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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Trump Makes Scripted Call For Unity After Divisive Phoenix Rant; CNN Exclusive: Trump Campaign Aide Emailed About Effort To Meet Putin; Confederate Statues Covered In Charlottesville; Hillary Clinton's "Creep"-y Debate Encounter. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired August 23, 2017 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:00:28] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: We'll talk about in the hour ahead. Civil Rights Legend Ambassador Andrew Young joins us in the battle over Confederate statues in the wake of the Charlottesville tragedy.
Also the encounter with Donald Trump during the campaign that Hillary Clinton now says made her skin crawl, just one of several fascinating excerpts from her new memoire.
We begin with President Trump's highly charged campaign rally last night in Phoenix and all the things he said that simply were not true. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look back there. The live red lights. They're turning those suckers off fast, I'll tell you. They're turning those lights off fast. Like CNN. CNN does not want its falling viewership to watch what I'm saying tonight, I can tell you.
We've also obtained historic increase in defense spending to prevent and deter conflict. We believe in peace through strength. We're building up our military like never before.
And just so you know from the secret service, there aren't too many people outside protesting.
Then I said racism is evil. Did they report that I said that racism is evil? You know why? Because they are very dishonest people. So I said racism is evil. Now, they only choose, you know, like a half a sentence here or there and then they go on these long rampage or they put on these real light weights all around the table that nobody ever heard. And they all say what a bad guy I am.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, again. None of what you just heard is actually true. The president spoke again and we know speaking to the prompter making version (ph) no headlines.
On the panel tonight, we think it's actually kind of high-powered panel, Kirsten Powers, Ed Martin, Ana Navarro, April Ryan, and Paul Begala. I mean, it is -- does this person lie more than any president in modern history?
KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Looks like it. I mean, he's up to a thousand, now, I think according to the "Washington Post." So, you know, even if we want to just maybe cut off 10, 20 percent just to say let's just do that just to be nice, it still seems a lot higher than what most people do. And the question always is to me is it lying in the sense that he knows it is untrue or does he think that it's true? So, you know, it seems like --
COOPER: Right, is it a misstatement of fact or a bending of the truth.
POWERS: Yes. So if he knows that he said both sides and then, you know, chooses to not say it, then that would suggest that he knew it was wrong, right? I mean, I guess --
(CROSSTALK)
ED MARTIN, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I lashed out politicians like him and say this, if we're looking for politicians to tell the truth, this is the wrong business, I don't think any politician tells the truth much. I mean, you know, I'm teasing a little bit. But when I watched -- he did exactly what he did on the campaign trail --
COOPER: Right.
MARTIN: -- for 15 or 20 months. He's playing -- we said earlier a show man. I know, you know, you can go -- he say -- there's not too big a crowd and someone said well, there's 2,000 people. What's a big crowd? For him it's a hundred thousand. Who knows?
But what he's doing, it was a campaign rally and it was an energetic thing and for those of us that like his policies, not only did he said the Arpaio things, Sheriff Arpaio. You know, Roger Stone texted me today and said, tell everyone Sheriff Arpaio is going to get pardoned, right? This is for the base for us.
And then the other thing he said was he said that Paul Ryan passed the funding of the wall. If you can't do it, we'll shut down the government. We wanted a president to break the system, to break Washington because we knew it wasn't working, and that's what he was doing last night.
ANA NAVARRO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: you know, it's not only the amount of lies, which are impressive, you know, on its own. It's something like five lines per day is the average. But it's also the fact that after it's been proven to be a lie, he continues saying it over and over and over again.
MARTIN: I did not have relations with that woman Monica Lewinsky was a lie. (CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: -- politicians lie.
NAVARRO: And you know what? He paid a high price for it.
MARTIN: Right.
NAVARRO: He paid a high price for it.
MARTIN: OK.
NAVARRO: OK. And he's not saying it now and he's not president now.
COOPER: He also did apologize which Donald Trump has never done.
MARTIN: Well, I don't think this crowd size rates an apology on adultery in the White House, right. My point is, are we looking for pastor or presidents? Are we looking for politicians or something else? Trump has done this for 20 months --
NAVARRO: I tell you what I'm looking for. I'm looking for leaders with moral standing.
MARTIN: You're looking for Hillary.
NAVARRO: I'm looking for integrity. I'm looking for truth. I'm looking for leadership.
MARTIN: Hillary.
NAVARRO: I'm looking for convictions. I'm looking for knowledge.
MARTIN: Convictions?
NAVARRO: I'm looking for policy. I'm looking for somebody that is willing to call out racism. I'm looking for --
MARTIN: There's policy --
[21:05:05] NAVARRO: That's what I'm looking for. You're looking for liars? That's you.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Wait a second, April.
APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: So you like the fact that he's pro marriage. You like the fact that he's pro life. You like the fact that he is anti-tax. You like the fact that he's anti-climate. But then when you come into this major situation of Charlottesville --
MARTIN: We're talking about last night. Now you're talking Charlottesville?
(CROSSTALK) RYAN: Last night was the fifth time this president has talked about Charlottesville because it's that big and he spent over 40 minutes. I was with him Monday at Fort Myer when he was looking in the, what is, teleprompters speaking someone else's words and someone else's truth. And then the next night there was a big contrast. And I'm going to say this. When people go to the polls, they're looking for someone to help their pocketbook, someone that they can believe in.
MARTIN: They elected him. They elected him president.
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: -- saying shouldn't trust him.
MARTIN: No, I'm saying you should understand when you're looking at someone giving a campaign speech that he's talking about policies and he believes in and things he does --
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: Obama read teleprompters forever --
COOPER: To Ed's point. Donald Trump did this as a candidate.
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.
COOPER: Voters knew he wasn't -- I mean, it was fact checked adding some item and yet enough people voted for him.
BEGALA: The voters rejected him, the Electoral College elected him. He was rejected by the majority of Americans. That's important to know. And yet you're right fundamentally. And Ed is right about this. I'm shocked that so many people are shocked. Donald Trump lies like we breathe. Every human being lies and politicians more of the most human beings. But Donald Trump is -- we've never seen somebody lie like this and it does matter, Ed, because those policies that many people voted for, he lied about. He said I will never cut Medicaid. He tried to end Medicaid as we know it. He said we'll remove --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Go, Paul.
BEGALA: He said I will remove all of the troops out of Afghanistan. He's adding 4,000 troops. He said that I will --
MARTIN: appoint a Supreme Court justice.
BEGALA: Fine with him.
MARTIN: I will stop illegal immigration. He did it. I will get China to the table. He did it. Nafta I'm going to -- TPP. I mean, look, you guys --
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: He's not a dictator, no matter what you say --
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: -- revisionist history --
RYAN: You're on talking points all day. And you deflect these other presidents. So, please, don't hand out what you can't take.
BEGALA: Did he say --
MARTIN: Revisionist history.
BEGALA: Did he take or did he not say I will never cut Medicaid Medicare?
MARTIN: But he didn't cut it. You're saying he tried to. You're saying he supported a bill that didn't work.
BEGALA: The man who stopped that bill from passing, John McCain who by the way is battling brain cancer, who the president was in his state yesterday --
MARTIN: Right.
BEGALA: -- was the reason that Donald Trump wasn't able to end Medicaid as we know it, and the president didn't even have the grace to wish that war hear good luck and Godspeed in his (INAUDIBLE) answer. But that's why the president wasn't able to do it because John McCain stopped him. And so Susan Collins --
MARTIN: When Republicans like Ana, a great Republican ran for seven years on repeal and replace and they can't get their act together to pass a bill to repeal, you know --
BEGALA: Donald Trump ran it and he didn't do it. He didn't have a plan.
MARTIN: He's the president.
BEGALA: Where is his bill?
MARTIN: He get to sign it.
NAVARRO: No, no, no, no, the president has got a much bigger responsibility than just signing it --
COOPER: While he was running he said he had a plan. He said he had a great plan.
MARTIN: Right.
COOPER: And he was going to unveil it when he was president. And now you're saying, well, he should had a plan --
MARTIN: No, no --
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: Anderson, I did not say he should have a plan. He said he ha a plan to do. He wanted to repeal. He got faced with the Senate and the House. He let me -- remember he said I'm going to let them go first. Ryan said I'll do it --
COOPER: He doesn't have a plan.
MARTIN: We, he's saying I'm going to work with these guys and my party. So they had a repeal and replace --
COOPER: But he said he had a plan and then he didn't have a plan.
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: But the point is --
COOPER: It's going to be across state lines. All he could say about his plan (INAUDIBLE) was going to be across state line where there's going to be great and you could keep your coverage and kids stay on their parents until past 26, to be competition, but it's the only details.
(CROSSTALK)
POWERS: That's all Republicans had to say. I mean, Republicans never had a plan and Donald Trump never had a plan. I mean, that's just the reality.
NAVARRO: Yes.
POWERS: And I think that -- you know, and he made a calculation of the Republicans were going to come up with something and they didn't. But I just think this idea that you have that, you know, all -- I think you're right that there are a lot of others that think what you're saying. All politicians lie and so we don't care. There's probably an element of that. But it's just not true that all politicians lie as much as he's lying.
And when you sort of point to, you know, with President Clinton where he actually apologized and, you know, really like even went and repented in front of pastors and things like and President Trump never really apologizes. You know, two wrongs don't make a right anyway.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: The cardinal promise of his campaign was that Mexicans would pay for the wall.
MARTIN: -- I'm very excited.
BEGALA: Now he wants -- yes, because I'm -- I don't like being lied to. I don't like knowing that my president is a liar.
MARTIN: And he's going to shut down the government --
(CROSSTALK)
[21:10:02] RYAN: People will lose their jobs --
MARTIN: -- Already the Mexicans are paying for the wall, already the Mexicans paying for the wall.
COOPER: How are the Mexicans paying?
MARTIN: Because trade, because illegal immigration, illegals are staying in their country and they're spending their money, they're spending the resources of Mexico. It wasn't Trump saying bring a check and --
(CROSSTALK)
NAVARRO: Hold on. The Mexicans are paying for the wall because --
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: A relationship between sovereign nations where the costs go down -- of us being on -- you heard him say this drug use in our country, drug trafficking, illegal immigrants here. By the time we build a wall, our country will be saving millions, some like billions of dollars in our costs because we built a wall.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: The American taxpayers don't pay for that wall he'll shut the government down.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: We've got to -- we've got to take a break.
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: The president is talking about economics.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: All right. We're going to take a break, a lot more to talk about.
Coming up next, CNN exclusive details in previously unreported (INAUDIBLE) involving the Trump campaign and Russia.
Later, why Hillary Clinton writes that she thought about calling Donald Trump a creep during the second debate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Breaking news to talk about now. A CNN exclusive, Maju Raju and Marshall Cohen did a reporting in a nutshell s Congressional investigators have unearthed an e-mail from a top Trump aide reporting to a previously unreported effort to arrange a meeting last year between Trump campaign officials and Russia's President Vladimir Putin. That's according to sources with direct knowledge.
The aide, Rick Dearborn, who is now President Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff sent a brief e-mail to campaign officials last year relaying information about an individual who is seeking to connect top Trump officials with Putin.
[21:15:06] Now it's unclear whether Dearborn acted on the request. No comment from the White House. Back now with the panel.
It is to me just such a reminder that we are still scratching the surface on this and what does that mean for the Mueller investigation, because they have access to so much more than reporters have been able to get access to.
POWERS: Yes. I mean, I think that -- I know he's probably going to say that there's no there, there and there's nothing to see.
MARTIN: Yes I am.
POWERS: But I really thing, if you have any kind of curiosity and you look at this kind of stuff it does just raise questions. At a bear minimum you should be curious about the fact that Russia clearly was interested in getting into that campaign. I mean, that's what keeps coming up. And the fact that they didn't just rebuff it straight out of hand. That the e-mail even gets passed on and it's even shared like, you don't have any reason to need to meet with Putin if you're running for president.
MARTIN: I know Dearborn, and Dearborn of that in that campaign an, you know, Paul can tell you people settle into roles in a presidential campaign. He was really one of the guys. He was one of the most active sort of operational guys. Manafort is a top guy, Bannon is a -- you know what I mean, and Dearborn. So I just got to say maybe Paul can tell us. I've never been on a presidential campaign, but I was interacting with Dearborn three times a week. I mean, you get flooded by request like this. So this request to me --
POWERS: Like requests to meet with --
MARTIN: Yes, but everybody.
POWERS: Like with leaders of Russia?
MARTIN: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: -- of businesses.
POWERS: I mean, Paul, you can address that, but I don't think these are typical requests that are coming into campaign.
BEGALA: I checked with Steve Schmidt who ran in the McCain campaign.
POWERS: Yes. BEGALA: -- and the Bush campaign, David Axelron during the Obama campaign. Karl Rove and I went to Clinton campaign. Nobody who has done this at that level has any idea what the hell they were doing. And there's no benign explanation. None of us who have done this in either party in my adult lifetime --
MARTIN: Honestly.
BEGALA: -- can point to anything like this and this is both parties.
MARTIN: But Paul you ran a campaign before you had e-mail where people were sending e-mails and like that --
(CROSSTALK)
NAVARRO: You did have phones, right?
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: Think of the list. So now this Mr. Dearborn who I don't know and maybe it's a benign explanation, but he joins a long list of Paul Manafort, of Donald Trump Jr., off Jared Kushner, of Sessions, of Carter Page, --
POWERS: Michael Flynn.
BEGALA: Michael Flynn. They didn't just say that many of them --
MARTIN: Had meetings.
BEGALA: Not Dearborn today --
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: I ran a presidential campaign. I didn't have time to call my mama. These guys are calling Moscow. I don't know how the hell they found the time.
MARTIN: It's a good line.
(CROSSTALK)
NAVARRO: What this story is, is a reminder that the Russia issue is not going away. We might be talking about the boy scouts speech one day. We might be talking about Charlottesville and the tragedy there another day. We might be talking about his endless lies another. The Russia story is not going away, and in the midst of all of this cacophony of all of this noise Robert Mueller is focused, is doing his work --
COOPER: And not just him. I mean, I was talking to an attorney who knows some of the attorneys on this. He said that this team that Robert Mueller has assembled is, I believe his term was ninja assassins, that they are just the best of the best.
NAVARRO: And strategic in those financial crimes attorneys. There's people that are there that are specialists in flipping folks and flipping witnesses. His team building is strategic, and it tells you that he thinks there is something --
MARTIN: And the rest of the country -- I know maybe here with Anderson and you guys, you think the Russia thing is an issue. It's a non issue --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: With all due respect, though, that's a talking point that has been used on this panel every time a Trump supporter talks about it.
MARTIN: No election was changed by --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: But supporters of Nixon didn't care about Nixon and Watergate until they cared about Nixon and Watergate because he actually stepped down.
RYAN: The bottom line is once the dots are connected -- once the dots are connected by --
MARTIN: Everybody has admitted that.
RYAN: Once the dots are connected by Mueller, that is when people pay attention. Right now it's above our pay grade. It's above us in a lot of ways. But some pieces are already -- when there's smoke, there's fire.
MARTIN: Honestly --
RYAN: What do you mean honestly --
MARTIN: This is like -- that's the silliest thing to say --
RYAN: Wait a minute.
MARTIN: Because you get to say it's smoke and then you get to say it's fire and you try to --
RYAN: This president -- wait a minute. This president and this administration is guilty by omission. Every time they --
MARTIN: Guilty by omission? This is like --
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: No, no, no, no, it's not. It's about what I remember and what I recall. That's strategic wording because they omit a lot. So then not only that, let's go just to this piece right here. Comey, Comey was let go why? Because of the Russia investigation then go to this --
MARTIN: No, Comey was let go because he was incompetent. He was incompetent -- (CROSSTALK)
NAVARRO: That's not what the president of the United States state.
MARTIN: You used to agree with that when he did the things under --
RYAN: Did I used to agree --
MARTIN: I mean Democrats and Liberals.
RYAN: Am I Democrat? Tell me what I am.
MARTIN: OK.
RYAN: Any way, moving on.
MARTIN: Give me another --
RYAN: So bottom line.
MARTIN: Another bottom line. Got one.
RYAN: Once the points and the dots and the lines are connected, let's see what you say.
[21:20:01] MARTIN: There's smoke, there's fire, there's dots and lines. It's not an issue because --
RYAN: What about the e-mail that done Don Jr. had with the people, the actress and -- well, the people from, what is it, the pageant and going into meeting with the Russia --
COOPER: And let me ask you about that the Don Jr. thing. The thing I don't understand yet about that meeting is Don Jr. gets an e-mail from this person Goldstone and is informed in this e-mail that the Russia government is supporting his dad. That's a pretty big headline if I'm involved in a campaign and somebody who I know has contacts with Russia and this Russian lawyer who is described as a Russian government attorney is coming to meet with me to give dirt on the opponent. Oh, and by the way the Russian government wants your dad to win. Don Jr., do you honestly believe that at no point Don Jr. said to his father, you never guess, you know, I just got told the Russian government is supporting you. Isn't that weird or isn't that amazing or who knows if that's true or not? They claim the president never heard that. Do you honestly believe that's the case? That Don Jr. would hold on to that information?
MARTIN: Especially didn't they have a meeting that was a brief meeting that was a nothing meeting.
COOPER: We know nothing about the meeting other than what Don Jr. has said and what Don Jr. has said --
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: The fact is that in a presidential campaign when there's lots of things going on and millions and millions of contacts with a campaign, who knows how many, but no single votes were changed. No single votes were change
COOPER: But by the way, and he know the Trump organization is a little tiny organization. All the tens of thousands of employees he claimed to have. There's not a lot of folks in that little organization. And they all basically just go into and out of each others offices just like they have in the White House. The idea that Donald Trump Jr. had a meeting the floor below his dad didn't -- and some point either ahead of it or afterward say, oh, he had this ridiculous meeting. But guess what they're saying that the Russian government is supporting you I just find --
MARTIN: But right now, but right now, Anderson, --
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: You laid it out that the special counsel created and sets loose a bunch of lawyers who are going to be like not ninja lawyers but zombie lawyers. They're going to keep going until they find something to justify their existence and maybe it's so-and-so Kushner's great uncle didn't do his taxes the right way. I mean, I don't know. But the fact is not a single vote was changed. The Democrats and Republicans agree the Russia thing --
COOPER: As of now there is no evidence that voting machines in any way were affected.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: But you can't -- what is not known is the impact of --
MARTIN: Of what?
COOPER: Of the leaked e-mails that were released to the public that dominated the news cycle that, you know, led people to kind of --
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: The process was tampered --
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: Our Democratic process was tampered with by another country. Doesn't that --
MARTIN: It happens all the time. Obama said that. Obama said -- of course not, but Obama said he didn't do a good enough job. Obama said I didn't do a good enough job. I dropped the ball when I knew the Russian were in there.
COOPER: Paul?
MARTIN: And the Chinese were in there. Everybody was in there.
RYAN: Do you realize they give thousands of attempts every day via the internet to crash into the White House and to all the parties. Do you realize that?
MARTIN: Yes. You can tell me. I'm listening. OK, what's the point? Obama dropped the ball, right?
RYAN: No, no. The point is Russia may got in. Russia got in.
MARTIN: To the DNC. To the DNC.
RYAN: But the question is how did they -- what was the route? What was the route?
COOPER: Paul, what were you going to say?
MARTIN: Go ahead Paul.
BEGALA: First off, there's no question in my mind and most people's mind, but for Putin, Hillary wins. Your man Mr. Trump --
MARTIN: There's nobody --
BEGALA: -- customer by winning Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin by a total of 77,477 votes. That's not even a sell out of a Penn state football game, OK? So he sneaked through legitimately. My president, I will obey the law he sign. I stay (INAUDIBLE). But he sneaked in through that. There's no question that but for Putin, Hillary is president.
I actually want to draw a different connection may be on like thinking (INAUDIBLE). I think the comment about pardoning Sheriff Joe is a signal to the men and women who may be under investigation for Mr. Mueller. And I mentioned before, so maybe think about it. When Ana, when you said he's bringing people expert on flipping. That is how these investigations work. You get the smaller fish and then you get them to flip and then you get the evidence on the bigger fish. The president does have a power and untrammeled power to pardon for federal offenses. And I think if he pardons Sheriff Joe, he's probably sending a message.
COOPER: What's the message?
MARTIN: Paul --
BEGALA: I got your back.
MARTIN: Hey, Paul.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: So you're thinking he's sending that message to other --
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: To the Russia targets.
MARTIN: Paul, I'm in St. Louis. We had a 100 eclipse. When the moon went in front of the sun, you what we didn't think? NAVARRO: Oh my God.
MARTIN: The moon is crashing on us. We thought it's an eclipse. Sometimes things --
NAVARRO: Let me tell you --
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: The world is going to crash on Donald Trump through Russia. There's reporting today that he's calling Republican senators and yelling at them about Russia, about why aren't they protecting from Russia.
MARTIN: That was yesterday. That was yesterday.
NAVARRO: Paul, there's also another very important message that he's sending through this Joe Arpaio thing. It's a message to his base. It's a message to anybody that's Anti-Hispanic. It's a message to anybody that is --
[21:25:01] MARTIN: America first. America first.
NAVARRO: No, sweetheart. I'll tell you what. I'm America first. And you don't get to tell me that I'm not.
MARTIN: No, I'm saying.
NAVARRO: But I'm also not anti-Hispanic. I'm not anti-immigrant. I'm not anti-black. I'm not anti-transgender. I'm not anti-gays. So you don't get to tell me that I'm not America first.
MARTIN: I didn't say that.
NAVARRO: Because I'm an immigrant and I'm a Hispanic. You're informing it and I'm a little over it.
MARTIN: OK, But --
NAVARRO: But let me tell you, he's sending a message that he pardons Joe Arpaio-- try to control yourself from interrupting me because you're a little too close and getting into my danger zone. Do not interrupt --
MARTIN: I understand. I got it.
NAVARRO: So let me just tell you, the message he's sending is I'm OK with profiling Latinos in Arizona. I'm OK with attacking immigrants. I'm OK with attacking Hispanics. I'm OK with mistreating prisoners. I'm OK with everything that Joe Arpaio represents. And that's the message he's sending to his base and to those of us who are not his base.
COOPER: Let's take a quick break.
Up next, the controversial Confederate statues that became touchstones for hate last week in the Charlottesville now cover a black shrouds in that city. Earlier that attracted a few protestors with Confederate flags tonight. What the city is doing next to try to heal. We'll talk to Ambassador Andrew Young in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Right now in Charlottesville, Virginia the Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson statute are hidden from public view for the first time since they were erect in 1924 and 1921. A few minutes ago several protestors on either side squared off. The statues by the way were not taken down instead city officials undraped the statues with shrouds. This is ahead of a highly anticipated town hall meeting tomorrow night. If Monday night's city council meeting is any indication, tomorrow could get ugly. Take a look at what happened last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody has got to be held accountable for not only the blood of those three lives, but for every injury that happened this past weekend.
[21:30:05] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You've asked me to wake up and smell what you're shoveling (ph). You really do. We need you to have a solution. We need to protect our city.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You all have multiple opportunities to intervene and you did not intervene one time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We tried really hard to get the rally out and a federal judge -- a federal judge forced us to have the rally downtown.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've had enough. We've all had absolutely had enough. The statue needs to come down. You need to grow -- get the statues down, all of them. Get them down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you all going to do when they come back? Because they are coming back because they've already said so. What are you all planning to do when they come back? Because those statues are still there. That's their beacon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Joining me now, a Civil Rights Leader Andrew Young, he's also the former mayor of Atlanta and former U.S. Ambassador to the UN. Ambassador Young, I know your position on these Confederate monuments around the country is that you don't want to see them removed. Can you talk a little bit about why you feel that way and what you think the focus really should be on?
ANDREW YOUNG, CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: Well, I think that we should focus on substance and not symbols. We took the Confederate flag down. And I'm almost sorry, because it cost us the Affordable Care Act which is about $14.9 billion and 70,000 healthcare jobs that Georgia missed. And we got the flag, but nobody got any health care benefits. We had an outer perimeter that had land 65 miles north of the city that would have solved our traffic problem. The guy that was elected governor sold out that land and now we're out growing our infrastructure.
I'm saying that there are real problems that are facing cities, and Atlanta has been a city that decided in the 60s that it was going to be too busy to hate. Now, that meant we had to make some compromises. One main that Jackson made was the cyclorama which is a civil war monument that is -- it's a beautiful art piece. What we did was we made it a tourist attraction. We put $6 million into restoring it. We put a social scientist in there that actually discussed the civil war and did it from a perspective where the cyclorama battle of Atlanta was not elevating the civil war. It was the beginning of a new south. And so we in Atlanta have tried to be the beginning of the new south.
Now, that same mayor built the airport and insisted that 25 percent of every contract be given to minority or female entrepreneurs. That airport now is the busiest airport in the world. It earns -- it has an impact of about $50 billion a year. And the employment and ownership factor there is almost half and half black and white.
COOPER: So let me ask you --
YOUNG: So I say we have to as Martin Luther King said, learn to live together as brothers and sisters or we'll perish together as fools. And right now I'm concerned that the more noise you make, the less power you have.
COOPER: Someone -- you talk about Dr. King, as somebody who worked with Dr. King as you did and going back a long way, I mean, you confronting, you know, the KKK, confronting racism head on for years and years and years. I'm wondering what you make of the president's comments in the wake of Charlottesville and also what Dr. King would think about where we are right now at this flash point in history.
YOUNG: Well, I think Dr. King would be disturbed, as I am disturbed. But I think Dr. King always said that you have to be cool and rational and thoughtful under fire and under pressure. And that violence begets violence. You can only overcome hatred with love. And how we learn to respect each other and create a society that is once again civil.
Now, my feeling is that President Trump doesn't understand what he's doing. He's playing politics and he's in his own ego trip. But you and I know New Orleans and I saw downstairs that you were in New Orleans at Katrina.
COOPER: Yes.
YOUNG: And that rain covers -- is covering the Midwest now, and the Mississippi river runs through 75 cities and 36 states and we haven't done anything to fix the river and stop it from flooding since Franklin Roosevelt put it together in 1936.
Now, this is a perfect infrastructure position that you can do infrastructure for 36 states, 34 of them Trump carries. And all of those cities are dying or struggling. And they're struggling because as soon as they get going, the river floods and they're back in trouble again. And those are the kinds of issues. I don't want to argue about global warming. We know -- I mean, it's flooding in Missouri now. It was flooding the last couple of weeks in Arkansas. I'm saying that we're just beginning the storm season. That we know that there's tragedy coming. New Orleans should have, you know, been alerted that the pumps are not working.
[21:3542] COOPER: Right.
YOUNG: There's a lot of real issues that we have to take on.
COOPER: Yes.
YOUNG: And I think that we will all -- you know, the flood doesn't know race. We saw black people on television in Katrina. But there were more white people that died than black people, because they were out in the waters, in the swaps and couldn't get into high ground in the city. There are real issues that transcend all of the things that we're talking about in the news. And I just wish -- I think Dr. King would want to bring us back to substantive issues that are going to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick and set at liberty those who are oppressed.
COOPER: Ambassador Young, I appreciate your perspective tonight. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to talk to you.
I'll get the panel's thoughts in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We touched on this with Ambassador Young before the break. The racial and political divisions after Charlottesville, the center of it all, how to remember history and where Confederate statues fit in today? A big part of the arguments there.
Back now with the panel. It's interesting to hear Ambassador Young's perspective which is, you know, no one life's going to be changed by removing these statues.
[21:40:04] RYAN: Right.
COOPER: There's a lot more important issues to focus on. That's what he is saying.
RYAN: He's right. He's definitely right, but there's also another piece in it. And I respect him so much. He marched with Dr. King. He's living history. He's our history when it comes to one of the greatest pieces, blueprints that we have in this nation, the civil rights movement. He's right. There's so much hurt. There's the economics of it as well. You know, he was talking about infrastructure. Helping people feel that they have something in their pocket. Under employed, unemployment issues are still very prevalent. But you still have this hurt, this piece that has yet to heal in this nation. And unfortunately, Charlottesville is setting us back.
You know, for all the gains that we've made over the years, I mean, we haven't hit the promise land as of yet, but as Dr. King was talking about in many of his speeches. But what Charlottesville has done and with this vacillating of words from the moral leader of this nation, our president of the United States, it set us back where it's this wink and a nod where people feel that they're able to do this without the sheets and walk with the tiki torches. You can say what you want -- wait a minute. Until you walk in my shoes, --
MARTIN: OK.
RYAN: -- don't say it. Don't. Don't.
MARTIN: I can't --
RYAN: Please respect, respect.
MARTIN: I am respecting --
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: With your policy --
RYAN: But let me ask you this. I'm going to give you a question.
MARTIN: All right.
RYAN: Do you want to be black?
MARTIN: I want to be who I am, the best Ed Martin I can be.
RYAN: There you go. So moving on --
MARTIN: Before we were having a filibuster --
RYAN: This is not a filibuster -- wait a minute. You cannot negate --
MARTIN: Andrew young said the same thing Donald Trump said on the --
COOPER: Let her finish her thought.
RYAN: I'm so sorry. I know political incorrectness is in.
MARTIN: I thought when she asked me the question --
RYAN: I didn't ask but I was shutting you down. Did you understand cues? Please.
COOPER: All right.
RYAN: So we have to understand as a nation. I remember, you know, 20 years ago Paul and I, I was a reporter. He was there with Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton had the vision to see that we were a nation that was browning. We were a nation that still had this heart issue. You had laws, but you still have this, this thing that's -- this pink elephant in the room that people can't get over.
COOPER: Ed. RYAN: You know, go ahead.
MARTIN: Listen, I mean, I'm glad that you think that Charlottesville has turned back the time on progress, but what Andrew Young said, same thing Trump said -- wait. We're going to do this. We're going to let somebody speak. Andrew Young said the same thing Trump said on the campaign trail. He looked out and for 40 years the Democrat Party in the cities have failed primarily black and brown kids but poor kids with and education system that's a disaster in St. Louis, in Detroit, in Kansas City. And what Trump was --
RYAN: Baltimore.
MARTIN: You can do better than that. You can do better. You relied on this. You voted for Democrats and what have they done for your kids and for your school, crime and everything else. Andrew Young said --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Let him finish. Let him finish.
MARTIN: Andrew Young said what is right. Don't worry about the statues. Worry about the policies.
RYAN: Where is the policy?
MARTIN: Well, the policies are school choice. The policies are jobs for African-Americans, not illegals.
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: You know, it's getting blacks against --
MARTIN: No. I'm for blacks that are Americans not for illegals.
NAVARRO: Let me tell you what I think Charlottesville did was bring to the front and make us confront the reality that's going on in this country. One of the things that was the saddest for me about Charlottesville was how young most of those protestors were.
COOPER: Right. If you look at that --
NAVARRO: That Vice video?
COOPER: Tiki torch march on Friday night with people all in --
NAVARRO: People in their 20s and late teens.
COOPER: Right, college students.
NAVARRO: It was. You know, it tell us you that racism is alive and thriving still today and it is making us as Americans confront it. Whatever side of it you may be on, it is making us confront it, which I think is why it broke so many Americans. COOPER: Does anyone on this panel believe that if that had been hundreds of Muslim American men walking through the streets with torches chanting, "Jews will not replace us," and, I don't know, God is great.
NAVARRO: And someone drove a car into it.
COOPER: Does anybody here believe that the president of the United States would say that there were good people among that group? Ed, do you think he would have said it?
MARTIN: No --
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: He never said that the people that were scum bags are good people.
COOPER: No, no. He said -- Friday -- no, no --
MARTIN: At the rally, at the event --
COOPER: Friday night --
MARTIN: He meant that there were people there.
COOPER: There weren't.
MARTIN: I think he was -- I think the fact check and you'll find that there -- you were in Ferguson, right?
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Stop. You asked about Friday night. I'm talking -- let's talk facts. I talked to a Vice reporter.
MARTIN: Vice reporter?
COOPER: Yes.
MARTIN: That's the only fact --
COOPER: No. Every reporter who was there, there was hundreds of guys marching with torches.
MARTIN: Right, the scum bags.
COOPER: Chanting "Jews will not replace us." So do you think there's some good church going folks who just happened to be in that group --
[21:45:02] MARTIN: No, but do you think --
COOPER: -- and they're stand being next to someone saying chanting, "Jews will not replace us," and they thought --
MARTIN: No, no. COOPER: Oh, well, of course, I'm just going to keep marching with them. Good people would not march with those people, right?
MARTIN: People that chant and march with that. Do you think --
COOPER: So those were the people on Friday night that the president was talking.
MARTIN: Do you think there are people that care about -- do you think there are people that care about the issue of southern heritage that aren't racists.
COOPER: Of course, yes, of course.
MARTIN: Right, OK.
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: You just watch what you say.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: They weren't there Friday night.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: -- fundamentally dishonest. That rally wasn't about the Lee statue. Those Nazis came from all around America because they hate America, they hate Jews and they hate black people.
MARTIN: And he denounce them Paul.
BEGALA: Excuse me, excuse me, Ed, doggone it. So, here's what our president does. He gets caught describing Nazis, some of them as very fine people.
MARTIN: Incorrect.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: Incorrect?
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: He thought there were people there that were not the neo- Nazis that were there because they cared and therefore he made --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: But what he said was that he looked at it very carefully. He looked at it more carefully than reporters who were there to look at it. He looked at the video and he saw that there were good people there. What that was, that was not a mass rally around the Robert E. Lee statute. That was a march, well, highly organized march of racists groups around a church where there were was interfaith church service, and then to the Robert E. Lee statue where there were small group of mostly UVA students, African-Americans and others standing around the statue who were counter-protesting, but it was these neo- Nazis who were in the bulk and they were the ones who were against the removal of the statue.
The president was incorrect. And I don't know if he knew he was incorrect or not, but he was absolutely incorrect to say that there were good people marching with those Nazis.
MARTIN: But he's never said -- he's never said that neo-Nazis or white supremacists are good people. He's denounced them over and over again.
BEGALA: He said there were very fine people on both sides.
MARTIN: And there are. Like, Adam Schiff agreed. Adam Schiff said the Antifa violence was -- he denounced them as well as neo-Nazis. So Adam Schiff is right.
BEGALA: How many right wing victims of violence went to UVA medical center?
MARTIN: I'm not a reporter, Paul. You can check with somebody who knows.
BEGALA: Not a.
RYAN: I want to ask you a question.
BEGALA The president draws a (INAUDIBLE).
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: How many cops were killed? Was this a game? Is this a game?
BEGALA: Look, there were two troopers lost their lives trying to keep them safe, yes, and we ought to honor them.
MARTIN: Right.
BEGALA: Not just toss it off like a talking point, Ed. Those men are heroes.
MARTIN: Right.
BEGALA: Here's what the president does. He doesn't give a rip snort about Confederate history. He couldn't pass a class on Confederate history to Trump University.
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: Paul is a mind reader. You're a mind reader.
BEGALA: No.
RYAN: Well, let me ask you this.
COOPER: Ed, you know the president does not read. You do know that, right?
BEGALA: On June 23rd, 2015 the president said the Confederate flag should come down and go into a museum. That had been his position. That's what he said just two years, two years and two months. That was his position. Confederate flag should come down and go into a museum.
MARTIN: Has he changed his position?
BEGALA: Well, apparently now he loves the monuments and our heritage.
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: Change his position --
BEGALA: Why do --
MARTIN: Did somebody from CNN say did you change your position on the flag?
BEGALA: Why does he raise the monuments to give the gloss, the patina of legitimacy to those neo-Nazis as if they were really protesting for the least --
RYAN: And let me --
BEGALA: They were protesting against America.
MARTIN: And they're scum bags.
BEGALA: Full notion of --
RYAN: Ed, I want to --
BEGALA: Why then does he dignify the protest pretending that it's about --
NAVARRO: Listen, there were so many horrible things -- too many horrible things -- so many horrible things that he said last night, you know.
MARTIN: Last night?
NAVARRO: Yes, last night he said horrible things.
MARTIN: Oh. Come on.
NAVARRO: Back off, you creep. I'll use the line. But among the things that he said that were really horrific is when he pitted American versus America. They are trying to take away our history. That was such a divisive, horrible line.
COOPER: We've got to take a quick break. Hillary Clinton says her skin crawled and she thought about calling Donald Trump a creep. I think that was Ana was just referring too. At one point as they shared the stage during a debate. The second debate, see what fueled that moment in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:51:49] COOPER: Hillary Clinton is revealing some stunning new details on a 2016 presidential race in her new book that is coming out next month. In the memoir entitled "What happened". She shares what she was thinking when candidate Donald Trump lurked behind her repeatedly during the second debate last fall. The first debate after the "Access Hollywood" video surface, remember that, surface on the Friday, this debate was on a Sunday and in the video, of course, he bragged about groping women. Here is Secretary Clinton in her own words reading from her memoir talking about that moment in an audio excerpt from the book.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, AUTHOR, "WHAT HAPPED": He was literally breathing down my neck. My skin crawled. It was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching, 'Well, what would you do?' Do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren't repeatedly invading your space? Or do you turn, look him in the eye and say loudly and clearly, 'Back up you creep, get away from me! I know you love to intimidate women, but you can't intimidate me, so back up!' I chose option A. I kept my cool, aided by a lifetime of dealing with difficult men trying to throw me off. I did, however, grip the microphone extra hard. I wondered, though, whether I should have chosen option B. It certainly would have been better TV.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
COOPER: We're back now with panel. Rooby Mook, joins us. He was, obviously, Clinton's campaign manager. I really just kind of want to talk to you, Robby, about this, because were, you know, intimately involved in this. Obviously, first of all, what did you think of that? I was moderating that debate with Martha Raddatz. The first -- particularly that first 20 minutes or so of that debate which was so intense and he started to whether it's creep around or kind of follow her around or whatever it was.
ROBBY MOOK, FORMER CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Yes.
COOPER: What did you think of what was going on?
MOOK: Honestly, it was like a lot of things on the campaign, we were stunned by the fact that he did that. It was so strange and with so many things that Donald Trump did, it just didn't seem to matter the next day. And I actually think, you know, this, I'm sure there will be a lot more of this in the book. I think a lot of people today when they think back, you know, wonder, maybe we should have listened more closely or noticed these things more. I don't think people took it seriously. And what we're seeing it play out every day now as president.
COOPER: What do you think if Secretary Clinton had taken option, I don't know it was "A" or "B", you know, taken option "B" and said, like, you know, back off, creep. MOOK: This is one of the central questions to this race. We fix it everyday on the campaign trail.
COOPER: How to deal with that?
MOOK: I think more women are going to face this -- more women continue to run for office. I run a U.S. Senate race for a woman candidate before. I think women are held to a different standard. I think they are expected to act properly, not to lose their cool and if they do lose their cool, they're too emotional.
I can't say what would have happened if she done that. You know, it's very easy for us to in retrospect to say, oh, she should have just, you know, said what she though, said what she believed. She could have come under a hailstorm of criticism for, you know, for not having the composure.
COOPER: It's interestingly how, you know, the male-female, I mean, if there's a male candidate it would have been seen as a sign of strength from male candidate, you know, said that to another male candidate, but if it's a female saying it to a male candidate, would it be viewed differently?
[21:55:09] MOOK: Here's what I saw again and again. Hillary was supposed to be tough but she was also supposed to be related and gentle and emotional connective and all these things and Donald Trump got to act ridiculous and I felt there was very little price for that. I do think there's a different standard for women nowadays, but I think the more women who run for office, the more that's going to go away.
POWERS: Yes. I definitely think that's true and I've heard some people criticize Hillary saying, you know, now we hear this is just coming up with another story. I think they're blaming her rather than blaming the culture that she grew up in.
So, I do think women, say, of my generation might be more inclined to turn around and say, can I help you? You know, and when -- can you go back to your spot.
(CROSSTALK)
POWERS: And I do think we are at this point. But in Hillary's generation, it wasn't like that if you responded like that you would be accused of being hysterical or, you know, unhinged or whatever it was. And so, she had to spend her entire life, women for generation, my mother's generation have spent their entire lives trying to navigate this world of trying to be strong and being soft and all these different things. And so women of our generation have benefited from that I think that we feel more comfortable saying what we think. But I think it's unfair to blame her for that.
NAVARRO: I tell you what I thought, I though, you know what, Hillary Clinton has got no Hispanic in her. There is no Latina woman inside of her trying to come out of her chest. COOPER: Like after a debate like that, is there like a debriefing session where -- because obviously there was going to be another debate, so I don't know, would you discuss if this happens again would we do it differently?
MOOK: Yes, no. It's a great question. Again, I cannot emphasize enough these situations were so new. The rules were changing before our eyes in this campaign.
COOPER: Right. And certainly, all the Republican challenges to the president when -- I mean, not the same issues but, you know, were struggling with how to deal with him and all of them failed to figure out.
MOOK: We'll, we saw Marco Rubio try to kind of come out and match insults with insults. It didn't work. It wasn't authentic. Yes, we debriefed but sometimes I remember in fact after this debate you just afterwards -- how does this guy get away with this stuff?
(CROSSTALK)
NAVARRO: It was also the debate what he had brought the women.
MOOK: Yes.
NAVARRO: If she had done that, it would have been, you know, oh, he got under her skin.
COOPER: Yes. I want to thank everybody. Robby thanks for being with us.
MOOK: Yes.
COOPER: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
