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Erin Burnett Outfront
Mnuchin Defies Subpoena For Trump's Tax Returns; Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-NY) Is Interviewed About Subpoenas; Barr: "Laughable" To Say I Lied To Congress; Barr Defends Trump Calling Russia Probe A "Witch Hunt"; Democratic Governor from Red-State Montana Goes All In For Iowa; CNN Investigates the Trump Family Business. Aired on 7-8p ET
Aired May 17, 2019 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:00]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: OUTFRONT next breaking news, defiance. Team Trump ignoring a subpoena for the President's tax returns. Will the courts have the last word? And laughable, that's what Bill Barr is saying about claims that he lied under oath. What is funny about that? Plus, Montana Governor Steve Bullock in his own words why he says he's the best chance to beat Trump in 2020. Let's go out front.
And Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett. Out front on this Friday evening breaking news, defying a subpoena. Team Trump defying yet another subpoena from Congress, this time for six years of the President's tax returns. The deadline was tonight and the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin writing a letter to House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal who had subpoenaed the returns, quote, we have determined that the Committee's request lacks a legitimate legislative purpose and department is therefore not authorized to disclose the requested returns.
Neal responding to that, that he's going to talk to his lawyers. In other words, this is headed to the courts and a possible constitutional crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RICHARD NEAL (D-MA): I think that if both sides have made up their minds, better to move it over to the next branch of government, the judiciary.
STEVEN MNUCHIN, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY: This will go to the third branch of government to be resolved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So they agree, they're going to take it to the courts and the President has argued, of course, that the documents he released yesterday, his financial disclosure statement, this is even better than releasing his taxes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did do a filing of over a hundred pages. You get far more from that than you could ever get from a tax return.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That's what he says about this document, which is simply not true. This is the document from yesterday. This is last year's financial disclosure form. How can you get more from this which is 88 pages from last year from the President's disclosure than you would get from that? That's a picture Trump himself tweeted of himself signing his 2015 tax returns.
So that's how much information could be available from one year without a measly little 88 pages, which do not answer the big questions of who paid the President money, exactly how much money the President owes and to whom. But the President and his team have another excuse for not complying with the subpoena. Listen to this one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They're extremely complex. People wouldn't understand them.
SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I don't think Congress, particularly not this group of congressmen and women are smart enough to look through the thousands of pages that I would assume that President Trump's taxes will be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, she's right. It's not 88 pages, but calling someone stupid doesn't generally work. Not even in kindergarten. There are 10 accountants in Congress and as one member of the House Ways and Means Committee told me last night ...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DAN KILDEE (D-MI): Let me assure you, Mr. President, we'll figure it out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So will we ever see the President's tax returns? Well, not if Trump has anything to do with it, meaning all of this was not true.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If I decide to run for office I'll produce my tax returns, absolutely.
Maybe I'm going to do the tax returns when Obama does his birth certificate.
I would love to give the tax returns, but I can't do it until I'm finished with the audit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Pamela Brown is out front live at the White House. And Pamela, the President is not giving up this fight.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely not, Erin. President Trump's team is only digging in its heels even more fighting the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman subpoenas with the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin saying, "Congress doesn't have a legislative purpose here, a legitimate one." And that he doesn't have the authority to release six years of President Trump's tax returns.
So once again, Erin, this is a signal from the Trump administration that it won't give in on congressional subpoenas, and it's willing to fight them in the courts all the way through the next election.
Now, earlier this week, a district judge cast doubt on the Trump's lawyers claims that Congress must show a legitimate legislative purpose for Trump's business records. But the chances of these subpoena disputes being resolved before the next election are slim. And I just spoke to a source tonight, close to Trump's team that told me part of the calculation here is running out the clock, because they do expect it to take a while to go through the court system.
Now, this latest refusal to comply with the subpoena may foreshadow how the administration will respond to a subpoena deadline for former White House Counsel Don McGahn. That's next Tuesday. The White House has previously blocked the request for McGahn's documents, so it could follow suit and blocking his testimony. Next week, of course, we'll be tracking it all, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Pamela. And now, Democratic Congressman Thomas Suozzi who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, which of course is the Committee which subpoenaed the President's tax returns. So I appreciate your time, Congressman.
So here we are, defiance, they say, "Take a hike." They're not going to comply with your subpoena. Now, you're going to sue them in court. Does this go all the way to the Supreme Court, Congressman?
REP. THOMAS SUOZZI (D-NY): I think ultimately the court are going to have to decide this and I can imagine that whichever party is not successful at the lower courts will not pursue it as far as they can which could ultimately end up at the Supreme Court.
[19:05:09] BURNETT: OK. So obviously you got to get there before you know what happens next. But you've got the context here, other subpoenas being defied, plenty of them, and the Judiciary Chairman, Jerry Nadler says, "We are in a constitutional crisis." Are we there now or do you wait until the Supreme Court, whatever court tells them to do it, and they defy, is that then a constitutional crisis?
SUOZZI: When people use the expression constitutional crisis, they're talking about this breach between the executive and the legislative branch and we have that right now. There's a confrontation taking place. I don't think it's at a crisis yet, but I think that we're having this very serious question.
We have to remember that the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Richie Neal, has made it very clear from day one the reason he wants to see the President's tax returns, as he wants to determine if in fact the IRS is following its own procedures. Most people don't talk about this.
Since the 1970s, the IRS manual has said that every president and every vice president should be audited by the IRS. This is to take away discretion from IRS employee, so somebody wouldn't say, "Oh, should I audit the president?"
BURNETT: And he says he is under audit and that's why in fact he won't show us the taxes.
SUOZZI: Well, we have to see if he's under audit now that he's President of the United States of America and we have to see, in fact, if the IRS is complying with their own manual. We saw the President as part of the Mueller's report, when he doesn't like something, he'll call somebody up on the phone and say, "Hey, I don't want you to do this."
Now, Don McGahn came out and said, "I'm going to do it my way even though the President is directing me otherwise." Well, do we know if the IRS Commissioner is following his own procedures that every president and every vice president is supposed to be audited by the IRS?
BURNETT: So to this point though when Secretary Mnuchin says that you lack a legislative purpose, as you point out, your Chairman is saying the purpose is to look at how the IRS audits presidents. But why do you need Trump's returns to do that? I mean why couldn't the IRS just confirm, "Yes, he's under audit, as indeed all presidents are." Why do you need to return? How would that tell you?
SUOZZI: Because we need to see exactly what the IRS is doing. How extensive are they doing, what's the process they're following. The chairman wants to determine whether or not we need to pass legislation. This issue wouldn't even have come up were it not for the fact that this president for the first time since the 1970s is the first president that has not disclosed his income taxes to the public.
People have been scouring around looking at this for a while and then we came upon this provision in the statute that requires that the IRS to comply with any request from the Chairman of Ways and Means or other tax writing committees to give the tax returns of anybody they request. It doesn't require a legitimate legislative purpose even though there is one here. This is about policy, not about politics.
But this one wouldn't have even come up were not for the fact that the President broke with tradition since the 1970s.
BURNETT: Right. So I understand, you're giving the legislative purpose, you're saying you don't actually even need to provide, but you say you're doing so nonetheless. But let me ask you about the timing here because as you say both sides are going to fight this all the way to the top, whoever wins is going to be happy, whoever lose is going to appeal, and then you get to the Supreme Court, eventually.
This is going to take a lot longer than Trump may even be in office. Has he already run this by putting this into the judiciary branch and running out the clock?
SUOZZI: I think what you just said and what your reporter said earlier that the administration's goal is to try and run up the clock in time for the election is exactly what their strategy is. I think that there'll be arguments made. I don't know this for a fact, but I think they'll be arguments made by the Chairman's team that this should be done in an expedited basis because the statute is crystal clear.
It's unambiguous that the Treasury Secretary is required to provide these tax returns when the Chairman request them. It's unambiguous. There's no question whatsoever. There's not much room for debate here.
BURNETT: So you think this could go through the courts actually quickly? I mean could this be resolved for this year is that way too ambitious?
SUOZZI: Listen, I'm trained as a lawyer and I'm trained as a certified public accountant, but I think that there's going to be a lot more qualified people than myself to handle the law and the accounting in this matter that will be employed by the Committee to actually get this thing moving as quickly as possible and to dig through these tax returns once we get them.
BURNETT: So Congressman Suozzi, in terms of what you do now, the Treasury Secretary obviously defying the subpoena, the Attorney General Bill Barr has also defied a subpoena and Chairman Nadler is threatening to hold him in contempt, which, depending how you define it which contempt it is could mean jail, could mean fines. Do you think Secretary Mnuchin should be held in contempt?
SUOZZI: I think that it's premature for that right now. The chairman has said that that's premature. There are other people in the committee that say they'd like to see that happen right away. The challenge for the President and his administration as well as the challenge for Congress is people are sick and tired of the politics and the game playing.
People don't want that to happen anymore. They wanted to really focus on solving problems. So we have to find balance on the knife's edge. How do we do our jobs that we're required to do as oversight, as a separate branch of government to monitor what the executive branch is doing, while at the same time do our job to actually get things done? We have to do a little bit of both.
If we go too far one way investigate and it becomes partisan, then that's bad for the Congress. If the President keeps on denying, and delaying, and obfuscating and fighting, that'll make him look too political. We've all got to focus at the same time walk and chew gum at the same time to focus on getting things done, focus on the important issues that we face in the country. So it's a balance all the way along.
[19:10:37] BURNETT: All right. Well, Congressman Suozzi, I appreciate your time. Thank you. SUOZZI: Hey, Erin, thanks for having me on and good luck with your
show tonight.
BURNETT: All right. And next, Bill Barr laughs off claims that he lied under oath.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think it's largely being made to try to discredit me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Plus, President Trump says nobody warned him about Mike Flynn, but that's not true. And all in the family, the Trump family, a new documentary tonight about the Trump family business.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now, anybody can pay 10s of thousands of dollars, maybe these are people that buy really nice condos or maybe they're people that want to influence the President.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:15:02] BURNETT: Laughable charge, Attorney General Bill Barr shrugging off Democrats' threats to hold him in contempt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL HEMMER, ANCHOR, FOX NEWS: Nancy Pelosi, she believes you lied under oath. What do you think of that charge?
BARR: Well, I think it's a laughable charge and I think it's largely being made to try to discredit me.
HEMMER: Holding you in contempt, what do you think of that?
BARR: It's part of the usual political circus that's being played out. It doesn't surprise me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So he says it's laughable. OK. So let's just play the testimony that he's talking about.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. CHARLIE CRIST (D-FL): Reports have emerged recently, General, that members of the Special Counsel's team are frustrated at some level with the limited information included in your March 24th letter. That it does not adequately or accurately, necessarily, portray the report's findings. Do you what they are referencing with that?
BARR: No, I don't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, there was a long pause there and perhaps that is because Barr did know that the Special Counsel's team felt his memo did not adequately portray Mueller's findings, because he had already in fact received a letter from Mueller which said that Barr's memo, quote, did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of the Special Counsel's work and conclusions.
Out front now former Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security Carrie Cordero, former Federal Prosecutor Jack Weiss, former Assistant Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security under President Obama, Juliette Kayyem and former Adviser to Four U.S. Presidents, David Gergen.
Jack, you're here with me so let me start with you. We just laid out the testimony. The pause. The answer which, obviously runs counter to the letter we know he had already received. Is it laughable to say Barr lied under oath?
JACK WEISS, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, when I was an Assistant U.S. Attorney, if I'd gone into federal court with his special mixture of 90 percent misleading and 10 percent literal truth, regardless of whether it's perjury or not, those judges would have called my boss, the U.S. Attorney. They would have wanted my head. I would have been disciplined or fired.
And I guarantee you that each and every trial lawyer in the U.S. Department of Justice feels the same way. None of them are going into federal court acting the way Bill Barr did when he went into Congress.
BURNETT: Juliette?
JULIETTE KAYYEM, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: I would totally agree with that assessment. There's no way you look at that testimony and think, "Oh, there's a guy who wants full disclosure." And I think there's two ironic aspects of this and the first is just how wounded the Attorney General feels. He's like, "Oh, they're hurting my feelings."
He's the Attorney General of the United States. He could tell the truth and he could not try to stall any investigation into the Mueller report. The second thing quickly which makes me more nervous today than this clip that you showed was, of course, when Barr was unable to say whether the President had directed him to start investigations because since that testimony we now see a Department of Justice which is turning against and turning it's wrath so to speak on political enemies of Donald Trump.
BURNETT: So Carrie let's listen to how Barr has changed his tune on another important issue which is whether the and Mueller investigation as what the President calls it, of course, which is a witch hunt. So here's Barr in January and Barr today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARR: I don't believe Mr. Mueller would be involved in a witch hunt.
HEMMER: Are you comfortable using those words, witch hunt, hoax?
BARR: I use what words I use and it was an investigation, but I think if I had been falsely accused I'd be comfortable saying it was a witch hunt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Carrie, can you explain that?
CARRIE CORDERO, FORMER COUNSEL TO THE U.S. ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR NATIONAL SECURITY: I can't. It's indefensible, but it is consistent with what he's been saying lately. Ever since the release of the Mueller report, he's been saying that - sort of portraying the President as a victim of the investigation. And what that does is it cuts against the credibility of the work that the FBI and the Justice Department did which was conducted lawfully, which was conducted with court supervision, which was done under the rules of the Justice Department.
And so what he's actually doing is on their ongoing basis of conducting investigations which include National Security investigations and include continued investigation into foreign influence, he's undermining any future efforts that they have. And it's just indefensible on the part of the Attorney General.
BURNETT: And David to that line, Barr is now also parroting the President when it comes to the word spying, which is what the President has used to describe what happened to his campaign doubling down his campaign that the campaign was spied on. So Barr is telling the Wall Street Journal a quote, "Government power was used to spy on American citizens. I can't imagine any world where we wouldn't take a look and make sure that was done properly."
This is, of course, after he's used the word spying many times in testimony. The President saw that, tweeting, "My campaign for President was conclusively spied on." Of course, it's important to conclusively note that the President's Director of the FBI Chris Wray says, "That's not true." He told the Senate committee early this month that spying is the wrong word. It conveys a sentiment of illegality and being under the table, which is not consistent with anything that Wray or others have said.
David, why is Barr kowtowing to Trump on this?
[19:20:18] DAVID GERGEN, FORMER ADVISER TO FOUR PRESIDENTS: I don't know. I don't know. What I do remember is and I think all of us remember is when he presented himself to the Congress, he basically made a pledge that he would be an independent attorney general. He would be the nation's top attorney.
And what he has done over the last few weeks, he's become the President's top attorney. He's acting as if he's in the President's pocket. He's become the number one defender of the President and to go on Fox News and give what can only be construed as a very partisan tangent and partisan leaning interview about all this.
All of us very deeply distressing that. I think that I was among those that said we should give him the benefit of the doubt. He's not going to come up and do it as attorney general, in his age he would want to preserve his legacy. I cannot understand why he would let this legacy crumble.
BURNETT: So let's listen to what Fox News anchor Chris Wallace had to say about Barr today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS WALLACE, ANCHOR, FOX NEWS: For two years, Donald Trump sat there and said, "I don't have an attorney general. I don't have somebody out there looking for and protecting my interests." He clearly has that now with Bill Barr. He clearly is protecting this president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Chris Wallace is a straight shooter, Jack. I think he has a reputation, of course, for that. But he is mincing no words and saying that of course on Fox News.
WEISS: Yes. No, he's mincing no words because this notion of investigating how the investigation began is absurd. We have a 400- page report that said there was a bank robbery and 200 pages say there were attempts to obstruct the investigation of the bank robbery. And so Bill Barr today is saying we're going to launch yet another in this case a third investigation of basically who were the anonymous tips to 911 and he's doing it because these are Trump's talking points.
I don't think there are many people in the line positions in the U.S. Department of Justice today who are proud of the way he acquitted himself today.
BURNETT: All right. All of you stay with me, because we have new revelations about how much Michael Flynn told Bob Mueller about the Trump campaign. So does that explain why Trump was saying this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I feel badly for General Flynn. He's lost his house. He's lost his life.
Michael Flynn, a general and a great person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And Montana Governor Democrat Steve Bullock running for president explaining in his own words why he is getting into such a crowded field now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOVERNOR STEVE BULLOCK (D-MT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm the 37th candidate in the race.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-three.
BULLOCK: Oh, only 23? Thank you. Sometimes it gets confusing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:27:25] BURNETT: New tonight, President Trump trying to rewrite history. Trying to say he had no idea Michael Flynn was under FBI investigation even as he made him the top National Security official in the United States. Trump today tweeting, "It now seems the General Flynn was under investigation long before it was common knowledge. It would have been impossible for me to know this, but if that was the case, and with me being one of two people who would become president, why was I not told so that I could make a change?"
Impossible for him to know? I mean Trump is saying if he knew Flynn was this shady, he would have made a change and not have him on his team, not made him the top National Security official in the country, which kind of defies reason because here's what Trump did know, Trump's White House Counsel told Trump that Flynn should be fired. At the end of January 2017, he told him he thought Flynn had misled the FBI and Trump could have known even before that because his White House Counsel was told of a formal investigation into Flynn earlier that month.
Trump, of course, did not fire Flynn till way after all of that happened sometime late February. Everyone is back with me. So Juliet, let me start with you, President Trump is obviously trying to rewrite history here. I'm just curious as to why. I mean the facts don't back him up, he knows that, why? Why still fight?
KAYYEM: Well, I mean, why does Donald Trump lie because he does it all of the time. I don't think he knows the truth anymore. But also because in this case it is a bit problematic. Remember President Obama also told Donald Trump not to hire Flynn.
BURNETT: Right.
KAYYEM: We don't know what the specifics were and Sally Yates, the most important thing, is Sally Yates tells the White House Counsel do not hire, this guy is under investigation or do not keep, this guy is under investigation. Sally Yates gets fired first for telling the truth. So they knew exactly what was happening, they were trying to protect Flynn and also because Flynn knew exactly what the campaign and what the transition had done with the Russians.
Remember - and number and no stage during this process does anyone in the White House say, "Oh, we have a problem about the Russians." They're trying to protect themselves.
BURNETT: Yes. I mean it does, Jack, just raised a lot of questions as to why he keeps trying to relitigate this. WEISS: Well, he keeps lying and that's Juliette's point and it
reminds me of that Rick Reilly book about golf. He cheats at golf and he gets mulligan after mulligan from the country it seems on these lies. Now, he was covering up his work with Flynn early on, before he was sworn in and in January he asked Comey to go easy on Flynn.
That's why he ultimately ends up firing Comey, it seems. So I agree with you, it's taken on sort of a religious thing for him. He has to keep lying about this.
[19:30:03] BURNETT: So Carrie, I guess the question is why and we're finding this out from some unredacted information now in court documents, there may be more to come but one thing we're learning. There may be more to come. But one thing we are learning about Flynn is that Flynn was revealing he was among select people privy to conversations with senior campaign officials about reaching out to WikiLeaks, right? Reaching out to WikiLeaks to get help.
The quote from the court report -- the court is: the defendant recalled conversation with senior campaign officials after the release of the Podesta emails during which the prospect of reaching out to WikiLeaks was discussed. This is October, the eve of the campaign. This is after they've been warned about Russian interference. This could be a big deal, couldn't it?
CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think this is actually probably the most significant thing though come out of this Flynn sentencing proceeding and these documents that are ne, which is that there was potentially more information and more conversations amongst the Trump campaign that goes beyond what we know from what has been released so far in the Mueller report.
And this is so significant, because this goes to why it's ridiculous for the attorney general to agree with the president that it's OK to characterize the entire investigation as a witch hunt because even though the special counsel's team determined that there weren't facts establishing a criminal conspiracy under the criminal statutes, there still was an entire amount of activity that is bad for national security that demonstrates that this campaign, the Trump campaign was willing to work with WikiLeaks, which let me tell you going back to 2010 anybody in the national security community would know was not an entity that engaged in activity helpful to U.S. national security.
COOPER: I mean, David, that does seem to be the significance here, right, is that Flynn is privy to these conversations. And again I just want to put an explanation point on it. At that point, Paul Manafort no longer worked for the campaign. So, those senior campaign officials reaching out WikiLeaks knowing what Carrie is saying then must included some combination of Jared Kushner or Donald Trump Jr. or Donald Trump himself, it would seem, right?
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. And I think that what the president was doing with his tweet was simple, and that was to put more distance between himself and Flynn, because he realized -- his people realize that the Flynn story is likely to grow in the next few days as we go through this and learn more about the documents. I think intriguingly it's not only with what we are learning is that he was in the meetings about WikiLeaks but also that his attorney got a call from a White House attorney as Flynn was trying to decide whether to cooperate with the special counsel or not.
But the call to his attorney said basically from the White House, remember that the president really likes you -- which was I think anybody who understands code language is, you know, the president does have pardon power. You might want to think about that before you decide to Cooperate.
And apparently there were multiple people calling him even someone from Capitol Hill. That's one part.
But the other part, Erin, a lot of it is redacted it raises a question if stuff like this is redacted what else is behind the redactions? I think it really puts pressure on to get the full report for Congress, if the public is really going to understand the full context. We would have never done anything like this. Had those passages not been in effect unredacted.
BURNETT: Right. And obviously these could be very significant threads as we get more information. Thank you all so very much.
And next, the Montana governor is running for president. Why he could be a threat to Trump. Steve Bullock in his own words is next.
And the cost of doing business with the Trumps.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's hard when you feel like you've been ripped off by a big name.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:37:38] BURNETT: Tonight, in a fight for 2020, Iowa or bust. Montana Governor Steve Bullock, who just announced this week, knows he is a little late to this party, but he is banking on Iowa voters to give him the chance.
Jeff Zeleny is OUTFRONT from Des Moines.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOV. STEVE BULLOCK (D-MT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Good morning. I'm Steve.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I know. You're from Montana.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He is the newest game in town.
BULLOCK: You got the front row.
ZELENY: And for Montana Governor Steve Bullock, it's Iowa or bust.
BULLOCK: We gather to make sure that Donald Trump is a one-term president.
ZELENY: The field of Democratic presidential hopefuls now large enough to suit up a football team of offense and defense with one player to spare. They've all been making the same plea for months. But Bullock has a unique sales pitch. He is the only 2020 candidate elected statewide from deep red Trump country. He doesn't have to tell Iowa voters he is late to the dance.
BULLOCK: I get -- I'm the 37th candidate in the race.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's only 23.
BULLOCK: Oh, only 23. Thank you. Sometimes it gets confusing.
ZELENY: He is hitting the highway in hopes of breaking through the confusion.
(on camera): How important is Iowa to your campaign?
BULLOCK: Well, I think Iowa is important to everyone's campaign. I mean, Iowa has always played sort of the traditional sorting out role but certainly significant to mine.
ZELENY (voice-over): He knows his candidacy will either break out or be broken by the Iowa caucuses. He is also scrapping to make the cut for the Democratic debate next month where he hopes to position himself in the ideological middle.
(on camera): Has the party shifted too far left or not?
BULLOCK: I think that the party is -- look there are some things brought up that I don't know that could ever get done.
ZELENY (voice-over): He is talking about the Green New Deal and Medicare for all. He believes the path to the White House is by winning over some 2016 Trump voters and by inspiring Democrats.
BULLOCK: Do we turn out or coalition or do we bring the voters back? I think it's a false choice. I think we do absolutely both.
ZELENY (on camera): But can you do both?
BULLOCK: We have historically.
ZELENY (voice-over): (AUDIO GAP) Iowan like Cheryl Sherr who for months has been sizing up the candidates.
CHERYL SHERR, IOWA VOTER: I've scene Delaney. I've seen Amy Klobuchar. I've seen Cory Booker.
[19:40:00] I've seen Michael Bennet. And -- hang on, I can tell you who else I have seen.
ZELENY (on camera): So many, you have to look on your list.
SHERR: I've seen Beto O'Rourke.
ZELENY (voice-over): But from Nancy's coffee house, to a tour of this Indian settlement, Bullock is hitting the trail in boots and his wranglers, insisting there's plenty of time to make his case.
(on camera): It's not too late?
BULLOCK: It's not at all. Voters in Iowa and everywhere, they don't want to make the fast decision. They want the right decision.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZELENY: But what is that right decision, Erin? That's the central question facing Democrats and facing Governor Bullock as I traveled with him most of the day. He is trying to win over Trump voters who voted Democrat before. But there are so many other Democrats like Bernie Sanders and others saying look it's try to expand the liberal Democratic coalition.
Erin, one thing is clear. Steve Bullock is running against Washington. He said he's governor who can get things done. Some of his rivals simply talk about things -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Jeff, thank you very much.
And next, trusting the Trumps with your dreams and your money.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: The Trump Ocean Resort Baja, Mexico, was never built. Construction never beyond this, a giant hole in the ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:45:07] BURNETT: Tonight, in your blood. That's how President Trump today described his work in real estate.
Tonight, my new documentary, "The Trump Family Business", takes an in- depth look how the president continues to make money from his family business, as he runs the United States of America.
Among the people that we speak to, some who have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars betting on Trump, betting on Trump to have the Midas touch only to be left with nothing. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT (voice-over): Sandra Sapo (ph) of suburban San Diego was immediately interested in the Trump Ocean Resort in Baja, Mexico. A big reason: it didn't have a southern California price tag.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't make that kind of money where we are driving in a Ferrari or Lamborghini. We are pretty, regular normal people. We met this lady who showed us brochure of what it's going to look like, and they're going to have a spa, it's going to have a pool, it's going to have a tennis court. It looked so beautiful.
BURNETT: Beautiful and Sapo (ph) thought a great investment because she thought she was buying from a man with the Midas touch.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whatever Donald Trump touches turns gold.
BURNETT: Sapo and her husband signed their purchase agreement in December of 2016.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 12/8/06. Here is the purchase price of our condo, $418,900.
BURNETT: What they could afford.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The letter conforms we are in receipt of a total deposit of $125,000.
BURNETT: They would lose every penny.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's hard when you feel like you've been ripped off by a big name. It's just -- you start to be like how could this have happened?
BURNETT: The Trump Ocean Resort Baja Mexico was never built. Construction never got beyond this, a giant hole in the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is my hole. That's what I bought, my hole.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, Mike Tanglis, a senior researcher for Public Citizen, this part of the documentary.
So, Mike, Sandra Sapo's (ph) story is hard to hear and there are so many others like this. The president licensed his name. He made money as others lost money in case after case. Yesterday, we got his financial disclosures for last year. We found he earned revenues of $434 million. Obviously, we don't know the debts and everything that went with that.
But you have done a lot of digging through this. You have tracked every one, 500 of the companies that comprised the Trump world. You found that even though the president says he separated from them, that is not true.
MIKE TANGLIS, SENIOR RESEARCHER, PUBLIC CITIZEN: Yes, thanks so much for having me on.
What we were able to figure out by looking at the president's financial disclosures are that even though he made claims of separating himself, those claims don't hold up to scrutiny. So, what we realized is after Trump won the election, he made a whole lot of cosmetic changes to the way his business was structured. So, what he did is he made an already complex business empire even more complex.
But at the end of the day, his entire business empire still all comes back to one single entity, the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust. I think there are three important things to know about the Donald J. Trump Trust that is it was made to benefit Trump. It's under his Social Security number. Trump can draw money from the trust at any time.
BURNETT: Any time.
TANGLIS: And also, he can take control of the trust at any time.
BURNETT: Wow. So, it's his Social Security number. He can take money whenever he wants. He can have control. We the American people don't know who puts money into that, what countries they are from. We don't know.
TANGLIS: Exactly.
BURNETT: But he controls the money.
TANGLIS: Exactly. Exactly. What we know is what's reported to "The Washington Post", "New York Times", CNN and others but it's not a full reporting by any means.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Mike, I appreciate your time very much.
And everyone, you can see more of Mike and what he found and much more on our special report, "The Trump Family Business". It premiers tonight at 9:00. I hope you'll watch.
And next one woman's quest to keep hope alive in her community against all odds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:53:51] BURNETT: This week, we've been bringing you stories of remarkable people who are making lasting impacts around the world, and we call our series "Champions for Change". Basically, it's our chance to go back and visit people we covered in the past we couldn't forget.
Kate Bolduan traveled to Chicago to revisit Diane Latiker. You'll see quickly why she is what we're calling a "Champion for Change". Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: When I first met Diane, the Supreme Court was about to hear a case, a landmark case, having to do with Chicago's handgun ban.
DIANE LATIKER, FOUNDER, KIDS OFF THE BLOCK: If you would stay here two days, you realize our young people are looking backwards at every car because of drive-bys.
BOLDUAN: When Diane opened up her own home to start the nonprofit Kids Off the Block, she was fighting to stem the tide of gang activity in her neighborhood.
(on camera): I came here to Chicago to talk to some of the people who are most affected by gun violence. I know how much my life has changed in the almost 10 years since we first met. I'm interested to see what's changed for Diane.
There she is.
How are you?
[19:55:01] I mean, you haven't aged a day.
LATIKER: So good to see you.
BOLDUAN: So good to see you.
LATIKER: I'm surprised you're able to remember me.
BOLDUAN: Are you kidding? As I was saying, you leave a mark.
LATIKER: Want to go in?
BOLDUAN: I would love to.
Diane, Diane, Diane, Diane. Tell me again, why did you first open your doors?
LATIKER: I realized that they were failing in school and needed help. The gangs were trying to recruit the boys and stuff. And I'm like, me, what am I going to do? You know.
BOLDUAN: What do you do?
LATIKER: What do I do? But I sold the TV and bought some computers and started helping with homework. It's about a program like tutoring and mentoring, conventional stuff, but it's not about a program. I want to know each kid.
BOLDUAN: Have there been moments when you thought, that's it. I can't.
LATIKER: Every day, every day, I will wake up, I quit. I'm not doing this, then somebody would call me, a kid or a young person walked in the door. And said this door wasn't open, I would be dead or in jail.
BOLDUAN (voice-over): Since 2003, thousands of kids have walked through this front door. Including Tre Orr --
LATIKER: Hey, Tre.
BOLDUAN: -- who has been getting this same hug for almost that long.
(on camera): What has she meant to you?
TREVIANCE ORR, GRAPHIC DESIGNER: A mother figure, definitely. Heart of gold, man. BOLDUAN: What are you doing these days?
ORR: I graphic design.
BOLDUAN: Went to college?
ORR: Yes.
BOLDUAN: Got a job?
ORR: Yes.
BOLDUAN (voice-over): You can see the pride on Diane's face, but that disappears quickly when we drive through the neighborhood.
LATIKER: This is where four shootings happened in four days last week. And I knew the young people. Who did it and the young people who were shot.
BOLDUAN (on camera): Oh, my god.
LATIKER: Friday, one of the -- there's Tyrese. His brother was just killed. He was in my program.
BOLDUAN: I can see how another kid that age could so easily think, I have no future.
LATIKER: That's what they think. No hope. Can you blame them?
BOLDUAN (voice-over): Returning to the memorial Diane started, it does feel impossible to blame them. Each brick represents a young life lost to gun violence.
(on camera): How many are in there now?
LATIKER: Two-hundred and one.
BOLDUAN: So there are 201 when I came.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: How many are in there now, 800?
LATIKER: Seven something.
BOLDUAN: I never imagined it would be this big. I know that's naive to think.
LATIKER: I didn't either.
BOLDUAN: That makes me sad. Sorry.
(voice-over): Diane isn't alone in her fight to save this community.
DOMINIQUE DAILY, VOLUNTEER, KIDS OF THE BLOCK: I'm from Roseland. I happened to get my bachelor's degree, where went on to get my master's degree, and I'm working right inside the community that I'm coming from.
BOLDUAN (on camera): What is Diane's influence been on your life?
DAILY: She has impacted my life tremendously. She has been a person to go to, a mentor. The most supportive person you could ever be around and be with.
BOLDUAN: You're in a doctoral program right now.
TASIA BRYSON, VOLUNTEER, KIDS OFF THE BLOCK: Yes.
BOLDUAN: How long have you been volunteering with Diane with Kids Off the Block?
BRYSON: It will be nine years in September.
DAILY: Eleven years. I started in 2008.
BOLDUAN: What are you teaching them?
BRYSON: Making up songs about long division, doing crazy dances. Anything to get them involved, relating science to everything.
BOLDUAN (voice-over): And soon, they'll have a lot more room to help a lot more kids.
LATIKER: First, it was a liquor store and then it was a restaurant. This is going to be the computer lab.
BOLDUAN: Diane is now turning this empty building next door to her home into a technology and entrepreneurial center.
LATIKER: I'm hoping it's open by when school starts in September.
BOLDUAN (on camera): This is the future.
LATIKER: The future.
BOLDUAN: What does the future look like?
LATIKER: The future looks like young people thriving, getting new skills and coming back with success stories. Oh, my god, I could see the possibilities in here.
BOLDUAN: Got it all figured out. Now we have to swing some hammers.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: I mean, Kate, it is incredible what she's accomplished. You look at what she's doing for those kids now.
BOLDUAN: Yes.
BURNETT: But what you found is that her influence now is extending way beyond that community.
BOLDUAN: One of the best things to see in the ten years since I saw her, met her the first time is that she is getting recognition for all of her hard work and all that she's done. She was a CNN hero in 2011, L'Oreal awarded her a Woman of Worth Award. She testified before Congress.
She has a wall of awards in her home. But, of course, when I say that to her, she goes, the only thing that matters are the faces that you saw in the story and the kids' lives that she touches, but I'm super excited after seeing her even though the job she has before her are so great with the problems in the neighborhood to see what's next for her.
BURNETT: It is really incredible.
BOLDUAN: Yes.
BOLDUAN: Well, thank you so much for sharing that with us, Kate.
And don't miss our hour long "Champions for Change" special. It airs Saturday night at 8:00 Eastern.
Thank you so much for joining us.
"AC360" begins right now.
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