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CNN NEWSROOM
Trump Makes Election Fraud Allegations in Pennsylvania; At Least Three Dead in Louisiana Flooding; Trump to Give Speech on ISIS on Monday; Will Trump Release Taxes?; New Clinton Ad Criticizes Trump For Not Releasing Taxes; "Making A Murderer": Dassey Conviction Overturned; Marco Rubio Primary Challenger Embraces Trump. Aired 11a- 12p ET
Aired August 13, 2016 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:00:45] FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Hello everyone, it's 11:00 on the east coast, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thank you so much for joining me today.
So with just 87 days until the election, and in the middle of a fierce showdown for swing states, Donald Trump is making bombshell election fraud allegations. Telling an audience in Pennsylvania that the only way he could lose that state come November is if Hillary Clinton cheats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We have to call up law enforcement and we have to have the sheriffs and the police chiefs and everybody watching. Because, if we get cheated out of this election, if we get cheated out of a win in Pennsylvania, which is such a vital state, especially when I know what's happening here, folks, I know she can't beat what's happening here. The only way they can beat it, in my opinion, and I mean this 100 percent, is if in certain sections of the state they cheat. OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right, joining me to talk more about this is CNN Investigations Correspondent Chris Frates.
So, Chris, what kind of evidence did Donald Trump present to that audience to substantiate that claim?
CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Fred, well, he didn't provide any evidence of any kind of cheating in Pennsylvania. But, look, that's not really unusual when he makes these kinds of allegations. But he has expressed concerns that Pennsylvania, and some other states without strong voter I.D. laws, could be targets for election fraud in November. In fact, on the website, his campaign website, he even has a section for people to sign up to be election observers. So, this is something Trump has talked about in the past. But this latest accusation in Pennsylvania comes as Trump is badly lagging Clinton in the polls there. And that state, Pennsylvania, that's going to be critical if Trump is going to go and on to win the White House.
So, let's take a look at all these polls. A recent Quinnipiac poll of likely Pennsylvania voters shows Clinton beating Trump by 10 points. And if you look around the country at some key swing states, the picture doesn't get much better for Donald Trump.
A recent NBC "Wall Street Journal" Poll shows Clinton leading Trump in four key battleground states in Florida. She's up five points. North Carolina, up nine, Virginia, Clinton's up 13 points, and in Colorado, she's riding a little bit of a rocky mountain high there, as you can see, leading by 14 points, Fred.
WHITFIELD: Wow. OK, so Trump is right now campaigning in historically blue state today of Connecticut. What is the logic or the strategy behind this as to why Donald Trump feels like he needs to gain some ground there, or that he could effectively do so?
FRATES: Yeah, I mean, it's a great question, because as you point out it's historically a blue state, but they're insisting that Connecticut's in play. But, like Pennsylvania, which we're just talking about, you know, and he was in yesterday, Connecticut hasn't voted to put a Republican in the White House since 1988.
But unlike the Keystone State where Trump's, you know, really hoping to win by appealing to white working class voters, the Rust Belt voters, Connecticut is really a solidly blue state. And with Trump lagging Clinton in those key battleground states we just talked about, you know, this decision to campaign in Connecticut today really raised a lot of eye brows, Fred. But, you know, I think Trump's campaign really thinks they have a shot there.
WHITFIELD: All right. Chris Frates, thanks so much, from Washington. Appreciate it.
FRATES: You're welcome.
WHITFIELD: And we're going to talk more about this now with Boris Epshteyn, he's a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, Robert Zimmerman is a Democratic strategist and a Hillary Clinton supporter, and Ron Brownstein is a senior CNN political analyst and senior editor at the Atlantic.
All right, good to see all of you.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
WHITFIELD: All right. So, Boris, you first. Pennsylvania has voted Democrats for the past six presidential elections, why does Donald Trump feel it couldn't possibly happen again unless there is cheating involved? BORIS EPSHTEYN, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: If you look at the state of Pennsylvania, if you look at those disaffected voters, voters have been left behind by the economy of the Clintons put in place by NAFTA, by what the TPP would bring and those Rust Belt voters. They are very, very present in Pennsylvania.
So, yes, there's a couple of polls out there that's showing Donald behind, but Pennsylvania's absolutely in play. He did extremely well there in the primaries. So, Donald Trump is convinced that -- as are we, that -- as the whole campaign is, that he will win Pennsylvania.
As far as voter fraud goes, his statement says that we do not want for any voter fraud. That should be bipartisan point. Nobody should want voter fraud, we should have voter I.D. laws in every state.
WHITFIELD: Except that when you look at the polling that Chris Frates just referenced showing, you know, Clinton up double digits in battleground states like Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia
[11:05:00] EPSHTEYN: Sure. And well, listen, Dukakis was up by 17 coming up with the Democratic National Convention in 1988. He got crashed, walloped by George H.W. Bush. So, polling 86, 87 days out only means so much, we are concentrating on winning in these states. We will win these states and we'll win the election.
WHITFIELD: And so, Robert -- go ahead.
ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: If I could just point out, contrary to what Boris said, what Donald Trump said is the only way he would lose Pennsylvania is if in fact the election were rigged. And this is the tactic that he's played over again and again during the primaries. He claimed the primary process was rigged until he started winning. And then he said I'm no longer going to call it rigged since I'm winning.
For the presidential debates, he said, once again, that was a rigged system and he claimed to get a letter from the NFL. That was a lie. The letter never materialized.
And, the travesty here is that what he is doing as a Republican nominee for president is undermining our system of democracy, which is not just the pride of our country but what distinguishes our nation throughout the world. And it's important to know that, you know, before President Obama was elected, you didn't hear Republicans talk about voter fraud or the need for voter I.D., it was never one of their priorities.
EPSHTEYN: And it's not true at all. That's not true, Robert.
WHITFIELD: And so, Boris, what about that notion of undermining the system? I mean, think about the message being sent to the world. Here it is, the U.S., we're being engaged in helping to show other countries what a Democratic voting system looks like, and then we've got a presidential nominee who is now saying don't even trust this system. EPSHTEYN: In 2008, I was on McCain-Palin campaign and played a large role in combating voter fraud which was widespread all over the country and specifically, in Pennsylvania. So, we've been talking about this for a long time ...
ZIMMERMAN: That is ridiculous.
EPSHTEYN: ... making sure that we finish our ...
WHITFIELD: OK, so Ron ...
BROWNSTEIN: Excuse me, Robert, they're ...
(CROSSTALK)
BROWNSTEIN: The State of Pennsylvania, an illegal filing in 2012 ...
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: Boris, hold on.
BROWNSTEIN: ... acknowledged there were zero cases of in-person voter fraud in the State of Pennsylvania. There is simply -- the assertion that Donald Trump could only lose Pennsylvania with voter fraud has three big problems, it's wrong, it misdiagnoses his real problem in the state, and it compounds his real problem in the state. It's wrong because the State of Pennsylvania, to begin with, has acknowledged there -- it was zero cases of in-person voter fraud and illegal filing that the Republican administration of the state filed in 2012.
Second, his real problem in the state isn't even, you know, that the insinuation that there is voter fraud certainly in Democratic leading areas is what he's saying particularly, Philadelphia, his problem is, that he is collapsing in the white color, white suburbs outside the Philadelphia.
Mitt Romney won college educated whites in Pennsylvania by double digits, and the Marist NBC poll you cited, he is now losing college educated whites by 21 points. I would say this kind of accusation actually compounds the problem. Because if you look at what his biggest problem is, with those white color whites, which is why he is behind in the state today, there are two problems. They think he is reckless, he doesn't have the temperament to be president, and they tend to view him as racially divisive. And this kind of accusation is in fact ...
(CROSSTALK)
BROWNSTEIN: ... going with those concerns. And that's why he's 10 points down in the last four polls that have come up. There is simply no evidence of the voter fraud in Pennsylvania that you are alleging.
EPSHTEYN: Ron, you're incorrect, Ron.
WHITFIELD: OK.
EPSHTEYN: In 2008, New Black Panthers ...
WHITFIELD: You know what, Boris ...
EPSHTEYN: ... intimidating voters at the polls. He interrupted me, I get to finish.
WHITFIELD: OK, well, wait a minute. If it's not cheating, then the other problem is the media, and this is what Donald Trump had to say on that.
EPSHTEYN: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: These people are the lowest form of life, I'm telling you. The lowest. They are the lowest form of humanity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right, so, Boris, everyone is to blame.
EPSHTEYN: So, this question is to me, right?
WHITFIELD: It is.
EPSHTEYN: OK, great. So, what he is saying actually is what's going on here in this discussion. That was -- the comment about the only way he loses is cheating was about 15 seconds that have been over an hour of speech. We could be talking about the points he discussed on jobs, on the economy, national security, but this is what we're discussing. Let's talk about what actually matters to the folks in Pennsylvania.
WHITFIELD: Well, because it's Donald Trump is underscoring these things. He's placing blame on everyone and everything and spending a lot less time, actually, on issues.
EPSHTEYN: That's incorrect. Again, if you look at the speech, the speech was absolutely focused ...
ZIMMERMAN: Excuse me.
EPSHTEYN: ... on issues, it was focused on the jobs ...
ZIMMERMAN: If I may correct.
EPSHTEYN: ... that are leaving Pennsylvania in droves because of the Clinton economy, because of the fact that the Clintons have left these Rust Belt voters absolutely behind ...
ZIMMERMAN: Excuse me.
EPSHTEYN: ... and have robbed this country a millions of jobs.
WHITFIELD: OK, Boris. Robert. ZIMMERMAN: Please, can I just make a point. The reason we talked about these outrageous comments by Donald Trump is because that's the centerpiece of his campaign, whether it's referring to the fact that people who support the Second Amendment could assassinate a president or his comments about the election being a fraud, or his personal attacks that he engages in. I mean, he's the Andrew Dice Clay of presidential politics.
EPSHTEYN: All right. That's a great talking point.
ZIMMERMAN: And that the reality here is that as we look at this campaign unfold, he is responsible for his own message. He is responsible for the inconsistencies of his statements and the lack of facts behind his statements.
[11:10:00] EPSHTEYN: Why don't we look at Hillary Clinton's week? Why don't we look at the e-mails that have come on?
BROWNSTEIN: Fred, can I just ...
WHITFIELD: Go on.
BROWNSTEIN: ... can I have one point? Because I partially agree with Boris, but I think it kind of, again, misdiagnoses the problem. Even at his low point in the polling, with Donald Trump trailing significantly nationally and in battleground states, he is running basically even with Hillary Clinton on the two biggest issues, the economy and terrorism.
He said himself (ph), if he's running even on the two biggest issues, why is he trailing so badly in all these polls? And it really is because of these personal judgments about him. It is whether he is qualified to be president, 60 percent saying no in the last ABC "Washington Post" poll, and whether he is racially biased and discriminatory against women, with nearly 60 percent saying they view him that way.
The problem he's got is that an issue debate is not going to solve this core personal objective. Most voters, you know, many of the voters were saying they're going vote for Hillary Clinton, don't think that much of her either but they simply cannot imagine Donald Trump as president for these two reasons. They question his qualification and they believe it will divide the country.
EPSHTEYN: Ron just exemplified the very media bias we talked bout. You're saying we're down on the polls. "L.A. Times" tracking has Clinton on by one, that's a tie.
BROWNSTEIN: Oh, yeah, that's right. Well ...
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: But you look at "Wall Street," you look at the Quinnipiac, you look at the NBC Marist poll, all of them consistently having him dropping quite a few.
EPSHTEYN: We're not getting walloped (ph) in the nation polls.
BROWNSTEIN: We can unskew the polls all the way in November and it can be as valuable for you as -- you know what, that is a -- again, that is a ridiculous statement. If you look at the -- that all of the ...
EPSHTEYN: The "L.A. Times" is lying?
BROWNSTEIN: ... polling averages show Donald Trump behind by roughly six points now on average.
EPSHTEYN: What about the "L.A. Times" tracking poll? What about "Bloomberg?"
BROWNSTEIN: And if you look at the battleground state polling that he's behind, he -- yeah, it was six points, exactly, eight points in "Washington post."
EPSHTEYN: "L.A. Times" is six points.
BROWNSTEIN: Nine points in NBC "Wall Street Journal."
WHITFIELD: OK, wait, the good -- there's some good news in all of this, gentlemen. We've got a long show here, roughly about four hours, and we're going to have you back so we can continue this conversation in a moment.
Boris, Robert, Ron, thank you so much. We'll see you again soon. We're going to take a short break.
Still ahead, a truck has been swept away. Incredible images here. Towns simply cut off and residents are stranded, heavy rain and flooding taking a huge toll on Louisiana. CNN's Boris Sanchez is there live for us, Boris?
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred. Yeah, the rain has been on and off all morning long. This water is starting to recede, at least, in this neighborhood but there's still plenty of danger. We'll explain why next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:15:33] WHITFIELD: All right, breaking news out of Louisiana where at least three people have died from dangerous flooding. The governor is expected to hold a news conference later on this hour to discuss the state of emergency there.
More rain is on the way. Some parts of the state have seen as much as 17 inches of rain. And you can see how bad it is from this video, just one example of a tanker truck in the distance there being swept off the road. Towns are simply cut off and thousands of people are without power.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Literally my heart is broken because there's so many elderly people in here and people who really can't afford to replace their things. And it's like -- the water is like literally up to your waist. So, that means their houses, everything in there, is destroyed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: CNN's Boris Sanchez is live for us in Amite City, Louisiana. So, Boris, what have people in that neighborhood said?
SANCHEZ: Well, many of them didn't expect this to happen so quickly, this flash flood that came through this neighborhood. I spoke to one man who said that he was at home until midnight last night, and that this area wasn't really cloudy yesterday, that there was sunshine out. And as the hours pass, he realized he had to get out.
He actually lives further down the street here. I want to show you just how high the water was here. You see the fence, the debris line right up there, it's good at least two and a half to three feet up. And this home got a couple of inches inside.
So far, the water has receded quite a bit in this neighborhood, specifically. There are a couple of lakes nearby that overflowed. But the problem here is that all this water is heading south now and there are cities and towns south of here that are bracing for the brunt of all this water headed that way.
You mentioned the numbers, at least three people killed by the flood waters. More than 12,000 without power and many people forced out of their homes.
I spoke to one man yesterday who was camped out at a gas station because he didn't have anywhere to go. There was actually an evacuation center set up at a church not far from him but the people there had to leave because the church became inundated.
So, the big question here is what happens next? The rain is on and off as I said before. It's been, you know, almost a week of nonstop rain for this region stretching from the Gulf Coast, the Panhandle of Florida to Alabama, Mississippi, and here, the brunt of it, in Louisiana.
We've heard from experts that we may see yet another day and a half of rain. Hopefully, at some point, there's some relief, but the residents here are growing uneasy because it just hasn't stopped pouring, Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Boris Sanchez, thank you so much.
All right, still ahead, a tall order, short on detail, how Donald Trump says he will destroy ISIS.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:21:56] WHITFIELD: The Democrats are once again the target of hackers, calling themselves Guccifer 2.0. The hackers have released personal cell phone and e-mail addresses of Democratic House members. They also targeted Democratic aides and released some log in information for the congressional campaign committee.
An earlier hack of the Democratic National Committee ahead of the party's national convention forced the resignation of Chairwoman Debbie Wassermann Schultz and three other top committee officials.
All right, Donald Trump is expected to lay out his vision for fighting radical Islamic terrorism on Monday in a speech in Youngstown, Ohio. The speech comes after a week that saw some very big former Republican national security figures leveling sharp criticism of Trump's foreign policy knowledge and his temperamental fitness to be president. It also comes after months of Trump being all over the place with his comments about ISIS.
Here is CNN's Randi Kaye.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump likes to talk about ISIS.
DONALD TRUMP: The barbarians of ISIS.
We have to get ISIS.
We will defeat ISIS.
And we have to knock out ISIS.
KAYE: His most recent comments about the terrorist group included this suggestion liking both President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to the birth of ISIS.
TRUMP: ISIS is honoring President Obama. He is the founder of ISIS. He's the founder of ISIS, OK. He's the founder. He founded ISIS. And I would say the cofounder would be crooked Hillary Clinton.
KAYE: Whether or not he believes Obama and Clinton are the cofounders of ISIS, Trump seems confident he's the expert on the terror group.
TRUMP: I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me.
KAYE: If that's true, then why would he have said this?
TRUMP: We don't even really know who their leader is.
KAYE: Trump has suggested several different ways he's handled the terror group, first, warning ISIS their days are numbered.
TRUMP: I would bomb the (inaudible) out of them. I would just bomb those suckers.
KAYE: Then, another idea, he told CBS's 60 Minutes he'd let Russia do a way with ISIS.
TRUMP: Russia wants to get rid of ISIS. We want to get rid of ISIS. Maybe let Russia do it, let them get rid of ISIS. What the hell do we care? KAYE: And what about the oil field ISIS has taken control of?
TRUMP: I would bomb the hell out of those oil fields. I wouldn't send many troops because you won't need them by the time I got finish.
KAYE: Eight months later though, a different plan from Trump. This time, he said he'd send tens of thousands of troops to the Middle East.
TRUMP: We have to knock the hell out of them. I would listen to the generals but I would -- I'm hearing numbers of 20,000 to 30,000. We have to knock them out fast.
KAYE: He also took heat for this idea saying he'd target those related to ISIS members, something that is against the Geneva Conventions.
[11:25:03] TRUMP: The other thing is with the terrorist, you have to take out their families. When you get these terrorist, you have to take out their families.
KAYE: One thing Trump has made clear is that if he's in the White House, ISIS will be destroyed.
TRUMP: They're going to be gone. ISIS will be gone if I'm elected president. And they'll be gone quickly. They will be gone very, very quickly.
KAYE: He just won't say how he'll do it. This is what he said a month before he officially announced his run for the White House.
TRUMP: I do know what to do and I would know how to bring ISIS to the table or beyond that, defeat ISIS very quickly and I'm not going to tell you what it is tonight. All I can tell you is that it is a foolproof way of winning.
KAYE: Winning, something Donald Trump prides himself on, all he seems to need is a solid plan.
Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And still ahead, Donald Trump under more pressure to release his tax returns after the Clintons released theirs, while he says the Clintons are just trying to distract Americans, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Welcome back, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thanks so much for being with me today.
So, Hillary Clinton has thrown down the gauntlet to Donald Trump on the issue of taxes by releasing her most recent federal tax return. It reveals she and her husband made about $10.5 million in 2015 with a tax rate of just under 31 percent. So, where does that leave Donald Trump? His campaign released statements on her taxes saying in part, "Hillary Clinton has turned over the only records nobody wants to see from her." But he has yet to release his tax returns. And as CNN's Brian Todd explains, it may not happen anytime soon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP: Unbelievable.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump promised he'd release his tax returns to the public, but that was a year and a half ago. Then, at the start of 2016, Trump said he was working on it, saying the information was approved and "very beautiful."
[11:30:03] He went from that to downplaying their impact.
TRUMP: You can't tell anything from tax returns. Maybe there's something in his tax returns. There's nothing.
TODD: Then what's become a familiar deflection. Trump says a long running IRS audit of his taxes prevents him from revealing his returns.
TRUMP: I can't do it until the audit is finished. It would be crazy to give papers before the audit is completed.
TODD: He got defensive about it when speaking to ABC.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is your tax rate?
TRUMP (via telephone): It's none of your business. You'll see it when I release it.
TODD: He's floated theories denied by the IRS on why he's being audited.
TRUMP: Maybe because of religion, maybe because of something else, maybe because I'm doing this, although, this is just --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you mean religion?
TRUMP: Well, maybe because of the fact that I'm a strong Christian and I feel strongly about it and maybe there is a bias.
DAVID NAKAMURA, REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": I think he's demagoguing that issue. I mean, I think he's trying to distract from what's really going on. When he's defensive sometimes he reacts, you know, rashly.
TODD: Through all the deflections and excuses, still no release of tax returns from Donald Trump. Is he legally prevented from releasing them during an audit?
ROBERT KOVACEV, FORMER JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TAX DIVISION ATTORNEY: There is no legal reason why Mr. Trump couldn't release his returns now. It's perfectly allowable for him to do so.
TODD: Is Trump really being audited by the IRS?
TRUMP: You know, I get audited every single year.
TODD: Trump has offered a letter from his tax lawyers sent to him in March saying, quote, "Examinations for returns for the 2009 year and forward are ongoing." But is there a letter from the IRS to Trump specifically saying he's being audited?
The IRS says it's not allowed to tell us. Trump's campaign and his lawyers aren't telling us either. The political pressure on the GOP nominee is building.
NAKAMURA: I think you're going to keep seeing the Democrats continue to hit this because they do sense there's a vulnerability here.
TODD: Trump's tax returns may confirm whether he's a rich as he says he is and gives as much as to charity as he says he does, and might reveal who he does business with, where his interests lie. Still one prominent tax attorney says he'd advise Trump not to release his taxes while he's being audited.
KOVACEV: Thousands, millions of people would be looking at it and probably see transactions that are complicated and legitimate but that look strange to someone who is not trained in the tax field. That could raise a public outcry.
TODD: Trump could get around that. He could provide other basic figures without releasing returns. Figures on his adjusted income, his charitable contributions. He could come out and say what his tax rate is.
We asked Trump's campaign and his tax attorneys if they could provide us that information. They declined. Saying, again, that the nominee is undergoing a, quote, "routine audit" and he'll release his returns when that done. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, as promised, let's bring back our political panel to talk over all of this. Boris Epshteyn is a senior advisor to the Trump campaign. Robert Zimmerman is a Democratic strategist and a Hillary Clinton supporter, and Ron Brownstein is a senior CNN political analyst and senior editor at "The Atlantic."
All right, good to see you all back. So the Clinton campaign released an ad this week calling out Donald Trump for not releasing his taxes and here's a bit of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP (via telephone): So you know if you're running at a minimum, probably you're going to have to show your returns. If you didn't see the tax returns you'd think there's like something wrong. What's wrong? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald can answer all of these questions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: So Boris, let me begin with you first, what happened?
BORIS EPSHTEYN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: We're 33 minutes in. We haven't once talked about the Clinton Foundation. Haven't talked about the e-mails that have come out this past week, haven't talked about the great report by Drew Griffin --
WHITFIELD: But as it pertains --
EPSHTEYN: -- (inaudible) on the Cheryl Mills trip to New York --
WHITFIELD: We're talking about returns. He's on record as saying that you're disingenuous if you don't release them. It's the right thing to do and now it's his turn and he's saying no. How does he defend himself on that? How do you as a supporter of Donald Trump defend his words from yesteryear to the present?
EPSHTEYN: First of all this whole narrative is a distraction. Second of all, the reporter in the previous piece said that they requested specific information. That information is in 104 pages of financial disclosure that are not tax returns. They are required of all candidates --
WHITFIELD: When every contender for the presidency going back to Richard Nixon has released their returns or shared -- made public their returns, why is it different for Donald Trump?
EPSHTEYN: There is no requirement to do so. Now Hillary Clinton --
WHITFIELD: It's not a requirement, but it's been voluntary because most presidential contenders say they want to be transparent. They want to at least not appear to be hiding anything.
EPSHTEYN: I'd love to talk about transparency, where are the 33,000 e-mails that Hillary Clinton is hiding? Where is the information about --
WHITFIELD: But why are you changing the topic? We're talking about tax returns. How do you defend that?
EPSHTEYN: Because the things I'm talking actually matter to the American people. Things I'm talking about actually are evidence of lying and corruption by the Clintons. Not a private individual deciding whether to release their tax returns as the attorney in that piece said he would not advise his clients.
[11:35:00]I was at Erin Burnett show yesterday with that attorney and he specifically said if Donald Trump were his client, he would advise him not to release his tax return. Donald Trump specifically said -- let me finish that he will release those tax returns once the audit is done at the advice of his attorneys.
WHITFIELD: OK, Robert?
ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: First of all, I can vouch first hand, as to how often and aggressively CNN has investigated Hillary Clinton's e-mails and the questions around the foundation --
EPSHTEYN: Thanks for your vouch.
ZIMMERMAN: That's a topic that's not -- that's a topic that has been very aggressively looked at. But the bigger point here -- ultimately Boris it's not our decision is what's discussed in the media, the media makes those decisions.
When I heard that tax attorney speak about what Donald Trump shouldn't release his tax returns. He probably got his tax law degree from Trump University --
EPSHTEYN: It's a great firm. It's a first rate firm.
ZIMMERMAN: I'm surprised you're not defending Trump University. But the point here, Boris, simply is this, Donald Trump could certainly release his taxes that are not under audit. He could release this year's taxes that he filed, which are not under audit. He could release his tax rate. He could provide a whole wealth of information. The fact that he's not doing that --
EPSHTEYN: Did you look at the financial disclosure form rather --
ZIMMERMAN: Richard Nixon released his taxes when he was under audit. The fact that Donald Trump is not doing that just underscores the point that he is just not fit to be president and it underlines the fact he does not have the confidence of the American people.
It's not just this one situation. His tax story plays into a larger narrative of the lies, the misinformation and the personal insults that he engages in as to why he's not qualified to be president.
WHITFIELD: So Ron, for a very long time the narrative has been from the Trump campaign that the Clintons are kind of, you know, dancing to their own beat, they make up the rules as they go along. Now the same can be said of Donald Trump and how you know, what's good for others is not necessarily good for him.
It's not necessarily convenient. I mean, that's the dialogue now. Is that why his polling numbers are slipping and is that why, you know, he's losing ground particularly in those battleground states?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, this debate, actually, I think captures very well the dynamic in this race. There are lots of headwinds facing Hillary Clinton. It's had to win a third consecutive term. We've only had it one time since World War II where the party empowers all the White House for 12 years.
A majority of Americans have an unfavorable view of her and don't consider her honest and trustworthy and yet she is still ahead, and the reason she is still ahead is that the two north star, the north star in this race is in polling since last summer until now, roughly 60 percent of Americans have consistently said they do not believe Donald Trump is qualified to be president and nearly that many have consistently said they consider him biased against women and minorities.
When Donald Trump goes out and makes the kind of reckless and racially tinged accusations like saying the only way he could lose Philadelphia -- lose Pennsylvania is with voting --
EPSHTEYN: That wasn't racially tensions at all.
BROWNSTEIN: He exacerbates both of those principal vulnerabilities that are in fact (inaudible). If you look at those battle ground state polls in Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina, and Florida, that came out, Mitt Romney won college educated white voters by double digits in all of those states.
Donald Trump is trailing now among college white voters in Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina running even in Florida. The style of his campaign, the racially polarizing style and message has not only put him in a position to face historic losses among minorities, but it's also causing him to significantly underperform other Republicans among white collar whites. That is the box that he is in and --
(CROSSTALK)
BROWNSTEIN: You could say the polls are wrong. Hold on. You can say the polls are wrong, bluster all you want. The reality is the perceptions that Trump is facing among minorities and white collar whites, many of those white collar whites hold ambivalent opinions about Hillary Clinton.
EPSHTEYN: Donald Trump is polling at over 20 percent with Hispanics, with about 50 percent of them still undecided. Mitt Romney only received 27 percent --
ZIMMERMAN: Boris, I hope --
EPSHTEYN: Hold on I'm going talk now --
WHITFIELD: How do you explain the deflection of Republicans, whether national security advisory members formerly of President Bush's administration, H.W. Bush, who were saying they don't want anything to do with Donald Trump, publicly throwing their support behind Hillary Clinton. Is that not a microcosm of what we're seeing across the board in some of the segments of the American voters that Ron was pointing out?
EPSHTEYN: Absolutely not, 14 million Americans voted for Donald Trump in the GOP primaries. More than --
WHITFIELD: But that was in the primaries, this is a whole new thing now.
EPSHTEYN: Now you're referencing 50 or 70 people who signed a letter, listen that's their right. They want to write letters, fine.
ZIMMERMAN: It's much bigger than that.
EPSHTEYN: We are trying to get elected who is not crooked like Hillary. Hillary Clinton should be in jail not running for president.
ZIMMERMAN: (Inaudible).
EPSHTEYN: She broke laws, rules and regulations throughout her whole career. Everyone knows it. We all are just pretending it's not true because the media chooses to concentrate on issues like this one. We should be talking about the Clinton Foundation, the pay for play scandals --
[11:40:04]WHITFIELD: OK, we've been reporting on that too. So Robert, why don't give the last word on this?
ZIMMERMAN: Thank you very much. The point simply here is this, when you have Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate saying they could lose the majority because of the way this presidential campaign is progressing, that's a tell-tale sign there's something up.
And to Ron's point which I think is very critical, if you look at the whole strategy behind voter ID laws where are they targeted? They are targeting poor communities. They are targeting communities with high --
EPSHTEYN: Incorrect.
ZIMMERMAN: -- African-American and Hispanic registration. And in fact, if you look at this issue because it's so critical to our country, Loyola University did a study back in 2014. Over 14 years, they found only 31 examples of voter fraud and "Politifact," which won the Pulitzer Prize for fact checking pointed out, we're more likely to be hit by lightning --
EPSHTEYN: Having fair elections is not a racial issue. There is no race that's against fair elections. That's all we want, fair and --
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: All right, Gentlemen, thank you --
BROWNSTEIN: Can I make a final point?
WHITFIELD: Well, unfortunately, I have got to go. We have to go to Louisiana where there has been devastating deadly flooding taking place, and the governor is about to speak, Governor John Bel Edwards. Certain areas have been so inundated as a result of days of rain. Let's listen in.
GOVERNOR JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D), LOUISIANA: -- so we can talk about truly historic situation as it relates to the weather. This is the third weather-related emergency or disaster that we've had this year.
And while this flooding event is a smaller geographic area than in March, it is a considerable part of the state. It extends basically from I-55 westward and will eventually get we think all the way to the state line with Texas in South Louisiana.
Even though the area is smaller, we believe that the rainfall and the flooding could actually be worse and in fact already is worse in many areas. This is an ongoing event. That's one of the critical things we impart to the viewers out there all over Louisiana.
This is certainly not over. The rain continues to fall. It continues to fall in the areas that have been most impacted already. This is a very slow moving low pressure system. When it moves we expect it to move westward.
So right now, while the areas that are most impacted are from Baton Rouge over towards the east and Livingston, we know that there is already been flooding west and south of that ridge as well. That may actually get worse with the rainfalls that we're expecting over the coming 24-36 hours.
What we know is we have record levels of flooding along rivers and creeks and because these are record floods, we don't know how wide the water is going to get in those areas. We don't -- this is unprecedented.
We don't have records that we can go back and see who all is going to be impacted and whether it's the Amite River, Tickfall River, and all of the tributaries. If you are living in those areas and you've been advised to evacuate, you need to do that.
You need to heed these warnings. Please don't rely upon your experiences in the past that water hasn't entered your homes or flooding hasn't been as bad as you were told it might be.
Because that's what's taxing all of the resources in terms of our first responders and the people who are going out and doing these search and rescue missions now. People that should have evacuated in many cases didn't.
They wait until it's an emergency. They're having to be evacuated by high water vehicles, by boats and in some cases by aircraft. The other set of folks who are causing search and rescue to happen are those who are getting on the road unnecessarily.
So at this time, if you don't absolutely have to be on the road, we're asking that you stay off the road. If you're going to get on the road you need to obey all of the signs that say a road is closed because of water.
And it's critically important you understand that as the waters rise, they're going to be places where roads are going to be underwater whether interstates, highways, parish roads you name it, and they're going to be dangerous.
They may not be marked until we can discover them and move signage to those locations. We're asking motorists to use caution and don't try to go through areas when you see that there is standing water in front of you. [11:45:02]We have had multiple fatalities already because of motorists whose vehicles, heavy vehicles, were swept off of roads because of swift moving currents along these rivers and creeks. So asking everyone to simply evacuate if you're supposed to do that.
If you're being advised to do that, stay off the road if you don't have to. If you're going to be on the road, be extremely cautious. There has -- because of this --
WHITFIELD: All right, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards saying they are not out of the woods yet with this flooding. Still trying to get to people. It's still a tenuous situation, this flooding I extreme. It has been proven to be deadly already. We'll have much more on our coverage. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A judge tosses out the murder conviction of one of the defendants featured in the wildly popular Netflix documentary series, "Making A Murderer." On Friday, a federal judge in Wisconsin overturned Brendan Dassey's conviction.
Dassey was sent to prison along with his uncle for the 2005 murder of photographer, Teresa Hallback (ph). Dassey was 16 at the time and had learning disabilities. Here is part of his questionable confession to police that a judge ruled unconstitutional.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What else did he do to her?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Raped her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he tell you that? Tell us about that and where he did it.
[11:50:12]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know where he did it, but --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did he say he did in his words? What did he tell you? You can swear, you can use any language you want. Tell us exactly what he told you he did to her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That he ripped off her clothes, and she refused. She tried to get away, but he was too strong for her and he did it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Prosecutors now have 90 days to decide if they will retry Dassey. If not he will be released from prison. CNN's Sara Ganim is covering these new developments for us and joins us now with more on the case. So Sara, what was the judge's issue with Dassey's conviction?
SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So the federal judge said that because of Brendan Dassey's age which was 16 at that time and also his IQ, which was below average that the tactics that the police used in that interview were improper, he threw out the conviction and confession.
He said that police officers made false promises to Brendan Dassey and coerced him to say certain things. You know, people who watched this documentary series -- and a lot of people did, Fred.
It was the third most streamed series on Netflix according to one ratings agency. People who watched this, this was a really compelling part of the series, watching him in this police interrogation.
And you can see that there are times when police are actually introducing the facts and not 16-year-old Brendan Dassey. Take a listen to one of those more compelling scenes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know. We just need you to tell us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's all I can remember.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. I'm just go to come out and ask you, who shot her in the head?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why didn't you tell us that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I couldn't think of it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now you remember it? Tell us about that, then.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GANIM: So you can see that the police officer is actually the one that says, who shot her in the head and Brendan Dassey then responds. Now his attorneys released a statement last night saying they're overwhelmed and thrilled for him. Now the prosecutors have 90 days to decide if they're going to try and retry this case.
WHITFIELD: OK. All right, Sara Ganim, thank you so much. Keep us posted on that one.
We're going to have much more on that case. Now we're going to take a break. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:56:26]
WHITFIELD: Senator Marco Rubio is running for reelection in Florida, but his Republican challenger, Carlos Beruff, is taking on Rubio by questioning the senator's allegiance to Donald Trump. Here's CNN's Politics senior digital correspondent, Chris Moody.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the Republican primary ballot, it is you running against Little Marco, is that correct?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't say that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm the only one left standing. When he got in the race everybody bailed out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You will not be dropping out?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. I'm in it to the end.
CHRIS MOODY, CNN POLITICS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Businessman Carlos Beruff is spending millions of his own dollars to challenge Marco Rubio in Florida's Republican Senate primary. His strategy, embrace Donald Trump hard.
CARLOS BERUFF (R), FLORIDA SENATE CANDIDATE: I'm not ashamed to support Trump and I approve this message.
MOODY: And there are a few similarities between Beruff and Trump. Trump has a personal jet. Beruff has this. Trump is a real estate mogul. Beruff is a local Florida developer. Trump says things like this --
TRUMP: China is taking our jobs. They are taking our money.
MOODY: And Beruff does too.
BERUFF: When China cheats on trade agreement, it takes two years to take action on it. I will be a lieutenant to Mr. Trump.
MOODY: Unfortunately for Beruff, Trump hasn't really noticed him. He's endorsed Rubio.
TRUMP: I endorse Marco Rubio. He endorsed me. He is doing well. Go for Marco, all right.
MOODY: Beruff got in the race while Rubio was still a presidential candidate and insisting he wouldn't run for reelection to the Senate, but after losing to Trump, Rubio changed his mind.
Now it's Rubio verssu Beruff and polls are pointing to a massive victory for Rubio in the August primary. So why is Beruff still in this thing?
I went down to his ranch to find out why he is spending millions despite the long odds. Mind you, it's summer in Florida so it was hot and buggy.
BERUFF: Since I've been 35 years old I've been involved trying to help people that stand for something and then they get there and they disappoint me. So I said if I do it myself, I won't disappoint myself.
I don't think Mr. Rubio represents the Floridians anymore. I just think people are fed up with people who are career politicians who don't stand for anybody.
MOODY: How much are you willing to spend?
BERUFF: Whatever it takes to get the message so the voters know they have an alternative. All the money in the world doesn't buy an election.
MOODY (voice-over): I asked him what he think about comparisons to Trump.
BERUFF: On a financial basis, I'm a flea on an elephant compared to Donald Trump. But I mean, we have similar backgrounds and we share a lot of the same ideas for this country without a doubt.
MOODY (on camera): If you spend up to $15 million, $20 million and don't win, is that worth your time and money?
BERUFF: Of course not. If you lose, but that's the chance you take in life. At the end of the day, I've been taking risks my whole life and this is no different. I don't need this career. I'm 58 years old.
But this country has made me successful beyond anything I ever dreamt of. And at the end of the day if you don't make an effort to bring that back to the basics of this country, then the future for our young people isn't as bright as it was for me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right. So much more straight ahead in the NEWSROOM and it all begins right now.
All right. Hello again. Thank you for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Donald Trump is making a play for voters in battlestates this weekend. He was in Pennsylvania last night where he boldly declared that the only way he would lose to state to Hillary Clinton is if he is cheated out of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Wow, what a crowd. I ran against 17 people and got votes. Think of what that means. We got more votes than anybody. We brought in new votes into the Republican Party. That's all not being registered in different forms of media.
