2016 E-Mail under Scrutiny in Russia Meddling Probe; America's Troubled History of Racism
ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour --</s>JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Telepromptered Trump calls for unity a day after the President's wild, unscripted rant widely criticized for being divisive and misleading.</s>SESAY: Exclusive CNN reporting on the Russia investigation -- an e- mail about an attempt to set up a meeting between Trump campaign officials and Vladimir Putin is getting a lot of attention.</s>VAUSE: And as confederate statues in Charlottesville are covered up, a new documentary unveils what we may never have seen during racially- charged protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Hello everybody -- great to have you with us. I'm John Vause.</s>SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.</s>VAUSE: Oh, what a difference a teleprompter can make. U.S. President Donald Trump back urging peace and harmony, staying on message and reading from a teleprompter on Wednesday in Reno, Nevada. It a sharp contrast to his reality-challenged rant, at a campaign rally in Phoenix just a day earlier.</s>SESAY: Well, to be fair he called for unity in his Arizona speech, too and launched into an us versus them narrative that left many wondering which is the real Donald Trump? Here's a sample of Wednesday's scripted remarks.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is time to heal the wounds that divide us and to seek a new unity based on the common values that unite us. We are one people with one home and one great flag.</s>VAUSE: Joining us now democratic strategist Robin Swanson, Trump supporter and host of "America Trends" Gina Loudon, and political analyst Michael Genovese. Thank you all for being with us. Ok. So this week started with the commander in chief, Donald Trump announcing his strategy for Afghanistan. That was on Monday -- widely praised for being presidential as he outlined this strategy to the nation. Tuesday we head to Phoenix and it's Campaign Trump dividing the country in an unscripted rant, which really left the crowd quite enthused. By Wednesday, it's professional caregiver Trump healing the wounds, bringing everyone together. So Gina -- will the real Donald Trump please stand up.</s>GINA LOUDON, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I think we get the real Donald Trump every time we see him, like it or not. And I think that's a lot of what has confused the media this entire time. I think that, you know, he is so -- sometimes so honest and forthright and unpackaged. He's just not that Stepford president that a lot of us came to know and expect from Republican and Democrat presidents. And so now to somehow say well, this might be disingenuous is to say then that maybe he was packaged, which he never has been packaged. And so I don't think that it's very fair to say that anything that he said is anything different than exactly what he was feeling in the moment. That's pretty much the way this president is as we know.</s>SESAY: Robin -- to bring you in, I think, you know, the argument is not just what is said but it is also about the expectation for the behavior of the President -- the man in the Oval Office.</s>ROBIN SWANSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: That's right. And I think we've seen a lot of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and we're never really sure which one is going to show up. And I think what we would like to see is a little bit of dignity. I think showing a moral compass, showing some stability which a lot of folks are questioning, the President's stability right now. I think that's what people are craving in America. And we've seen, you know, he's not making America great again. He's making America hate again. And we've seen that in Charlottesville. We've seen it time and again. And he really needs to step up as a leader and show dignity.</s>VAUSE: Ok. Well, the President used a teleprompter on Monday. He used one on Wednesday. He did not use one on Tuesday. Here is a reminder of that rally in Phoenix.</s>TRUMP: How about all week they are talking about the massive crowds that are going to be outside. Where are they? Well, it's hot out. They show up in the helmets and the black masks and they have clubs and they've got everything -- Antifa.</s>VAUSE: Ok. So this is what Donald Trump has said in the past about politicians who use a teleprompter.</s>TRUMP: Thank you. I would have teleprompters, I would have used them. I've started to use them a little. They're not bad. You never get yourself in trouble when you use a teleprompter. You know the problem is it's too easy. We have a president who uses teleprompters; it's too easy. We should have non-teleprompter speeches only when you're running for President. You find out about this. You know, the way you don't find out about anybody.</s>VAUSE: You find out about someone, Michael, when they're using -- when they're not using the teleprompter. Should we take the President at his word?</s>MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think the teleprompter or not teleprompter Trump is a function of the battle within the White House and the battle for the heart and soul of Donald Trump. Clearly General Kelly and a lot of the Republican mainstream want him to go teleprompter mostly because he doesn't say the outrageous things that come back to haunt him. He wants to be unleashed. And I think Gina is right -- that is the real Trump. That's the Trump that got to be president by being Trump. And now that he's president, there are different expectations but he can't be chained in. He wants to be unleashed.</s>VAUSE: I just want to -- you know, the observation has been made, the stuff that he says on the teleprompter often is the stuff he does not believe. The stuff he says off the teleprompter is what is truly in his heart.</s>GENOVESE: Well clearly, the speech in Phoenix was from his heart. The attacks -- he felt he was a victim. He went after Republicans, Democrats; he went after the media. There is a lot off anger there and there's a lot of "Poor me, I'm always being attacked." It was 70 minutes of "poor me". And I think that's Donald Trump. He feels beleaguered. He feels that there are a lot people out there out to get him. That's the Trump that's inside. But the Trump from the teleprompter is the one that the general -- General Kelly and a lot of his top staff want him to be.</s>SESAY: Gina -- to go to you, to pick up on Michael's point that people like General Kelly want to see the President on teleprompters staying to the script and the fact that we've seen in the last couple of days that they've been unable to, does that essentially mean that they have lost that battle?</s>LOUDON: No, I think that, you know, every single person who's in that White House working for this President knows that they're working for this president. That he's not going to be a perfectly-packaged controlled Stepford president; that that is what America elected. America liked this honesty and this transparency. And frankly I think that most of America is much more concerned about the one million jobs that this President has created, about the bureaucracy that's gone away, about the things that he's done for veterans and the list goes on and on than they are about whether or not he's using a prompter. I think when he has those off prompter moments, that is him saying to the United States, I'm still me. I'm still in the driver's seat. You don't have to worry. I'm going to be here and I'm not going anywhere. And I think that's very reassuring to a lot of Americans who supported him and they don't want to see him go the way of a President Bush or President Obama who was packaged and perhaps artificial to many.</s>VAUSE: Robin I want you to respond to Gina but first, I want to show you this new Quinnipiac poll which has just come out. 62 percent believe the President is doing more to divide the country. 68 percent believe the President is not level-headed. So Robin -- they are staggering numbers and the events of the last few days really seemed to be fueling that perception as well.</s>SWANSON: Yes and I think, you know, what we're hearing from Gina and what we've heard from Donald Trump is all about Donald Trump. How about we care about what's happening to the American people? How about we actually focus on something other than Donald Trump's style and what he hasn't done -- how he hasn't performed for the American people. And I think that's what you're seeing in that poll. They don't trust him to get the job done because he's not shown good judgment. He's not shown the moral character that represents our country; that Americans thought that they elected. And so I think it time to stop talking about Donald Trump and time to start talking about what package is he going to deliver because so far he hasn't delivered much of anything for the people that elected him. I think people are going to be without their health care. People are going to be hurting for jobs. There is going to be, you know, economic packages that help --</s>LOUDON: There's a million jobs -- I mean --</s>SWANSON: And there's going to be economic --</s>LOUDON: I mean -- I really -- I want to ask you though -- I'd would like to hear from you --</s>SESAY: One at a time -- one at a time.</s>LOUDON: But you're making gross platitudes that are frankly untrue. A million jobs -- how many jobs would be satisfactory to you in the first 200 and some days? The highest consumer confidence in decades --</s>SWANSON: Gina -- all you've done is talk about Donald Trump and --</s>LOUDON: How much consumer confidence --</s>SESAY: One at a time --</s>LOUDON: I'm talking about the American people actually who get those jobs.</s>LOUDON: Btu you won't ever answer the questions as to what would make you happy? If Donald Trump cured cancer you would still say somehow that was about Donald Trump.</s>VAUSE: Gina -- you should have the (inaudible) come on.</s>LOUDON: Donald Trump is working for the American people.</s>SESAY: But Gina -- you have to acknowledge -- just to bring you back to the polls that John just read out, you've got to admit that the polls don't back up what you're saying.</s>LOUDON: Well, the stock market does. The consumer confidence does. And these, by the way, are the same polls that we all listened to right, all the way through the election cycle and guess what? They were wrong. When you really want to take the pulse of the American people, look at -- you know, what you do, you go to Main Street. You don't go to some Washington D.C. bubble poll taker and you don't go, I'm sorry, to all of us who are in the media, right who mostly live on the coast and don't spend a lot of time in Middle America who has an opinion too that happens to matter and they showed it in the election in November. Those are the people who matter and those are the people who came out and voted then.</s>SWANSON: And those are the --</s>VAUSE: Very quickly, I want to bring in Michael in on this -- guys. So Michael -- I mean first of all, is there a use by date to that -- the polls were wrong at the election so they're always going to be wrong excuse? And you know, what do you make of those numbers that we're seeing from Quinnipiac?</s>GENOVESE: Well, first of all, the polls at the national election were close to the outcome because Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by the margin that people thought. It was in the states that the disparities occurred. And so the polls were not that wrong. They got the outcome wrong. They got the numbers right in terms of the popular vote. But Donald Trump can't continue to govern successfully if he's going to be at 36 percent. He has to broaden his base and that speech on Tuesday was to his base. His base is already with him. His base loves him. He said I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and I wouldn't lose the vote. For his base there is some truth to that. But you can't govern with base alone. You have to expand. And his speech on Tuesday in which he attacked both Republican senators from Arizona, the commentary we're seeing about his tiff with McConnell.</s>VAUSE: The Senate majority leader.</s>GENOVESE: You can't govern with just a small base.</s>VAUSE: Yes. Politics they say is about addition, making friends and growing your support but that's not happening at the moment. Michael -- thank you so much for being us. Also Robin and Gina, as well.</s>SESAY: Thank you so much.</s>VAUSE: Always appreciate it.</s>SESAY: All right. Well now to an e-mail from a top Trump aide that's getting new scrutiny in the Russia campaign meddling investigation.</s>VAUSE: The aide sent the e-mail to campaign staffers last year informing them about an individual trying arrange a meeting between the Trump campaign and the Russian President. CNN's Manu Raju has exclusive details.</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Congressional investigators have unearthed an e-mail from a top Trump aide that referenced a previously unreported effort to arrange a meeting last year between Trump campaign officials and the Russian President Vladimir Putin according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Now, the aide is Rick Dearborn who is now the President's deputy chief of staff. He sent a brief e-mail to campaign officials last year relaying information about an individual who is seeking to connect top Trump officials with Putin. Now the person was only identified as being from quote "WV", which is in reference to the state of West Virginia. It's unclear who this individual is, exactly what they wanted or whether even Dearborn acted on the request. Dearborn did not respond to our request for comment. The White House would not comment but one source familiar to the matter said that this person appeared to have political connections in West Virginia. That same source actually told me that he Dearborn in the e-mail appears skeptical of the requested meeting. Now, it did occur in June of 2016 and that means that was around the same time as that Trump Tower meeting with Donald Trump Junior, Russian operatives, Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort. The question is whether or not this fits a pattern of efforts by the Russians to find entry points into the Trump campaign. That's a big question going forward and investigators are trying to understand at this time. Manu Raju, CNN -- Washington.</s>SESAY: Well, one of the recurring central figures in the Russia investigation is Sergey Kislyak who until recently was Russia's ambassador to the U.S. His diplomatic posting officially ended last month.</s>VAUSE: Before returning home to Russia, Kislyak met with President Trump in the Oval Office along with the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. U.S. reporters and photographers were barred from that meeting. It was later learned that Mr. Trump divulged classified information to the Russians.</s>SESAY: Our Matthew Chance recently caught up with the former ambassador and in a CNN exclusive asked him about his connections to the Trump White House.</s>MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi John and Isha. Sergey Kislyak as could hardly have expected to run into us here in the Russian city of Saransk, 600 kilometers or 400 miles from the Russian capital but this is a man at the center of allegations of Russian election meddling in the United States and important questions needed to be put to him. And that's exactly what we did when we finally tracked him down.</s>CHANCE: Hi -- Mr. Ambassador -- quick question. Did you discuss distinct sanctions with any members of the Trump team when you were in the United States?</s>SERGEY KISLYAK, FORMER RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: With your respect, I'm here to talk to Russian people.</s>CHANCE: I understand that. You say you've got no secrets.</s>KISLYAK: I said everything I wanted prior to this.</s>CHANCE: Did you discuss opening secret channels with the Kremlin with Jared Kushner for example?</s>KISLYAK: I've said many times that we do not discuss the substance of our discussions with our American interlocutors out of respect to our partners.</s>CHANCE: Fair enough. But when you met Donald Trump, the President, were you surprised when he disclosed secret information to you about Syria?</s>KISLYAK: I'm not sure that I heard anything that would be significant but that was a good meeting and we were discussing things that were important to your country and to mine.</s>CHANCE: What about this allegation that you're a spy master, a spy with (inaudible) -- did you attempt to recruit any members of the Trump Administration.</s>KISLYAK: You should be ashamed because CNN is the company that keeps up pointing to this allegation. It's nonsense.</s>CHANCE: U.S. security officials, intelligence officials have made it, of course.</s>KISLYAK: I've heard other statements by them and also by former -- the FBI. I was a diplomat. I had no reasons to doubt that he knew what he said. Ok.</s>CHANCE: Just one last question?</s>KISLYAK: Yes.</s>CHANCE: What's your r prediction for the future of U.S-Russian relations?</s>KISLYAK: I'm afraid it's going to be difficult. And it's note because of us. It's because of the U.S. political dynamics. The anti-Russian law is not going to help Russian-American discussions --</s>CHANCE: The sanctions?</s>KISLYAK: It's the sanctions a little bit -- sanctions is an instrument. It's basically a statement of being anti Russia. That is the most important thing. And that's not going to be wished away. It's going to stay. It's going to spoil the ability of both countries to resume the normalcy in our relations. And normalcy in our relations is exactly what is missing.</s>CHANCE: Have you lost faith that Donald Trump is going to be able to do what he said during his campaign and make things better with Moscow?</s>KISLYAK: I'm not sure that I operate with definitions of faith, absence of faith. We work with the United States based on the policies that we have. They are not new. We have seen so many different things about it. And we are pretty comfortable with what we do for Russian. And by the way, I'm here to do exactly what is important to us.</s>CHANCE: Mr. Sergey Kislyak -- thank you.</s>KISLYAK: Thank you. Bye-bye.</s>KISLYAK: All right. Well Sergey Kislyak there, no longer Russian ambassador to the United States but as you can hear then he is still very capable of responding with diplomatic answers. Back to you -- John and Isha.</s>VAUSE: Matthew -- thank you. Matthew Chance there with that exclusive albeit brief interview with the foreign Russian ambassador in Washington.</s>SESAY: Interesting to hear from him there. Let take a quick break. If you walk around Charlottesville, Virginia right now you won't see that controversial Robert E. Lee that caused so much trouble a few weekends ago. What the city has done in the wake of the white nationalist march, ahead on</s>CNN NEWSROOM. VAUSE: Also what you may never heard about the protest three years ago in Ferguson, Missouri after an unarmed black man was shot dead by police.