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Trump Meets With Black and Latino Activists; Trump Backs Off Total Deportation Plan; Clinton Defends Foundation, Explains E-mail. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 25, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:13] ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Erica Hill in for Carol Costello. Thanks for being with us.

You are looking at live pictures. We have them for you, I believe. Here you go. This Trump Tower in Manhattan. Donald Trump rounding out a full week of outreach to minority voters. And what's about to happen there is a meeting with black and Hispanic leaders and activists. It's set to begin any minute now.

All of this as Trump give his new line of attack against Hillary Clinton from a stage in the heart of Mississippi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton is a bigot. Who sees people of color -- only as votes. Not as human beings worthy of a better future. She is going to do nothing for African-Americans. She is going to do nothing for the Hispanics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: And in just a few hours, Hillary Clinton said to rebuke Trump's allegations delivering a major speech in Reno, Nevada, linking Trump and his new campaign CEO Steve Bannon to racial extremists. She actually gave a preview of what we could hear to Anderson Cooper in a CNN exclusive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump has shown us who he is and we ought to believe him. He is taking a hate movement mainstream. He's brought it into his campaign. He is bringing it to our communities and our country. And, you know, someone who's questioned the citizenship of the first African-American president, who has courted white supremacist, who's been sued for housing discrimination against communities of color, who has attacked a judge for his Mexican heritage, and promised a mass deportation force, is someone who is, you know, very much peddling bigotry and prejudice and paranoia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: We are covering this story from every angle this morning. We begin with Jessica Schneider who's live outside Trump Tower where that meeting will take place shortly.

And just clear this up for us, Jessica. Who is at this meeting? Are they all already Trump supporters? We're hearing the word minority activists. Who's going to be there?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, the roundtable is starting right now. And at the roundtable there are black and Hispanic fellows. They're actually from the Republican Leadership Institute. This is a volunteer outreach and training program for young GOP recruits. In fact, just inside the lobby a few minutes ago I talked to some of those people who will be at the roundtable. They weren't saying much to me but they were definitely young and energetic but not saying publicly what they're expecting to hear from Donald Trump at this roundtable.

I also saw Ben Carson walk into the lobby. He'll be there for the meeting as well as a number of activists as well as campaign staffers, other GOP leaders. Now this roundtable is coming at the same time Donald Trump is ramping up his rhetoric against Hillary Clinton, also at the same time he's indicating that he might be backing down from that hard line stance on immigration that he exhibited throughout the primaries.

Donald Trump in fact ramping up the rhetoric last night in Tampa, Florida, going so far as to call Hillary Clinton a bigot. It is brash and provocative rhetoric that his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway actually defended this morning on "NEW DAY." Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: First of all he uses in his words. And have you seen what he has called? Have you heard what he has called in a given day, including here on CNN? People -- we have become so inured that it is acceptable somehow to just hurl --

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: When people call him a bigot, I'll say, why do you call him that? What is it about it that you think is --

CONWAY: I've never heard a good answer yet.

CUOMO: How is that fair?

CONWAY: I've never heard a nonpartisan effective answer yet.

CUOMO: And they shouldn't call him that. But I'm now saying that doesn't erase what he said.

CONWAY: But somehow it's OK to use that, it's breaking news.

CUOMO: If you're called a bigot, it doesn't -- listen, but does that mean it's OK to call her one?

CONWAY: But --

CUOMO: He called her a bigot. Full stop.

CONWAY: What is OK to do is to show how repressive her policies and policies of those like her. Many mayors -- many Democratic mayors --

CUOMO: Make the policy case. Of course.

CONWAY: And that's what he's been doing for a week now. And, you know, for a long time he was criticized for not speaking in communities of color. So the moment he did it was like, well, I don't like the words you used.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: And Donald Trump doing more than just speaking to minorities, he's making a major play for their votes. In fact this roundtable happening right now is the second time in the past week that Donald Trump has such a meeting right here at Trump Tower. And that's because his numbers are in the single digits among African- Americans, Hispanic, minorities. So he's making a big push for their votes with some controversial language to go along with it -- Erica.

HILL: Jessica Schneider for us this morning. Jessica, thank you.

Donald Trump meantime sounds like he's considering a shift on a core issue of his campaign, immigration.

[10:05:01] No longer calling for a deportation force to round up undocumented immigrants. Instead saying he would, quote, "work with them."

CNN's Sara Murray is in Tampa where Trump told ralliers about that plan last night and she has more for us this morning. Sara, good morning.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica. Well, it certainly sounds like a shift on the part of Donald Trump. Now he is insisting it's not amnesty. He's insisting he would not grant citizenship to the millions of undocumented immigrants who are here in the U.S. but he is talking about them in a way that suggests he's considering allowing a large number of these undocumented immigrants to stay in the country.

I want you to listen to how he described his view on this last night and how Hillary Clinton is not interested in letting him pivot away from a cornerstone of his campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Everybody agrees we get the bad ones out. When I go through and I meet thousands and thousands of people on the subject and I've had very strong people come up to me, really great, great people come up to me. But they've said Mr. Trump, I love you but to take a person that's been here for 15 or 20 years and to throw them and the family out, it's so tough. I have it all the time. It's a very, very hard thing.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Somebody has told him, I guess the latest people that he's consulting, how damaging his statements have been. How terrible his deportation plan is, how offensive his views on immigrants have been from the very first day of his campaign. So he's trying to do kind of a shuffle here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now remember when Donald Trump started running this race he was talking to using a deportation force to send all 11 million undocumented immigrants home. He talked about letting some of the good ones back in. But this is a very tough policy. Just this morning on "NEW DAY" his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway was saying this is not going to be change in policy. He might sound a little bit different but nothing in his policy is going to change.

Of course, there's only one way for us to tell and that's for Donald Trump to come out and explain what his stance is on immigration, what his policy is. Now we've been told by a campaign adviser that that's going to happen next week in Arizona, Wednesday, in Phoenix. But now we're hearing from Jason Miller, the campaign spokeswoman, the head of communications, that that's not going to happen. So we're still waiting to see when exactly Donald Trump is going to set the record straight on what he stands for when it comes to immigration -- Erica.

HILL: Sara Murray for us this morning. Sara, thank you.

The Trump campaign says Donald Trump's stance has not changed at all, that he still wants to build that wall. Critics, though, point out he's starting to sound a lot like some of his challengers in the Republican primary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: If you're a criminal alien, no, you can't stay. If you're someone that hasn't been here for a very long time, you can't stay. I don't think you're going to round up and deport 12 million people.

JEB BUSH (R), FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: You come out from the shadows. You receive a -- a work provisional work permit. You pay taxes. You don't receive federal government assistance. You learn English. You earn legal status, not citizenship.

TRUMP: They'll pay back taxes. They have to pay taxes. Now everybody agrees we get the bad ones out but to take a person that's been here for 15 or 20 years and throw them and the family out, it's so tough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Let's talk more about this now with Trump campaign senior adviser Boris Epshteyn and CNN political commentator Angela Rye.

Good to have both of you with us.

BORIS EPSHTEYN, DONALD TRUMP SURROGATE: Good morning.

HILL: I want to listen to a little bit more of what we heard from Kellyanne Conway this morning when she was on CNN with Chris Cuomo, and talking specifically about this change when it comes to Donald Trump's stance on immigration. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONWAY: No amnesty from him. No open border. Secure the border, build the wall, have Mexico pay for it, no sanctuary city. Get these businesses to register for e-verify. Make them more accountable. You can't just look at somebody's document and then look at the other way.

CUOMO: But that's no different than what Cruz, Rubio and Bush wanted to do.

CONWAY: No, no, it is different. I --

CUOMO: How?

CONWAY: You know, it is different. Rubio's plan was much more -- this man is not for amnesty. And he also --

CUOMO: Neither is Rubio.

CONWAY: Well --

CUOMO: They said was work with them. You can't deport everybody. You can't break up these families. Donald Trump said exactly that last night.

CONWAY: But Senator Rubio is a particularly different case because he led the Gang of Eight with Chuck Schumer. And I think Dick Durbin. The Gang of Eight, their plan was amnesty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So there are a lot of questions this morning about what the plan is this morning versus what it has been.

And Boris, I want to start off with you. One of the main reasons that Donald Trump had a lot of traction in the beginning and a lot of the reason that he has so much support among this base that he's created, a lot of that comes from his stance on immigration and what he has said very emphatically about deporting and getting rid of millions of undocumented immigrant, building that wall. Is there a concern that him going after a more mainstream voter, he's alienating some of those people who got him the Republican nomination in the first place, Boris?

EPSHTEYN: Absolutely not. And we're not running against Jeb Bush, and we're not running against Marco Rubio.

[10:10:02] We're running against Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton has a hundred-day plan to give amnesty to all illegal immigrants. Hillary Clinton is the same person under whose watch 300,000 illegal immigrants were criminals got to stay in this country. And the murderers like the (INAUDIBLE) in San Francisco was allowed to happen.

Donald Trump will build a wall. Donald Trump will end sanctuary cities and will put e-verify in place. Will protect American people and American workers.

HILL: Why is this shift happening now? Because it is change. He is showing a changing.

EPSHTEYN: He's been talking about dealing with illegal immigrants who are not criminals humanely from day one of his campaign. You can go back to last summer and every time he spoke about it, he said we'll get the illegal immigrants who are criminals out and then we'll deal with the rest in accordance to the laws on the books now, with the Constitution, and humanely. That's what he continues to say.

HILL: So you're saying there's not much of a change.

EPSHTEYN: I'm saying that we will lay out the policy over the next, you know, couple of weeks.

HILL: Do you have anymore intel on that, by the way? Because as we heard from Sara Murray, we're getting sort of conflicting points as to when that's going to happen. Do you have any more information on when we might hear that?

EPSHTEYN: It's not about the process. It's about the actual message. It's about the actual issue at the end.

HILL: No, exactly. It's not about the process. It's about the message. So the question is, do you know when the message is going to come?

EPSHTEYN: It will come over the next few weeks and we will specifics. But again the key points here are getting illegal immigrants or criminals out of this country, building a wall and protecting all American people and American workers' jobs.

HILL: Angela, some of what we've been hearing now from Donald Trump and some of what we heard last night actually approaches a little bit closer to some of the things Hillary Clinton has said. Is there a concern among Democrats and on the part of the Clinton campaign that there may not be as much of a chasm when it comes to these two immigration policies as we move toward November?

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There is no concern at all. I think all we have to do is play Donald Trump's words ourselves. We can go as recent to his RNC where folks were chanting throughout the convention to build that wall. This is the great big beautiful wall that Mexico is allegedly going to pay for. This is the same man who talked about putting immigrants, all 12 million, mind you, on plane. Jorge Ramos did the math. Perhaps the math was overwhelming and they didn't realize it was actually going to cost money to put people on planes.

They never talked about dealing with people humanely. This is new terminology. And at the end of the day we're not talking about, you know, extinct animals or pets. We're talking about undocumented people who have paid taxes in many instances, who have contributed to social programs in many instances, who are making our country better and safer and stronger. We're talking about now a Donald Trump who can virtually write the Amicus brief in support of President Obama's executive orders on immigration at this point.

This is becoming the new Donald Trump. This is the rhetoric. The rhetoric does not match his actions. And it doesn't match the hate- mongering that he's pushed throughout this campaign. And we have not forgotten. He absolutely sounds like Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush. We can literally change their voice or just put a quote on the screen and you won't know which one said it at this point. That is very treacherous. And I think the American people are much smarter.

EPSHTEYN: You know what's treacherous? It's lying to American people about turning over all work e-mails. That's what Hillary Clinton did. Treacherous is lying --

RYE: The problem is, Boris, you're not on the point right now.

(CROSSTALK)

EPSHTEYN: Let me finish now. Treacherous --

RYE: I'm not going to let you finish because we're talking about immigration. You're bringing up e-mails.

(CROSSTALK)

HILL: I can't let either one of you finish because we're out of time.

EPSHTEYN: All right.

HILL: I'm sorry.

EPSHTEYN: I wouldn't use that word if I were you, Angela.

HILL: Angela Rye, Boris Epshteyn, appreciate you both joining us this morning. We'll continue the conversation.

And by the way, Boris, if you get any information on when that speech is, give us call.

EPSHTEYN: All right, text mate.

HILL: Still to come here, no excuses. The decision was mine, says Hillary Clinton, speaking bluntly about her use of a private e-mail server. Will it soothe voter concerns about her trustworthiness.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:17:39] HILL: For Hillary Clinton, the road to the White House continues to be marked by two big speed bumps. The foundation that bears her family's name and her use of a private e-mail server. Now in her first national news interview in nearly a month, the Democratic nominee is vigorously defending the foundation, while saying the decision to use a private e-mail server was hers and hers alone. Here is more of what show told CNN's Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CLINTON: What Trump has said is ridiculous. My work as secretary of state was not influenced by any outside forces. I made policy decisions based on what I thought was right to keep Americans safe and protect U.S. interests abroad. No wild political attack by Donald Trump is going to change that. In fact, the state department has said itself that there is no evidence of any kind of impropriety at all.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Why was it OK for the Clinton Foundation to accept foreign donations when you were secretary of state but it wouldn't be OK if you were president?

CLINTON: Well, what we did when I was secretary of state, as I said, went above and beyond anything that was required. Anything that any charitable organization has to do. Now obviously, if I am president, there will be some unique circumstances and that's why the foundation has laid out additional --

COOPER: But didn't those unique circumstances exist when you were secretary of state?

CLINTON: If I'm elected.

COOPER: Didn't those unique circumstances exist --

CLINTON: Well, I -- no, no, you know, look, Anderson. I know there is a lot of smoke and there's no fire. This AP report put it in context. This excludes nearly 2,000 meetings I had with world leaders, plus countless other meetings with U.S. government officials when I was secretary of state. It looked at a small portion of my time.

COOPER: According to "The New York Times" report, you told FBI investigators that former Secretary of State Colin Powell advised you to use a personal e-mail account. His response to that this past weekend was reportedly, quote, "her people are trying to pin it on me," and that quote, "The truth is she was using," talking about the private e-mail server, "for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did." He's talking about the private e-mail account.

Did you say that to FBI investigators and is Secretary Powell right? Were you using this private e-mail server prior to your conversation with him?

[10:20:04] CLINTON: Well, look, I have the utmost respect for Secretary Powell, and he was incredibly gracious and helpful after I was nominated. I've been asked many, many questions in the past year about e-mails, and what I've learned is that when I try to explain what happened, it can sound like I'm trying to excuse what I did. And there are no excuses. I want people to know that the decision to have a single e-mail account was mine. I take responsibility for it. I've apologized for it.

I would certainly do differently if I could. But obviously I'm grateful the Justice Department concluded there was no basis to pursue the matter further, and I believe the public will be and is considering my full record and experience as they consider their choice for president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining me now to discuss, Douglas Brinkley, CNN presidential historian. Always nice to have you with us. We hear Hillary Clinton tout her tenure as secretary of state often as one of her qualifications to be president. And yet, this scrutiny isn't going away. In fact in many ways, it's only increasing in terms of the Clinton Foundation's interactions with the State Department during her tenure as secretary of state. So how is that impacting not only her message but her credibility at this point?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, it isn't hitting her yet in the polls. It's not damaging her. But that interview with Anderson, she was in such a defensive crouch. And this is the season where you want to be full of optimism and feel like you're, you know, charging forward with a lot of joy and glee. Instead, you feel she's just batting away all these charges.

The Clinton Foundation has done incredibly noble work around the world. But it was very large. And when things get that big, sometimes you don't really know all that's going on. So I'm afraid there may be more documents from the Clinton Foundation connecting it with the State Department. We already know there will be a WikiLeaks October surprise of some kind. And she may very well win the election but she's going to be doing so in a more defensive posture. That's why she hasn't done a lot of interviews in the last month.

HILL: And that is also being criticized. Her lack of a willingness, I suppose, to speak with members of the press.

In terms of the e-mail controversy, though, she is getting some praise for being so candid last night with Anderson. But to your point, she's continually batting away these charges. Is it too little too late? And why can't she not at this point trump these issues and move forward? She's continually dogged by them.

BRINKLEY: Look, if there was somebody else besides Donald Trump running, he's such a poor candidate in so many way, I think Hillary Clinton would be in a deep jam right now. She's been unable to get rid of this e-mail controversy. It plagues her 24 hours, you know, every single day. So I don't have an answer for how she stops it but part of it has been the drip, drip, drip. You know, the fact that I'm able to already tell you, Erica, there will be an October surprise with WikiLeaks.

HILL: Right.

BRINKLEY: And lord knows what they're going to find. You know, it makes it an unusual circumstance. It reminds me of Nixon in 1972 where he won big and it looks like Hillary Clinton could very easily win but he had Watergate kind of hanging over him. She might on inauguration day still be dealing with charges of impropriety, dealing with the Clinton Foundation and with the State Department e-mail scandals. It's just not going away. HILL: And that is a major issue that you'll hear and consistently in

polling. In fact in polling for both candidates, of course, that they both have, we say this a lot but -- because it's tough to ignore, they both have the highest unfavorables. What are the things that's sort of surprising is we're now just a couple of weeks out from the first debate. We don't have a moderator. Donald Trump has weighed in. He obviously has his thoughts on who he'd like to see in that role.

You know, sort of refresh my memory here, is it normal that this far out, not a long way, from that first debate, we don't know who is moderating?

BRINKLEY: Not recently normal. But keep in mind, Erica, that these debates are not part of our Constitution. I mean, the first presidential debate our country ever held was in 1960. And then we didn't do one in '64 or '68 or '72. Now it's become something you must do.

HILL: Right.

BRINKLEY: But, you know, I think there's just been a lot of confusion on -- you know, due to NFL schedules and what networks and all about that.

HILL: Sure.

BRINKLEY: But they'll happen. And I think these debates will probably serve Donald Trump better than Hillary Clinton.

HILL: Well, we'll all be watching. I do want to call your attention and to our viewers now. We're getting a live picture of this meeting that Trump is having at Trump Tower.

[10:25:03] As we mentioned, he's sitting down with fellows, African- American and Hispanic fellows from the RNC's Republican Leadership Initiative. It's a six-week fellowship program which trains activists in -- in reaching out to Republicans and folks who are -- and traditionally to non-Republicans as well. So a lot of people watching to see what comes out of this meeting as Donald Trump of course continues his efforts to reach out to more voters, to find a message that can resonate with blacks, with Latinos, with different ethnic and cultural groups in the United States. We'll continue to follow that for you.

Again this happening live right now kicking off not too long ago as he's meeting with this group from the RNC's Republican Leadership Initiative, a group of minority activists.

I just want to get your take real quickly, too, Douglas, on that outreach that we've seen. There's been a lot of criticism about the broad strokes that Donald Trump used initially in the last week or so as he was trying to reach out to more African-American voters to bring them over to his side saying hey, what have you got to lose? Is that message, though, something that could actually prove effective for him, saying, hey, you know what, just try me? BRINKLEY: I think it's important that he's doing it. Now the fact

that he started reaching out to African-Americans with an all-white audience I think was probably a mistake. But the point of the matter is, he's got time now to circulate in African-American communities. He's doing that right now with the videos you're showing. But I think he needs to go into the cities, going to some schools, really be seen in neighborhoods around the country.

If he wants to try to, you know, peel off an extra 5 percent of the African-American vote. He already has more African-Americans in polls than McCain and Romney had. So, you know, he might be able to make some inroads in this regard, not big ones, but little ones and little ones can matter.

HILL: We just saw -- at the table there, we saw a shot of Steve Bannon, who's now the CEO of the campaign, of course, coming off from Breitbart Media. There was a lot of criticism with that move because of the history of Breitbart and a number of the things that have been published over there on their Web site.

How does this change up in leadership impact that effort to reach out to different minority groups especially when we're seeing someone like Steve Bannon there at the table?

BRINKLEY: We;;. I think that, you know, Trump is now looking at the polls probably. You know, remember, all he used to do is talk about polls. In the last month he stopped talking about them because he's down in all of them. However, he's got to do something about African- American and Latino voters. He's got to reassure suburban moderate Republicans to vote for him. So he has to soften his message. And, you know, we're now starting to see that with the change up people in his staff. That they're starting to kind of humanize him a little more instead of just being the bullying, angry man.

HILL: We just saw, too, in terms of changes, we just saw Kellyanne Conway there, camera focusing on her, his campaign manager.

Douglas Brinkley, always appreciate your insight. Thanks for being with us.

BRINKLEY: Thank you, Erica.

HILL: Still to come, it is a race against time in Italy. The desperate search to find earthquake survivors. We have an update, next.

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