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FBI to Publicly Release Clinton E-mail Report; Trump to Give Major Immigration Speech Tomorrow; 6500 Refugees Rescued from Mediterranean Sea; Tension Increases as Turkey Targets U.S.-Backed Kurds Fighting ISIS. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 30, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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


[13:30:00] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Investigators told CNN it was a foreign actor. But in earlier public comments, they mention Russia. We've seen other examples of this, right, that aren't specific to election records. You had you the DNC hack, sourced to Russia, which isn't specifically to election records or results, but it has an effect on the political debate. It was tremendously damaging to the Democratic candidate. So this would take it to a new level. The fact that the Senate minority leader is saying that is a reflection of how they are taking this.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: An unrelated matter, we're told the FBI as early as tomorrow could be releasing its reports on Hillary Clinton's e-mail?

SCIUTTO: This report the FBI submitted to the DOJ when it did not recommend charges against her. Presumably in here is all the data and all the comments they've collected. It's 30 pages long. They're going to release the 302s, and this is the record of their interview with Hillary Clinton that took part in that investigation. That's about 12 pages.

So bottom line, the FBI did not recommend charges. But you will have more than 40 papers of documentations here, comments to be poured over by the press and others. It's certainly going to raise more questions about what they found in the investigation.

BLITZER: Certainly will. That could come out as early as tomorrow.

SCIUTTO: That's right.

BLITZER: Jim, thank you very, very much.

Up next, Donald Trump is touting what he calls a major speech on immigration he will deliver tomorrow night. So will voters get the answers on what he'll do with the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants here in the United States? Our panel is standing by to weigh in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:30:50] BLITZER: Donald Trump is out on the campaign trail in Washington state today. This, on the eve of his big speech on immigration. Trump's conflicting positions occasionally have created some serious confusion of what his policies are.

Let's bring in our panel to discuss what we could expect to see from him tomorrow. Joining us, our CNN political director, David Chalian; along with Julie Pace, chief white house correspondent for the "Associated Press"; and David Catanese, senior politics writer for "U.S. News & World Report."

He's under a lot of pressure, David, to deliver a speech once and for all, explaining what he wants to do with the 11 million undocumented immigrants.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: More pressure after the last couple weeks of not being crystal clear on that. That's more media pressure than I think will be pressure from the voters. I think Donald Trump is not terribly off base when he says voters this year are not interested in a bunch of white pain, but they do, his core supporters want to know more than anything, he is not moving off what he campaigned on in the fall. That will be an important point he will want to hit. It seems clear, if you are listening to a strategist, that they may much on the 11 million undocumented and he's going to hit border security and say border security first. Then we will see. This is what he told Anderson Cooper. Then we will see what to do about the undocumented. That is different than what he said during the primary season. He will have to square that circle.

BLITZER: If he doesn't explain -- I assume he'll say build a wall, Mexico will pay for it. If he doesn't say precisely what happens -- he knows the criminals, the gang member, the rapists, they will be kicked out on day one. But if he doesn't explain what happens to the millions of others here in the U.S., will that be acceptable?

JULIE PACE, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, ASSOCIATED PRESS: I don't think it should be acceptable to people. Immigration is one of the major issues at stake in this country right now. Both parties agree on that. Americans agree on that. I think it's important to remember what happens to these 11 million people is not a side issue in this debate. This is actually a central piece that you can't just say, secure the border, we'll figure this out after. That's not actually an immigration policy.

BLITZER: He has to be a little more specific, right?

DAVID CATANESE, SENIOR POLITICS WRITER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT: I don't think he has to. I think he will have to split the difference. Everything we have seen come out of the campaign in the last week first half, they don't have an explanation, he is being tugged if two different directions. I think he can say, we will get rid of the bad dudes, the criminals, the rapists, but leave the others, children, open for another day. We will see. We will talk about it. That's Trump's M.O. on a lot of polices. We'll get to details later. We will talk to Congress. That's a part of his appeal, his pitch. He got away with it so far. This is the central issue for him. We'll see if he can get away with it again.

CHALIAN: What you're describing is you get rid of the criminals, do you allow the others to stay? No patch to legal status? That's the status quo. He got in saying the status quo was unacceptable. To your point, Julie, I think he clearly is going to have to come up with some ability to show he's solving a problem, even if he's fought going to have a massive deportation force.

PACE: I think if you step pack from the policy of this, you look at Donald Trump as a presidential candidate, one of the things that has been so appealing to so many people is this idea that he is the person that will tell it like it is. He understands it is controversial. It doesn't matter. He will tell you the truth. He won't lie to you. That's essentially what he's saying on the campaign trail. For his supporters, if he moves away from his immigration policy, it's not just the policy, it's the promise he made to them that he is different than every other politician that's heard from.

CATANESE: Make no mistake. The Clinton campaign will make him own deportation. They won't go on the flip-flopper charge, which is what can you do. He changed their position. They're on a conference call today with members of Congress saying Donald Trump wants to go into grocery stores, schools, your homes and have a deportation force. That is the message of the Clinton campaign. No what's what he tries to whitewash tomorrow, they will say, no, he wants to deport your children.

BLITZER: I assume a big chunk on immigration tomorrow night will be going after Hillary Clinton, because her views on the 11 million undocumented immigrants here in the United States are totally different than his views.

[13:40:04] CHALIAN: Yeah, he'll try to paint her as sort of for full amnesty by administrative action and --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Not just the path to legalization, but a pathway to citizenship.

CHALIAN: Which she is for.

BLITZER: Yeah, she is.

CHALIAN: That would be portraying her position correctly. In fact, she's tried to move to Barack Obama's left throughout much of this campaign on deportation and other pieces of immigration policy. He is going to go after her. He is going to be very tough on E-Verify, other enforcement measures that he can do now, or as president, to try to firm up the law-and-order piece of this. Again, the places to get messy will be on deportation. I don't expect him spending a lot of time on it. I think you are right. I think he is going to try to drive a wedge, as he's been with African person voters, between Hillary Clinton and Hispanic voters. An incredibly uphill climb.

BLITZER: He is going to say she's in favor of amnesty, if you will, and he's going to try to make the case that she is basically willing to let all these people stay here in the U.S.

PACE: Right. He is exaggerating about her policy. She is for open borders, letting people flow through without restriction, which is not the case. It is true she is for a pretty robust policy that would allow many people here illegally to stay. She has promised, if she can't get that done through Congress, she will go further with executive action than Obama. That drives GOP lawmakers crazy.

BLITZER: How do you think Trump is dealing with this endorsement from David Duke?

CATANESE: He put out a statement clearly saying I disavow it. I have nothing to do with this. This is not something that's a part of the Republican Party. The problem was you had these instances pop up throughout his primary campaign that they didn't quash earlier, that a perception began to boil that he embraced these outsiders, white supremacists, white nationalists. I think Kellyanne Conway has reined him in and is shooting out the statements quicker now. He did damage months ago. I think a lot of people aren't quite convinced.

BLITZER: Here's Hillary Clinton at a fundraiser, Julie, speaking about this last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Nobody knows how well he is doing and how his embrace of Trump and Trump's acceptance of him could put that man, that despicable man in the Senate of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: She thinks she's has an issue here.

PACE: She does. And you look at what David Duke is doing in Louisiana, he has robo-calls going out, where he's asking voters to vote explicitly for him and Donald Trump. So Trump might try to work away from this in the next months, the can put all these statements they want, but as long as David Duke is wrappings his arms around him, I think it will be challenge and something the Clinton campaign will latch on to, for sure.

BLITZER: Julie, thank you.

David Catanese, thanks.

David Chalian, thanks to you.

You know Julie Pace is from Buffalo, New York.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Fellow Buffaloan.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: All right, thanks, guys. All right. Coming up, a record number of migrants, 6500, in 30 hours,

rescued at sea. Among them, newborn twins. What happed to them and where they'll go next, right after this?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:47:12] BLITZER: The numbers are astounding. The images are truly heartbreaking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SHOUTING)

(CRYING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The Italian Coast Guard tells CNN some 6500 migrants were pulled from the waters of the Mediterranean Sea in just over 30 hours. Among those rescued, the five-day-old infant peering out after his blanket. He and a twin brother were born prematurely. All were transferred by medevac for treatment in Italy. Many of the refugees are families from Sub-Saharan Africa, crossing the sea, simply trying to reach Europe, and end up strand off the coast of Libya.

Let's go to our senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman, who is joining us now live from Rome.

Ben, what happens to these people once they reach Italy?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, they're met by medical workers who immediately do a quick check- up. They give them water. Oftentimes they are traveling without any shoes. So they're given flip-flops, then they are bussed to reception centers where they are given a proper meal and they are registered.

The question is, what happens after that? Most migrants and refugees who arrive in Italy don't actually want to say here. They know the chances of employment aren't very good, that the prospects are much better in northern Europe, in France, in Germany, in the U.K., so they move on. They try not to be officially registered in Italy, because, according to E.U. regulations, refugees and migrants must stay in the country where they're registered. So many will try to get out of the reception centers and make their way, however that is, north -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Ben, what can you tell us about the condition of those twins, those five-day-old twins that were born prematurely?

WEDEMAN: Well, we understand that they are now in a hospital in Palermo in Sicily. They were suffering from malnutrition and hypothermia. They are doing much better, according to a doctor we spoke to at that hospital. Now they were born prematurely five or six days ago. Clearly, they basically got on the boat. They were rescued from very soon after being born. We understand they are two boys. Their mother is a 26-year-old woman from Ethiopia. Beyond that, the hospital is being rather tight-lipped about their situation.

But we know that people flee from that area because of that regime's system of mandatory open-ended military service. In fact, they make up the second-largest number of refugees reaching Europe after Syrians.

[13:50:26] BLITZER: Let's hope those little boys are going to be OK. That would be really important.

Ben Wedeman, thank you very much.

Up next, President Obama is set to sit down with the president of Turkey amid recent reports the country has launched a military offensive targeting U.S.-backed forces in Syria. We'll go live to the region right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:54:55] BLITZER: The United States is expressing frustration with some of its allies in the fight against ISIS. Turkey is ramping up its cross-border military operations. In state-run media reports it has carried out air strikes against Kurdish militant target in northern Iraq. Last week, Turkey began attacking Kurdish forces inside Syria. That's led to some tensions with the United States. Turkey is a NATO ally, but Washington also backs the Syrian Kurds who are fighting alongside the U.S. against ISIS.

The White House press secretary, Josh Ernest, spoke about this just in the past hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The United States welcomes the overnight calm between the Turkish military and other counter-ISIL forces in Syria. The United States continues to encourage these moves as a way to prevent further hostilities and loss of life between all counter-ISIL forces operating in the area. We believe that in making decisions about appropriate military actions, it is important to be focused on the shared goal of degrading and ultimately destroying, ISIL.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, is joining us now from Turkey.

Nick, President Obama will meet with the Turkish president, Erdogan, on the sidelines, as it is called, at this week's group of 20 members meetings in China to discuss efforts against ISIS. What will that do, if anything, to ease the serious tension that has now emerged between these two NATO allies?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is extraordinary, Wolf. Day by, day we get an assurance that this will calm down but today the Turkish foreign ministry saying it was unacceptable to the United States would lay out conditions for what Turkey can do in what they refer to as "Operation Euphrates Shield" to secure more of that border. They've used a lot of do the ground fighting for that. That itself came after a statement you heard yesterday from secretary of defense, Ash Carter, in which he said the Turkish shouldn't be attacking America's allies in that area, the Syrian Kurds. Obviously, as you know, Turkey considers those Syrian Kurds who have been a very effective ground force for the United States in fighting ISIS, Turkey considers them to be terrorists.

There's also going to be a point in which Turkey's agenda and the U.S. agenda in backing these clash. Now we have these NATO members trying to soothe the situation. That's not been helped in the last hour or so by hearing from the Turkish military that one of their tanks has been hit and three of their soldiers wounded. The military haven't said who is behind it as it could be ISIS or the Kurds. It is unclear.

Still, we're about day three or four since we first heard from the Pentagon that they thought they could get the Syrian Kurds to pull east over the Euphrates River out of the way of the Turkish. But it still hasn't happened and the rhetoric is still pretty heated -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Nick, where do the operations go from here?

WEDEMAN: The Turkish have had one pretty clear agenda -- they're moving west from Jarablus. There is about 25 kilometers of border they still have to clear according for a map on state media. That's one objective. But there is absolutely no doubt they are moving south toward a key town called Manbij. That had been cleared out by the Kurds with a lot of American support. But the deal Washington always said had been once ISIS had gone, the Syrian Kurds will pull out and move east and let Sunni-Arab locals take over the town again. That simply hasn't happened. The assurance is heard from the Kurdish militia they might stay out of the way of the Turkish but they don't appear to be sticking to the spirit of what Joe Biden said was "the American red line," really, get yourself on the eastern side of the Euphrates River. That's constantly being heard from Turkish officials the Syrian Kurds have to do that. That is not really what we are hearing or seeing in spirit from the Kurds at this particular stage. It is a pretty substantial policy message. As long as this dispute goes on, they are all fighting ISIS.

BLITZER: Quickly, the Turkish President Erdogan is clearly in charge in the aftermath of that failed coup.

PATON WALSH: Absolutely. There was talk that maybe this operation had been long planned but the military went unfavored, now they're out of the way. What's important about President Erdogan is he has made it quite clear he will go after the Syrian Kurds with the same ferocity he is going after ISIS. That raises questions on the scope of this operation. They control a lot of the border here, the Syrian Kurds, and the Turkish military may have a very large task ahead of them if they consider that area to be a threat to Turkey -- Wolf?

BLITZER: In the meantime, the slaughter in Syria, year four, continues in a dangerous and awful way.

Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much. That's it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation

Room."

For our international views, "Amanpour" is next.

For our viewers in North America, NEWSROOM with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.