THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT FOR 'THIS WEEK' ON August 21, 2016 and it will be updated.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOST: Let's go now to RNC Chair Reince Priebus.
He joins us now from Washington.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for joining us again today.
REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Thank you, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you just heard Kellyanne Conway right there saying she -- they're going to be beefing up their cooperation with you.
Do you believe that Donald Trump is now doing what it takes to change the trajectory of this race?
PRIEBUS: Yes, I think -- I really do, George. I think he's had a great week. I think he's been on message. He's -- he's shown maturity as a candidate.
I think that he is getting into a groove. I think he likes the new style that he has been out on the campaign trail producing and speaking of.
So I think he's done great. And I think what you're going to see is these polls will begin to tighten in the next couple of weeks and by Labor Day or thereafter, I think you're going to be back to an even race if we continue down this path.
STEPHANOPOULOS: It can't happen too quickly, I think, for a lot of Republicans getting nervous about whether he is going to be a drag on House and Senate races, as well, in fact, about 110 of them have written an open letter to you saying, quote, "Every dollar spent by the RNC on Donald Trump's campaign is a dollar of donor money wasted on a losing effort of a candidate who has actively undermined the GOP at every turn."
Your response?
PRIEBUS: Well, I think some of those folks are good people. I'm sure many of them are. But they don't understand what we do. So for everyone out there to understand, if we're in Ohio, we've got an important race for Senate in Rob Portman and we've got an important race, obviously, for president with Donald Trump.
Someone has to identify voters that we want to vote early and that we want to get an absentee ballot in their hands. And then we have to have a program to make sure that that absentee ballot actually gets into the box.
So whether you're pre -- you're doing that work for the Senate or the president or a House race, that's what the Republican National Committee does, in part.
What we have is most of these states that are in play for president are also important states for the Senate. So the work that we do on the ground in building data files, it's work that both a Senate race and a presidential race needs to have happen. That's what the RNC does.
So there is no -- there's no $50 million or $100 million put away for television. We don't buy TV. So it's not like taking $10 million away from one candidate and giving it to another.
This is work to identify swing voters and Republican voters, make sure they're going to vote our direction and then making sure they turn out...
STEPHANOPOULOS: But it's...
PRIEBUS: -- either by...
STEPHANOPOULOS: -- but is it OK with you...
PRIEBUS: -- early vote or on Election Day.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Is it OK with you if those candidates -- and we've already seen Senator Mark Kirk in Illinois repudiate Mr. Trump -- is it OK with you if those candidates follow the path that the RNC Republicans followed back in 1996, when it looked like Bob Dole was losing the race and they went on and said it's time to elect us so that we don't give a blank check to Bill Clinton then, Hillary Clinton now?
PRIEBUS: Well, I think those people need a lesson on federal election law. For -- so, first of all, in regard to Mark Kirk, that's not a presidential battleground state. So that's a different deal.
But back to your question, in 1996, there was soft corporate money coming into the political parties. So nat -- DNC/RNC, back in 1996, could take millions of dollars from corporations and buy television ads.
Well, the -- some of those same people that signed that letter were the same people that took away the right for national parties to be able to have that money for television ads.
So there is no soft money pass-through the national parties that, in October, could mean the difference between $100 million to a Senate race or $100 million to a presidential.
So this history lesson is great, but what you really have to look at is the election laws that allowed national parties to pivot like that in October. And that doesn't exist.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, you know, we -- we saw -- we had Kellyanne Conway just join us, campaign manager, also, the new CEO, Steve Bannon, has taken a -- a major role in the Trump campaign.
He's been quite quitit -- critical of the Republican leadership in Congress.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE BANNON, BREITBART.COM: They're not really interested in any type of reform. What they're interested in is a -- being the junior partner in increasing statism. And there is a dedicated group of libertarians and grassroots conservatives and Tea Party conservatives and limited government conservatives that are here to destroy that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you confident that he can be in charge of the kind of campaign that the Republican leadership, like Speaker Paul Ryan, are going to be comfortable with?
PRIEBUS: Well, first of all, I'm never happy with unearned criticisms of either the national parties or great leaders like Paul Ryan. But let me just say this. I think people can pivot into different roles. And ultimately, the person in charge of Donald Trump's campaign is Donald Trump.
And so let me just say, the last few days, I think everyone has seen that we have a continued pathway that Donald Trump has been pursuing, which I think is much better for this campaign. I think he's doing great. I think he's on a great pathway to -- to recalibrating the campaign and getting this thing tight.
And I obviously just saw Kellyanne Conway do, I think, a really fantastic job in -- in pivoting and showing the direction of this campaign that we're going. And Donald Trump has been disciplined and mature. And I think he's going to get this thing back on track. And also, tight and ahead as we move through September.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. Chairman, thanks for joining us this morning.
PRIEBUS: You bet.
Thank you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: They can make him read new words from a teleprompter, but he is still the same man who insults gold star families, demeans women, mocks people with disabilities, and thinks he knows more about ISIS than our generals.
There is no new Donald Trump. This is it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Hillary Clinton on the stump this week.
We're joined now by her campaign manager, Robby Mook. Thank you for joining us this morning.
And you heard Kellyanne Conway say, no, we are seeing a different Donald Trump. Best week of the campaign in the last week. And he's reinforcing that with new policies while Hillary Clinton promises more of the same.
ROBBY MOOK, HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, George, we're not seeing a pivot. Donald Trump himself said this was not a pivot. He wants to double down on letting Donald Trump be Donald Trump, that's why he's brought in to run his campaign someone who wrote -- or ran a so-called news organization, Breitbart News, which has peddled some of the worst conspiracy theories around. They've run news, quote unquote "news," that's defended white supremacists, that's been sexist, racist, the worst of our politics.
So, I think we should be very concerned.
I would also point out that Paul Manafort has been pushed out, but that doesn't mean that the Russians have been pushed out of this campaign. The hand of the Kremlin has been at work in this campaign for some time. It's clear that they are supporting Donald Trump.
But we now need Donald Trump to explain to us the extent to which the hand of the Kremlin is at the core of his own campaign. There's a web of financial interests that have not been disclosed. And there are real questions being raised about whether Donald Trump himself is just a puppet for the Kremlin in this race?
STEPHANOPOULOS: You're saying he's a puppet for the Kremlin?
MOOK: Well, real questions are being raised about that. We -- again, there's a web of financial ties to the Russians that he refuses to disclose. We've seen over the last few week, him parroted Vladimir Putin in his own remarks. We saw the Republican Party platform changed. She saw Donald Trump talk about leaving NATO and leaving our Eastern European allies vulnerable to a Russian attack. The gentleman he brought with him to his security briefing just last week is someone who's on the payroll of the Russia Times, which is a basically a propaganda arm of the Kremlin. He was sitting two seats away from Vladimir Putin at heir 10th Anniversary gala.
There are a lot of questions here. And we need Donald Trump to disclose all of his financial ties and whether his advisers are having meetings with the Kremlin.
STEPHANOPOULOS: A lot of questions this week, also, about the Clinton Foundation. You announced this week that the foundation would no longer take contributions from foreign governments or corporations if Secretary Clinton wins the White House.
And that has raised a lot of questions, people wondering why now and not when she was secretary of state.
Donald Trump Jr. in a tweet said, "is it OK to accept foreign and corporation money when secretary of state, but not when POTUS?"
And you just heard Kellyanne Conway, doesn't it suggest that taking those contributions when Secretary Clinton was serving as secretary of state was wrong?
MOOK: Well, first of all, George, the steps that were taken when Secretary Clinton went to the State Department were unprecedented. It's important to keep in mind this is a nonprofit, philanthropic organization. 90 percent of the cost of malaria drugs has come down because of the work of the Clinton Foundation. There are over 10 million people around the globe today receiving life saving HIV and AIDS drug treatments because of the Clinton Foundation.
We look at Donald Trump, his bottom line is interconnected to all kinds of financial interests that he refuses to disclose. They actually affect his net worth.
So, the steps that are being taken if she should become president are unprecedented. We're happy that that planning is taking place. But I think when we talk about transparency, when we talk about disclosure, Donald Trump needs to release his taxes. He needs to explain his financial ties.
Just yesterday, we read in The New York Times, that his businesses owe millions of dollars to the Bank of China. Donald Trump talks all the time about a trade war with China. How can he really do that when millions of dollars of his own bottom line could be affected directly by the Chinese government?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's stay on the foundation, though, for a second. It's not just Secretary Clinton's critics who are suggesting a change should come. You've had a former governor of Pennsylvania Ed Rendell said they should stop taking the contributions now, should disband.
The Boston Globe endorsed Secretary Clinton during the primaries. Here is what they wrote: "The Clinton Foundation is clearly a liability for Hillary Clinton as she seeks the presidency. The foundation should remove a political -- and actual -- distraction and stop accepting funding. If Clinton is elected, the foundation should be shut down."
Will that happen?
MOOK: Well, what the foundation has said is that they will continue to operate. Again, George, I want to keep in mind, millions of people around the world depend on life saving health treatments that the foundation provides, so just pulling the plug on that literally would threaten lives around the globe. So, the foundation is in the process figuring out how to refocus, re-shift.
As I said earlier, the steps that they've pledged to take as a philanthropic organization are unprecedented. You didn't hear questions about the Bush Foundation when the second Bush president came into office. His family continued to serve on the board there, President Clinton has said he'll step down from the Clinton Foundation board.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But hasn't it become a liability?
MOOK: No, look, what the foundation is saying is at the they don't want to become a distraction, that they want to go as far as they possibly can to make sure there's no possible conflict of interests. But again, George, I just want to be fair here, Donald Trump is refusing to disclose deep financial ties that potentially reach into the Kremlin, which could influence his foreign policy decisions, but also where countries like China have leverage over him and could potentially distort his decisionmaking there. None of this is being disclosed. You and I are having this conversation because the foundation has chosen on the take unprecedented steps to disclose their donors from the last few years.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You also heard Kellyanne Conway, though, talk about the debates saying that Donald Trump is not yet ready to say firmly that he's going to do the debates -- the dates set by the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Is your campaign opening to alternate dates for the debates?
MOOK: The dates are the dates, the debates are the debates. These rules and these dates were set a long time ago. We agreed to them immediately. Secretary Clinton looks forward to this debate. I think the voters are going to see a stark difference between steady leadership from Secretary Clinton, a depth of experience, and ill-temperament and poor judgment from Donald Trump, that's what they've seen this entire campaign.
We welcome these debates. Let's just get on with it. Nobody's ever argued over the rules. This is typical Donald Trump. I don't know if he's afraid to debate. I don't know if he just wants to attention of causing controversy. But either way, they just need to get over it. Let's have these debates, and let's the American people make their judgment.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party candidate, is coming up. Are you worried that she's going to drain votess from Secretary Clinton in a close race?
MOOK: You know, I'm not concerned about that, George. And our role here as a campaign is to make the case for Secretary Clinton every single day. she is the most qualified person to ever seek the presidency. She's going to provide the steady judgment that we want. And she's laid out clear plans to create an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. I don't think people want to divert their vote to Jill Stein or to anybody else. They're going to vote for Secretary Clinton. And we're going to keep focused on making her case.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Robby Mook, thanks very much.
And we will be right back with Dr. Jill Stein and our Powerhouse Roundtable.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC HOST: And Dr. Stein joins us now.
Thank you for coming in for your first Sunday interview. So tell our viewers right now, give them the 30-second case, why Jill Stein.
JILL STEIN (G), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because people are being thrown under the bus and they're tired of it. They're tired of a rigged economy. And they're tired of a rigged political system. And they don't like the two choices that are basically bought and paid for by the big banks, by the fossil fuel giants, by the war profiteers.
People are looking for a new way forward. I'm a physician, not a politician. I'm not part of the corrupt system. And I'm the only candidate in this race that's not corrupted by lobbyists' money, by super PACs, by corporate money.
So I actually have the liberty to stand up and offer the solutions that the American people are clamoring for.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You heard Robby Mook there, the Clinton campaign manager, say he wasn't worried about your candidacy. Yet Donald Trump has gone even further. Let's look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think a vote for Stein would be good. You know, that's the Green Party. Because I figure anybody voting for Stein is going to be for Hillary. So I think vote for Stein is fine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANOPOULOS: So he addresses what we showed in our poll as well.
What do you to say to those voters who would worry that, by voting for you, that are progressives, that are liberals, that are Democrats, that by voting for you they would actually help elect Donald Trump?
STEIN: Well, for one thing, that politics of fear that people have been told for quite a while, vote against who you're scared of rather than for the candidate who represents your values. What we have seen over the years is that this politics of fear actually delivered everything that we were afraid of. All the reasons people were told to vote for the lesser evil, because you didn't want the offshoring of our jobs, you didn't want the massive bailouts for Wall Street. You didn't want the endless expanding wars, the attack on immigrants. That's actually what we've gotten because we, the people, have allowed ourselves to be silenced.
Democracy needs a moral compass. It needs a vision, an affirmative vision of what we are about and an agenda that we can actually put forward.
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: There is --
STEIN: It's been a race to the bottom between those two parties that have thrown us under the bus.
STEPHANOPOULOS: There is a recent example, though, everybody goes back to the 2000 campaign. Progressives voted for Ralph Nader in Florida. They say that elected George W. Bush. There was a real difference there.
STEIN: Well, let's be clear. We're in a very different political moment. And we could argue that that Florida mythology until the cows come home. But I'll save that discussion for another day.
We are in a very different political moment right now, where most voters have rejected the Democrat and Republican Party, the largest bloc of voters is now Independent. Democrats and Republicans are both minority parties running at around 28 percent each. And the majority of voters has rejected Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and are clamoring for something else.
So who are those on top to be giving marching orders to, you know, voters to be good little boys and girls?
Politicians do not have a new form of entitlement. They are not entitled to our vote. They have to earn our votes. And Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have not earned our vote.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You are saying things that no other candidates are willing to say. And back on July 13th, you talked about disarming the police.
Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEIN: We also need to explore what it means to disarm our police force, because as a society, we have become armed combatants, all of us. And in addition to police targeting, there are so many people who are just caught in the crossfire of guns.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANOPOULOS: How would disarming police work in a society where there are millions of guns out there?
STEIN: Exactly, which is why I used the term something to explore for the future. So the context there really was talking about violence and police violence in particular, with over 600 deaths this year alone. And our need to actually hold police accountable so that we can address this scourge of racist violence.
And I think it's important to see that as not just police violence. We are in a violent society. We're all being caught in the crossfire.
So we've actually called for not only a police review board, not only investigators to look into each death at the hands of police, but also to call for a truth and reconciliation commission so that we can address this ongoing climate of fear and racism which, in many ways, has been a continuous line since the institution of slavery, lynchings, Jim Crow and so on into mass incarceration and the epidemic currently of police violence.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We showed that poll at the top of this segment showing you're 4 percent now, far better than you did back in 2012, still far from being able to win the race.
So what is victory for Dr. Stein and the Green Party this year?
STEIN: So remember, the curtain has only begun to come up on our campaign. Actually, with the CNN town hall meeting the other night, we're encouraging other stations to also hold town halls, because the American people deserve not only a right to vote, they deserve to know who they can vote for.
You know, I'm running 4 to 6, even 7 percent without any national coverage. This is basically percolating up from below, largely from a millennial generation that is locked out of a future right now.
And I'm in this running not only as a medical doctor practicing political medicine, because we've got to heal our sick political system, but I'm in this as a mother very concerned about the future that our younger generation doesn't have.
And that's who's mostly paying attention. But I think they're early adopters here, because if they don't have a future, we don't have a future. They are locked in debt. They don't have jobs and they are looking at a climate which is unraveling on their watch, just looking at the news of these last weeks, un -- unheard of flooding now in Louisiana and unprecedented fires in California, heat waves -- this is what the future looks like.
Because I am not captured by the usual suspects, I have the liberty to stand up and call for, importantly, our main platform, which is a -- an emergency jobs program to address the emergency of climate change. We're calling for a green New Deal that will create an emergency transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Dr. Stein, thanks for joining us this morning.
STEIN: Great to be with you.
from ABC News: Politics http://ift.tt/2bM58WV
via IFTTT
0 Response to "'This Week' Transcript: Conway, Mook, Priebus, and Stein"
Posting Komentar