FBI to Release Clinton E-mail Report; Trump Backer Apologizes for Blackface Tweet
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to LEGAL VIEW. There are now exactly ten weeks left for the candidates for president to win friends and influence voters and a little more than one day left for Donald Trump to do what we're all awaiting for, and that's hammer out those pesky details of a very long awaited immigration plan. Donald Trump's major address comes tomorrow night in Phoenix, Arizona, the same day that we could see another big development in the Hillary Clinton e-mail saga. That's because the FBI just told us something, that they are expecting to make more of their investigation public for you to view and read and parse and decide upon. So I want to go right to our justice correspondent Evan Perez with more of the details. So what exactly are we expecting from the FBI tomorrow, documents, notes, all of the above? How is that different from what we already have? Lay it out.</s>EVAN PEREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of the things we're going to see is this report that the FBI prepared to present to prosecutors to recommend that there not be any charges brought in this e-mail investigation against Hillary Clinton. And so it's about a 30-page report. It was provided to the Justice Department prosecutors with the FBI's recommendations to not bring charges, as well as another 12-page summary essentially of the FBI's interview with Hillary Clinton. Again, that occurred last month just before the FBI made its recommendations, Ashleigh.</s>BANFIELD: This is weird. I mean I think - to put this in context, the FBI, when it conducted - they don't take this as standard operating procedure. You don't put it on the video or the audio.</s>PEREZ: Right.</s>BANFIELD: But you do take notes old school style, like gum shoe detective style.</s>PEREZ: Right.</s>BANFIELD: The weird thing is, in this day and age, we don't ever get that stuff.</s>PEREZ: That's right.</s>BANFIELD: Whether you're Hillary Clinton or not, the public doesn't get to see the work behind these interviews. But they do this time. I don't get it. Explain.</s>PEREZ: Well, that's right. I mean, look, this is extraordinary. Nothing like this has been done. It's without precedent. And I think Jim Comey - what Jim Comey did last month as well was without precedent, for you to go out there and describe the details of an investigation in which you did not bring any charges. It's just not done. Obviously, because of the context of what's happening, the investigation of a presidential candidate, the FBI decided that it was important to explain to the public why there would not be any charges. And, again, this is - this release, which we expect to happen under the Freedom of Information Act, as soon as tomorrow, Ashleigh, is in answer to that because there is such great public interest in what exactly the FBI did. So we expect we're going to learn a little bit more than what the details that Comey provided in his - in his press conference, or his press announcement last month.</s>BANFIELD: I know that you and your producer, Shimon Prokupecz, are working your phone lines to get more.</s>PEREZ: Absolutely.</s>BANFIELD: We're going to tap in with you throughout the day. Great breaking news. Thank you for that, Evan.</s>PEREZ: Sure.</s>BANFIELD: I want to jump over to the Trump front. Immigration topping this week's agenda, but the spotlight remains on the nominee's attempt to win blacks and Hispanic support. And my colleague, Jason Carroll, joins me now live with that. In this whole effort of outreach to the minority communities, there's a lot of pullback going on today, particularly with the black pastor, a prominent black pastor, who said and did some things and now has some regrets about it. So lay that out, if you would.</s>JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Definitely regrets. I mean, look, today was supposed to be the day when much of the talk would be about Trump's muchly anticipated speech on immigration. But then you have this Trump surrogate, Pastor Mark Burns, apologizing repeatedly for posting that picture of Clinton in blackface. Burns says he has not spoken to Trump about it and again repeatedly apologizing for tweeting the cartoon, you see it there, which he admitted was, quote, "divisive."</s>PASTOR MARK BURNS, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Obviously, my message, I stand by it. But the methodology, I do not. The message is simply this, I believe that the Democrat Party has been using the black vote, that black voting bloc. And because the Democrat Party already knows they own that voting bloc, the promises that have been made to the African- American community are not being cared out.</s>CARROLL: Well, you see there him apologizing again repeatedly, say - talking about methodology. What was also interesting about that, Ashleigh, is he said, what he was trying to do was he was trying to be inclusive. You know, only he can sort of try to get through how -</s>BANFIELD: Sure.</s>CARROLL: Posting a racially charged image like that would be inclusive, but it most definitely complicates the Trump campaign's position on some -</s>BANFIELD: Yes, it made a lot of headlines, Jason. Made a lot of headlines that -</s>CARROLL: Yes, trying to reach out -</s>BANFIELD: Yes, that he probably didn't want. He didn't want those headlines. And then there are these headlines and it's all about the KKK again, which is something I'm sure the Trump campaign doesn't want either. David Duke is running for Senate, for U.S. Senate, and he put out one of those fancy dancy robo calls that we hear about all the time. But in his robo call asking for voter support, he threw The Donald in there, too. Have a listen.</s>DAVID DUKE, U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE, FORMER KKK LEADER (voice-over): Unless massive immigration is stopped now, we'll be outnumbered and outvoted in our own nation. It's happening. It's time to stand up and vote for Donald Trump for president and vote for me, David Duke, for the U.S. Senate.</s>BANFIELD: So with that fancy technology comes a real quick response from the Trump campaign, Jason.</s>CARROLL: Yes, you know, I bet the Trump campaign just wants David Duke just to go away. As you know, Trump has been criticized for not disavowing Duke's endorsement during the primary quickly enough. The time, though, the Trump campaign was quick to disavow Duke and that robo call that you heard there. The campaign released a statement saying there is no place in the Republican Party for Duke's racist views. The Trump camp now looking or trying to look ahead to tomorrow's immigration speech. I mean there are some people out here who do want to talk about policy. Trump's hardline supporters are concerned he is softening his position on using that deportation force that he promised to deport some 11 million people living - undocumented people living in the United States. Trump's campaign manager saying Trump may be softening his approach to illegal immigration, but not softening his policy position. A bit of parsing words there. This morning, Trump did tweet about the wall that he intends to build, saying, quote, "from day one, I said I was going to build a great wall on the southern border and much more. Stop illegal immigration. Watch Wednesday." Ashleigh, I know you will be watching. I will be watching.</s>BANFIELD: You bet.</s>CARROLL: A number of people are going to be watching.</s>BANFIELD: I've been waiting for weeks. I' dying to know because I'm having trouble reporting it. Jason Carroll, thank you, sir. Good work today, as always.</s>CARROLL: You bet.</s>BANFIELD: So - so much for my think tank to dive into now. Where should I begin? I'm joined by CNN political analyst and "New York Times" correspondent Alex Burns, "Washington Post" correspondent Philip Bump, and politics editor of theroot.com, Jason Johnson. Jason, I'm going to begin with you. What we just sort of dove-tailed off of with Jason Carroll's reporting, and that was this minority outreach, the David Duke ugliness, the Trump campaign disavowed that right away. But Anderson Cooler had Spike Lee on his show last night and said, so how's that while minority outreach thing going do you suppose? And this was how the response came off. Take a look.</s>ANDERSON COOPER, ANCHOR, CNN'S "AC 360": Donald Trump says he's reaching out to African-American. He says, what the hell have you got to lose? Your - he says - when you hear that, as a black man in America, what do you think?</s>SPIKE LEE, FILMMAKER: I laugh.</s>BANFIELD: So, Jason, he laughs with a dead serious face. How many people within the African-American community do you think that Spike Lee is speaking for?</s>JASON JOHNSON, POLITICS EDITOR, THEROOT.COM: He's probably speaking for a lot of people according to the polls, Ashleigh, because every poll has shown that not only is Donald Trump only at zero or maybe 1 percent with African-American voters, but none of his efforts to reach out have improved anything. And I always say this is a very key point. This is a Trump problem. This is deeper than the Republican Party because John Kasich, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, George W. Bush, there are plenty of Republicans who can get African-American Republicans out to vote for them. Trump has turned off black Republicans. So his outreach is having the absolute opposite effect and it's going to hurt down battled Republicans. I think everybody is terrified right now of getting dragged down in this nonsense with him and his poorly run campaign.</s>BANFIELD: And just when you think that's going to be the headline of the day, out comes the FBI. So, Alex, I'm going to get you to just in on here if you can with the news that we have more FBI e-mail information to digest tomorrow, which is the drip, drip, drip, drip that obviously the Clinton campaign does not want. No one's really gotten to any smoking guns, right, but does that mater?</s>ALEX BURNS, "NEW YORK TIMES": look, I think in terms of the trust issues, I mean, honesty issues that Hillary Clinton obviously has with a lot of voters, you know, people have reached those conclusions without the presence of a smoking gun. The challenge I think for the Clinton campaign is looming out of this really quiet and slow August for her campaign when she has been mostly behind closed doors, you know, down day after day, holding private fund raisers, and not necessarily driving an aggressive public message, which just allows all this information about e-mails, about the Clinton Foundation, about foreign donations to just flood into the vacuum. I think coming out of Labor Day you're going to see a lot of Democrats hoping, and I think you're going to see the Clinton campaign delivering a much, much more intensive schedule, a much, much more aggressive, louder message, a positive message about her in addition to the contrast she's been drawing with Trump.</s>BANFIELD: Since you mentioned those private fundraisers, sometimes you get an iPhone going during those private fundraisers and for Hillary Clinton I think it was - it might have been last night, the New York, she was overheard during one of the fundraisers talking about the upcoming debates and Donald Trump. Have a listen to what she said.</s>HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: And I'm running against someone who will say or do anything. And who knows what that might be. I do not know which Donald Trump will show up.</s>BANFIELD: Which Donald Trump will show up. And the truth is, Philip Bump, I don't even know that his own closest aides know because he has said I don't need the mock debates, according to reports. It's an unusual debate prep mechanism that he's employing at this point. And now the co-writer of "The Art of the Deal," which is his famous book, is actually working for the Clinton camp. I just figured he'd have a non-disclosure agreement. He wouldn't be able to do much. But that's a - that's a lot to sort of chew on for a moment. What do you expect they're trying to do in the Clinton camp to cope with what they have no clue is coming?</s>PHILIP BUMP, "WASHINGTON POST": Right. Well, I think the first thing they're trying to do is set expectations. They want to make sure - I think one of the things that we want to look back to is the debate in 2000 between Al Gore and George W. Bush. Al Gore went into that. He was presumed to be able to mop the floor with George W. Bush. George W. Bush came off as very accessible and Gore was kind of frumping (ph) his way through it and it didn't do Gore any good. I think the Clinton camp is trying to do their best to set expectations that this is a -</s>BANFIELD: Yes, I heard that. And I heard interviews this morning -</s>BUMP: Right.</s>BANFIELD: With some of her surrogates saying, you know, he's going to be hopeless. He's never going to -</s>BUMP: Right.</s>BANFIELD: He's not going to be able to handle the issues. Like, that's not setting low expectations.</s>BUMP: Right.</s>BANFIELD: Or that guy didn't get the memo.</s>BUMP: Sure. It's very possible that guy didn't get the memo. I mean, you know, it's standard, it's standard that you want to, you know, puff up your opponent. But I think the question is very real, how is Donald Trump going to perform in this debate? What's he going to do? How's he going to come after Hillary Clinton? We've all seen what he did in the Republican debate where there were a lot of people that were on the stage and could absorb a lot of the attention. This is one on one and I think the Clinton team thinks they have an advantage when it gets down to policy, because they can really hammer him in a way that the Republicans weren't able to. The question is how he responds.</s>BANFIELD: Jason Johnson, I want you to do a quick response for me to some new polling that's just come out. It's the new Monmouth poll with registered voters. Clinton's come in 7 points ahead of Donald Trump at 43 percent to Donald Trump's 36 percent. We've been seeing some polls like this before, but I think the one that screams the loudest headline is the combined unfavorability of these candidates, which, by the way, is 2 percent. Favorable is 2 percent. When you put them both together, I'm not sure exactly how they'd frame the question, but basically what do you think of these guys? Two percent together says I don't.</s>JOHNSON: I always said, this is like "Game of Thrones" if you had to choose between like Joffrey and Ramsay. Like these are two horrible leaders that no one seems particularly enthusiastic about. I think this is a problem for both candidates. I think you've got a lot of Republican who are like, I'm never Trump, but I got to vote. You've got a lot of Democrats who are like, I guess I'm going to have to hold my nose for Hillary Clinton. These debates are going to be very, very key because whichever candidate finds themselves to be somewhat less unsufferable to the American people is going to have a huge advantage in what was going to be I still think a very close and very tight election in the popular vote come November.</s>BANFIELD: Yes, that - it's hard to say that whole 2 percent business because I think that's the crissy cross of both, you know, both of those unfavorablities coming together because there's plenty of people who think these candidates are fantastic. They certainly are.</s>JOHNSON: Right.</s>BANFIELD: It's going to be fun to do, isn't it, all the way through the next 70 days? Alex Burns, Philip Bump and Jason Johnson, thank you.</s>JOHNSON: Thank you.</s>BANFIELD: All three of you, appreciate it.</s>BUMP: Thanks.</s>BANFIELD: Coming up next, as I said, 70 days, ticking away, but the polls are open right now in a couple of key states with some big time, long time politicians and their careers on the line. You recognize them. Where do they stand and what is today going to bring for them? That's next.