Transcripts For WJLA This Week With George Stephanopoulos 20

WJLA This Week With George Stephanopoulos May 29, 2016

The fallen on this memorial day weekend. From abc news, its this week here now, chief white house correspondent, jonathan carl. Good morning, and thank you for joaning us on this memorial day weekend. Donald trump and Hillary Clinton started the week off by making history. Setting a new low as the two most unpopular president ial front runners since the dawn. Actually made it worse, now facing real questions that cut to the core of their campaigns, and whether they can unite their parties and the country this fall. We got the nomination yesterday, right . So we have the nomination. Were number one. It was the week donald trump went over the top. Hitting the magic number of 1,237 delegates to clench the republican nomination. Weve won the nomination. Big. Believe. We were supposed to be in july, in cleveland fighting for our lives. But it didnt exactly look like a victory lap. First trump continued to wage war on his own party taking swipes at new mexicos popular republican governor Susana Martin martinez. We have to get your governor, shes got to do a better job. Hey, maybe ill run for governor of new mexico, ill get this place going. Then more turmoil at trump tower, including the ouster of his recently hired political director and trump once again failed to secure the endorsement of the most powerful republican in washington. What im most concerned about is making sure we have real party unity, not pretend party unity. Finally rampant protests outside his rallies brought out the police in full riot gear. But it was Hillary Clinton who actually had the worst week. The scathing state Department Inspector generals report that says her email practices violated government policy. The rules had been clarified since i left about the practice. Having said that, i have said many times it was a mistake. And despite being just 73 delegates away from clenching the democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton still hasnt put away Bernie Sanders in california. Where the race is now just statistically tied. Meanwhile, sanders has set his sights on trump, the two challenging each other to a debate before trump bowed out. And i say to donald trump, youre a big, macho guy, if you have any guts, come on down and lets debate the issues. And joining us now, the chairman and chief strategist of the trump campaign, paul manifort. Thank you for joining us. And your candidate has not clenched the nominatio than anybody expected and setting a record in the process, congratulations. Thank you very much. I want to the ask you, even as hes done this this week, donald trump went out and we saw he took a shot at Susana Martinez, criticizing her, even mitt romney saying he choked like a dog, walks like a penguin, took a shot at jeb bush still. What is the strategy here . Is any republican who criticizes trump or his policies going to be face this kind of fire . This has been greatly blown out of proportion. I mean governor romney, you know, is jealous of the fact that the first businessman to be nominated by the Republican Party with record numbers is mr. Trump. And that with a chance of wi winning the white house. Romney had a chance, he lost it, he see that donald trump has not only won the nomination, but he won with record numbers and hes not leading in some of the polls already. The Governor Martinez thing, the focus is on the trump was talking about as he does always when he goes anywhere, the problems in government that arent working and arent helping the people. Hes talking about the welfare system and just as he criticizes issues in washington, when hes in the states, he talks about things that need to be done to improve the situation for the voters and for the people, thats why hes running for president. The fact that it was a republican governor of new mexico, is not the point. The point is that the system was broken. If it was a democratic governor, hed have been saying the same thing. Hes out there representing the interests and talking about what needs to be done and why as president he will change things and make peoples lives better. Thats what its all about. Again, the media is trying to always find issues where there arent issues. They said he couldnt he was not a serious candidate. They said he couldnt achieve 30, 40, 50 , he couldnt win the nomination on the first ballot. Said he wasnt going to be able to win a general election, unite the party, all of these things are wrong, hes proven them all wrong in record time. We clenched the nomination the first week in may. Though, what happened with this debate that sure looked like it was going to happen between donald trump and Bernie Sanders . Heres what mr. Trump himself said earlier this week. I want to debate him so badly. Id love to debate bernie. Bernies not going to win, i will debate him anyway if they want to put up money from charity. Now suddenly donald trump is unwilling to debate Bernie Sanders, whats going on . Is he afraid of facing off with Bernie Sanders . Hes not afraid to face off with Bernie Sanders, hes the republican nominee now. The question is why is Hillary Clinton afraid to debate Bernie Sanders . Shes the one in the democratic primary with him. And the point mr. Trump was trying to make was the democratic system is rigged. Its been rigged from the beginning. For Hillary Clinton. Bernie sanders has been winning primaries and losing delegates. Now youve got california, a state where clinton thought she was going to win, the race has gotten very close. Bernie sanders wants to Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders should have that chance. Mr. Trump was saying, debates are important, he would have debated Bernie Sanders if Bernie Sanders were the nominee, but Hillary Clinton should be debating him today. But this is a flipflop, i mean, you heard the tape, he said, over and over again, that he wanted to debate Bernie Sanders. And then suddenly it was no. He does, but nothing changed. He does, but well, what changed is he became the presumptive nominee, the actual nominee of the party between the time he said it and the time that happened. The point is that Hillary Clinton should be debating senator sanders, Hillary Clinton is the one who is in the democratic primary. When the general election happens, when theres a democratic nominee, mr. Trump will debate whoever emerges from the system. Lets talk about the next big decision that donald trump has to make, a running mate. Where are you in the process as mr. Trump started interviewing potential running mates yet . Mr. Trump has said that he wants a Vice President who knows with the congress, and could be viewed as somebody who could be president. He has identified a list of people. Hes talking about those lists. He said that its the qualifications of the candidate that matter, not the gender, not the ethnicity, that doesnt mean there arent women or hispanics on the list, hes looking at the qualifications. And hes started that process. He announced that he would announce his candidate some time around the convention and were on track for that to happen. Is he asking potential running mates as part of the running process to turn over their tax returns . The list of candidates that he will be considering will be fully vetted. The exact process were not talk about pg. Including tax returns . Were not talking about the process. They will be fully vetted and hell be comfortable with the selection as far as the American Peoples concerned. You mentioned women and minorities, in an interview with Howard Fineman this week, you said t choose a woman or a minority because in fact, that would be viewed as pandering, what did you mean . How would choosing a woman or a minority be seen as pandering . No, no, there was another part to it which i just said a minute ago, i said mr. Trump was looking at qualifications of all the candidates and he wouldnt select someone only on the basis of gender or ethnicity. Thats not to say that because that would be pandering. The qualifications, a female whos qualified, thats a different story. And there are Many Republican women who are qualified in several whom might be on the list. So are you mr. Trump had said that he wanted somebody with washington experience. Thats still where we are. Are we likely to see somebody who is serving in congress or has served in congress . He said washington experience, people who could work with the congress. And those are the credentials. I want to ask you about Something Else that the washington post, donald trump brought up the Conspiracy Theory that vince foster was murdered. Of course he also brought up allegations that bill clinton had committed rape back in the 1990s, are we going to see more of this . Is this the kind of campaign hes going to run . He didnt say that bill clinton had done that. He was referencing a woman who said that. That had a relationship with bill clinton. The point is, you know, trouble follows the clinton everywhere. People are frustrated with all of the drama around the Clinton Family and the history of the Clinton Family. And certainly, if theyre going to be backing the political view, then their history is relevant who to what the American People can expect. The point is Hillary Clinton is running a as team. He said she doesnt want to handle the economic responsibilities of the job, he wants her husband to do so. The most important job the president has other than defending the country, she doesnt want to participate in. Mr. Trump said ok going to put off the economic portfolio to her husband, then the whole familys up for discussion. Okay, and one more question before you go, the New York Times reported that some on your Campaign Staff believe that the Campaign Headquarters there at trump tower has been bugged. Whats going on with that . I dont know who said that. Certainly there are people who would like to because theres a lot of good work going on there and we been able to develop a campaign thats cohesive, working together and in a record time thanks to a great candidate whose got a vision connected to the people American People put that campaign in a position to win the presidency. Were looking forward. Do you believe your Campaign Headquarters has been bugged . Do i believe it . No, i dont believe it, but i dont know who said that. All right. Paul manifort, thank you for joining us. Thank you, happy to be on. Now to the democratic side where Hillary Clinton is to put away Bernie Sanders, and at the same time, dealing with that scathing report from the state departments Inspector General on her use of private email while she was secretary of state. Joining us now is senator Diane Feinstein, the senator from the state of california and one of Hillary Clintons strongest supporters in in congress. Senator feinstein, thank you for joining us. Thank you. I want to ask you about that Inspector General report. For more than a year secretary clinton said over and over again she did not break the rules, but this report makes it clear that she never asked for permission for her private email arrangement and that if she had, quote, the state department did not and would not approve her exclusive reliance on a personal email account to conduct department business. Has she been misleading the public on this for well over a year . No, i dont think so. I think questions are asked and answers are sometimes taken out of context. Hillary clinton broke no law. Report. The conclusion of the report does not say that. What it says is that the department does not handle these electronic platform operations well, and needs to do better. Hillary, herself, has said, yes, i made a mistake, if i had a chance to do it over again, id do it differently. I mean, what do people want . This goes on and on and on, were reaching the final stages of a primary, Hillary Clinton is going to win this primary. I say enough is enough, lets get to the major problems facing this nation. But mrs. Clinton has said, it was widely known that she was using her personal email, but if you look at this report, it says that when state Department Staffers expressed concerns about the arrangement, their staff never to speak of the secretarys personal email system again. That sure sounds like somebody trying to hide something. Oh wait a second, i dont believe she was trying to hide anything. Ive known hillary for a quarter of a century, let me tell you what i do think. I think this is a woman who wants a little bit of a private life. She wants to be able to communicate with husband, with daughter, with friends, and not have somebody looking over her shoulder into her emails. Having said that, it is what it is. And you know, i dont think we should make a federal case over it. So Bernie Sanders has seemed more willing to talk about this lately just the other day he was asked about the possibility that Hillary Clinton could be indicted before the Democratic Convention and he had this to say. If, if, if, im not saying it is, but theres Something Like impact the electorate . Of course it would. And would that be taken into consideration by the delegates . Of course it would. So hes suggesting that if that were to happen, this would be happen that could sway the super delegates. I assume hes suggesting to support him instead of Hillary Clinton. I profoundly disagree she needs effectively 73 more delegates. She will have that after the election in new jersey. Before the polls close in california. Off new poll in california that shows this race is a dead heat. Hillary clintons is spending six figures on advertising in the democratic primary. Is Bernie Sanders doing damage to Hillary Clinton, hurting her chances against donald trump by fighting this hard this long . Well, bernie look, as been said, senator sanders has the right to run, no question. He ought to be able to read the sign posts as we else. And if he did that, he would know that its all been over. So the question comes, you know, why doesnt he do those things . Which bring all democrats together so that we can have a concessivention thats positive negative, so we can have a platform that all of this great, wide, broadbased party can say, this is my platform, i am proud of it. And the democrats together can march to victory in november. I know the passion of a campaign, i know when youre in it and you just can go, go, go until the last hour is there, well, the last hour is close by, it would be, i think, a very positive gesture for reconciliation if senator sanders were to consider putting his campaign in the very real perspective that its in and doing those things can bring the Party Together. So before you go, donald trump spent a lot of time in your state. He says that california will be up for grabs this year. Do you think thats possible . Could california go to the republicans for the First Time Since 1988 . Well, id be prepared to bet on it, and i would bet that would not happen. Thereve been about two million new registrations. There are seven million to four million democrats to republicans. So i dont think that will happen. All right. Senator feinstein, thank you for joining us on this memorial day weekend. Thank you very much, jonathan. And may i just say, california has lost a lot of our men and women in wars. And i just want to say, from the position of the senator from california, how grateful i am for their ultimate sacrifice. Thank you, senator. Senator feinstein notes, we commemorate memorial day weekend. Coming up later this hour, well have a powerful tribute to those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice serving our country. Plus the story of a reunion over 40 years in the making between some vietnam vets and their long lost translator. But when we come back, back to politics, will Donald Trumps Campaign Promises survive the Cleveland Convention . Stay with us. This week with George Stephanopoulos is brought to you by the blackberry priv. Your business is secured, shop now at blackberry. Com. Amazin. Real is making new friends. Amazing is getting this close. Real is an animal rescue. Amazing is over twentyseven thousand of them. There is only one place where real and amazing live. This week, donald trump and Hillary Clinton seemed on track to set yet another record as the two most unpopular president ial nominees in history. So who had the worst week . The round

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