Trump Brands Clinton, Obama As Founders of ISIS; Clinton Slams Trump's Economic Plans; RNC Chief Voices Concern About Trump's Campaign; Televangelist Opens Up About Donald Trump's Faith.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: OUTFRONT next, Donald Trump digs in saying President Obama is the founder of ISIS literally. Will he back down tonight? Plus, new details about the relationship between Hillary Clinton's State Department and the Clinton Foundation. Did it cross the line? An exclusive investigation. And Donald Trump's spiritual adviser on how he battles his inner demons. Our interview. Let's go OUTFRONT. And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett. We begin OUTFRONT tonight with the breaking news. Donald Trump about to take the stage at a rally in Florida expected to attack President Obama calling him literally the founder of ISIS, not simply responsible for its rise, the literal founder. Here's some of what he said today.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: President Obama, he is the founder of ISIS. He is the founder of</s>ISIS. HUGH HEWITT, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Last night you said the President was the founder of ISIS. I know what you meant, you meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the piece.</s>TRUMP: No, I meant he's the founder of ISIS. I do. He was the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, these are the founders of ISIS. These are the founders of ISIS.</s>BURNETT: But not long ago right here on CNN, Trump had a very different opinion about who created ISIS.</s>TRUMP: But here's the problem. So, we make all bad deals. The war in Iraq started the whole destabilization of the Middle East. It started ISIS.</s>BURNETT: That, of course, a clear indictment of George W. Bush. We begin our coverage of Jim Acosta who is at the Trump rally. And Jim, Trump is not backing down from these attacks on President Obama tonight.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: No, he is not, Erin. He used that accusation last night, he used it this morning, he used it earlier this afternoon and we expect him to do it once again this evening at this rally in Kissimmee, Florida, he'll be out here in just a few minutes. But not only is that accusation that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the founders of ISIS. Plus, it also creates a problem for Donald Trump and then it opens up a criticism that he's being hypocritical.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): It's fast becoming a go-to line of attack for Donald Trump. That President Obama and his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave birth to</s>ISIS. TRUMP: I call President Obama and Hillary Clinton the founders of ISIS. They're the founders. In fact, I think we'll give Hillary Clinton, you know, if you're a sports team, most valuable player. MVP. You get the MVP award.</s>ACOSTA: Trump's rationale is that the President's withdrawal from the Iraq war created the conditions on the ground for terror group's rise to power.</s>HEWITT: He hates them and he's trying to kill them.</s>TRUMP: I don't care. He was the founder. The way he got out of Iraq, that was the founding of</s>ISIS. ACOSTA: The problem is Trump once advocated a speedy pullout from the war, too.</s>TRUMP: You know how they get out? They get out. That's how they get out. Declare a victory and leave because I'll tell you, this country is just going to get further bogged down.</s>ACOSTA: Trump first called Mr. Obama an ISIS founder at a rally last night in Florida where he also referred to the President by his full name and slamming the White House over its handling of Russia.</s>TRUMP: And we'll find out. But this was taken during the administration of Barack Hussein Obama, OK?</s>ACOSTA: Continuing that soft on terror theme, Trump also alleged that the Clinton campaign was aware that the father of the Orlando night club shooter was at a rally to Democratic nominee this week.</s>TRUMP: They knew, but how did you like that picture? Him sitting, 49 people killed and that guy is sitting back there and of course he likes Hillary!</s>ACOSTA: Top Trump campaign surrogates blame unfair media coverage. But former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani insists Trump will still take part in all three presidential debates despite his battles with the press.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't buy it?</s>RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: All three debates, the negotiations which the federal commission is always allowed between the candidate --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.</s>GIULIANI: -- Is going to happen.</s>ACOSTA: Now, Erin, just a few moments ago we had an incident unfolding inside this arena here in Kissimmee, Florida. There were three men sitting in the stands here who were flying the confederate flag and it took about 15 minutes for the Trump campaign and local security to convince these men to take that flag down. As a matter of fact, they took it down once, they put it back up again. And then finally security went over and had them take it down for good, they're right now flying the American flag. But as Donald Trump would say in one of his tweets. It was sad -- Erin.</s>BURNETT: All right. Jim Acosta. Thank you. And Jeff Zeleny is travelling with Hillary Clinton tonight, OUTFRONT in Warren, Michigan. Jeff, Democrats had been quickly responding to the charges that Donald Trump has been making against Barack Obama and being the founder of ISIS.</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They have indeed, Erin. And Hillary Clinton once he was campaigning here in Michigan did not mention it herself. But she did tweet about it saying, no, he is not the founder of ISIS. But it was the statement from the Democrat National Committee that raised questions about Donald Trump's sanity. Let's take a look at this. It said, "Donald Trump should apologize for his outrageous unhinged and patently false suggestion on the founding of ISIS. This is yet another out of control statement by a candidate who is unraveling before our very eyes." And the top foreign policy adviser to the Clinton campaign also has said that Donald Trump is trash talking America here by saying things like this. So, Erin, we are seeing an increasing pattern here that really started with Mike Bloomberg at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia talking about Donald Trump's sanity and you know, if he's all together here, really continuing this argument here. But across the board a condemnation of these ISIS comments here from Democrats today -- Erin.</s>BURNETT: All right. Jeff, thank you very much. And OUTFRONT now, Kayleigh McEnany, Donald Trump's supporter. Mike Rogers, retired FBI special agent who is now advising Donald Trump's transition team on national security issues. Retired Major General Spider Marks who advised Mitt Romney in 2008 saying tonight though, you're going to say you're voting for for the first time and I'm going to get to that in just a moment. Hillary Clinton supporter Basil Smikle is also with me. Let me start with you, General. President Obama the literal founder of ISIS. He was given an opportunity in that interview. It was Hugh Hewitt the radio host who said, you mean they came in and filled the vacuum and he said no, that's not what I mean, I mean, he is the founder of</s>ISIS. MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, RETIRED U.S. ARMY: Yes. It's crazy talk. This president is not the founder of ISIS. Clearly, there's culpability. There's a lot we could have done in Iraq. Our departure in 2011 was premature. The conditions were not set. We went into the negotiations. We wanted a status of forces agreement so that we could retain a presence and so we could continue to grow the Iraqi government, help with governance, help grow a military and that didn't happen and we marched out way too soon. But the President is not the founder of ISIS. The core of ISIS are a grieved former Saddam military folks who guys like me when I was in Iraq put those guys in jail because we broke their military down. Big mistake, we should not have done that. A bunch of those dudes ended up to jail, they became aggrieved, they now are the leaders of ISIS. This is an organize military with a focus that is operating with some degree of impunity.</s>BURNETT: And of course, and Donald Trump by the way, walking to the podium and we expect he's going to say more about this, Mike. That you obviously are advising the transition team. You know, there's obviously blame on this to go around and there's the whole discussion over whether it's George Bush for wanting troops out or Obama for continuing to take them out. Who is responsible? But again, he was given the choice to say that what he meant was nuance and he very specifically said, no. I meant he's the founder.</s>MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR: You know, I worked in a factory in Michigan for years and we built convertibles. I cut the roofs off of those cars. That talk is a little bit tongue in cheek, I think. When you hear that talk, I could have had that very conversation in the cafeteria at break in that factory floor. I think he's trying to make a point here. I think he's trying to say, he's having a hard time cutting through on the national security space. If you look at Hillary Clinton's record as secretary of state, they failed in Russia. They failed in Egypt. They failed in Iraq, they created an environment that allows and this is a conversation we're all having including Spider Marks who is talking about this environment. I think that's what he's trying to do. I don't know that. I don't talk to him and that's not part of the question and those failures are something he needs to highlight. I think that's the way he's doing it.</s>BURNETT: OK. But to this point, though, he has -- this is an issue of who is more responsible for the rise of ISIS. He though Kayleigh at other times has repeatedly suggested that President Obama at the least sympathizes with Islamic terrorists and perhaps much worse, OK? Let me play it.</s>TRUMP: He doesn't get it or he gets it better than anybody understands. It's one or the other. Maybe he doesn't want to get rid of the problem. I don't know exactly what's going on. I don't know what's wrong with Obama. He wants to close his eyes and pretend it's not happening. Why is he so emphatic on not solving the problem. There's something we don't know about. There's something we don't know about.</s>KAYLEIGH MCENANY, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: None of those comments suggest to me that he's actually implicating Obama with ISIS. When he says Obama doesn't get it, maybe he doesn't want to get it. In fact Obama's own words suggest that he doesn't want to get it. When he calls ISIS jayvee, when his Secretary John Kerry.</s>BURNETT: He said maybe he doesn't want to get rid of the problem. What is he saying there?</s>MCENANY: Maybe he doesn't get rid of the problem because he doesn't even want to acknowledge that a problem exists. When you have the sitting Secretary of State, John Kerry stand before the world and say climate change is as dangerous as ISIS, they don't want to acknowledge the problem. It's insulting to 49 people who died in Orlando. A hundred and eighty four people who died in Paris, 14 who died in San Bernardino and the list goes on and on. It is absolutely insulting. They did found ISIS. They did establish it. Their names might not be on the Founding documents but they lay the groundwork and that is certain and four-star General Jack King back that up today when he said they contributed to the rise of</s>ISIS. BURNETT: Basil?</s>BASIL SMIKLE, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: You and I, all of us here could agree to disagree and we can have an intellectual conversation about the merits of ISIS today and how it's, you know, where we are, but I'll take it a step further. It's not just crazy. His language is disgusting to me. This is completely irresponsible to call the sitting president of the United States a founder of ISIS. He also called Hillary Clinton a co-founder of</s>ISIS. BURNETT: Yes.</s>SMIKLE: That is incredibly, not only disrespectful, it's disgusting. And to me, I've felt for a long time that Donald Trump just wanted to sort of tap into the sentiment that the system is rigged. I think it's well beyond that right now. This man is a nihilistic in his approach. He is not going to be content until every political institution and indeed, most political leaders of this country have been, completely discredited.</s>MCENANY: Basil, your candidate called Donald Trump an ISIS propagandist. So, we went again to semantics and which titles worst, we can do --</s>BURNETT: That's true.</s>MCENANY: But the fact is --</s>SMIKLE: Because in part -- because he's going around telling people that the President, the President of the United States founded a terrorist organization. That's completely irresponsible.</s>BURNETT: And General, all of this is in part because you did something that you have not done before which is take a political stand.</s>MARKS: Yes, I have.</s>BURNETT: And you are going to vote for Hillary Clinton?</s>MARKS: I am. I made that decision. You know, I'm an Intel guy. My view and I have lived in this world. I have had my fanny chewed so many times. I have been wrong so many times. I was a senior Intel guy when we went to the war in Iraq. There was a lot that we did not get right and I did not get right and I raised my hand and I said, you know, I simply don't know. And I was ripped apart many times for that. You have to embrace what you know and what you don't know and then you have to be able to move forward and say, you know what, I got that wrong. No intent to deceive and not trying to lie to anybody, I just screwed this up and we need to move forward and I don't see that level of humility in this candidate. That's what bugs me. That's what bugs me. I'm not a big fan of where we are right now with this current administration at all. It bothers me greatly. I'm the guy who sat around the table and I've had to bury soldiers for mistakes that we've made in combat in this administration and the previous administration. I want to move forward with somebody and what I care about is national security first and foremost. There are a thousand things we all need to be passionate about. This is first and foremost. It's the job of our president of the United States, of our commander-in-chief to support and defend the constitution. I want that done right, and I think that Hillary Clinton will do that better than Donald Trump.</s>BURNETT: And Mike, a chance to respond.</s>ROGERS: No. Again, the failures are just unbelievable and she's already the former secretary. As again, backed the wrong candidate in Egypt and got it completely wrong on Russia and now we're paying a price for expansionism there. Didn't deal with China expansionism, we've got a problem.</s>MARKS: The pivot.</s>ROGERS: Which hasn't happened, by the way and you know that and they're saying we're going to continue the same policy. The policy on ISIS really has been a disaster and dangerous. My argument here is, listen, he has already said and certainly, I'm obvious of this, he said we're going to put the best national security people we can around him to make good decisions and it will change. I argue if we don't change, if we continue the same path which Hillary Clinton has said we're going to do, we are going have real national security and defense problems. Secondly, the budget, you know this when you were there. They said the number one problem and threat to national security was the budget. She plans to spend a trillion extra dollars and she hasn't explained how to pay for. Pretty soon, the national debt, the interest on the national debt will be a larger budget item than the Department of Defense. That is a huge problem. When you add all of that up, it just doesn't make sense for national security people.</s>BURNETT: All right. Well, both of them, both of them by the way are going to be increasing deficits, let's just be honest about that. But we're going to take a break, we're coming back in just a moment. Next, Donald Trump is under pressure, we're going to talk about the economy here and also his tax returns. Plus, new details about a secret meeting between Hillary Clinton's top aide at the State Department and a Clinton Foundation job applicant. This is an exclusive CNN investigation and you will see it this hour. And a popular televangelist, Trump's spiritual adviser opens up to OUTFRONT about their relationship.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was watching Christian television and he called up and said hey, you're fantastic and repeated almost verbatim three of my sermons on value and vision.