Trump Denies Posing as Publicist; Trump Camp Faces New Dilemmas Amid GOP Unity Pact; Dan Quayle on Possible Trump Running Mate
ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: You're on the CNN NEWSROOM, top of the hour. I'm Ana Cabrera in for Poppy Harlow. Thanks for joining us. Just as Donald Trump and Republican leadership agreed to work towards party unity, there's a new potential controversy dominating the headlines. An audio recording from the 1990s just surfaced, and it's raising questions about whether Trump may have posed as his own PR guy during a phone interview with a reporter. Trump denies this is his voice on the tape. Take a listen for yourself.</s>JOHN MILLER: I've resort of been here in here to handle because I've never seen anybody got so many calls from the press.</s>SUE CARSWELL, FORMER PEOPLE MAGAZINE REPORTER WHO INTERVIEWED TRUMP: Where did you come from? I came from -- I basically worked for different firms, I worked for a couple different firms, and I'm somebody that knows, and I think somebody that he trusts and likes. So, I'm going to do this a little part-time.</s>CABRERA: All right. We'll dig into that in just a moment but first, there's another issue catching fire, Trump refusing to release his tax returns until an audit is complete, which could be after the general election, and now the Clinton campaign is jumping all over that alleging he has something to hide. Let's go to CNN's Scott McLean for that part of the story -- Scott.</s>SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, earlier this week, Trump seemed to be making headway on party unity, winning over some Republican donors and congressmen, and now he also has to fend off a new attack from the Clinton campaign over his refusal to release his tax returns.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Maybe I'm going to do the tax returns when Obama does his birth certificate.</s>PRES. BARACK OBAMA (D), UNITED STATES: The state of Hawaii released my official long form birth certificate.</s>TRUMP: If I decide to run for office, I'll produce my tax returns, absolutely. I am officially running for president of the United States.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any closer to releasing taxes?</s>TRUMP: Well, I'm thinking about it. I can't do it until the audit is finished.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The audit is no excuse. The IRS has made it very clear, the audit is not bar to public release, it is entirely your choice.</s>MCLEAN: Now, Trump has said he wants to release the returns, but will only do so once an IRS audit is done.</s>GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS CHIEF ANCHOR: Do you believe they have a right to see the tax returns before they make a decision?</s>TRUMP: I don't think so, but I do say this, I will really gladly give them, not going to learn anything, but it's under routine audit. When the audit ends, I'm going to present them.</s>MCLEAN: Now, Trump went on to say, he hopes the audit will be complete before the election in November, but we have no way of knowing exactly when it will be done. Now, if he does not release the returns, he would be the first presidential no, not to since the 1970s. Legally, though, he's under no obligation to make them public. Now for his part, Trump has also been taking shots at Clinton on the transparency question calling her a great hypocrite because of the private e-mail server she used while she was Secretary of State and the fact that she has yet to release transcripts of the high priced speeches she gives to Goldman Sachs -- Ana.</s>CABRERA: All right, Scott McLean, thanks for that report. We also have this new bizarre audio tape that has the political world abuzz this weekend. Trump denying it's his voice on this 1991 recording between a "People" magazine reporter and a mysterious PR man calling himself John Miller who does sounds an awful lot like Donald Trump. Well, here's the side by side comparison.</s>JOHN MILLER: I can tell you this.</s>TRUMP: I can tell you this.</s>JOHN MILLER: He's probably doing as well as anybody.</s>TRUMP: I know politics as well as anybody. I hold up the Bible as well as anybody.</s>JOHN MILLER: You understand that.</s>TRUMP: You understand that.</s>JOHN MILLER: He's starting to do tremendously well.</s>TRUMP: She did tremendously well.</s>JOHN MILLER: He paid his wife a great deal of money.</s>TRUMP: You will see a great deal of cooperation.</s>CABRERA: CNN's senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin took at this tape to an audio forensic expert, this is what he found.</s>DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The real amazing story of Donald Trump's old spokesman as the Washington Post headlines writes, maybe that it's been such an open secret for so long, it's hard to believe that anyone is still questioning it.</s>CARSWELL: What's your name again?</s>JOHN MILLER: John Miller.</s>CARSWELL: You work with --</s>JOHN MILLER: Yes, that's correct.</s>GRIFFIN: It was back in the 1980s, and when the flashy New York real estate mogul needed to get a bit of news out, the newspaper reports it was common knowledge among New York reporters that Trump just assumed a different name and handled the media calls himself. Like this call from reporter Sue Carswell at "People" magazine concerning Trump's breakup with girlfriend Marla Maples.</s>CARSWELL: What kind of comment is coming from, you know, your agency or from Donald?</s>JOHN MILLER: Well, it's just that he really decided that he was not, you know, he didn't want to make -- he didn't want to make a commitment. He really thought it was just -- he was coming out of a, you know, a marriage, that and he' starting to do it tremendously well financially.</s>GRIFFIN: If that John Miller sounds like Trump it's because audio forensic expert, Tom Owen, says in his opinion, it is.</s>THOMAS OWEN, FORENSIC AUDIO SPECIALIST: I can conclude with the fair degree the scientific certainty that it is Donald Trump's voice.</s>GRIFFIN: Owen, compared that John Miller on the phone call with "People" magazine --</s>JOHN MILLER: He didn't want to make a commitment. He really thought it was too soon. He's coming out.</s>GRIFFIN: To the real Donald Trump interviewed on CNN's "Larry King Live" in the 1990s.</s>TRUMP: I don't talk about relationships, I don't talk about the personal aspects of it.</s>GRIFFIN: Due to the quality of the old recordings, he could not use his biometric analysis that he says would be absolutely certain, but based on pitch, tone, cadence and his expertise, John Miller and Donald Trump are one in the same.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm confident that it's Donald Trump based on my analysis of the critical listening, listening to the two recordings, and drawing a conclusion based on various factors, pitch, mannerisms, syllable coupling.</s>GRIFFIN: Trump even tacitly admitted under oath to using one of his false PR names in a 1990 court testimony when he said, I believe on occasion I used that name.</s>TRUMP: Thank you, everybody.</s>GRIFFIN: Trump was confronted with the taped phone call and "The Washington Post" story on Friday's "Today" show.</s>TRUMP: No, I don't think -- I don't know anything about it. You're telling me about it for the first time, and it doesn't sound like my voice at all. I have many, many people that are trying to imitate my voice, and you can imagine that, and this sound like one of these scams, one of the many scams. Doesn't sound like me.</s>GRIFFIN: Drew Griffin, CNN Atlanta.</s>CABRERA: All right. Thanks to Drew Griffin. Now, this -- this really could have been a transformative week for Trump. These tapes now shifting the conversation, but remember, there was a lot of positive momentum coming out of these meetings in Washington, so what do these new developments actually mean? I want to bring in our political panel, CNN political commentator, Jeffrey Lord, he is a big supporter of Donald Trump. Also with us, CNN political commentator, Doug Heye, he is also the former communications director for the RNC, and not a fan of Trump. Also Democratic strategist Maria Cardona joining us, her firm currently does work for a pro-Clinton Super PAC. All right. Jeffrey, we'll start with you. Is it Donald Trump? Jeffrey? Can you hear me? Is it Donald Trump? And what are these political implications here?</s>JEFFREY LORD, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: I don't think there are any. I mean, first of all, Donald Trump unequivocally denies that it is he on the tape. The thing that occurs to me, I mean, Ana, as you know and I know in this day and age of high-tech we could have a picture of you and me having tea with Adolf Hitler and it would look exactly like the real McCoy, and, of course, it would be phony as a $3 bill. So, frankly I don't trust in this age of technology, you can take any famous person, make them say anything, make them do anything, make them look any way you want.</s>CABRERA: You don't think it's him?</s>LORD: He says unequivocally it is not.</s>CABRERA: And do you believe him?</s>LORD: Yes. I will take his word. He knows what he's doing here. You know, that's what he says. You know, sure.</s>CABRERA: Doug, what do you make of it? Is it Donald Trump and would he have any reason not to lie about, to try to sweep it under the rug?</s>DOUG HEYE, FORMER RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Sure. If it talks like a Trump and it sounds like a Trump, it's Donald Trump. I think that most reasonable people can agree on this. I don't think electorally it hurts him at all. I think it continues the very Trump- focused conversation that he's had for over a year now where he dominates every news cycle on ridiculous things almost weekly. But what we've also seen is, you know, Jeffrey says he takes him at his word. This is the problem that a lot of voters feel is taking Trump at his word. He says he is going to build a wall, then says it's a suggestion. He says he's going to increase the minimum wage and then the next day he says he's not going to increase the minimum wage. He says the same things about taxes. One of the things Trump's been able to do very effectively has been able to resist any kind of pinning down on anything. But what we seen with Trump and this latest tape shows it, is that Trump is all over a Morpheus on every issue, and that's what is troubling to so many people.</s>CABRERA: Maria, there's another issue, the issue of taxes.</s>MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes.</s>CABRERA: And Trump saying he's not going to release them until after the audit, which we know could still be months, if even years away because this 2009 taxes are still under audit. Will the GOP let him get away with this or should the electorate let him slide on this issue?</s>CARDONA: Well, I think that's up to the Republican Party. I do think that it is something that voters are going to continue to demand because it is something that for the last 40 years every presidential candidate has put out their taxes so that voters can see, and, in fact, Donald Trump himself was bashing Mitt Romney for not having released his taxes, and Mitt Romney ultimately did released his taxes. So, there's a lot of hypocrisy going on here. But I think the fact that he's not released his taxes, the fact that he's denies that is him on the tape, when, in fact, we all know that it is him on the tape. And to Jeffrey's point about technology, there's also technology that exists today that can prove who people are. And you already have a forensic audio expert, many of them saying that this is absolutely Donald Trump on the tape, and I would have had so much more respect for him had he said, look, yes, that was me on the tape. We wouldn't be talking about this right now.</s>CABRERA: Now, Doug, you say --</s>CARDONA: Well, here's -- I'm sorry, go ahead.</s>CABRERA: Jeffrey.</s>LORD: Oh, sorry.</s>CABRERA: Jeffrey, do you think it's an issue that that is worth talking about?</s>LORD: No, no.</s>CABRERA: If there's people trying to throw these tapes out against Trump like he says?</s>LORD: The example I've used is when we raise the tail in the Indiana primary, and there was a lot of talk about air-conditioning and all these people who lost their jobs. If you're sitting there in Indiana, and you just lost your job and you are trying to feed your family, people could care less about this kind thing. This is a decided -- this is a media thing, a New York Washington media deal here, and people out here in the real world who are trying to earn a living, who was concerned about their jobs, their health care, et cetera, they could care less about it.</s>CABRERA: And Maria, go ahead.</s>LORD: So, I agree with that. There are so many other issues that are so much more important to be talking about, but the way that this affects Trump is not that this is going to be a number one issue for voters, but two ways, number one, this is a different electorate than the Republican electorate in his supporters that he faced and that he gathered during the Republican primary. He needs to add voters to his side. This is not something that is going to help voters have trust in a man who can't even admit that this is him on the tape. And then that spills over to other issues. Well, if he's lying about this, how can I trust him on the other issues that he says he's going to fight for me on? And that's a contrast with Hillary Clinton that she will win every single time.</s>CABRERA: Well, fortunately, for Donald Trump, he is running against Hillary Clinton who has this kind of problem to the max.</s>CABRERA: All right. We'll talk more about transparency. We can talk more about trustworthiness. Because you all are sticking around. So, Jeffrey Lord, Doug Heye, Maria Cardona. Stay with me. We'll talk to you in just a minute.</s>CARDONA: Thanks, Ana.</s>CABRERA: But still ahead this hour as well, whose voices at the reporter on the end of that now infamously phone call talked to CNN and how -- unique theory about what happened? Plus, Dan Quayle sitting down exclusively with CNN, why the former vice president says he underestimated Donald Trump? And later, a year after a deadly shootout in Texas, CNN travels to the inner circles of the world of the rival motorcycle club. Do not miss this. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.