans that Donald Trump hasn't done enough to try to broaden the tent, reach out to some other demographics who could potentially support him or Republicans down the line. And so it presents an image of Donald Trump as more compassionate

potentially and starts to assuage some of these concerns that Republicans have had. But the law and order message is something completely different. This is something Richard Nixon actually ran on in the '60s. And what it does is it plays to fears that people have about crime, obviously, but also some racial tensions as well. And what's interesting about this strategy for Donald Trump now is that, unlike Nixon and his position in the '60s, crime actually is not on the rise.

It's at the lowest rates, especially violent crime in decades. And so even though there is a rising amount of concern among Americans about crime, there aren't the statistics to back up that crime is actually on the rise. And so Donald Trump is trying to play to some of those concerns, but the difference here is that crime itself is not as much of an actual factor in this election.

COSTELLO: OK. I want to switch over to Hillary Clinton's e-mail controversy. Because you heard her on that late-night show, right, John? She was sort of joking about it. How did that come over to you?

PHILIPS: Not good. Look, they said it's a conflict of interest to accept foreign donations or corporate donations if she were to be elected president. They'd stop doing that, they would limit Bill's activities. Well, OK, how is that any different than when she's secretary of state and she's the face of America's diplomacy worldwide? Why was it not a conflict of interest there? Why is Huma Abedin working for both the State Department and the Clinton Foundation? Why are big money foreign donors given access to Hillary Clinton when they e-mail Huma Abedin on her government e-mail address? Why is all of that acceptable?

It just seems to me that it's just a complete and total mess for them and they should be worried about what's in those e-mails that are going to be released because there's been so much conflict of interest that we know about so far, god knows what else is out there.

COSTELLO: Krystal, there have been some suggestions I think even from "The Boston Globe," that the Clinton Foundation, they should just shut it down. That would end the controversy right there.

BALL: Yes.

COSTELLO: Do you agree with that?

BALL: I mean -- it's unfortunate because the Clinton Foundation does do a lot of really good and important and lifesaving work around the globe. I mean, that impact can't be denied. But I have to agree with them. I think it's just too hard when you have the foundation built around Bill and Hillary and Chelsea Clinton's global prestige, it's hard to create the kind of boundaries and the kind of wall that you would need to create if she was actually president of the United States.

[10:10:02] Now one thing I would point out that I think is a little bit different about being president versus being secretary of state in terms of how the Clinton Foundation business was handled. Look, when you're secretary of state, you are the nation's top diplomat, but you're ultimately implementing someone else's agenda. So your ability to influence things in terms of the direction the country is going on vis-a-vis diplomatic relationships is limited.

When you're president of the United States, you're calling all the shots. So it is a different ball of wax being president than being secretary of state. That being said, I agree that this is a mess. I agree the campaign hasn't handled it well and that these newest revelations threaten again to bring up some of the elements and aspects of Hillary Clinton, her past and her personality that voters are very wary of.

The same kind of D.C. corruption that I think people expect and I guess the best that I can say is I think some of these concerns are already baked in, and in some of the e-mails that we've seen going back and forth with Huma Abedin, she did push back and indicate that she was uncomfortable giving the kind of favors out that she was being asked to give.

COSTELLO: That is true. And the thing I will say, Rebecca, is I think that this is a really complicated issue, and people really have to sit down and like really study it to truly understand it. I'm not saying that questions shouldn't be raised because they certainly should be, but if you say pay-to-play, that's what voters hear and that's what sticks. So how should the -- how should the Clintons address this?

BERG: Well, unfortunately for the Clintons, as Krystal just said, much of this is already baked in. So the messaging that they are trying to impress upon people that what they did was aboveboard, that there was no corruption, there was no pay-to-play, it's all defensive at this point. They're not making a positive case about the work that the Clinton Foundation did, any sort of firewall that they had between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation.

I mean, really what they needed to do was think about this when Hillary was secretary of state or leaving that office, and think about how they were going to frame this at that stage. But unfortunately we're now two months from Election Day, and so it's a little late for them to try to change people's perception on this. And of course, this goes back to the question of honesty, trustworthiness that is asked about Hillary Clinton in almost every poll that we're seeing. And it's consistently her lowest rating.

And this doesn't help on that metric. But of course, it's already so low that with each new attack related to the Clinton Foundation, related to new e-mails that come out, there isn't a lot of room for her ratings to get any worse. So the question is, how are undecided voters going to perceive these new developments and are they going to make them think, well, Hillary Clinton is unacceptable and unfit for the presidency? That's certainly the argument that Donald Trump's campaign is going to be trying to make.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. John Philips, Rebecca Berg, Krystal Ball, thanks to all of you.

PHILIPS: Thank you.

BERG: Thank you.

BALL: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, President Obama about to get on board to Air Force One. He's headed to the Louisiana flood zone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:16:57] COSTELLO: All right. Any minute now President Obama will leave for flood-ravaged Baton Rouge on board Air Force One now on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. The president leaves amid criticism that he should have traveled to Baton Rouge sooner. When Mr. Obama arrives in Louisiana, he'll find trash-lined streets. The flood waters now receding and revealing utter devastation.

CNN's Nick Valencia live in Denim Springs this morning, meeting with residents there. Good morning, Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We are less than three hours from the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama. He will tour East Baton Rouge Parish. And it's been about 10 days since the major flood event happened here, that heavy rain causing that major flooding in and around Baton Rouge. And it was during that time that President Obama was on vacation in Martha's Vineyard. It's something that has been taken exception to in this area, especially by the local newspaper which penned an op-ed over the weekend criticizing the president for not cutting his vacation short.

It was during that time as well that we saw Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump show up in Louisiana. The governor here saying he was glad of Trump's visit, that it highlighted the much-needed resources that need to come to this city. But when you talk to local residents, they don't seem to be that much concerned about politics. They're focused on the cleanup.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help us. That's all I can say, you know. Just help us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ain't nothing he can do for us that Louisiana ain't done for ourselves. I got no help from the government. I ain't asked no help from the government. But I'll tell you, my community has come through.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's great Trump came in town to, you know, show his support. You know, I think that's a good thing, you know, that he did that, to tell you the truth. I mean.

VALENCIA: What about Obama? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He should have been here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: Livingston Parish is among the hardest hit areas. That's where we're at right now. About 60 percent of the structures -- I should say about 70 percent of the homes and structures in this area suffered some sort of damage. And we got a sense of just how bad that damage was. During a home tour yesterday I spoke to a man named Todd Critchell (PH). He's been here in this area 32 years. He says he's been through hurricanes and loads of severe weather but he's never experienced anything like this. He says up to seven feet of water. And what hurts him the most is he lost a family bible that's been in his possession, in his family's possession since the 1800s.

Still 3,000 people remain in shelters here and there's a lot of cleanup months ahead left to be done -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nick Valencia reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Last hour I spoke with the FEMA administrator Craig Fugate about the criticism President Obama has been facing. Here is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRAIG FUGATE, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: I don't think it's deserved, but I understand people are frustrated. I've been with Mr. -- I've with President Obama on numerous disaster responses. And one thing he's been very clear to me is, Craig, I'll go, but I don't want to get in the response, I don't want to pull resources away from it.

The president has been engaged since last Saturday. Sunday he declared a disaster for the state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. With me now is Livingston Parish President Layton Ricks.

[10:20:02] Hi, sir, can you hear me?

LAYTON RICKS, PRESIDENT OF LIVINGSTON PARISH, NEW ORLEANS: Yes, ma'am, I can hear you.

COSTELLO: Good. Are you looking forward to the president's visit today?

RICKS: Well, you know, I don't believe the president is coming out to Livingston Parish today. As I understand it, he's going to spend most of his time in East Baton Rouge Parish.

COSTELLO: You know, there has been criticism that President Obama should have visited Louisiana sooner. Do you agree? RICKS: Well, yes and no. I think the pros would be obviously to get

resources here and shine light on Livingston Parish. But on the other hand, the -- when you have the president come in, you've got to take all your first responders and all your resources from the state police and sheriff's departments, and to secure him coming. So I'm not upset with him not coming to Livingston Parish. What concerns me the most is that through the governor's office and through FEMA that we get the assistance we need. And I have to tell you right now the governor's office has just been absolutely phenomenal with Livingston Parish, as has FEMA.

And I'm sure that Administrator Craig Fugate is in touch with the president of the United States because we have gotten our declarations done as soon as we need them which opens the door for us to get resources.

I'll sort of leave the politics to others. You know, but I am glad he's coming today and I certainly appreciate the presidential candidate Donald Trump coming actually to Livingston Parish. I am a little disappointed that I'm not going to get to speak one-on-one with the president with all the damage that we have because we are the hardest hit -- parish. But I'll leave the politics up to the candidates.

COSTELLO: I know that it's kind of sad that everything is political these days, right?

RICKS: Well, you know, it really is, and it's -- it's just the way it is. It's unfortunate in one way. But my concern is getting our parish back up and running. We're a resilient people but we have been knocked out. We got up. We fought back and now we're in a major cleanup efforts that have now started. But there's a lot of people in our parish that are hurting with over 60,000 structures damaged in some way by these floodwaters. Schools damaged which means kids are out of school. I mean, you know how this goes on and on and on. So anything that FEMA, the governor's office, certainly the president of the United States can do to help our parish, that's what I'm focused on right now.

COSTELLO: All right. We see the president getting into his helicopter. He's going to go to Andrews and then get on Air Force One and fly on to Louisiana.

What is your biggest challenge, sir? What do you need most?

RICKS: Well, I think temporary housing and housing is going to be the biggest issue that our folks are facing. We will eventually get all the stuff picked up from the side of the roads, but I don't know where these people are going to live. A lot of folks lost their vehicles. So I don't know how they're going to get back and forth. I don't know when the jobs are going to come back into place. So I don't know where their kids are going to be housed. And when school does get going, I don't know when they'll be able to get back to their homes to get in schools.

So just the overall safety and well-being on our citizens right now is the main focus. And there's so much damage that that's just really up in the air. We're working toward getting them something. I think that will happen in the near future. I hope the president will announce some things today by coming to our state.

COSTELLO: What --

RICKS: At least, if nothing else, reduce this to a 10-90.

COSTELLO: What would you like the president to say?

RICKS: Well, first of all, I'd like for him to reduce this from 25-75 for the parish to a 90-10. I'm almost certainly he will do that because of the devastation that we've had. He has the authority to go 100 percent.

And I can tell you, we would certainly, if I could get in front of him, ask him to at least do 90-10, and beg him to go the other 10 percent and do 100 percent for us like was done in New Orleans during Katrina.

COSTELLO: Right. You're talking about how much people are reimbursed for what they've lost, correct?

RICKS: Well, the parish itself. We don't have the budget to go out and pay. So we're under a 25-75 right now in all our efforts and everything that we pay for. And I'm hoping he will go to at least a 90-10 and would like for him to go to 100 percent in this initial phase anyway, so that we can get debris picked up and it not bankrupt our parishes and our municipalities for our mayors.

I mean, this is huge. Because as you know, the tax revenue is down because there's no businesses open. Your overhead is up because you've got people working around the clock. So we need all the help the president will grant FEMA to do for us. And personally speaking to Mr. Fugate last week, he has assured me our assets will be here. I can tell you everyone has responded through the governor's office. I just could not ask for more at this point.

But this is a long road back to recovery and we need all the help we can get for the long term.

COSTELLO: Layton Ricks, the parish president there, thank you so much for joining me this morning.

We'll be right back.

RICKS: Thank you. And --

[10:25:01]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. I want to take you out to Washington, D.C. for just a second. The president landing at Andrews ready to board Air Force One. Of course he's on his way to flood-ravaged Louisiana. He's going to survey the damage there. And public officials in Louisiana are hoping he'll announce new federal help because they've just been so devastated by the floodwaters. 60,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed there, 13 people lost their lives. Many people displaced with nowhere to go and no vehicles.

So I would say public officials and the public in Louisiana are looking forward to seeing President Obama land shortly in Baton Rouge a little later this morning.