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WAPO: In Secretly Recorded Audio, President Trump's Sister Says He Has "No Principles" And "You Can't Trust Him"; New Book Claims Hannity Has Told People Trump Is "Crazy". Aired 9-10p ET
Aired August 22, 2020 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Trump's niece, Mary Trump, who just released her scathing best-selling book about the Trump family recorded the retired judge in 2018 and 2019. CNN has not independently confirmed the recording.
But joining us now is Michael Kranish, the National Political Investigative Reporter for "The Washington Post" who broke the story for the newspaper. He's also the coauthor of the book "Trump Revealed."
So tell us about what you've learned in this recording, Michael. You got some amazing reporting.
MICHAEL KRANISH, NATIONAL POLITICAL INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST (via telephone): Wolf, thanks for having me, putting me on your show tonight. So these are tapes that Mary Trump, who as you mentioned wrote the best-selling book about her uncle Donald Trump.
In the book, she doesn't say the source of some of her information. Maryanne Trump Barry, the President's older sister, there are quotes from her in the book, but it's not said how she got these quotes. It was presumed that there were some conversations.
In fact, Mary Trump recorded 15 hours' worth of conversations with her aunt. Many of these conversations, in fact are not reflected in the book in the story, posted on Washingtonpost.com tonight, there's an example in the lead where I talk about some quotes that she made about the President's immigration policy and other examples. Plus, there's audio of this conversation posted online. So you can hear yourself exactly what the President's sister is saying. It's not the second hand, uses her own words.
BLITZER: Well tell us some of the things that, you know, you've heard on this audio tape.
KRANISH: Right. Wolf, you know, one example is, for example, Mary Trump heard that her brother, the President, had said on Fox News that maybe I'll have to put her, meaning Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, she was a federal judge at the time to the border because there are a lot of refugees coming into United States. And at the time, as you recall, children being separated from their
parents, and being put in these cramped quarters, and Maryanne was talk -- gave a conversation with her nice Mary and she said, "It's all about the base. All he wants to do is appeal to the base. He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean, my God, if you're a religious person, you would want to help people. Not do this."
So there are a lot of quotes like this that are very candid. As far as we can tell Maryanne Trump Barry did not know she was being recorded by her niece. I reached out to her yesterday and again today to let her know. I did not hear back from her. So, I don't have a comment from her.
As far as I know, she also has been commented on things that she was quoted saying in the book by her niece.
BLITZER: And you obtain these audio tapes from Mary Trump, the President's nice. Why -- did she tell you why she decided to make these tapes available to you?
KRANISH: Right. Well, Wolf, I asked Mary Trump, if she could tell us more about her allegation in the book, which is not attributed to anybody that Donald Trump had FATs taken by a friend and that's how he got into college. I -- we tried to track down the person that was mentioned in the book, the person named Joe Shapiro.
There was a Joe Shapiro who Donald Trump had been friends with in college, in fact, but that person's widow and sister said, it definitely wasn't that Joe Shapiro and Mary Trump later said it was a different Joe Shapiro. Doesn't know who it is.
And it was a response to that question that eventually she reached out and said, well, I am going to show you that this was in fact, Maryanne Trump Barry who said this. And some of the conversation about that is quoted in the story, some of the audio about that is quoted in the story. So, you know, you now know that that's the source.
It doesn't confirm that Joe Shapiro took these tests for Donald Trump, but it does tell you where the information comes from. And as a result of, you know, learning that this was tape recorded, I did ask if we could listen to other tapes, see other transcripts and so forth. And she did provide certain things and she obviously is out there, as the story says.
Transparently, she's opposing Donald Trump. She says she wants to whatever she can to electrode Biden. So everyone knows where she's coming from.
But you know, Maryanne Trump Barry's words are what they are. They are broad words, and people can listen to those words and make their own conclusions about them.
BLITZER: What do we know about the relationship between the President's older sister and the President?
KRANISH: Well, it's really interesting. I mean, there may be nobody else on the planet who knows Donald Trump better than her older -- he's older sister. She is about nine years older than him. So obviously, he was there when he was born and has been close for a lot of their lives, but they've also had some disagreements.
There's a really interesting anecdote. It's alluded to in the book, but there's a lot more information in the tapes that I wrote about, and that is that Maryanne Trump Barry says that she asked her brother Donald to have her lawyer -- his lawyer, excuse me, his lawyer, the infamous Roy Cohn, call President Reagan. She mentioned the 1981 is actually 83, as far as I can tell, that's when the appointment came.
In any case, asked that Roy Cohn call President Reagan, to have Maryanne Trump Barry appointed to the Federal Court.
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And according to Maryanne Trump Barry, the next day, Reagan did make that nomination to the court. Ever since then, the President's sister has said the president reminds her of this. Says that, you know, I made you what you are and she takes offense to this.
She felt that she actually deserved this on the merits, but says on the tapes that, you know, to be sure she did ask her brother to do this favor for her. It's only favor that she can remember asking. It sounds like they listen to the tapes, but she, you know, regrets that, it's not happy about that.
Later on, they were involved, actually Donald and Maryanne Trump Barry and their brother, Robert, who died a week ago Saturday, were involved in a dispute with Mary Trump over inheritance of Donald Trump's father's estate.
Any case, you know, they've had some disagreements over that. And there was a side disagreement that's referred to here where according to Maryanne Trump Barry, Donald Trump did not talk to her for two years. So, you know, they had a lot of closeness. They also had some disagreements. There's been questions over the years about, you know, exactly how close they are.
When she was a federal judge in Chelsea relatively recently a year or so ago. And in that position felt she couldn't talk about the President. And she really hasn't been out there publicly critical.
I think for most people, the first indication that she had some concerns about her brother as president came in Mary Trump's book. And then after that, in these tapes, you know, you hear you know, the voice with a lot of -- a lot more direct concerns expressed about her brother's performance as president.
BLITZER: She was a highly respected federal judge until she retired. Tell us a little bit more about this woman.
KRANISH: Well, you know, she on her own right did have an extraordinary career. She was one of two women who are in the federal attorney's office when she was picked to be a federal judge. She would certainly say in the tapes that she was highly qualified, and by all accounts, she was to be a federal judge. And then later, other people elevated her to higher positions in the federal bench.
So, from her perspective, you know, she says in the tapes, that she's done so much on her own, but Donald Trump is trying to take credit for all that. But she did serve a very long time on the federal bench starting at '83, ending about a year ago. So that's a very long service.
And she did retire. There was an investigation internally that was begun about -- have to do with the Trump tax filing situation. It was internal when she retired that basically made that investigation moot. So it ended. There were some stories about that, you know, when that did occur.
BLITZER: But as far as, as far as you know, Michael, and you've done a lot of investigative reporting on this, based on what we know -- knew before you got a hold of these audio tapes, what kind of relationship did the President have with his older sister?
KRANISH: Well, the President has, you know, if you listen to his words, he said they got along very well, that she was highly respected. But you know, Wolf, the fact is, we don't see a lot of the siblings. We didn't see the siblings out there.
Robert Trump, I wrote as obituary that appeared, you know, weeks ago, Saturday, he had said in 2016, that he supported his brother 1,000 percent. And that basically, he didn't say anything other than a quote or two here or there during the entire presidency up to his death.
The only other time we really heard from him publicly was when he joined with his siblings or several of his siblings to sue Mary Trump to try to stop publication of her book.
So, there's another sibling, Elizabeth, she basically stay on the public lie -- eye, excuse me for, you know, for most of her life, as far as I know, as far as the -- during the Trump presidency.
And then you have the judge, you know, Barry, who is the most prominent figures since she was a public figure as a judge, but she had her own reasons for not speaking publicly.
So, you know, unlike some other presidential families, we haven't seen them with the siblings, you know, talking. And you know, we're in the convention season, that's when you see family come around, and you see, siblings say how wonderful the person is. So, for whatever reason, we haven't seen that. You know, with this family, we haven't seen the siblings come out there.
Obviously, we have the President's daughter in the White House and son-in-law in the White House. That's very prominent. You have his children, Donald Jr, Eric, so forth, you have them, you know, very prominent, but the siblings, you know, for whatever reason, just haven't said much over the years.
BLITZER: Yes. And I'll read that quote in your article in "The Washington Post," direct quote from Maryanne Trump Barry, the retired federal judge, the President's older sister, when she learned that the President was trying to separate children from their parents along the border in cramped quarters.
She says this, and I'm quoting now, "All he wants to do is appeal to his base. He has no principles. None. None. And his base. I mean, my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this." That's such a powerful statement. Did you get any reaction, Michael, from the White House?
KRANISH: No. I e-mailed and called. I have heard nothing from the White House at all. And then, I don't know why that is. I can't speak for them. I mean, these are tapes that quote the President's sister, you can't really -- unless you're going to say, you know, that they're not real. What can you say? I mean, these are words that the President's sister said. So I'll be interested if they do say something, we can update our story to reflect that.
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But more than a day before this published, you know, I initially reached out and then I did it again this morning in a phone call, but I haven't heard back.
BLITZER: Yes, I'm sure you will be hearing fairly soon. I'm sure the White House will be reacting at some point.
Anything else you want to share with our viewers, Michael, before I let you go?
KRANISH: Well, it's just that, you know, for a lot of people they probably heard about Mary Trump's book. You know, I've read it. I've written about for.
This is a really interesting family. I first wrote about them in the biography that I posted. I was a coauthor of that biography. And, you know, you think all these years later that we've heard everything we could possibly learn about Donald Trump and his family.
But the family, a lot of them, just didn't talk for years. You know, that was sort of the ethos within the Trump family.
What we saw when Mary Trump wrote her book was the damn breaking a little bit. There may be other members out there that maybe would say something. Here we have Maryanne Trump Barry, the sister, saying something not realizing she was being recorded. So I don't know if there's others out there that also have viewpoints.
And the reason you might -- some people might say what's the relevance here? As I was mentioning earlier, his sister knows him as well as probably anybody. She's been around his entire life. So, you know, that's the kind of person you would normally bring forward to present, you know, on your behalf. And here, it's very unusual. You get these candid assessments.
These tapings took place 2018 and 2019. And she said a number of things over those months, you know, that are very striking. And, you know, your viewers, they can go to the website and they can listen to some of the excerpts of the audio posted. So it's not just what I'm saying or, you know, how it's presented in the book. You know, you can listen to the audio yourself.
BLITZER: And Mary Trump, the President's niece, who wrote this best- selling book, she's 55 years old. You say she recorded how many hours of audio tapes with the President's older sister who's 83?
KRANISH: Yes, 15 hours. So that's an awful lot of tapes. It doesn't mean they're all about Donald Trump, but that's what -- I was told that it was 15 hours' worth.
So there's more material, for sure. There's more material, you know, frankly, that I've heard.
You know, this is this is what we presented. And really does give you, you know, an insight into the relationship, first of all between the President and his sister. And also because she was a federal judge, she's very well informed about the issues of the day, and is used to stating your opinion in court, you know, decisions on the immigration case that you mentioned.
You know, she wondered whether, you know, there was this question about whether she'd read, excuse me, that the President Trump had read her court decisions on immigration. There's a court case, for example I linked to in which she had be raided a federal judge for not treating an asylum applicant respectfully. And so at that point, Mary Trump, you know, asks about this and basically Maryanne Trump Barry says, well, he doesn't read.
Not just her decisions, but apparently, you know, books because later on in one of the tapes, she refers to the fact that the President called and that asked her what she watch in Fox News. And she said no. And he said, well, what do you do? And she said, you know, I read books.
So, you know, and the implication being that he doesn't, but it's all -- that's all laid out there in the story as well.
BLITZER: Yes, the story also, you know, she lamented, and I'm quoting now from your article, Michael, she, the retired judge, the President's older sister lamented at what they're doing with kids at the border. And she said -- and she guessed that her brother hasn't read my immigration opinions and court cases.
And I'm giving a direct quote from your article, "his goddamn tweet and lying, oh my God, I'm talking too freely. But you know, the change of stories, the lack of preparation, the lying." And then she says "Holly shit. It's a very dramatic account
Michael Kranish is the National Political Investigative Reporter for "The Washington Post." He's got an amazing story on -- at "The Washington Post" online right now. Appreciate your joining us. Thanks so much, Michael.
KRANISH: Thanks for having me, Wolf.
BLITZER: CNN and "The Washington Post" have reached out his readout to Maryanne Trump Barry for response, until now we have received no response, at least not yet.
I'm joined by our White House Correspondent Jeremy Diamond, our Political Commentator Ana Navarro, our Senior Political Analyst, Ron Brownstein, and our Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter.
Jeremy Diamond, you're at the White House right now. I assume you've been trying to get some reaction. Have you gotten any?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, we have not as of yet gotten a reaction from the White House to this as Michael was just saying he didn't either for his story, but we will see if something comes out I'll certainly share it with you immediately.
But Wolf, on this story, I think what's most remarkable about this is the moment in time where this is happening. I think you have to keep that in mind as we await what kind of reaction we'll see from the President himself.
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The President just lost his brother a week ago. He held a funeral service for him at the White House just yesterday. And it also comes at a time when both Democrats and Republicans are talking about the character of this president and trying to define his character ahead of this very crucial 2020 presidential election.
Over the last week, we have heard from Democrats as they made their case against the President, a case not focused so much on policy, but a case focused much more on the personality of Donald Trump and on his fitness to serve as president.
And you heard damning testimonials over this entire week that frankly lineup quite closely to what you hear from the President's sister in this conversation that she had with her niece in which she was secretly recorded. Talking about the President being cruel, talking about the President being someone who doesn't adhere to the facts.
And it also comes just before the President is going to make his own case to the American people this coming week with Republican National Convention where Republicans will try and present a very different narrative, of course, of this president. But we do know that one of the key issues at stake here is the issue of empathy, Joe Biden versus Donald Trump.
And certainly over the last week, Joe Biden tried to show that empathy, and others tried to provide these character witness testimonials of who Joe Biden is as a man and how he would be as President. And certainly that is at odds here with not only what Maryanne Trump Barry is saying, but what so many others have said about the character of Donald Trump.
BLITZER: And you're absolutely right. The revelations are coming now on the eve of the Republican National Convention, which begins on Monday.
Ron Brownstein, it's a pretty amazing story. And the timing is pretty extraordinary as well. What do you think?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, the timing really fits in with what we are seeing. And you have to see this in the context of everything else that has happened in the last few days.
I mean, we had a former Republican presidential candidate John Kasich speak at the Democratic Convention against Donald Trump, Cindy McCain, the widow of another Republican presidential nominee narrate a video, 73 former senior Republican national security officials today taking out a full page ad, including former heads of the CIA and the FBI, for Republican presidents saying Donald Trump is unfit to be president, and of course Miles Taylor, the Chief of Staff of the DHS, who, you know, briefed the President in the Oval Office saying he's unfit to be president. I mean, it fits very much in that portrait.
And it is probably what, you know, all of this is one of the reasons why the President is facing historic deficits among well-educated white voters. On the other hand, I think it's pretty clear from 2016, there's a core of blue collar whites, evangelical whites were all whites who simply are not interested in assessments of Donald Trump's character, and that is his kind of irreducible base, and Democrats still have to worry about getting past those voters. That coalition in some of the critical Rust Belt states.
BLITZER: Ana Navarro, you've read the article in "The Washington Post." You heard there, Michael Kranish and -- give us the highlights of that article. What do you think?
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's a bombshell. It's a bombshell, look, when Mary Trump wrote her book, she said horrible things, damning things about her uncle's character or lack thereof. They said she's a disgruntled niece who got, you know has an issue because she feel sick by the inheritance issue and she's estranged from the family and she really doesn't know us and she doesn't know this. You know, the Trump family, we've barely seen her.
I mean, he came close to calling her, you know, coffee boy, which is what he does with everybody around his circle who gets indicted. He can't say that about his sister. The sister that he has mentioned before, he can't say she is estranged from the family. She can't -- he can't say she doesn't know me.
So it is a bombshell because this affirms, this proves everything that that Mary Trump wrote in her book. Mary Trump brought the receipts, and they weren't just paper receipts. They are tapes we can hear on the -- in the voice, so it becomes that much more difficult to deny or to refute.
I suspect they're going to say, oh, she's 83 years old, she got taken advantage of by her niece when she was speaking. But what's he going to say? She was a federal judge until very recently. He's going to say she's seen out? She's won. No, they have no argument about.
But then I think, you know, it's not about policy differences. He has said, that they don't think the same. He has said that in the past. But she calls him cool. She calls him a liar. She talks about their childhood and his character the entire lifetime. And there's 14 hours and 45 minutes left that I suspect are going to drop a bit at a time.
And look, it's not going to change the mind, like Jeremy said, if anybody in his base. Nothing's going to change their mind. Nothing is going to change their mind.
But what we saw in the Democratic Convention is that Joe Biden is appealing to Republicans like me, disenfranchised Republicans to independence.
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And so if you need a little more reason, if you need one more reason, if you need more proof of why he is unfit and does not have the character, the fitness or the moral compass to be president, you can go ahead and hear it. You don't even have to read it. You can play it in your car, just play the audio, book on tape.
BLITZER: OK. It's a pretty amazing story.
Jeremy Diamond, I understand we just got a statement in. Tell us about that.
DIAMOND: That's right. We do have a statement out from Chris Bastardi who is a spokesperson for Mary Trump, of course the President's niece who wrote this book about her uncle and who also secretly recorded these conversations with the President's sister, Maryanne Trump Barry.
The statement from Chris Bastardi says, Mary realize members of her family had lied in prior depositions. Anticipating litigation, she felt it prudent to tape conversations in order to protect herself. She never expected to learn much of what she heard, including the President's sister, federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry state Donald Trump had paid someone to take an SAT exam for him.
Those with questions about who Joe Shapiro is, which was the person that Mary Trump alleges took this test for Donald Trump is why the President's chose him to take his SAT. And why such behavior was constantly rewarded should contact Judge Trump Barry and President Trump.
So essentially putting the onus on Maryanne Trump Barry and on President Trump to prove or disprove who this Joe Shapiro is, particularly after one Joe Shapiro, who is the president of the friends at the University of Pennsylvania, his widow, denied that he had taken an SAT exam for the President.
The final part of this statement is, several prominent individuals are currently facing prison sentences for taking unethical steps to get their children into college, all while the President of the United States paid someone else to take his SAT.
So clearly they are not letting go have this issue that the President had somebody take his SATs for him in order for him to be able to transfer from Fordham University in New York to the University of Pennsylvania. That is something, of course, that the President and the White House have repeatedly denied. And as I said, the widow of at least one Joe Shapiro, who was friends with the President at UPenn, has also denied that her husband, who's now deceased, took those tests.
BLITZER: I'm really anxious to get Brian Stelter's reaction to these dramatic developments that are unfolding right now. Just want to point out to our viewers, he has a brand new book coming out this week entitled "Hoax" in which he tells the behind the scenes story between the relationship between President Trump and Fox News. It's already a major, major bestseller.
So, what's your immediate reaction when you hear this news, Brian, because you cover the media for us?
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And when some of these clips you hear Mary Trump and Maryanne talking about the media, talking about Fox, talking about the President's obsession with T.V., the quotes about how the President doesn't read stand out to me because we've heard that from White House aides who we have not heard off from his family members before.
Overall, Wolf, you know, I'm thinking about this and this is shocking material from the President's sister. It is also sad. It is sad to see a family torn apart like this. It is sad to see a family so broken.
And I know that Trump years have broken many families. There are many liberals and conservatives don't talk to each other anymore. There are many Democrats, Republicans that don't want to see each other for family holidays. That's sad.
And it's even more sad that this has broken the Trump family. It's not just Mary Trump against the President. It's apparently his own sister who calls him a man who is a liar, a man who is, you know, she's basically saying he's not fit for office. I don't want to quote her.
That's not what she's saying directly, but she's calling him a phony. She's saying that he's a liar who doesn't read, who doesn't know right from wrong, and we've never heard that from her in public, but we're now hearing it for the first time in private. That is a very, very big story, but it's also a very sad story.
And the contrast to the Democratic convention where it was all about featuring Biden's family. It was basically a four day event to say Biden's a family guy. That was the message of the Democratic Convention. This is the most stark contrast. And then often that's an accident, by the way.
Mary Trump's book came out several weeks ago, and she's choosing right now to share these audio tapes. She has said she wants to see Biden elected. So I think many Trump supporters are going to see all of this. And they're going to think, oh, this is just a part of the attempt to take down Trump.
But Wolf, I was just texting with one of my brothers and I was just trying to picture my -- I think to myself, what would it be like if your own sibling came out and said, he has no principles and you can't trust him? It's a broken family. And that's very sad.
BLITZER: The exact quote in "The Washington Post" article, this is from Maryanne Trump Berry, the retired federal judge, the President's older sister, "All he wants to do is appeal to his base. He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean, my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this."
[21:25:04]
I want everybody to stand by. We're going to stay on top of the breaking news much more after a very quick break. We'll be right back.
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BLITZER: We're following the breaking news here in the Situation Room. "The Washington Post" reporting that the President's older sister Mary Trump -- Maryanne Trump Barry, a retired federal judge, 83 years old, was secretly recorded by her niece saying that the President -- that the President Trump, according to Maryanne Trump Barry, "has no principles and you can't trust him." It's very strong words.
Let's bring back Jeremy Diamond, Ron Brownstein, Ana Navarro, Brian Stelter.
Brian is, by the way, the author of a brand new already best-selling book entitled "Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth." There you see the book cover. It comes out formally this week, but it's already selling big time.
[21:30:00]
Brian, in your book "Hoax," you tell the behind the scenes story of the relationship that President Trump has with Fox News and you have some major headlines, including reporting that Sean Hannity of Fox News has privately referred to the President on multiple occasions, as the president -- saying that the President is "crazy."
Sean Hannity is perhaps the President's top supporter in the media, with what we're learning tonight about what the President's older sister is saying about the President disparaging remarks reported in "The Washington Post." What do you make of all of this?
STELTER: Well, I was really struck by this hypocrisy that I learned about in the course of my reporting for this book, Wolf, I talk to hundreds of people in and around Fox News. And even stars like Sean Hannity and executives at the network who run the company, they have very critical things to say about Trump in private. There's a lot of hypocrisy here because they won't say it publicly. They only say it privately.
They say things like Trump is not well, Trump is a run on sentence, I can't get a word in. They say we wish he would stop watching so much T.V., which is ironic given that they run a television network. But those are the kind of sentiments that I heard from very well placed sources right at the heart of Fox News. And I think it speaks to this syndrome that we've seen in the GOP as well inside the Republican Party, and unwillingness to hold the President accountable.
Look, when your friend calls you out when you screw up at something, when your mom or your dad or your loved one says, you know, you're really messed up today, you really made a mistake, you really hurt us today. That helps you. It makes you stronger, it makes you better. I think that's what's lacking from Fox and the GOP in the Trump years.
Does the President have people around him who can tell him the truth, who can level with him? Who can tell him when he screwed up at something? Who can tell him when he's going down a dangerous racist, dark path? It doesn't seem like he has those people around him.
And, you know, look, if we do hear from Maryanne Trump, who I hope we do, I hope we hear from his older sister. I hope she'll comment on this "Washington Post" bombshell, which is right there on the front page of tomorrow morning's paper, I hope she'll talk more about her relationship with the President. Because it is people like her, friends, family loved ones who can make a difference, who can steer the president in a safer, smarter direction. But we've seen the opposite.
We've seen people like Hannity, as you mentioned, who is like a shadow Chief of Staff, almost like Melania, they're so close, they talk all the time, who instead feeds the President what he wants to hear, and not what he needs to hear. And I think, Wolf, that's been a theme of the last three and a half years.
BLITZER: You know, it's very interesting, and the book is amazing, I got to tell you at that.
Ana, another quote from this retired federal judge, Maryanne Trump Barry, the President's older sister in "The Washington Post," she's quoted as saying in the secretly recorded phone conversations, "It's the phoniness of it all. It's the phoniness and this cruelty. Donald is cruel." You know, that's from the President's older sister, Ana.
NAVARRO: Listen, that word, describing your sibling as cruel, is something I think unimaginable for most of us. And, and it rings true, right? We've seen him at cruel. We've seen him say horrible things about black athletes. And you know, we've seen his lack of empathy.
So this is -- she's just saying this from a very personal perspective, familial perspective, and knowing him his entire life. I hope the Biden campaign, I hope somebody in a Biden super pac or the Lincoln pac, I hope somebody takes these excerpts and turns them into a campaign ad, because there is something incredibly powerful about her own voice describing her brother in those terms as cruel and phony and a liar.
Things so many of us have thought, but to hear his sisters say, his older sister say it, it's just jaw dropping. I'm glad I'm not getting invited to that family Thanksgiving.
BLITZER: Yes.
You know, Jeremy Diamond's at the White House. I understand Jeremy, the White House, the President has issued a statement reacting to this bombshell. What do we know?
DIAMOND: That's right, Wolf. This is actually a statement from the President himself. And based on how it's worded, you can tell that this is the President dictating this statement himself, as he often does on matters like this, especially those that are personal to him.
The President saying in a statement every day, it's something else, who cares. I miss my brother, and I'll continue to work hard for the American people. Not everyone agrees, but the results are obvious. Our country will soon be stronger than ever before.
So the President there really only indirectly responding to this bombshell audio here. That was a recording of his sister criticizing him as cruel, criticizing him as somebody who is a liar and somebody who is a phony and who does not read. The president, again, not responding directly to his sister noting the recent death of his brother for whom he have funeral service at the White House just yesterday, and essentially saying, who cares as it relates to this overall story.
[21:35:17]
Not clear if he's saying who cares about his sister's comments, or perhaps just the fact that this is yet again, another story in which the President is being criticized here.
But of course, this is a very different circumstance, Wolf. This is in this case, his sister who has been alive for all of Donald Trump's 74 years on this earth, and who knows him quite well, and who is criticizing him here in quite personal terms, and in terms that, of course, reflect the criticism that we have heard from so many others who have worked or been alongside the President.
BLITZER: You're absolutely right.
And Ron Brownstein, give us your reaction to the statement that we just got from the President reacting to what his older sister is saying, as secretly recorded saying about him. And how it's going to play out politically, potentially even this week, Monday, the Republican National Convention begins?
BROWNSTEIN: Quite timing and not surprising from the President. I mean, that has been his posture.
And look, throughout his presidency, there have been a majority of Americans who do not believe he is fit to be president, by values, by qualifications, by experience. And we have heard that as I said before, echo this week from extraordinary sources, a former Republican presidential candidate, now his own family, 73 senior Republican national security officials, the former Chief of Staff of his own Department of Homeland Security, all sending the message that they do not believe he is fit to be president. And there is a cost to that. I mean, there is a reason Donald Trump is at risk of losing well-educated white voters by the biggest margin of any Republican presidential nominee ever. But I think it is also equally clear that there is a core somewhere north of 40 percent of the country, centered among blue collar evangelical and rural whites who either don't believe it or don't care.
Donald Trump is a vessel, he is a means, he is an end, means not an end. He is their expression of their discontent with the way America is changing. He presents himself as kind of their last line of defense against a changing America.
And it almost, you know, when he said I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, it was true in the sense, because it's not about him. It's about his ability to stop Democrats. And so while I look at all of this as clearly having a cost, making it virtually certain he will lose the popular vote.
The question for Democrats remains because that Trump coalition that is within no matter what is over represented in a few of the critical states, they've got to figure out a way to either peel a little bit of that away, or turn out more of that majority that has consistently said since 2016, this man is not fit to be president.
BLITZER: All right. I want everybody to stand by. We're not going to leave the breaking news. There's a lot more coming up.
And Brian, I know you want to react to the statement we just got from the President.
Much more our breaking news coverage, a dramatic development indeed right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:42:35]
BLITZER: All right, we're watching what's going on, a very dramatic story, the President of the United States accused by his older sister, a retired federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry saying he simply has no principles at all. And I'm quoting now in the secretly recorded phone conversation the President's older sister saying, "All he wants to do is appeal to his base. He has no principles. None. None. And has been I mean, my God, if you're a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this."
We're also getting an immediate reaction, very quick reaction from the President himself in response to this "Washington Post" article.
The President issuing a statement, and I'll read it to you, "Every day it's something else, who cares. I miss my brother, and I'll continue to work hard for the American people. Not everyone agrees, but the results are obvious. Our country will soon be stronger than ever before." That statement just released moments ago by the White House from President Donald Trump.
Once again, we're back with Jeremy diamond, Ron Brownstein, Ana Navarro, Brian Stelter.
And Brian, once again, I'll mention the author of a brand new book entitled "Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth."
So, when you hear the statement, Brian, from the President reacting to this bombshell of an article, what do you think?
STELTER: You know, the words there, the key words are, who cares? Who cares? A lot of people care, it's on the top page of "The Washington Post" homepage. It's going to be a very big story for the morning as well as this evening. But who cares? The President oftentimes reacts with that kind of simple one liner dismissiveness whether it's fake news, or hoax, or who cares? But of course, that belies by the many people do care.
And I think, Wolf, if you think about the Trump narrative that's being presented by his allies, he's a family man. So he's a family guy.
At the Republican convention in the coming days, pretty much all of his children, his family members will be there speaking, of course, not the members of the family that we're talking about right now. But his children will be on stage, his wife will be on this, at least a virtual stage. We don't know all the details yet of the convention. But we know that family is going to be a big theme.
And what these tapes do is they blow a big hole in the Republican National Convention theme. But I think it's more than that. It's about a president who is isolated and alone.
Now, I know you've heard that a lot. We've all heard that a lot for the past three and a half years, a president who is by himself in the White House stewing, angry, miserable. It's been these reports for three and a half years. But it's a lot more true on a night like this.
[21:45:08]
His brother has just died. He's just had a funeral service for his brother. And now there are these secret recordings of his sister, being very critical of him, calling him a phony. Calling him, you know, is saying he's basically a fake and you cannot trust him.
I think it speaks to the isolation of the President. That is very rare if you -- I think we can ask Ron Brownstein and historians (ph), to have a president isolated in this way is very rare.
BLITZER: It certainly is.
But Ron, what do you think?
BROWNSTEIN: I was going to say that, you know, one thing that's really striking, and I think very pertinent in her commentary is that, you know, he governs only for his base. And in terms of his isolation, from the beginning, he has seen himself as the president of red America and in many ways at war with blue America. I mean, we, you know, we've seen the country grow more divided at the end of each presidency, or really since the '90s, whether it was Clinton, W. Bush or Obama all came in promising to unite the country, the country got more divided, Trump was different.
Trump is different really than any president we've had. And then he leans into the division part, it's a conscious vision of how he wins is to exacerbate the American division. And you know, the risk politically is that he is playing on the short side of the field, as we talked about him. I mean he is appealing to somewhere between 40 percent and 45 percent of the country, most of the groups in society that are growing are consolidating against him and against the Republican Party with potentially very serious consequences down ballot as well.
But the other side of it, I mean, the implication of what she is saying is that, you know, that base views him as their warrior. And it is very hard to get to a point where you could imagine what will dislodge many of them from him. And so, I mean, that is kind of the reality that we are in as a country. He is deepening the divisions between what America has been and what it is becoming, and we are in for a rocky few months as we kind of hit the battle of the bolts between those two very different coalitions.
BLITZER: And it's interesting, Ana, that the audio tapes were secretly recorded by the President's 55 year old niece, Mary Trump. She's got a best-selling book out. And a spokesman for Mary Trump issued this statement why she did what she did and secretly recording these conversations with her aunt, Maryanne Trump Barry, the retired federal judge, the President's older sister.
I'm going to read it once again and get your reaction. This is from Chris Bastardi, a spokesperson for Mary Trump, Mary realized members of her family had lied in prior depositions. Anticipating litigation, she felt it prudent to take conversations in order to protect herself. She never expected to learn much of what she heard, including the President's sister federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry state that Donald Trump had paid someone to take an SAT exam for him.
Those with questions about who Joe Shapiro is, why the President chose him to take his SAT, and why such behavior was constantly rewarded should contact Judge Trump Barry and President Trump. Several prominent individuals are currently facing prison sentences for taking unethical steps to get their children into college, all while the President of the United States paid someone else to take his SATs."
So Ana, what do you think of that explanation from the President's niece, Mary Trump?
NAVARRO: I hope she was writing a book, she was going to make controversial affirmations in that book that were going to be shocking and she was going to be challenged and told that it was a lie. So she had backup. She figured out this is the way I can back up what I am saying.
I don't like it. I don't think any of us would like the invasion of privacy of being recorded in a private conversation with a relative, with a niece, but it is what it is. And, you know, and obviously this is a very dysfunctional family and it captures the truth.
I also I got to tell you that that Donald Trump's statement that responds by Donald Trump, I don't buy that it was a candidate Donald Trump. When he says who cares? He cares. He cares.
He has proven time and again to be one of the most thin skinned adult men who behaves like a two-year-old having a tantrum. Anytime -- and I apologize to two year olds. Anytime anybody makes any sort of attack or criticism of him.
I mean, he goes after John McCain even after John McCain is dead, because John McCain confronted him. He goes after LeBron James. He goes after Don Lemon. He will come after anybody who issues any sort of attack.
Now imagine hearing his -- that his niece recorded his sister saying he is a cruel, lying, phony agar who doesn't read? And you're going to tell me who cares?
The guy who watches, spends all his time watching T.V., you think he doesn't care that we're playing this on a loop and we're going to be talking about it and so are so many other people. I don't buy it for a minute. He cares, and so should the American voter.
[21:50:11]
BLITZER: So Jeremy Diamond, you cover the White House, you cover the President for us. Tell us what are you what he's been doing this weekend getting ready for the Republican National Convention?
DIAMOND: Yes. There's no question that the President is focused on the optics of this coming week. We know that over the past week, he's been watching the Democratic National Convention, phoning aides to say, I like this. I don't like this. Let's do this. Let's not do that. So certainly his focus on that.
Now perhaps he's going to be a little bit more focused on the optics and the messaging also coming from his family. And certainly he will have an opportunity for that rebuttal in the form of all of his children who are expected to speak at different points during the Republican National Convention.
And it is true that all of the President's adult children have come out in the past, have said nice things about him, have publicly praised him. So certainly the President seems to have a good relationship, at least with his children, if not his siblings and his extended family or at least one sibling in this case.
I do think though, Wolf, that one of the things that's most remarkable about this and, you know, it would be -- it's remarkable in any case for any president to have a sister who is going to go after them like this, but it is remarkable how unsurprising this is in the sense that so many other people who have worked or who have lived with the President have described him in very similar terms. BLITZER: That video we saw was the President playing golf earlier today.
Everybody standby. Much more on the breaking news right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:55:41]
BLITZER: This week marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution when women first got the constitutional right to vote.
Tonight, Erin Burnett takes a close look at how far we have come and how much work remains to be done.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, the question you're asking is a painful one. And I say that because the answer, a 100 years after women's suffrage is not anywhere near equal enough. Women still earn much less than men for the same work, 82 cents for every dollar men earn. And black women, they earn only 62 cents for every dollar white men earn.
And you know, it's even things, Wolf, like pregnancy that still caused major setbacks for women.
And our special entrepreneur Jessica Alba, who founded a billion dollar plus company and is now in L.A.'s finest, right? She's an actress as well, actually talks about how people assumed implicitly that women with children were less valuable in the workplace. And Melinda Gates who is now spending, Wolf, a billion dollars, a billion dollars to increase women's representation at the highest levels of business and politics says that the problem is, is that too many people simply do not want to fix this inequality of representation and compensation.
And Alba and Gates are just two of the impressive group of women leaders that I'm going to talk to tonight. Here's a preview
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is amazing to me is how much progress women have made despite trying to finish a system that wasn't ever built to have us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've come quite a long way, but we're 208 years away from gender equality in our own country. Wow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got to finish the business that was not finished 100 years ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hashtag me to made everybody stop, pay attention and listen,
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Part of the legacy of the Harvey Weinstein story is that we need to see these problems. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's all right at the surface.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's sort of been happening for a long time. And it's not just in Hollywood, it's across many different communities and cultures.
BURNETT: So you're part of a very small group of women in the history of the United States who have actually run for president?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all knew what was going on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Senator Kamala Harris is Joe Biden's running mate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first black woman in the United States Senate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to be very candid. I don't think I've ever said this publicly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of black feminists, myself included are very bitter about this suffrage anniversary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The history for black women is one of perseverance and diligence, but also deep racial oppression.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Typically, we think that history is what happened. History is not what happened. History is who tells the story.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, Wolf, it's a fascinating journey into women's rights in America and the unfinished business that is still standing in the way of true gender equality in our own country. And we hope that you, all of your viewers here will join us for that conversation tonight. Back to you.
BLITZER: We certainly will, Erin. Thank you so much.
And once again, you can catch the CNN special report, Women Represented with the 100 year Battle for Equality, that's coming up next.
I'm Wolf Blitzer here in Washington. I'll be back tomorrow for another special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM starting at 6 p.m. Eastern.
But before we go, I want to take a moment to honor some of the truly wonderful people who have lost their lives to the coronavirus, Anthony Munoz was just 55 years old. He grew up in Arizona. He was hospitalized twice from COVID-19.
His wife Susan says his laugh was so loud it would fill an entire room. Married for 30 years. She says Tony showed her love every single day.
Together, they have five children, who Susan says Tony would call every day to tell them to be brilliant. Tony Munoz passed away on Monday.
Bonita Long was on the front lines of this pandemic risking her life to save others. She was an emergency department nurse in Alabama who died from coronavirus complications on Thursday. The hospital where she works remembers her as a nurse who made a difference in the lives of so many people. She leaves behind a husband and two children. Bonita was 63 years old.
May they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing.
