Wednesday on CNN’s “New Day,” former CNN and Al Jazeera regular Ali Velshi and the chairman of the American Conservative Union and former White House political director for George W. Bush Matt Schlapp debated presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s trade policy and ISIS strategy on comparison to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s proposals.
Schlapp said of Hillary Clinton, “I don’t know how she tells the American people that she has a strategy on radical Islamic terrorism, because she was President Obama secretary of state. She owns the last seven years.”
Partial transcript as follows:
SCHLAPP: Look, poll after poll, including the poll that shows him trailing Hillary Clinton the most, shows him on the question of will he have the leadership to destroy ISIS, he has the most commanding lead over Hillary Clinton. There is something about the guy where he connects to voters on the fact that they feel, I think this is true in America today, they feel we lack leadership, a true understanding of what’s going on in the war against Islamic terror.
CUOMO: Trump says, I’ll be Strong is that enough?
VELSHI: The generalities make him seem strong, but again, as you just talked to others about the specificity helps here, some troops on the ground, that’s what a lot of people are calling for. The fact, is we are showing that what we’ve got there, 5,000, 6,000 troops, Mosul will be tougher in getting into Syria, will be next to impossible because they don’t want the Americans there. We have to think about this in a sophisticated manner. You have to weaken their infrastructure and got to their finances. That is something that the — our allies in the region can be most helpful for. The money they’re getting is coming from the region. We have to just be sophisticated about this. Saying generally we have to be tough, and this is bad while it appeals to people and it is visceral and I get that, is not a solution. Hillary Clinton could do with a little more detail about her plan how to do this as well. I think there is a middle ground. George W. Bush got that. It is very complicated.
SCHLAPP: In all fairness to her as a candidate I don’t know how she tells the American people that she has a strategy on radical Islamic terrorism, because she was President Obama secretary of state. She owns the last seven years.
CUOMO: So your suggestion is to write off any of the gains on the ground against ISIS.
SCHLAPP: No, let’s be fair. Let’s give credit where credit is due.
CUOMO: You don’t hear anybody, Trump or anybody saying we’re winning on the ground in ISIS.
SCHLAPP: I want them to win. I think these people want to destroy America and I want them to win. Here’s — I want America to be successful I wanted the president to succeed. I wanted secretary to succeed when she was secretary of state. They fell on their face. What the American voter is saying in poll after poll– they just don’t get the fact that we have to take these guys on. And it is not just ISIS, it wasn’t just al Qaeda, they’re coming in self-radicalizing in America.
VELSHI: Let’s give credit where credit is due. Not understanding Iraq, I think that goes back to your administration.
SCHLAPP: You want to make cheap shots go for it.
VELSHI: Everybody doesn’t understand it. It is complicated. I’m trying to say there are lots of people who don’t understand. this is really complicated. Donald Trump’s simple answers belie what the Bush administration didn’t know — why do you think he knows it better than two administrations over 16 years.
SCHLAPP: For voters, this isn’t that hard. I think they’ll give the leader the benefit of the doubt that it is complicated and a big hairy problem of feeding this terrorist threat. It is a big problem. they want them to connect with the fact that they’re worried about it, that they’re scared about the future of the country, and when you can’t call the enemy what the enemy is, and when San Bernardino happened, you know what they did with the flags, they put them at half mass they said it was workplace violence. The voters, they know what this is. These are terrorists among us.
CUOMO: There has to be something what Matt is saying, because we’re seeing it in the polls. I get it — you have to take the next step., sometimes what people want to first be is consoled and you know emotionally where you are as their leader. That’s one issue. an issue that is not as emotional is how are you going to bring jobs back into the country. Everybody says they’re going to bring jobs back in every election. Yesterday, Trump gave a speech saying how he would do it. The critics are saying he never does it, shit up he did it yesterday.
SCHLAPP: The biggest point is he is a businessman, he negotiates deals. He is sending a message to China and the rest of the world that fess the if he is the leader, he is going to negotiate much tougher deals.
CUOMO: NAFTA will be gone, the current state of affairs.
SCHLAPP: He will use the powers he has make sure he stands up for the American worker.
CUOMO: Hold on one second. The speech he said, I’m going to get rid of the deal, change the deal — you went what’s that about. You endorsed the guy for president.
SCHLAPP: I do. I’m saying what he is saying we have to go through a process where we get rid of the bad deals. it is more complicated than to say he is going to get rid of it. to renegotiate deals, the message is the right message. But let me tell you something else, manufacturing has left because maybe not a poorly executed deal, it is also because our regulatory environment and tax environment. We have the highest income taxes in the world. Hillary Clinton started — let me finish.
VELSHI: You’ve been talking for a while.
SCHLAPP: I’m almost done, buddy. She wanted to raise those income taxes. that’s not going to create any jobs.
CUOMO: Use your time to make points. You say there were some dishonest premises.
VELSHI: First of all, again the people that wanted NAFTA was the Bush administration. they negotiated, and couldn’t get it finished. He talked about bringing jobs back that are lost because of low wages, a third of our jobs, if not more in manufacturing have been lost to gains in productivity. We manufacture much much more in America than when Barack Obama became president. It is a bad situation, but we manufacture more with fewer workers, and they’re not getting paid as well. That’s reality. Are we going to undo technology? Are we going to start make things by hand?…Even I phones are made by robots…hold on.
CUOMO: I’m enjoying the dynamic, I have to be honest.
VELSHI: You couldn’t stop talking to me in the green room.
SCHLAPP: If we don’t manufacture things in America, they are made someplace else in a dirtier fashion. And the fact is we’re not going to make everything here, but we can make a lot more here. We can’t be cavalier about jobs and turning them over to other countries and other sectors. I want to make as much as we can. We can’t make everything but —
VELSHI: So when you start taking away these tariffs and start canceling these deals, how is it you think other people will buy your stuff? And your going to buy their stuff cheaply.
SCHLAPP: Simple. how do you think American products can’t be made —
VELSHI: TPP lifts tariffs on 70% of the cars that go into Japan. That’s part of the negotiation, getting American product news places. Have you been to Vietnam? They do nothing but drive. They want cars, they’re all Japanese cars, because America can’t get them in.
SCHLAPP:If you have a free-trade agreement, they don’t need to be so big and complicated. And both economies, both markets should be freer. Unfortunately unfortunately, when we get done with these free-trade agreements the American economy is open to them and their economy stays closed.
VELSHI: That’s just not true.
SCHLAPP It is factual. Look at Japan…Japan and Vietnam, where again, you don’t see —
VELSHI: You’re wrong.
SCHLAPP: I’m not I don’t think—
VELSHI: Trade deals are not simple, Matt. They take ten years to negotiate.
SCHLAPP: Japan is a closed economy at the end of TPP 10% will be opened to other products. The fact is, that’s not equitable.
VELSHI: Japan is one of the biggest economies in the world.
CUOMO: Let’s leave it there this was actually progress. I want you to know that in an election where all we’re hearing is crooked and no temperament for president, you’re going at the issues.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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