Transcripts For CNNW Wolf 20160524

Democracy is messy. Every day, my life is messy but if you want everything to be quiet and orderly and want things to proceed without vigorous debate, thats not what democracy is about. For more on the campaigns, lets bring in cnn correspondent phil mattingly, joe johns, our chief analyst, Gloria Borger and political director. Phil, Hillary Clinton is bringing up Donald Trumps past bankruptcies, warning that hell do the same for the u. S. Economy if he were president. How does this fit into the Campaign Strategy . Wolf, the idea is to hit donald trump on his perceived strength and it repeats what president obamas team did to mitt romney in 2012. Early on in the campaign, the earlier stages of the general election period, attack the republican opponent on the area that he and his team think is his strength. Hillary clintons issue here is trying to make it appear that donald trump does not care about middle class workers. You saw that on the housing crisis and saw the continued attacks related to the business bankruptcies of the casinos. Their efforts here to say donald trump claims hes a great businessman. Donald trump claims he makes the best deals but if you look at his past, there are plenty of examples where he has failed. Theyre trying to undercut him at one of his perceived greatest strengths, wolf. Trump campaign, phil, also bringing up bill clintons past indiscretions. Whats the strategy behind that . Slightly scorched earth and may be an understatement. I think what youre seeing is they have long said they will punch back if they feel like theyve been attacked. Donald trump clearly feels like hes been attacked. This is what special counsel said this morning. She attacked mr. Trump as being sexist, misogynist and thats inaccurate. Donald trumps not anythi of th things and trying to portray him as such to turn the women against mr. Trump when, in fact, women seem to be turning against Hillary Clinton for being the enabler in chief. Donald trump made clear this was an attack line he was going to pursue but somewhat jarring to people who arent used to this kind of thing ending up in politics but one thing made clear by trump and his advisors but this is a line of attack not going anywhere anytime soon even warned away from these types of issues. Trump made clear this is something theyre going after and believe it can work but now everybody has to wait and see if it actually does, wolf. Well see soon enough. Thank you very much for that. Joe johns is standing by as well. Joe, lets talk about the Sanders Campaign right now. Its getting a larger role in drafting the Democratic Party platform in philadelphia. Whats behind this. Thats right, wolf. The Sanders Campaign got to name five people to the committee to help lay out the policy positions of the Democratic National Committee Supports and if you look at the names and bios of the people on the list, you can see how important this is, for example, congressman keith allison, a big supporter of sanders, congressman from minnesota, the only Office Holder on the list and a convert to islam, cornell west and james, a supporter of palestinian rights. I have to tell you, theres a big of breaking news. Hold on for a moment. Im going to get back to you in a moment. I want to update our viewers about to get a decision in the preliminary hearing involving bill cosby. Whether or not a trial could go forward. Gloria allred, one of the attorneys for a woman making accusations. I want to listen in and hear what she has to say. Well, mr. Cosby presented a vigorous defense today. I might add that in my experience, 40 years of practicing law, i found it to be very unusual that such a defense was presented at the preliminary hearing stage in a way that it was, one would have to speculate why, you know, some might speculate because the defense was attempting to have an impact on the potential jury pool to suggest that no crime was committed. Having said that, its, i believe its also an advantage to the prosecution to be able to hear from the defense the potential themes that may present at the trial. The defense suggested nthat the felt Andrea Constand should testify and just to be clear, i never had any communication with Andrea Constand. They wanted her to testify. They did not get what they wanted. Because under pennsylvania law, it is not a requirement that the victim herself or himself testify at a preliminary hearing. Of course, she will testify at trial but under pennsylvania law and this is also true in the state of california where i practice and some other jurisdictions, it is not necessary for the victim to testify at a preliminary hearing. Instead, what she has stated in her Police Report can come in through the interviewing Law Enforcement officer. In this case, to detectives, testified about her interview and the court found that that was sufficient. In addition, this is just my educated guess. I dont think that mr. Cosby was thrilled that his own interview with the police was admitted into evidence. Because some of what he said could be quite damning for mr. Cosby. Having said that, the court having reviewed all of the evidence found that there was sufficient evidence to require the defendant, mr. Cosby, to stand trial. I think that was the right decision based on the law and based on the facts as provided. Im happy to answer some questions. She never said no. Part of the defenses argument, in fact, a large part had to do with consent of the victim. The assertion and the argument by the defense that she didnt say no, in other words, therefore, that she did consent. The argument of the prosecution is that if a victim is incapacitated for any reason, in this case, perhaps the pills that mr. Cosby admitted in his Police Report that he gave to miss constand and her ingestion of some wine at the same time and the fact that she had not had food rendered her, according to miss constand, where she was going in and out of conscio consciousness. She was aware some things were happening, for example, her legs were paralyzed. She could also feel, according to her statement, that mr. Cosby was touching her breast, touching and inserting his fingers into her genital area, but that she could not say no. She could not say anything that she was incapacitated. As a matter of law, if a victim is incapacitated, unconscious, or conscious or unconscious and then conscious again, the victim is unable to consent. Thats going to be a central issue at the trial as to whether she could consent. Do you believe other alleged victims could testify in trial . The question has to do, do i think that other victims will be called at trial . Will any of my clients testify . Under pennsylvanias prior bad acts legal doctrine, potentially other accusers could be called to testify at trial. Whether they will be called, that is subpoenaed to testify at trial, that is a decision that will be made by Law Enforcement, the District Attorney, and the court, in terms of admissibility. That is a decision later on down the line and that is for the District Attorney to decide and the court to decide after hearing what i am certain will be many objections by the defense to the calling of other accusers. If the testimony of other accusers, one or more is or could be argued to be a same or similar signature activity, it might be considered relevant and admissible. And thats for the court to decide. As to whether any of my more than 30 clients who are accusers will be called, thats not a decision that is in my hands. Thats the decision of Law Enforcement and i have no information on that at this time. I think its probably premature for anyone to be making that decision. I think mr. Cosbys interview with the police in the Police Report that was admitted into evidence was very damaging to him. And it is now at evidence. Often, a perpetrator or an alleged perpetrator does not give a statement to the police. He did. And now hes going to have to deal with his own words which, it was indicated through testimony that he signed his statement that he was asked at the end of the statement, something to the effect of is everything true and correct and he said, yes, and he signed that it was and then in addition, he had an opportunity to make any changes and he did not. Now, the defense wanted to underscore, emphasize many times that miss constand did make changes in her Police Statement suggesting that somehow there is there is something wrong or inappropriate about making changes. Im glad, for one, that miss constand or any person alleged to be a victim has an opportunity to make changes to make sure that it is accurate. Ive represented many victims in criminal cases and still do, including in rape cases and still do, and some of them in other jurisdictions have never had an opportunity to review the Police Report to see if its accurate and a reflection of what, in fact, they told Law Enforcement, so, of course, in many cases, if a person is lying, then they have a standard script and have no need to make any changes because theyre just going to stick to their script, often, if theyre being truthful, they want to really look at what is said and make sure its accurate. Simple as that. Is that a pattern from what your clients have said . I think that mr. Cosby is coming out. All right. Miss constand, interactions and that kind of a thing and sometimes otherwise interact . I think that only miss constand and her mother should be the ones to explain why there was continued interaction with mr. Cosby, but there very well may be reasons and i dont think that one should take that as some kind of tacit admission that she wanted to with cosby or a criminal nature. As a matter of fact, there was testimony about a conversation between the mother and mr. Cosby. Pardon me . Can i come for a minute . Absolutely. Lets get our team together. We just conducted our preliminary hearing. All charges were held. Were here because we want to seek the truth. Were here to serve justice. The evidence in this case that was presented at the preliminary hearing is of a limited basis. A preliminary hearing is a situation where we only have to show that a crime is committed and the defendants connected to the crime. We did that through the victims statement and the defendants. Admissions to much of the crime. Consequently, were going to move forward on the case and look forward to getting a trial date. How theyre going to go forward im not going to get into the specifics of this. She was available to testify at trial under the case law that we represented and the judge ruled. It was unnecessary. Its a preliminary hearing. Hearsay is dismissible aadmissi step is where we have to go. Is there an indication . Next question. Did you have any thoughts about what they were trying to make as opposed to any other drug as other accusers they said, they have quaaludes and testify to . The point of this is that it was intoxicating to her and that she was unable to consent. Thats the crime and thats the charges that were bound over and we look forward to hand all this in court. Were going to keep our comments to what happens in court here. So while we look forward to the next step. No, thank you. All right. So there you have the official word. The breaking news that bill cosby will, in fact, stand trial in the criminal Sexual Assault case. I want to go right to cnns jean casarez. You were in the courthouse when the decision was made by the attorney. Set the stage for us. Youre with danny cevallos, our cnn legal analyst as well. Ashleigh banfield is standing by. A full analysis of what is going on from joey jackson. But you were inside the courtroom. Tell us how it went down. Reporter let me tell you exactly the feel in the courtroom was professional. Bill cosby was there. He had to be there under law. He sat at the defense table. He didnt talk very much. It was a packed courtroom. The defense was extremely aggressive towards that judge. You heard Gloria Allred. The prosecution theory in a nutshell and they had Andrea Constands Statement Read through in the months of january and february of 2004. Andrea constand went to bill cosbys home. When she got there, she said she was having emotional issues. Went upstairs. Brought down three blue pills. Had her take them and told her to drink wine. After that, she suddenly felt woozy and her legs were weak and had to assist her to a couch. Said she was conscious in and out but wasnt able to stop him from sexually assaulting her. But the defense fired back on crossexamination saying so many things that andrea had said. She wrote other things. That she had gone to bill cosbys home several times before that and she had gone after that. She had accompanied him and met him at Foxwoods Casino where he was performing that and specifically went into that because andrea originally had written that bill cosby invite her to the bedroom because she was going to pack and she crossed that out and originally had written they laid down on the bed together with their legs touching and she crossed that out. The defense made a point of this and ultimately, she said we were just close to each other at that point. Now the prosecutor objected to all of this because the preliminary hearing is not credibility. That is not taken into account. It is a prima fascia case. But the way the defense got it in, they kept saying there was consent to all this and the defense was very strong in their argument and during testimony. Bill cosbys statement saying bill cosby admitted to the things but said it was consensu consensual. She was given some pills but wasnt woozy. Wasnt unconscious. She didnt object. She never said no and she was able to say no. She was able to talk. In the closing argument, the defense actually started screaming at the top of their lungs in the courtroom and i have a quote here, they said, no one should be brought to an American Courtroom to undergo this, screaming at the judge, directly at the judge. The judge obviously ruled that the case will go on. But the prosecution really focused on the elements and that they had proven that prima fascia case and i feel a bump and i looked up and right there was bill cosby, right above me. He was being led into the courtroom on the other side but he had bumped into my court bench really hard and the defense had said his eyesight is impaired. He is actually blind and cant see, and he went walked out from my court bench and to the defense table and sat down. We see him led in by an aid. Clearly, got vision problems. Ashleigh banfield, youve covered this story for a long time. This is one woman, Andrea Constand who made these allegations against bill cosby but what, there are more than 50 other women who made similar allegations . And Gloria Allred represents 30 of them. She doesnt represent andrea but has a lot of interest because her clients may paraded in there. That has yet to be determined, wolf. We dont know how many women or if any of them will be allowed to come in to testify to patterns, things that seem similar to them that Andrea Constand said happened to her so that still has to be resolved. Who and how many witnesses may come in on behalf of the prosecutors but i think what you saw today, especially what jean casarez just reported which is remarkable to me and i think a lot of people who watch court that the defense was screaming in the courtroom. No american should have to be brought in an American Court to go through this. Referring to their client, bill cosby who is suffering from difficulties in bumping into things on the way and that may be a classic case of jury pool work because we are now going to be looking for 12 people who can be fair and unbiassed no matter what theyve seen in this case, no matter what theyve heard in the millions of words that have been printed in broadcast about bill cosby and the allegations of his indiscretions, but man, that you see some serious lawyering and serious leg work and real estate being laid for what is to come. Whenever they decide when this trial is to happen but the headline is huge. I dont think we all are surprised, wolf, but the fact that he is going to stand trial for andrea and that case, it doesnt mean were not going to hear about all the others as well. Thats an important point. Danny cevallos, what did you expect to hear . This is a pretrial hearing, the judge made the decision not to go forward with the trial on this judge. Its a very serious charge of indecent Sexual Assault against Andrea Constand. Were you surprised by the decision by the judge to go forward with the trial . Reporter i was not, wolf. Preliminary hearings in pennsylvania and elsewhere in the county have always been the prosecutions show. The burden is very light. The prosecution must only show a prima fascia case. More likely than not a crime was committed and this defendant committed it. Consequentially, most preliminary hearings are held over for trial and because of that statistic, Defense Attorneys approach preliminary hearings with an added objective. To test the medal of the prosecutions case and two, if possible, get as much information about the prosecutions case as they can as they prepare for trial and if that is a test of the defenses job at a preliminary hearing, by all accounts, by any measurement, the defense did a very, very good job today. Another battleground issue was using hearsay, using constands statement instead of constand herself to testify, but it is true that last year in 2015, Pennsylvania Superior Court issued an opinion allowing the prosecution to make out their case using solely hearsay evidence. A case that many in the defense bar have called down right unfair and is currently on appeal to the supreme court. It is a rule that may not be a rule for long. Let me go back to ashleigh. I know youre there with joey jackson, one of our legal analysts and want to hear his analysis is. How do you go forward in a case like this and make sure the trial will be a strong trial because theres a lot of publicity out there and the jury could be impacted . Wolf, thats the very issue. The issue, make no mistake about it, the defense in this particular case was playing not to the court but playing to the jury pool who is going to have to assess the voracity of the victim in this case so therefore, this is not about from a judges perspective, wolf. A credibility assessment. This is not about, did you consent or not consent, those are factual issues. All of this is about is do you have enough . Do you have enough reasonable belief that a crime was committed and cosby committed it . Therefore, no surprise at all that the matter is going to trial and the defense was challenging and challenging because theyre serving notice that they believe in their client, theyre serving notice everyone in the world should know when that jury gets in panel, should not do this. Two significant issues we have to talk about. The first significant issue relates to the issue of consent. Remember were talking about pills here. Was it penn dribenadryl or herb supplement or quaaludes . But when you elevate and talk about drug use and gave her drugs and wine, how do you really consent when someone takes those things and also keep in mind, there are three theories the defense has to rebut here because the prosecution is proceeding on the theory, number one, three counts that there was no consent. Even if you get out of she didnt consent, now she was unconscious. Thats count number two and count number three is that the defense plied her with alcohol and made her unconscious. The next hurdle, what Ashleigh Banfield talked about earlier and that was the parade of women coming in that courtroom. Thats going to be a battleground. The defense really has to object and say, you know what . If theres a common plan, a says common scheme, if theres a similar interest that all of them have, it goes to motive or intent and the law says, yes, you can testify, but this is so overwhelmingly prejudicial, my client is not going to be evaluated and judged on what he did or didnt do to Andrea Constand but on what he did yesterday, the week before, the year before, the month before and that would be a collateral issu issue. In order to keep the rights fair, they do not allow them to testify and the extent to limit this issue and make it about Andrea Constand, that would be significant because if the women come in, its not about what he did to her, he did it to all the women and that represents guilt. And, you know, ashleigh, if hes convicted on these three felony charges of Sexual Assault, the incident going back to 2004, what kind of sentences could he anticipate . Were talking about an 80yearold man here. So any sentence could be a life sentence when youre looking at these particular felony Sexual Assaults, about ten years a piece if i know pennsylvania law and then three separate counts. Could they be current or consecutive . My thought is that its all based on one act, not three different acts at three different times. Theyre not consecutive. It would be concurrent. If he got the max, likely ten years but for an 80yearold. But i have to say, wolf. To what joey, my esteemed colleague here said, the parade of women. Youre right. It is absolutely, you know, a probative versus prejudice durable iss case. But phil specter, i always bring that up. There was a parade of women who came in to say the same thing happened to them and it could have been the lynch pin in his case because when you talk about all the discrepancies in this case, andreas got discrepancies in what she told the police, bill cosbys got discrepancies in what he told them. It will be a battle of the discrepancies but if you bring in those women, we have heard over and over, theres not a lot of discrepancy as to the pattern of that practice. This represents a real Fertile Ground and were not there yet because there has to be a trial but in the event youre convicted, theres something called an appeal and something about propensity, they cannot be about my propensity to kill or Sexual Assault or drink, they have to be about what did you do on the day in question, the evening in question . So in the event, the judge has to be very careful in terms of allowing these things in. If, its a huge if, theres a conviction here, the extent to the appeal being viable depends on how many, if any, women that judge allow to come into that courtroom saying he did it to me, he did it to me, he did it to me. After a while, he says, hes serial in terms of doing this, therefore, guilty. Thats a huge tight rope to walk for any litigator who decides to go down that path. It is powerful. Juries are absolutely riveted by this kind of testimony and can be the absolute lynch pin as it may have been for phil specter but no trial date yet but we have an appearance and it will be july 20th. Those pictures youre seeing on your screen right now, dozens and dozens of media under that courtroom, when they got this announcement and went live with this. I guarantee you, it may just be status quo or status hearing but there will be that much coverage all the way through this case because there are so many other cases of allegations where they cant get a court date because of statute of limitations, they cant get resolution civilly because of statute of limitations. They want to see what happens in this one and many feel they get justice based on andrea and andrea alone. I want to go back to jean casarez outside of the courthouse in norristown, pennsylvania. Jean, another hearing, another appearance at the end of july and then set a date . Is that right . Reporter thats true to a point. The formal arraignment set for july 20th. In the courtroom, waived his appearance. Signed the piece of paper right then and there and spoke that the judge said, so you have waived your formal arraignment and the judge said thank you and that was it. So the discovery will now begin. The case is bound over for trial in the court of common pleas which is the trial court so now well see what happens but motions are going to be filed both ways. They should be public and of course, the big question whether other womens testimony will be allowed in this case. That will be a huge hearing before the trial comes out and the defense will want to suppress it all. Well have full coverage, obviously, of all of this. The headline, bill cosby will stand trial in connection with these three felony Sexual Assault charges the judge has ruled he will have a trial. Well have much more on this. Also, when we come back, well get back to the race for the white house. We dig deeper with the battle for trump and clinton as both decide what theyre fighting for and Bernie Sanders doubling down on claims the Democratic National convention could get messy. His words, messy. Is it good for the Democratic Campaign . Im only in my 60s. Ive got a nice long life ahead. Big plans. So when i found out medicare doesnt pay all my medical expenses, i got a Medicare Supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if youre eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80 of your part b medical expenses. The rest is up to you. Call now and find out about an aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare Insurance Company. Like all standardized Medicare Supplement insurance plans, it could save you in outofpocket medical costs. Call now to request your free decision guide. Ive been with my doctor for 12 years. Now i know ill be able to stick with him. [ male announcer ] youll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. Plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. See why millions of people have already enrolled in the only Medicare Supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp. Dont wait. Call now. So you dont have to stop. , tylenol® 8hr arthritis pain has two layers of pain relief. The first is fast. The second lasts all day. We give you your day back. What you do with it is up to you. Tylenol®. Dontlive in tokyo. When you airbnb, you have your own home. So, live there. Even if its just for a night. Theres breaking news in the world of politics here. We just learned that democratic president ial candidate Bernie Sanders is asking for a formal recount of what happened in the kentucky president ial primary. Bernie sanders says the Democratic Convention thats upcoming in philadelphia also could get messy. His word. Were standing by to speak with a top Bernie Sanders senior advisor, larry, talking to him in a moment but i want to bring in Gloria Borger and david. Whats the recount . I think what theyre trying to do is to get their people more impassioned about this campaign. Its been an issue that sanders supporters have been talking about. In a way, the campaign may be reacting to the passion of their supporters. I also personally believe this is a campaign with 5 million cash on hand. When you get your supporters more riled up, its also a better way to raise money. Its really not a matter of delegates, as you point out. Its a matter of one or so delegates but i think its a matter of trying to get that momentum back heading into california. So they go into this convention with something really to say and much more leverage about election reform, the issues that Bernie Sanders really cares about. The race in kentucky was very, very close to 2,000 votes. Won by less than 2,000 votes. Allison declared shes the winner and a Hillary Clinton supporter who raised concerns about Bernie Sanders supporters, of course, but glorias right. Even to win, it would maybe be a difference of one delegate. That would be it. That would switch the one extra delegate she netted to Bernie Sanders. Listen. Heres what i think is going on. And i think its really interesting. I think what you see lately from Bernie Sanders ever since the controversy over the nevada sort of vitriolic words we heard out of people in nevada and the Democratic Convention and the tension rising between the sanders camp and the clinton camp, i think you see sanders try to find ways to give his supporters a release valve, an avenue to express their passion as gloria was saying. I think we saw this over the weekend him saying he was supporting debbie wassermanschultz, her primary opponent in florida when he said he would not reappoint as dnc chair if elected president and now this. None of these things are damaging to Hillary Clinton. Its not about going on the attack to Hillary Clinton or saying shes not qualified to be president or taking the fight, continue to her in that way but does draw contrast on the trail but i actually think what youre seeing from Bernie Sanders of late is giving continued avenue of passionate support for his supporters without trying to take down Hillary Clinton. You know what, larry is standing by, a senior advisor. Lets get his reaction. So whats the point, larry, first of all, thanks for joining us of this recount in kentucky. I think the point is just transparency. Not just about kentucky. Its about trying to create a context now and at the convention that these primaries and caucuses need transparency. They need to be authentic. They need to build confidence among voters, particularly Younger Voters that this is not rigged and this is for real. I think its just a simple recount. The bigger items are things like the platfom writing committee. What will the rules be Going Forward . Is this a populist party or the financial elite . Speaking about the platform, they agree that Bernie Sanders would have five representatives on the Platform Committee. Thats a third. Is that good enough for you right now . Well, not only that, but we would say the makeup of that Platform Committee is a good group. Its a broad Cross Section and represents newer elements in the Democratic Party. Not just the old guard. Our senior staffer warren will be there with maya harris and personally, im confident that we can have a good outcome from that committee. What did he mean when he thought the convention in philadelphia in july would be, quote, messy . Its not going to be or likely to be orchestrated like theyve been since 1988. Its more likely to have motions come to the floor about the rules of the party. Its not the platform. And that kind of debate is healthy. I think the key thing is that we believe that coming out of philadelphia, this will be a much more appealing party, particularly to Younger Voters. It will be a much greater sense this party is on the move, not in the past. And thats what our goal is. Is it your goal after california and a week later here in washington, dc when the democratic contest takes place, if she has more pledge delegates, will he concede at this point or will he still fight to go all the way to the convention . Well, i think in terms of the Political Revolution, it definitely goes to the convention. I dont want to speak for senator sanders about that now. Hes focused on california and six other states plus puerto rico to actually get large numbers of delegates so that Political Revolution is much more realistic or that he, in fact, can persuade delegates that hes the better nominated to take on donald trump. Is he himself acknowledges the arithmetic is not in his favor now. Ahead by 300 pledge delegates and maybe 500 or so of the socalled super delegates. So how do you overcome that . Its about 270. Its still, he calls it, uphill, a narrow path. And, you know, thats based on the number of people that are still to vote but i think a part of that is also to give encouragement to, again, young elements of voters in the largest state in the country. California, and the six other states plus puerto rico that their say counts too and that this road to build a populist party is a long road and we need everybody to stay on it. So even if hes behind in pledge delegates after the district of columbia on june 14th, hes not going to concede. Is that what i hear you say . No, im saying that is clearly, you know, up to him. Thats not, i think that will depend on what the results actually are. Hes definitely going to continue on the path of how do we have the kind of party that appeals to our voters and so that means a negotiation and i think it depends in large part on how that goes, what kind of a party do we have and where do we stand on differing from the president on the Transpacific Partnership or are we just about words . Its about key issues that people really care about across this country as well as about his candidacy. Its always been about those. Larry, thank you very much for joining us. Pleasure. Up next, the increasingly harsh ads. Month after month. Year after year. Then one night, you hydroplane into a ditch. Yeah. Surprise. Your Insurance Company tells you to pay up again. Why pay for insurance if you have to pay even more for using it . If you have Liberty Mutual deductible fund™, you could pay no deductible at all. Sign up to immediately lower your deductible by 100. And keep lowering it 100 annually, until its gone. Then continue to earn that 100 every year. Theres no limit to how much you can earn and this savings applies to every vehicle on your policy. Call to learn more. Switch to Liberty Mutual and you could save up to 509. Call Liberty Mutual for a free quote today at see Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. By switching to xfinity x1. Rio Olympic Games show me gymnastics. X1 lets you search by sport, watch nbcs highlights and catch every live event on your tv with nbc sports live extra. Im getting ready. Are you . X1 will change the way you experience nbcuniversals coverage of the rio Olympic Games. Call or go online today to switch to x1. Donald trump and Hillary Clinton havent secured the partys nominations officially, at least not yet, and hasnt stopped them from squaring off against each other anyway and according to to a donald trump top adviser hes not even started playing rough. Heres a little hint for them. Please. Donald trump is this uber billionaire real estate developer, possibly the greatest negotiator in the history of this planet. Hell never come out with his first offer. Right . In real estate right off the bat, meaning if she thinks that this is bad, right, this is nothing. He is not coming out with his strong. All right. Lets bring in john phillips, radio talk show host in los angeles and a donald trump supporter, also joining us, cnn political commentator, maria cardona. Thank you very much for joining us. Hey, wolf. Thank you. One of Donald Trumps new ads takes liberties sort of with bill clintons past with women. Hillary clinton hammering donald trump over the housing collapse. A question to both of you. Is anything off limits . John, first to you. In this race, assuming its a race between donald trump and Hillary Clinton. Well, its fitting we are having this conversation on the day that the bill cosby news broke because i think theres similarities here. Going back to the story, pretty much everyone come on, john. The allegations of Sexual Assault were pretty much just in the National Enquirer and anyone talking about it, it was like touching a live wire. Wendy williams did it and got fired. Janice dickinson trying to talk about it in a book. An npr reporter dressed down by bill cosby. Hannibal burress on stage talks about it and the story takes on a life of its own. It was exposed to people who had never heard about it before. With bill clinton, the same thing is true in the sense that everyone knows that bill clinton has a wandering eye and the allegations of Sexual Assault, the allegations are pretty much just in the tabloids and the conservative press. If donald trump talks about this, everyones going to have to cover it and it will be exposed to a whole new generation. Maria, go ahead. That is just so ridiculous, john, to make a comparison here and just underscores to me when donald trump goes after the clintons this way is because hes desperate and he cannot meet Hillary Clinton on the battlefield of ideas. Which is what American Voters are looking for. Look. Her attacks on him are actually on his supposed business accumen, his businesses that frankly hes let go bankrupt four times on the fact in 2006 and 2007 rooting for a housing crisis and millions of people lost their homes and jobs and, frankly, the fact that in his current proposals for the economy many economists and professionals have said they would tank our economy and would lower wages and would be disastrous for america. And so, those are the kinds of comparisons that Hillary Clinton is going to focus on when she actually has fought for American Families for 30 years. They both have something in common. The reason for voting, according to the new wall street journal nbc news poll, majority of clinton voters voting against donald trump. And its actually the same story for trump voters, majority arent necessarily voting for him. Theyre voting against Hillary Clinton. Instead of voting for donald trump. So, john, could this be problematic come november . Well sure, it could be problematic but you have seen the ads, the prohillary pacs running and whats happened since they hit the air waves . Hillarys negatives gone up and donald trump is beating her right now and many of the most recent head to head polls so i think shes got to be careful about the same line of attack that many of the republicans in the primary launched against him that didnt work. I dont know why she is repeating it. Go ahead. Lets let maria respond. The reason it didnt work for republicans is because they did not go after him until months in to the election, into the primary process and didnt take him seriously. Hillary clinton is taking him seriously and last thing she and democrats and many independents and a lot of moderate republicans want is to have somebody as incompetent and, frankly, as dangerous and donald trump in the white house. And that is what Hillary Clinton is going to focus on. The message of what his presidency would mean to middle class families and her record shows that while, again, for 30 years she has been fighting for middle class families for affordable child care, for higher wages, donald trump, he has been out to enrich himself and trying to burnish his credentials as a manhattan playboy. Maria, john, the debate i suspect is only just beginning. Well have of course both of you back as the debate continues. Thank you. Thank you. Theres other news following right now, including a major battle for fallujah in iraq in the second full day and the fighting clearly is intense. Iraqi forces have launched an offensive against whats described as the isis stronghold and new pictures of fighting just outside the city. The u. S. Already involved hitting 21 targets with air strikes over the past few days. Fallujah is a key stronghold for isis lying about 40 miles from baghdad. Its been under isis control since january of 2014. There also been isis attacks in and around baghdad in recent days that have claimed more than 100 lives. All of this happening as iraqi forces are scrambling the try to protect baghdads highly secured green zone which has been breached recently. Cnns Barbara Starr has exclusive reporting from inside iraq with the commander of the u. S. Military central command. Reporter protesters invade baghdads green zone for the second time. Violence rising as opposition to the Iraqi Government grows. The top u. S. Commander running the war against isis is watching carefully for the stress mounting on the Iraqi Military even now as it tries to recapture the key city of fallujah. Theyre having to make decisions in terms of where their force going, where their priorities are. Reporter but in baghdad, with the u. S. Embassy and military headquarters inside the heavily fortified green zone, does the u. S. Have enough security on hand . Yes, i do think we have the right Security Forces on ground, on the ground from a u. S. Perspective to take care of ourself there. Reporter cnn was the only network with general joseph votel, the u. S. Commander in charge of the war against isis as he traveled in iraq getting the latest assessments on security and the readiness of iraqi forces. This base about one hour north of baghdad is one of the front lines in the effort to train, advise and assist iraqi forces. But they have at least temporarily seen some iraqi forces called back to baghdad for a few weeks to deal with the security situation there in the wake of the rising attacks by isis. Votel is trying to convince iraqs military to make certain to station enough troops around the country and not to flood baghdad with Security Forces as the government tries to confront the latest violence in the capital. They are attempting to create chaos in the capital. Theyre attempting to divert attention away from other areas where theyre where the Coalition Forces and iraqis are having success. Reporter this military warehouse just to the south in kuwait brimming with more than 25,000 weapons for those iraqi forces. All are being shipped out as more iraqis show up for u. S. Led training. Barbaras joining live from amman, jordan, barbara, if the i Iraqi Forces Retake fallujah, will that have an impact on isis ability to launch terror attacks, lets say, in baghdad, in the green zone, for example . Reporter well, it may well be just that, wolf, with fallujah as you know west of baghdad, its a major route in to the capital. Now, baghdad 6 million, 7 million people. Impossible to completely seal off but the iraqis trying to gather more intelligence all the time on where these ieds and bomb factories are just outside the city so they hope if they can regain control of fallujah that does a couple of things. It lets them move more towards baghdad and ensure that road is secure and it can help ensure to give them a jumping off point to try to bring further security deeper in to western iraq so its something they very much want to do but the u. S. Also pointing out to them votel also pointing out to them, mosul, that major city north of baghdad, still lies ahead, still what has to be gotten back from isis. Can the iraqi troops Liberate Mosul this year . Whats the assessment, the analysis . Reporter well, that from everyone we talk to, that may be very difficult. You know, if you say can they Liberate Mosul, you also have to ask the obvious question, can they hold on to it . They may be able to get to parts of the city but a full, you know, liberation and holding on to it, changing life in mosul, that could be some time away. Barbara starr doing excellent reporting for us. Thanks so much. The news continues right now. Hi there. Im brooke baldwin. You are watching cnn here. Breaks news out of pennsylvania. We are leading with the fact that actor and Comedian Bill Cosby will stand trial for Sexual Assault. The ruling came down just about an hour ago at cosbys pretrial hearing. His attorney during the closing arguments screaming at the judge. Top of his lungs. This is according to our crews inside that courtroom. Well talk to her in a moment, correspondent, lashing out. The judge deciding there is, indeed, enough evidence to proceed with