2016 Presidential Candidates Travel to Iowa to Campaign
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Clinton, Sanders, Trump, the frontrunners in 2016 in Iowa today, but only one is planning a big splash with their entrance. And you can guess who that is, right?</s>VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, that's true. The sex lives and scandal coming out of the Michigan statehouse -- a lawmaker's elaborate scheme to divert attention from an affair with a fellow representative.</s>PAUL: And new explosions, fires at a blast site in China. Workers frantically digging as they rescue a firefighter who has been buried in that rubble. So grateful to have you with us as always on a Saturday. Here with Newsroom, I'm Christi Paul.</s>BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you. And we're starting this morning for what is said to be a big political day. In just a couple of hours, many presidential hopefuls, a lot of them, will descend on the Iowa state fair. Among them set to attend, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, you have there Lincoln Chafee. We also have Rick Santorum, Donald Trump as well. Now, Donald Trump, he is going to make a grand entrance.</s>PAUL: To say the least, yes. The business mogul expected to arrive in his helicopter. How else would he, correct?</s>BLACKWELL: That's just the way.</s>PAUL: That's just the way. Meanwhile, Clinton and Trump head to Iowa after taking shots at each other and the rest of the GOP field essentially is what's happening this morning. CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny joining us with the latest. We know, Jeff, that Hillary spoke last night. Wondering, first of all, what was the reaction to her speech?</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning. You're right. This is ground zero of the 2016 presidential campaign at least for the weekend. But Hillary Clinton spoke with the rest of the democratic field at the surf ballroom in clear lake, Iowa. She was defiant, more so than we've heard ever before, about this whole controversy over her private e-mail server. Of course, this week she finally agreed after five months of saying no, she agreed to turn over the server to the Justice Department and the FBI and in her speech to Democrats last night she made a bit a joke about it. Let's take a listen.</s>HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I know that people across the country are following us on social media as well. By the way, you may have seen that I recently launched a Snap Chat account.</s>HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I love it. I love it. Those messages disappear all by themselves.</s>ZELENY: Now, of course, that joke played well to that audience of Democrats, and that underscores the partisan divide in this whole controversy. She is trying to make the case that this is nothing other than politics as usual. In fact, she said just that. But Victor and Christi, I can tell you, by agreeing to turn over the private e-mail server the Clinton campaign is taking this very seriously. This has hung over her campaign. It's eroded some of her trust and credibility numbers as well in the first months of her campaign. But sort of across the country in New Hampshire, Donald Trump last night almost at the same time was making a bit of a different argument about this e-mail server. All Republicans have been hammering her on this and using it to raise questions of her trust and credibility. Donald Trump took it a step further last night in New Hampshire. Let's take a listen.</s>DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I think at some point she's perhaps not going to be able to run. She's going to have to end her campaign. That seems to be the thinking by so many. General Petraeus, his life was destroyed with a tiny fraction of what she's done. So, it's very unfair to him. If they're going to destroy him over doing by comparison nothing, I don't see how she can run. I think she's got much bigger problems than running for office.</s>ZELENY: Now, of course, Donald Trump saying Hillary Clinton is getting out of the race is, you know, filled with partisan politics and almost certainly not true. And it draws a distinction of this, Democrats believe Republicans may overreach on this thing, as the investigation continues in the House of Representatives, the Benghazi committee, when she finally testifies in October, will Republicans overreach? And by Donald Trump there saying it's like David Petraeus, he makes a point. It's actually not like David Petraeus. It's different in this respect. David Petraeus passed on classified information that was marked classified at the time. The Clinton campaign is saying that Secretary Clinton and her staff did not pass along any information that was marked classified at the time. It later maybe became classified. So a couple distinctions there, a couple differences. But overall today the e-mail server will probably switch to the backburner, and Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will be at the Iowa state fair at the same time as well as Bernie Sanders. So more fireworks of a different kind today in Iowa here at the state fair. Guys, back to you.</s>PAUL: All right, we'll look forward to hearing more about that. Jeff Zeleny, we appreciate it. Thank you, sir.</s>BLACKWELL: Now, consider the day. As Jeff said, you've got Donald Trump. You've got Hillary Clinton there at the Iowa state fair, Bernie Sanders, as well. Now, while they are there, both rivals along with a fiery Jeb Bush. They're not mincing words when it comes to their opponents. Listen.</s>TRUMP: But Jeb Bush has $114 million. What's he going to do with it? He'll start hitting me with ads I guess. You know, at some point he's got to because he's going down the tubes. The guy's going down the tubes.</s>JEB BUSH, (R) FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: Here's the deal, my e-mail address, write it down and send me your thoughts, Jeb@Jeb.org. By the way, I just gave out my e-mail address is exactly what I did when I was governor of the state of Florida. I released all my e-mails.</s>CLINTON: Don't let the circus distract you. If you look at their policies most of the other candidates are just Trump without the pizzazz or the hair.</s>TRUMP: I think at some point she's perhaps not going to able to run. She's going to have to end her campaign. That seems to be the thinking by so many.</s>BLACKWELL: All right, let's talk more about the race now. We've got with us Iowa Republican communications director Charlie Szold. Charlie, good to have you this morning.</s>CHARLIE SZOLD, IOWA REPUBLICAN COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Thanks for having me.</s>BLACKWELL: So, we know that Mr. Trump will be coming in on his helicopter, flying in to the Iowa state fair soon. I wonder if there is a message that's being received by Republicans there when he flies in and cherry picks events he'll attend instead of what we're seeing from other candidates, like Rick Santorum, like Governor Christie who are staying day after day, going county to county.</s>SZOLD: You know, each candidate has to run his own race, and if Donald Trump thinks this is the best way for him to reach Iowans then that's for him to decide. We obviously as Republicans here in Iowa always like when candidates are here as often as possible and meeting people in small settings and talking to them in diners. But Donald Trump is Donald Trump, and if there's one thinks Iowans don't like it's inauthenticity. So if Donald Trump feel like think he can go into a diner and do a sit-down with four or five people, that's for him to decide. So we just want our candidates to be authentic and come here to Iowa and explain their vision for the country.</s>BLACKWELL: Now, he is at the top of the poll here, so there would be some support or validity to his process. Does that question or weaken the traditional process by which candidates run in Iowa?</s>SZOLD: No, I don't think so. Like I said, every candidate has got to run his own race. And if you look back to Rick Santorum's campaign in 2012, he ran the quintessential Iowa campaign. He did the full Grassley where you go to every 99 counties, and that paid off in spades for him. So Rick Santorum can run his race, Donald Trump can run his race. And Rick Santorum has been running his race again. He's actually going to complete the full Grassley before Labor Day.</s>BLACKWELL: You know, I want to talk about the Iowa state fair and the soapbox, because we know that Donald Trump won't be there. We've also read that Jim Gilmore will not be, Rand Paul as well. Do Republicans in Iowa see that as a snub if the candidates don't give them the 20 minutes back and forth?</s>SZOLD: Only if the candidates have a prior history of not talking to them. You know, Jim Gilmore, you know, he hasn't been here very often. He's going to have to come here and introduce himself to Iowans if he wants to compete. Rand Paul has been here plenty. He'll be here again. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has been running a race where she is staying behind closed doors, not being open with the press. So Iowans might hold it against her.</s>BLACKWELL: All right, let's listen to what Donald Trump said about Jeb Bush and then talked about his campaign there in Iowa.</s>TRUMP: But Jeb Bush has $114 million. What's he going to do with it? He'll start hitting me with ads I guess, you know. At some point he has to because he's going down the tubes. The guy's going down the tubes. There's no energy. So when Jeb and Hillary and all of these other candidates start spending money, remember this, that money was given by people that have total control over them. And those people, many of whom I know very well, they don't care about him, they don't care about the color of his hair, they don't care anything about him. And they don't care about the country in many cases. They only want whatever they want. And they'll get plenty.</s>BLACKWELL: So, Jeb Bush in the latest poll appears to have slipped to seventh place here. He says he's all in in Iowa. Does that correspond with what you're seeing on the ground?</s>SZOLD: Yes, absolutely. He's got a top-notch team here. He's coming more often. He just was at the state fair yesterday for four hours. He did everything he had to do. He went to the bud tent. He went to the pork producers' tent. He even stopped by the Republican of Iowa, signed our "Field of Dreams" backdrop that we've got there. So Jeb's doing a great job here, you know. It's up for Iowans to decide who they like and who they don't. But Jeb's absolutely putting himself out there and working hard for everyone's vote.</s>BLACKWELL: All right, Charlie Szold, I know you've got a full day of double fried Oreos and butter cows. So I'm let you get back to the Iowa state fair. Thank you very much for being with us.</s>SZOLD: Thank you very much. And thanks for paying attention to Iowa.</s>PAUL: Am I wrong not to know what butter cows are?</s>BLACKWELL: It's a big cow mailed of butter is exactly what it is.</s>PAUL: It makes sense, I suppose, then, much more than this next story does.</s>BLACKWELL: This one makes no sense.</s>PAUL: This is so crazy. A Michigan lawmaker accused of covering up an affair with another state rep. The alleged cover-up itself is so bizarre. We'll tell you what's going on that we know of. Also, new explosions in China at the site of that deadly warehouse blast from earlier this week, reigniting fires sending black smoke into the air. Those are the pictures coming to us this morning. And a rescue to tell you about as well in that case. Also, next month Pope Francis making his first visit to the U.S. as head of the Catholic Church. How one group is doing something pretty unique to get his attention on immigration.