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Obama Tours Louisiana Flood Damage; Obama To Meet With Families Of Slain Police Officers; White House Approved $120 Million In Flood Aid; Help Victims Of Louisiana Flooding; Lawmaker Toured Flood Zone With Obama; Trump Wants Investigation; Obama Tours Louisiana. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired August 23, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, I'm Brianna Keilar in for Wolf Blitzer. It is 1:00 p.m. here in Washington and wherever you're watching from around the world, thank you so much for joining us.

Well, we start with some breaking news out of Louisiana. President Obama is on the ground there to get a firsthand look at the devastation left behind after catastrophic flooding. The president just arriving moments ago. there to check out these flooding areas that, so far, we have seen over the past several days have claimed at least 13 lives, 60,000 homes have been damaged. Also, you have as many as half a million people affected by this.

But the president's trip also follows criticism from some who think he should have been there sooner. Our Nick Valencia is live in Denham Springs, Louisiana, just a few miles east of Baton Rouge. We have CNN White House Correspondent Michelle Kosinski who is at the White House.

So, Nick, tell us what the president is scheduled to see while he is there and also what the expectations of flood victims are from this visit.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we just saw President Obama land here a short time ago. In the last couple of minutes, he was greeted by the governor, some local congressman as well as the administrator of FEMA.

We expect him now to be ushered over to East Baton Rouge Parish which is among the nine parishes that have really been affected by this significant flooding over the course of the last 10 days. Much of that water has receded but the problems here, Brianna, still remain.

Residents here, they really don't want to get into the politics. We have certainly asked them what they think about President Obama's visit. Some have said it is too little, too late. Others bring up the intense summer that Baton Rouge has gone through from the shooting of Alton Sterling by -- at the hand of two white police officers, to the assassination of three Baton Rouge police officers just weeks after that. President Obama was nowhere in sight. He did send Vice President Joe Biden to the memorial service for the slain officers. We understand now, for the first time, President Obama will -- is expected, I should say, to meet with the family members of those slain officers before he departs Baton Rouge.

The focus though, however, as I mentioned, Brianna, is not on politics but it is on the recovery. People here, though, we asked them about the visit of Obama and this is what they have to tell us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

CATHERINE MURPHY: There ain't nothing he can do for us that Louisiana ain't done for ourselves. I've got no help from the government. I had asked for help from the government but I can tell you that my community has come through.

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about Obama?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He should have been here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: The numbers are staggering, Brianna. It's still 3,000 people that remain in shelters, 60,000 homes damaged and school was scheduled to reopen but it's now been pushed back to September 6th in East Baton Rouge Parish. Here in Livingston Parish where the president of this parish says they are hardest hit, the most affected by this flooding, the anticipation of when school opens is still uncertain -- Brianna.

KEILAR: It is that time of year you can really commiserate with what they are going through at this time. And, Michelle, what is the White House saying about this criticism that the president should have come off of vacation to go and pay a visit?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, the White House was asked about this directly yesterday. I mean, first of all, about did the president considerate at least not golfing on the same day that Donald Trump was down there, criticizing him over that. And the press secretary said, no, that was not a consideration. I mean, the White House wants to stand its ground.

And it's been making the case over the last two weeks that, first of all, the White House does its best work not necessarily there on the ground but by declaring this a disaster which the president did right away, by allowing the approval and disbursement of federal money which they've been talking about today. So, the White House is saying, you know, in the last two weeks, more than $120 million has been approved for that area. Some of that's already been distributed to families to meet their everyday needs.

And other things that the White House has done, like putting the FEMA administrator down there, sending the Department of Homeland Security secretary down there. So, the White House wants to say, look at the job we've done, such that even the highest ranking Republican in Louisiana, the Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, has been praising the federal response.

It's not to say going down there doesn't mean anything. The president was probably always going to go down there. And they -- the White House likes to do it on its own time when it feels the time was right.

Another thing they keep citing is that the governor of Louisiana actually asked the president to wait and not go down there right away because of the resources that it takes away from what's needed immediately on the ground -- Brianna.

[13:05:07] KEILAR: But what about looking back, for instance, to Superstorm Sandy? I know they're saying, look, it's the Democratic governor who's saying we don't need to be here right away. We've heard that from Hillary Clinton as well. She doesn't have a trip on her schedule.

KOSINSKI: Right.

KEILAR: Compare this to Superstorm Sandy. What was the timing there for how long it took for him to pay a visit?

KOSINSKI: You know, we looked into that, too. It was actually about the same. The storm hit on October 29th and the president was down there around the 15th of November. So, it was about two weeks after the fact.

And, again, officials in New York were asking the president to not go down right -- it was Michael Bloomberg, at the time. He was asking the president not to go down right away, to wait until there was sort of a calmer period when he could go visit the coastline, not only in New York but in New Jersey. And that was a similar trip.

I mean, the president went down there. He met with people in a neighborhood. There are pictures of him hugging them. He talked about the federal response. It's always been kind of the same. And, you know, it's always kind of the same political issue that comes up. I mean, whether you have a Republican or a Democratic president, there's always going to be somebody saying, you should go -- why aren't you down there now? Where is the president?

At least being, you know, with the president's -- a presence down here where it's hardest hit. So, what the White House says today is that president is used to this. That he's aware that some people are going to try to score political points at times when they should not. And they, obviously, feel that this is a time when they should not. But I think when you have something like the "Baton Rouge Newspaper" coming out with this editorial on why they think the president should be there, it holds a lot more weight than, say, a politician complaining about why the president isn't there -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Including some Democratic politicians who we have heard.

Michelle Kosinski at the White House. Nick Valencia for us there on the ground in Louisiana. Thank you so much.

For more on the president's visit to the flood zone, let's bring in our panel now. We have CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, CNN Politics Reporter Eugene Scott, and Susan Page, our -- a Washington Bureau Chief for "USA Today."

OK. So, I talked last week, Susan, to former Senator Mary Landrieu. So, she's a former senator so she's someone who is a little more free to say exactly what she thinks which was it's good Donald Trump is coming because it brings awareness. We need money. People need money. There needs to be donations. And she welcomed, really, anyone coming, even though you had, for instance, President Obama not going until Tuesday -- until today. Should he have gone sooner?

SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "USA TODAY": I think it was a missed opportunity on his part. It's not devastating. His health -- his approval ratings are pretty healthy. You can't say it's hurt him there. But I think there is a symbolic importance to the president being on the scene, even in a way that is pretty respectful to the needs of the first responders to do their jobs.

And I think one thing we've learned about President Obama is that he is either -- that this isn't a part of the job that he really embraces. I mean, I think this is -- this is -- from the start, there's more symbolic aspects of the presidency. He has sometimes been slow to recognize how important they can be to people. We've certainly heard a lot from the people of Baton Rouge and Louisiana that there has not been enough attention nationally to their plight. And a president going there that definitely focuses the spotlight.

KEILAR: And, of course, we're seeing reaction from Donald Trump. He's been tweeting about this. His surrogates have been hammering the president on why he didn't go sooner, Eugene. I guess, how much -- how much damage is done and does it matter as much because he's not running for president, but certainly Hillary Clinton is.

EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: I don't think the damage is permanent. So, the newspaper -- the op ed that wrote that editorial originally blasting President Obama released another one today praising him for coming down. They could have taken an approach that said, you should have got here faster but that's not what the bulk of the editorial did.

The bulk of the editorial focused on what the community needs to do to move forward. There is some temptation to look at this as pure politics. But it seems like everyone on board is really trying to make sure that the residents get the help that they need more than anything else.

KEILAR: Yes. And you had Donald Trump visiting. This is something that sort of struck me. Donald Trump and Mike Pence visiting, because he has failed on many occasions, to show that he's in tune with what is happening at that moment.

You know, it seems like, a lot of times, he's on this track of what is Donald Trump doing and how is he campaigning? And he doesn't even sometimes sort of acknowledge what is going on in a way where he can show leadership.

But he did go to Louisiana and he visited the flood zone. Of course, you had Louisiana's governor who sounded a little bit skeptical beforehand. He says the visit, though, was helpful. And here is what he told Dana on "STATE OF THE UNION" this weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D), LOUISIANA: Because it helped to shine a spotlight on Louisiana and on the dire situation that we have here, that it was helpful.

And I will tell you that I also appreciated the good phone call, the conversation 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)

[13:10:11] KEILAR: It -- in a moment like this where you have a disaster, it, sort of, cuts through some of the political back and forth. We saw this with Superstorm Sandy. You're seeing it here.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. As you said, that's a Democratic governor who was skeptical but clearly very, very happy that Donald Trump went down there, because the fact that we're having this discussion about the politics of it has very much helped shine a light on.

And I think one of the things, and, Susan, you touched on this, that has been frustrating for people in the -- in the flood zone there is that this has not been one of those massive events, like a hurricane where everybody watches it and the radar and it comes to shore and then, you know, people are looking at it and thinking, how can we help? This is a flood that really snuck up on them.

And it took a couple of days to really make everybody aware how severe it is. And it is incredibly severe which is why, when I did interview the governor, the first thing I said to him was, what can people do? He said, we need help. He said they're getting the help that they need from the federal government but not so much from, you know, everyday Americans because they don't see this because there hasn't been the kind of national spotlight on it that, you know, Trump did put on. And, of course, today, President Obama is by visiting.

SCOTT: I'm just going to add, one reason I think that Donald Trump would say he put so much spotlight on the event is because he remembered that was a really rough week for him, the way it started in some of his speeches.

And so, by the end of the week, he made that speech where he regretted some of the words he was saying. And the next day, he was working with the churches and passing out clothes and food. And so, I think it was right after things, we began to see one of the many pivots in the campaign and it manifested at this spot (ph).

KEILAR: Susan, how do candidates or politicians weigh the fact that they could taking away from first responders? And also the fact that some people don't realize, there is a benefit to them going because it brings a lot of attention, especially to something like this where even, I think, regular Americans were not quite cognizant of how severe this was. How do they weigh that?

PAGE: Well, I guess there's always a balancing. I think politicians are usually concerned about how politicians are going to come across. But that would mean that you don't want to be in a situation where you seem to be making it harder for first responders to do the job they're going to do.

But on the other hand, there are airports every place. You know, you can you fly into an airport. Do an event. Talk to some people, say this is a problem the whole nation should address. And, in that way, not be too intrusive, I think, with what first responders need to do.

But it is something you hear from both sides. Sometimes, I think, it is a handy excuse --

KEILAR: Yes.

PAGE: -- for somebody who doesn't actually want to go to a place quite yet.

BASH: One thing, I was covering the Bush White House during Katrina and I went down there as part of the White House pool. When he finally did go, it seemed like it was, you know, many, many, many days later. I went back and looked, it was actually only five days later. And, obviously, Katrina was much worse than what we're talking about here.

PAGE: There was also that picture that showed him flying over --

BASH: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

PAGE: -- and looking so down and looking so disconnected.

KEILAR: He looked so removed which was really the story I just told.

Susan, Eugene, Dana, thank you so much to all of you. You're actually going to stick around. I shouldn't have said that. You're not off the hook yet. We have a lot more to discuss when it comes to politics, including Donald Trump's call for a special prosecutor to investigate the Clinton foundation.

And we will continue to follow President Obama as he travels around flood devastated areas of Louisiana. He is on his way right now to an affected neighborhood. This is near the Baton Rouge area. Republican Congressman Garret Graves is traveling with the president. He'll talk to us live in just a few moments.

[13:13:43]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:17:31] KEILAR: Right now, President Obama is in Louisiana. He is visiting with victims of these historic floods. These residents have been dealing with for day and days now. And he's also supposed to meet with the families of the Baton Rouge police officers who were killed last month by a gunman.

We are expecting to see the president within the next hour. He will be speaking to the press after his tour of the damaged neighborhood. And we're going to hear shortly from a Republican congressman who is traveling with the president. So stick around for that as well.

Let's check in, though, on the race for the White House. Hillary Clinton will be raising a lot of campaign cash. Donald Trump will be rallying his supporters on the campaign trail. We are just 77 days to Election Day, if you can believe that.

Tonight, Clinton attends a Hollywood fundraiser hosted by Justin Timberlake. A new poll just released today shows Clinton with a huge lead over Trump in a key swing state, Virginia. The Roanoke College poll finds Clinton leads Trump 55 to 36 percent in a two person race. That is a 19 point lead. She's ahead by 16 point in a four-way race when you add third party candidates.

Now, as for Donald Trump, he holds a rally in Austin, Texas, this evening. He's also stepping up his attacks on the Clinton Foundation and accusations of a pay to play operation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: 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)

KEILAR: Now let's bring back our panel. We have Dana Bash, Eugene Scott and Susan Page.

So what do you make of -- I feel like this is a blast from the past, right, this idea of a special prosecutor. What do you make of this, Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean it would be political malpractice for him not to call for this. KEILAR: Ys.

BASH: Or do something. I mean this is kind of actually remarkably conventional for somebody like Donald Trump because it's like you sort of have the -- the -- you know, bag of political, rhetorical tricks that you use when somebody is in trouble, has a crisis, right? Special prosecutor. OK. Check. You know, I mean, he's -- he's got to do something like this. But in all seriousness, it does remind voters and it keeps the story going for voters that there are issues and there are more issues that we are seeing -- potential issues, I should say, daily as these e-mails come out.

KEILAR: But you worry -- or I should say supporters of Hillary Clinton and of the Clinton Foundation, Susan, worry that the Foundation is getting a bad rap because on one hand you have -- I mean it's a gigantic charity, right? They -- there's good work that is done. But at the same time, it is certainly a platform for the Clintons. There is big money that comes into it. There's overlap between the donors for the foundation and her campaign.

[13:20:18] SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "USA TODAY": You know, the Clinton Foundation's done a lot of good work. There's no question about that. But these are self-inflicted wounds that were entirely predictable from the start. You remember at her confirmation hearings for secretary of state, Senator Luger from Indiana raised this very question, how are you going to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, and they failed to take the steps that you might rationally have taken if you ever thought you were going to run for president again.

It's like the e-mail scandal in that this is a gift that will keep on giving to the Republican campaign for the rest of this campaign. We're going to hear stories about disclosers about Clinton Foundation actions on behalf of donors connected with the State Department, a kind of coziness, and the release of more e-mails from now through October. It's going to be an issue that the Clinton campaign will not be able to get over. They're going to have to plow through it.

KEILAR: And while they're giving up corporate donation and foreign donations if she does win the presidency, it's not all of the donations. So then that makes you think, as well, this could also be the gift that keeps on giving in a Clinton presidency.

EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Right.

KEILAR: I do want to ask you, Eugene, about Donald Trump, because he was supposed to give this speech on Thursday. We were, you know, anticipating this. He was going to talk about immigration. We were going to see what his policies are. And he's not now.

SCOTT: Right.

KEILAR: This is how his campaign manager explained that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: It's for a very simple reason. That's been on the schedule for a while. We inherited it. Immigration's a very complex issue. And to get the solutions right, to come out with your specific plan, should not be rushed. He is taking in a -- the wisdom of many different counsellors on this issue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: How much is it that it's that, but that it's also that he built his immigration policy and his campaign on that immigration policy, on deportation force and build the wall and his new advisors or worried that is not going to fly with people in the middle.

SCOTT: It's certainly not flying with the people in the middle, and those are the people he needs to get right now. And one of their biggest critiques is that this isn't even that feasible. And so if he continues to make this promise that he's going to enact if he gets into office, I think he's going to have some disappointment by -- from his base. And I think his supporters, his new staffers, are trying to bring that back a bit so that people don't call him what that they've called other politicians who have gotten into office and haven't fulfilled their promises.

KEILAR: Yes. I do want ask you about something -- we're going to end on a fun note here, but also a serious note. Hillary Clinton, of course, was on Jimmy Kimmel last night and the State Department has this plan now to release this additional 15,000 documents, some of them are e-mails. Some may be duplicates of what we see, but some are new. So this is a big deal. It means that not all were released as the Clinton folks said they would be. This is something that came up last night as she joked about the e-mail controversy with Jimmy Kimmel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW HOST: (INAUDIBLE) --

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, I think I'd be distraught if we didn't have Facetime. I really --

KIMMEL: Oh, you do that a lot?

CLINTON: All the time. You know --

KIMMEL: Have you considered using Facetime instead of e-mail?

CLINTON: Actually -- actually, I think that's really good advice.

KIMMEL: That's not a bad idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So she's saying -- a congrat -- like, that was amazing what he said because she's basically saying, I do Facetime all the time. She has grandkid of course.

BASH: Right. Right. KEILAR: She wants to see them. And he says, you ever think about doing that instead of e-mail? You know. Oh, that's good advice, right? It's sort of a funny joke, but it speaks to something that is plaguing her.

PAGE: So maybe this is a good thing to, you know, a little humor on the campaign trail, especially with something that's been a venerability for you. I think that can be very effective in trying to diffuse a controversy, although this is not a controversy that's going to get entirely diffused by humor.

SCOTT: Right. Right.

BASH: But especially -- and you know this, you cover her every day, for somebody like Hillary Clinton, who is accused of not showing her true self, her true personality, having a human side, doesn't get any more human than laughing at yourself.

KEILAR: All right, Dana, Eugene, Susan, thank you guys so much for being a part of the panel today.

Up next, we head back to Louisiana where President Obama is touring flood damage. We'll talk live with one lawmaker who is with him there right now to hear more about the effect the president could have on victims, and also on this criticism that he has arrived there too late. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:54] KEILAR: Well, breaking news this hour. Right now, President Obama is touring flood damage in Louisiana. And much of the area here is actually represented by Republican Congressman Garret Graves, who is joining me now on the phone.

Congressman Graves, you are there with the president. Give us a sense of what he is seeing and really what you want him to see, what you want him to take away from this visit.

REP. GARRET GRAVES (R), LOUISIANA: Well, what he's seeing right now is -- he's in one of the neighborhoods that did experience pretty significant flooding. We're walking around right now looking at the debris piles, talking to some of the residents in the area and really just trying to get a feel for the profound impact of this disaster.

In regard to what we hope he sees, or hope that he understands how pervasive this is. I mean this literally, in some communities, 90 percent of the homes, businesses, churches, not for profits, flooded or destroyed. So really just extraordinary impacts. And as we go through and gut these homes, I mean you're watching people's lives, whether it their every day -- with kids' stuffed animals to the family heirlooms being thrown out because of the -- of the water that reached the ceiling in many of these homes.

[13:30:04] KEILAR: Yes, it's just everything. They're taking the walls out. They're stripping the homes down really to the studs. That's what we're seeing everywhere, just the cleanup is going to be so monumental.