New York Times Reports, Trump Paid Just $750 in Federal Taxes in 2016 and 2017; Former Trump Campaign Manager Hospitalized after Reported Suicide Attempt; Nearly 205,000 Deaths in U.S., More than 7 Million Cases.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is New Day. And it is the day that the American people finally got a sense of what is in President Trump's taxes. It's in The New York times this morning and it is breaking news. The Times reports, for years, the president paid no income taxes at all, but what might be most glaring and the most simple to understand is that The Times reports in his first two years in office, this was his federal income tax payment, $750. This is what he paid his first two years in office. You know what the average tax filer pays? $12,000. Look at the difference between what the president pays and the average person pays. It's easy to understand, which is why I built these high tech graphics.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: Here is something else easy to understand. The Times reports says that Donald Trump has more than $420 million in loans coming due in the next few years. So he's staying in the White House his only protection? Also this morning, 21 states are seeing a rise in coronavirus cases in the last week. And the next chart is getting a lot of doctors' attention. The seven-day average of hospitalizations had been dropping since the beginning of July. It has now leveled off. What does that mean? Well, doctors fear that it will start rising again, which, of course, translates to more fatalities. All right, joining us now with the top story, CNN Political Correspondent Abby Phillip and CNN Political Commentator Matt Lewis, he's a Senior Columnist at The Daily Beast. Matt, I want to start with you. It's breathtaking, as Susan Glasser called it in the last hour, to see all of this finally laid out. This is what we've been waiting for for years. This is what voters wanted to know, and it turns out that President Trump, for many, many years, has not paid any federal income tax.</s>MATT LEWIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I mean, on so many levels, this is a bombshell story. And it should matter, right? I mean, if you're an average working class Trump voter and you're paying taxes, you're paying more taxes than Donald Trump, in a sane world, you would be mad about that, and if Donald Trump wants to cast himself as this populist, you would laugh at him. And the other point, of course, the one that may be doesn't have the same cache with the Trump populist voter but is still super important is the possibility that Trump, because of his financial situation, could be, you know, compromised. Certainly, there's a lot of conflicts of interest. So this should be a serious -- both a serious story and a political problem for Trump. I think it's the former. Actually, I don't think it really is the latter, but it probably should be.</s>BERMAN: Yes. No, look, Matt, I think you highlight both numbers here, which is why I wrote them both down, the $750, which is what the president paid in federal income taxes his first two years in office. That's one number. But this is something, Abby, I know you think is a big deal also, $421 million. This is the loans -- these are the loans that come due for President Trump in just the next few years. It's a lot of money, Abby.</s>ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And who is it owed to? When is it due? Why didn't the president disclose it four years ago? Why has he been fighting so hard to prevent this from coming to light? These are all the questions that I think this report really raises, especially as we go forward. I mean, you know, four years ago, the president successfully prevented his tax returns and his financial situation from being fully clear to the American public, but now he's asking for four more years in office. And during those four years, you could conceivably see some of these debts coming due. And it's a real question for the American people and one that really goes back to the founding of this country, where the founders worried about presidents who might be indebted to other nations, potentially who might be at risk of being blackmailed. This is the kind of thing that I think the president owes some answers on. And he has absolutely no interest in even entertaining this question. He's been talking about fake news and sort of obfuscating about the nature of what kind of tax liability he's had. But I think these documents make it clear that his financial situation is far more dire. And it also raises some questions about some arrangements that he had with his daughter, Ivanka Trump, how she was being paid as part of this effort to help him avoid taxes. There are any number of real questions about the president and the people around him and the role that they played in tax avoidance. We should also note that there are cases right now in New York involving the president's tax returns. He's fighting tooth and nail to prevent his tax returns for being handed over in those cases. I think now we know exactly why.</s>CAMEROTA: I mean, Matt, one of the things, one of the high level points to be taken away from this is that he made such lousy business decisions, so high risk were they, that he lost a tremendous amount of money two decades ago. And so he's been carrying over his loss for all of these years. That's why he doesn't contribute at all to the fabric of American society. He doesn't contribute to the defense budget, he doesn't contribute to the social safety net. He doesn't contribute to any of the things that we all pay our national taxes into, because he made such poor decisions. Furthermore, it also puts, you know, to a lie that when rich people bemoan that they don't want higher taxes, he's able to pay millions of dollars to lawyers and accountants every year to do this wizardry, as The New York Times described it.</s>LEWIS: Look, I think this raises a lot of questions, right? First of all, he's either lying. It's entirely possible that some of these deductions actually aren't legitimate, right? I don't write off my haircuts. Maybe, I probably should, I need one. So maybe some of these things are -- these write-offs are not legitimate. If they are legitimate, again, I think the average American who works hard and pays taxes is going to have a hard time sort of understanding that. Donald Trump built himself up as this master businessman who's this billionaire. Well, this certainly pokes holes in the notion that he is this brilliant genius businessman. Of course, he'll spin that and talk about how, you know, not paying the suckers at the</s>IRS -- CAMEROTA: But he's not doing that. Interestingly, Matt, that's interesting --</s>LEWIS: -- a good businessman.</s>CAMEROTA: But you would think that he would do that. He would say, oh, those guys are suckers and I'm so smart, I don't have to pay taxes. He's not doing that. He's saying, this is all fake news. That tells you something. That tells you that he's not doubling down on this. He's pretending it's fake news, and that means that he doesn't want to talk about all that he's done over these past two years, I think, Matt -- I mean, 20 years.</s>LEWIS: Yes. Well, look, I think sometimes Trump oscillates. He has multiple, sometimes, contradictory excuses. And I wouldn't be surprised in the debate tomorrow night if he does what I just said, which is say, of course I didn't pay much. But for now, you're right, he is doubling down on the fake news argument. And I have to tell you, I think we probably all know that to a certain degree, that works. It certainly works with a lot of folks out there who are just going to hear about this. And they're not going to delve deeply into the details. And they're just going to say, well, that's the liberal media beating up on Donald Trump again. So I think he often has multiple and, you know, mutually exclusive defenses of things he's done. So, you know, don't be surprised if he does both.</s>BERMAN: Look, in this case, I think it's the details and the reporting that matters most. I think way too often we ask, how is it going to affect the Trump voter. We know how it will affect the Trump voter. That's not necessarily even an important question now. The question is, how will it affect swing voters, and also just what's in the reporting and what does it matter legally and factually here? Let me just read two passages here. Abby, you brought up Ivanka Trump and her connection. This is P 206. Miss Trump reported receiving payments from a consulting company she co-owned totaling more than $700,000, that exactly matched consulting fees claimed as tax deductions by the Trump organization for hotel projects in Vancouver and Hawaii. That might suggest some kind of double-dipping basically there. And, Matt Lewis, you brought up haircuts. I have haircuts for you, $70,000, $70,000 in a business deduction for haircuts when he was on The Apprentice. Let me read you this. It says, Mr. Trump has written off as business expenses costs, including fuels and meals associate as with his aircraft used to shuttle him among his various homes and properties, likewise the cost of haircuts, including more than $70,000 paid to style his hair during The Apprentice. So, questions about the appropriateness, Abby, of business expenses, including these $70,000, questions about payments to Ivanka Trump, and as you've noted also, questions about this $70 million tax refund that's under audit. There are legal questions, open legal questions involving the president and his taxes now.</s>PHILLIP: I don't think we should assume, because I'm not an accountant and I certainly can't say this, but I don't think we should assume that all of this above board. I mean, one of the reasons the president is fighting so hard to prevent this from coming to light could very well be that his sort of conflicting ways that he's described his financial well-being in these tax documents conflicts with the disclosures that he made potentially to banks and to creditors, to get loans. So it's really an open question how much of this is above board. But I also think that there are some clues in this story in which the ways in which the president's business structure could affect how he is president, how he acts as president. For example, you know, the equation that The Times puts out is essentially that Trump makes all of his money or a vast majority of his money by just sort of royalties off of his name from The Apprentice brand. He makes hundreds of millions of dollars from that and then writes off losses from his actual sort of brick and mortar businesses in order to get tax breaks for that money. So, it really leaves you to wonder, he has now become the most famous person on the planet as president of the United States. What has that done to the value of his brand that he's been claiming on his tax returns? And then secondly, it shows in The Times report some evidence that his properties at Mar-a-Lago and at Doral, people, companies and individuals have been flocking to those resorts. We know some of this because of The Washington Post, as well, paying millions of dollars to be close to the president, to have his ear, paying millions of dollars in my memberships. These are all questions about whether the office of the presidency is being used as part of a tool for the enrichment of the president, and that is something that should be of serious concern to Americans.</s>CAMEROTA: Right. People are paying for access. And, by the way, those golf courses are still failing. That's another thing that Trump --</s>BERMAN: This is another thing. You brought up losses from decades ago. The interesting thing in The New York Times story is the losses he's suffering now on some of his major properties now.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, good point. Okay, a couple more things, Matt, first of all, you were wondering how the Trump supporters will feel about this. Don't worry, they won't know about it. There has been -- according to my executive producer, there has been no mention this morning on Fox T.V. about this story at all. Next, Rick Gates has written a new book in which he has new information about Ivanka. And here, I'll read it to you, he says, quote, I think Ivanka should be the vice president. What about Ivanka as my V.P., Trump asked the assembled group. Ivanka should be vice president, he added. Trump was so taken with the concept of his eldest daughter as vice president and so cool to other options, including his eventual selection, then Indiana Governor Mike Pence, that his team polled the idea twice, according to Gates. Your reaction?</s>LEWIS: It doesn't surprise me. We're lucky that Donald Trump didn't nominate his sister to the Supreme Court. This is someone who doesn't really, I think, appreciate, maybe not even understand, but certainly doesn't value the norms that we have in place here in this country. And we're just talking about the emoluments, right? That is something that goes back to our founding fathers. As Abby said, they were very concerned about a president who could be compromised by foreign powers. The nepotism thing, I think, is something clearly he doesn't understand, he doesn't get, conflicts of interests. And so this, sadly, does not surprise me. I am glad that we still have some guardrails left in this country, but, no, I'm not surprised by it.</s>CAMEROTA: I like your optimism.</s>BERMAN: I think he does understand nepotism. He loves it. I mean, I think the answer is it's not a lack of understanding. It's just something he approves of.</s>PHILLIP: I mean, he's run a family business his whole life. And I think he views the government not that differently from the family business he's been running.</s>CAMEROTA: Good. Abby, Matt, thank you both very much. Now to this breaking news, President Trump's former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, is hospitalized this morning after his wife reported that he was armed and threatening suicide at their Florida home. CNN's Randi Kaye is live at the hospital in Ft. Lauderdale with more. What do we know, Randi?</s>RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. We are here at the Broward Health Medical Center. It's where Brad Parscale is being treated. This all started yesterday afternoon, about 4:00 P.M. when police responded to reports of a suicide attempt. Parscale's wife had called police saying that he had barricaded himself inside the home. He had multiple weapons. She was very concerned he was going to harm himself. So police and negotiators went to the house here in the Ft. Lauderdale area. They spoke to him, they negotiated and exit. Apparently, they did everything right, because we know how this could have ended. He spoke to them, he surrendered after the SWAT team had arrived on scene just shortly after that, because they had developed this rapport with him. So he's being treated here. He's being held under the Baker Act, which is a Florida state law that says you can involuntarily commit someone if you're considering their health and wellness and you are concerned they may do some damage to themselves. But a little bit about this. A lot of questions certainly surrounding this, because we know this about Brad Parscale. He was demoted from the campaign manager role for the Trump campaign this summer in July. He now is still a senior adviser but handling digital strategy. We also know that he was the guy who really orchestrated that very controversial Tulsa campaign rally for the president. A lot of empty seats the president wasn't happy about, but more importantly than that, a lot of -- or very little social distancing, very few masks being worn. We know that former Presidential Candidate Herman Cain had passed away from the coronavirus a while after that Tulsa rally, unclear where he picked that virus up. But this morning, we are getting a statement from the communications manager for the campaign, Tim Murtaugh, saying Brad Parscale is a member of our family and we all love him. We are ready to support him and his family in any way possible. So, again, we don't know what brought this on, why his mental state what it was yesterday apparently that would cause his wife such concern. Certainly wishing his family well, this is a very difficult time for them this morning. John?</s>BERMAN: Randi Kaye for us in Florida, yes, our thoughts are this morning with Brad Parscale and his family. Thank you for saying that. All right, we do have more breaking news. California's wine country is under siege this morning due to wildfires that are spreading very quickly, burning homes, threatening thousands of structures. Overnight, a mandatory evacuation order went into effect for thousands of people in Napa and Sonoma Counties. One hospital has already moved its patients. 25 major fires are currently active in the state and more than 3.6 million acres have burned in California this year. All right, we are at a precarious moment in the coronavirus pandemic. We are getting new numbers that you need to see that indicate we might be at the very beginning of yet a new surge in cases and hospitalizations. That's next.