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Donald Trump No Longer GOP Front Runner; Donald Trump News Conference. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired November 03, 2015 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:00:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This, as we get word from Russia of uncharacteristic sounds just before the flight disappeared from radar.

Plus, why line up and take your shoes off at all? A new report says the TSA screenings may not be effective.

Hello, I'm John Berman. Kate has the day off today.

Any minute now a news conference from Donald Trump, no longer the GOP front-runner, according to a new poll out this morning. How will he react to that news? You're looking at live pictures from inside Trump Tower where the he is set to release his new book "Crippled America, How to Make America Great Again."

But while he's selling books, he might be thinking Ben, as in Ben Carson. This new NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" polls Ben Carson six points ahead of Donald Trump. That's a nine-point jump since September. Trump's numbers have been relatively flat over that time. This is the second national poll that shows Trump trailing Carson.

This morning, on ABC he took a swipe at the new leader.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Ben doesn't have the experience. I'm going to make the greatest deals you've ever seen on trade. We're going to run the military properly. I'll take care of the vets. Ben cannot do that. Ben cannot deal on trade --

(CROSSTALK)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC ANCHOR: Why not?

TRUMP: It's not his thing, George. You're born with it. It's not his thing. He hasn't got the temperament for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That news conference from Donald Trump expected to begin any minute.

Our political reporter, Sarah Murray, outside Trump Tower waiting for it all. What do we expect to hear? SARAH MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Donald Trump is going to try to

sell some books today. You see the people lined up behind me. That's part of it. We're also getting a sense of how Trump is reacting to the fact that Ben Carson is in the lead nationwide. You saw him come out this morning. He took a tougher line with Carson. We'll see if he does that again today in his press conference. As far as the book goes, John, if you're expecting to see much more detailed policy from Donald Trump or anything different than what he says in his campaign events, you'll probably be disappointed. It's a lot of rehashing what he likes to say on the campaign trail and an opportunity to make a little bit more money as he's running for president.

BERMAN: Yes, 208 pages, roughly. I have a copy right here. No index to see if your name was in there. Nevertheless, out just today.

Sarah Murray, thanks so much.

Want to bring in Trump biographer, Michael D'Antonio, the author of a different book, "Never Enough: Donald Trump the Pursuit of Success." Also with me, former member of Congress, Nan Hayworth, who was co- chair of Carly for America, the New York Chapter.

Michael, let me start with you.

Donald Trump finds himself in a new position today in the polls. We now have two national polls that show he is trailing Ben Carson a lot of people have been wondering how Trump will react to this. How will he react to not being a winner? You followed him for years up. Know his new book out today is filled with the word "I," in references to the fact he's winning hop how does he react? What does history show about his behavior when he's not?

MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, TRUMP BIOGRAPHER & AUTHOR: Well, I would expect him to become a little less accurate even than he has been before and a little less controlled. He tends to punch away almost flailingly when he's behind. As you heard in your first report, he's going to say that Ben Carson is ill-equipped, doesn't have the temperament, he's not born to be a leader the way Donald is.

BERMAN: Nan, it's interesting, you look at the numbers. If you look at the numbers over time on these polls, Ben Carson has jumped up nine points from September. That's a pretty big rise. Donald Trump, though, his numbers haven't moved one way or the other. They went up from September to October and down just a little bit right now. It could be that he has a floor, a base of support that's up over 20 percent. That's not a bad place to be for Donald Trump even as Ben Carson surges ahead.

NAN HAYWORTH, CO-CHAIR, CARLY FOR AMERICA, NEW YORK CHAPTER & FORMER CONGRESS WOMAN: No. But I think he also has a ceiling as well. If you look at his -- if you look at the favorable/unfavorable ratings, Mr. Trump has some significant challenges in terms of the number of people, even in Republican primary, who won't necessarily vote for him. Carly Fiorina, you know, if you look at favorable/unfavorable, she does extremely well. And this field is fluid. So I think it's exciting to watch as these candidates, like Trump, like Carson, like Carly Fiorina, who are not political professionals, continue to garner the attention of the Republican electorate and of the nation.

BERMAN: So, Michael, again, we're waiting on this news conference right now. Donald Trump expected to come out any minute and speak about his new book "Crippled America." I have a copy. He's not smiling on the cover have this book. He's grimacing. It's a menacing look as he talks about America. In his new book he talks about his upbringing. He notes the small loan he got from his father of about $1 million to work on his first big hotel project in Manhattan. I'm not sure if people in this country really know the Donald Trump story, that his father was an incredibly wealthy real estate developer in the New York area. How much help did he really get from his family over the years?

[11:05:28] D'ANTONIO: What's really interesting is Donald Trump is the last person you want to go to for an accurate telling of his life's story. He puts a gold edge on everything and always shapes what he says to his own benefit. This idea that he just got a $1 million loan from his father and that was the key to his success is ridiculous. His father signed for roughly $70 million in financing for that first project. Later on Donald got $30 million from his siblings that came out of his father's estate. So Donald's dad, Fred, is one of the richest men in America. He owned 15,000 New York apartments in the 1970s. And this was the leg up that Donald got that made his career possible. To say that he wasn't helped enormously is ridiculous.

BERMAN: By the way, even if it was just a $1 million loan, even if his telling of the story is dead-on accurate, I think most Americans would certainly like a $1 million loan from somebody, a father, to have that possibility would be a remarkable advantage, I think, for most people.

Carly --

(CROSSTALK)

D'ANTONIO: Other than advantages as well. He got his father's political contacts. Thanks to those contacts he got a $40 million tax break on the Commodore Hotel. He misrepresents his biography at every turn and really is an unreliable narrator.

BERMAN: Unreliable narrator.

Nan, I just called you Carly.

(CROSSTALK)

HAYWORTH: I'm very complemented. Thank you, John.

BERMAN: -- in the primaries. You were talking about the outsider phenomenon. If you add up the support it's over 50 percent. Carly Fiorina, who's not polling that high in national polls --

(CROSSTALK) HAYWORTH: She's in there.

BERMAN: She's in there. It makes it even higher. This outsider dynamic, it's so fascinating because, again, you hear Michael talk about Donald Trump's upbringing. The million dollar small loan he got from his father. Nevertheless, people from all walks of life seem willing to identify with that.

HAYWORTH: You know, John, because we're surrounded, unfortunately, by evidence that government has failed us in so many ways. It is inefficient, it is ineffective. We have fewer of us, a proportion of the population, the labor force employed, than we've had in nearly 40 years. Young people are staggering from educational debt, from an inability to find jobs, from an inability to save and actually have their savings mean something. People are disappointed. They see government failing them and they want something new and fresh. That's why these folks who come from outside of government are very appealing.

BERMAN: We're keeping an eye on the states right now. We think Donald Trump is getting very close.

I wonder if you expect to hear from Trump about this debate argument going on right now about should the candidates rise up and take over the debates from the Republican Party? Carly Fiorina says, not my problem. I'm going to debate anywhere, anyhow. This is a bunch of whining and complaining.

HAYWORTH: Right. Isn't that refreshing? Carly Fiorina has said she will debate anyone, any time, anyplace. She'll answer anyone's questions. Why, John? Because she's prepared. She's knowledgeable. She has an agile intellect. That's exactly what we want our president to have. I think it's very impressive. She's not quibbling about the details of a debate. When it was proposed CNBC have a three-hour debate, she said, let's go. I'm ready to stand here for as long as it takes.

BERMAN: Donald Trump is one of the people who wanted to keep it shorter, keep it down to two hours.

Michael, again, we're waiting right now for Donald Trump to take the stage and try to sell some books. No doubt, also try to win some votes in this campaign. In this new book, which he's just releasing today, he talks about his relationship with the media pep talks about how he uses the media and the media uses him. This is not a new relationship. This is a 40-year relationship between Donald Trump and the press.

D'ANTONIO: It's true. It goes back 40 years. His claim to being a political outsider is a little bit of a stretch, too. This is a guy who hired pollsters in the 1980s to see if he could run for governor of mayor of New York. He ran for president in 1999 --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Michael, we're looking at Donald Trump right now. Michael D'Antonio, thanks so much.

Here's Donald Trump.

[11:09:57] TRUMP: Simon & Schuster, one of the most magnificent publishers for years and years. I've heard Simon & Schuster being a fabulous -- itself going to say the Rolls-Royce, the Harvard or the Yale, but they really are a great one. I want to thank you so much. You've given us such tremendous support. And we did this quickly. We think we did it very effectively. It's been an incredible experience.

We wrote a book and the title "Crippled America" is very tough, but unfortunately we have to do what we have to do. I think one of the reasons we've been doing so well in the campaign is because we tell the truth, we tell it like it is. America is crippled. We owe 17, now 18, very soon going to be $19 trillion in debt. We have a military that doesn't have proper instruction from leadership. We don't know what we're doing. We're losing all over the world with trade deals. Every country, no matter what country you talk about, you can pick a name out of the hat. They're beating us in trade. We can't go on like this any longer. It's impossible to go on like this any longer.

I always mention as an example, Sergeant Bergdahl, a traitor. We get Sergeant Bergdahl, they get five of the people they wanted and they wanted badly. That's not the way it's going to work anymore. So we write about it in the book. We tell lots of different stories of lots of different things. I think it's going to be very instructional. Very important to me was instructional. When I did "The Art of the Deal," I think one of the reasons it was so successful is that it was largely instructional. Even today when I speak, so many people hold up the book "The Art of the Deal" and the other books we've done.

So, this is one that probably not since "The Art of the Deal," I have to tell this to Simon & Schuster have I worked so hard on a book. It was in a confined period of time. We wanted to get it out really, really quickly so that it pertained to what's going on right now. It's a moment of time. And we got it done. And David did a fantastic job.

Where is David? Is he here? David? David did a fantastic job.

And all of my people did a great job. They helped me so much because we are doing a couple of other things right now. So, this was not easy getting this in. We see by the lines, the lines go down to Park Avenue. They've been forming since last night and I'm going to be signing books starting at 12:00. We're doing a couple of interviews and then we're signing books starting at 12:00. That will be a very exciting for me. We have fans that have bought the book. They just bought it. Some have been online now for 12 and 14 hours. I don't know how they're doing this, but they do it. They find a way. So, I'm looking forward to getting to the signings.

Does anybody have any questions, please? Oh, that's all, just about 30 questions?

Yes, go ahead, Katie?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: I think it's a different poll. We just had polls come out from Iowa where I'm leading. You saw the new poll from Iowa. You saw the new poll in New Hampshire where I'm leading big. A poll just came out in Florida where I'm leading big. Georgia, Texas, I mean, all over the place. And I think, look, we're doing well. If you add Ben and myself, we're beating everybody by a lot. That seems to be the big story, that we're beating -- they call it the establishment. It's called really the failed establishment because the establishment has let us down. I really don't know how his book is doing.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: Well, I think my book is very hard-hitting. His is a different kind of a book and he's a different kind of a person. My book is very hard-hitting. It says it like it is and based on what Simon & Schuster just told me, it's selling like hot cakes, so we'll see.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: We're very different people. We have extremely different qualities. I'm different from all the other candidates. Look, nobody can negotiate trade deals like me. We are going to take the $400 billion a year we're losing with China, that's going to be turned around. The $75 billion a year we're short on with Japan. The $50 billion a year we lose to Mexico. That's right, there will be a wall built. It will go up. It will be built. People will come into the country legally. I'm much different than -- you look at Marco Rubio. Very, very weak on illegal immigration. You look at Ben, he's very weak on immigration and he wants to get rid of Medicare. Ben wants to get rid of Medicare. You can't get rid of Medicare. You get rid of the fraud, waste and abuse, it works. So, when a man is weak on immigration and wants to get rid of Medicare, I don't know how he stays there.

Go ahead, Tom.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

[11:15:00] TRUMP: No, I think that really Marco is overrated. Frankly, had Bush been a better messenger, he has the better message. If that was me delivering that message, it would have been a much different story. Marco doesn't show up to the United States Senate. He's representing the people of Florida, which by the way, that poll just came out today and I'm way up in Florida over everybody. But Marco is a sitting Senator and he doesn't show up for the people of Florida. And I don't think he should be doing that. Bush gave a very weak message, I agree with that. It was poorly delivered. The facts are on Bush's side and I think Marco will be hurt very badly. If you look at Mr. Singer, you have to see where Mr. Singer is coming from. When you see where he's coming from, I think people will say, whoa, we didn't know that. But look at Marco's stance on illegal immigration. It's really trouble for him. I don't see how he can win. Yes, Mark.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: Marco Rubio's personal finances are discredited? Oh, all have you to do is look at his credit card. He's a disaster with his credit cards. And I'll tell you what, I love Florida. I'm in Florida all the time. And for years I've been hearing his credit cards are a disaster. I would think when you take a look at, it you're going to find that. But his credit card debt and his problems with credit card and what he did when he was running the party apparatus with credits, I've hard about it for years. You'll have to find out.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: Well, he has a very bad record of finances if you look at what happened with his houses. You know, he certainly lives above his means, there's no question about that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: Well, we're going to look. On the debates it's very interesting. I don't really care that much. I want a room, I want a podium. Let's get going. I don't care that much. A lot of the people that are candidates, who I respect many of them, not all of them, but I respect many of them, they felt it was very unfair because Hillary Clinton was given all softballs. I mean, she wasn't asked one tough question they didn't talk about her foundation. They didn't talk about any of the problems. They didn't talk about the e-mails when the e-mail problem came up, Bernie Sanders lost his whole campaign. What he did was so stupid from his standpoint. In order to get a one-minute sound bite of some applause, he gave up the e-mails. That was the end of his campaign. First of all, people aren't going to his rallies anymore. He's finished. Unless something happens with respect to the e-mails, she'll easily be the candidate. But I will say this, she only got softballs. That's all she got. If you look at the way we were treated, it wasn't the same way. With that being said, I don't really care.

Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: Your name is?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: I think the Republicans are actually doing a pretty good job overall. They coalesced at the last debate because -- it really started with me. I think Harwood is probably finished as a credible reporter. He was a disaster. It was a horribly put question and so obvious. The Republicans coalesced around each other. It was actually pretty beautiful when you think about it. All we want to do is be treated fairly, but with me, I don't care that much. Just give me a podium. What I would say is this, the networks have made a fortune because of me. Not because of anybody else. You know, they were saying that the last cycle, they had two million and one million people and the networks didn't even want to broadcast it because nobody watched. Nobody wanted to watch. Now they had 25 million people, 24 million people, 23 million people, and 16 million people. I mean, give me a break. So, somebody said, how do they get there? Actually, "Variety" and "Hollywood Reporter" who report this stuff pretty well, much better than the political press, they said solely for one reason it was Trump. I'll take the credit.

I'll tell you what I also want. I think wounded warriors and our veterans should be given some of the enormous profits being made on these debates. Enormous profits. By the way, beyond anything they ever envisioned. CNN was going to get $2,000 for 30-second ad. They ended up getting $250,000. So, they went from $2,000 to $250,000 for a 30-second ad. The networks and the cable are making a fortune. And I think they should give some of the profits to the wounded warriors and the veterans. That's what I want.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

[11:20:10] TRUMP: I'm giving them away. I'm giving -- the profits of my book, I'm giving them away to a lot of different -- including the vets.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: Who are you with?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: OK, good.

A new form of reporting. Do you believe it? They used to come up with cameras. He comes up with a cell phone.

Let's go. Speak fast. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: I have been amazing with respect to the hiring of women. This building was built, as the head person, who was fantastic, by a woman. And that was at a time when you didn't see that in the construction trades. I mean, it was totally unique. I have many, many executives upstairs in a different buildings that I have that are women, a proportion close to 50 percent. Might be over 50 percent if I analyze it. They get paid a lot of money. In many cases, more than men doing the same job. So, women have always appreciated that about me. In terms of employment, I've really been a standout and I've been honored for doing so well with women. Yes?

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: French television. Are you going to be voting? I don't think so.

Let's go. We don't have to worry about the French right now.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: What Jeb Bush was saying at the last debate? I don't know but he didn't say it well. What is your question? Go ahead, behind you. You're with Telemundo. Oh, welcome. Welcome to Trump Tower. I like Telemundo better than Univision. I'm suing Univision for $5 million, so.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: Because the country is doing so poorly. It's an accurate title. Because the country is doing so poorly.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: That's good. They're going to have some demonstrations. Oh, good, it'll get higher ratings if they do that. I think it's fine. Look, I think they should demonstrate. Ratings will go even higher. It's going to be one of the highest rated shows ever and they're very excited about it. And I have a great relationship, as you know, with Telemundo with the Hispanics. You've treated me actually very fairly. Won the poll recently in Nevada, won other polls. In Nevada, I think I got 37 percent and leading everybody. So I've had a great relationship with the Hispanics. I have working for me thousands, right now, thousands of Hispanics. I've had tens of thousands of people over the years working for me. I'm a job machine. I'm a job machine.

And one of the things that does come out in every single poll and every single survey is that nobody for the economy, nobody is even close. I'm two, three -- you see that, two, three, four, five times greater than anybody else. You say it's about the jobs, it's about the economy, then how is anybody going to beat Trump, in any fairness? But I had a great relationship with the workers. I've had a great relationship with jobs and I've had an amazing relationship with the Hispanics. And I predict I'm going to win the Hispanic vote. I think I'm going to win the Hispanic vote. I predict, yeah, I think I'm going to get the nomination. And I will win the White House. I think beating Hillary Clinton is going to be easy because her record is so bad.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: That's the question I like. How am I preparing for my "SNL." I'm meeting with Loren Michaels in a little while. We're going to sign -- I guess, thousands of people online, but we're going to sign, and then later on this evening I'm meeting with Loren Michaels and the whole staff and we'll start the preparation. We'll pick our skits. Am I nervous? Not too nervous. But we'll do a good job and we'll have a fantastic show. We're going to have a lot of fun.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: My Jeb impression? Nah, I don't like to do that. I don't like to show a person sleeping at a podium.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

[11:25:00] TRUMP: Tom is asking, can Jeb make a comeback? I think it's going to be very hard. It's not about money. I just think -- you know, I came up with the energy. And I just think we need tremendous energy. Because we need a person that has tremendous personal energy to get us back on track. You can't do that when you don't have that. I think Marco is highly overrated, highly overrated. He doesn't have it. And all you have to do is look at his stance on things. Jeb, he lacks the quality that you need. We're talking about everybody in the world is ripping us off. You need a very strong person with tremendous energy.

Thank you very much, folks. I'll take the job.

(LAUGHTER)

But -- but -- and it's so important. And, by the way, Ben Carson does not have that energy. We need somebody with tremendous energy to straighten out the military, to straighten out is, to straighten out our horrible trade deals, to terminate Obamacare and come up with something far better for far less money. You need somebody with tremendous personal energy as president. We have a president right now that doesn't have energy. You think Obama has energy? He has no energy. And he's been a horrible president. We need somebody with great personal energy as a leader so that we can make great deals with other countries and do well in every other respect. And certainly Jeb does not have that energy, in my opinion.

Where?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: From "The Guardian."

TRUMP: They treat me very nice in Scotland. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: Good, thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: We just went over that. Honestly, we just went over that. It's only going to make it hotter.

Another question. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: Say it again.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: You're going to see what we're going to do. You're going to see. The whole thing with anchor babies, I turned out to be right. A person has a baby, lives in Mexico or lives in Asia or lives in many different places, has a baby, walks across the border, has the baby here, now, we're responsible for that person for the next 85 years. I don't think so. And, by the way, I was right, they were wrong. The 14th Amendment does not give them clearance on that.

And if you wanted to do that in Mexico or do that in almost any other country where you have a baby in that country and that country has that person for 85 years, including all of the costs of that person, they would laugh you right out of the country. You would be laughed out of the country so fast. So, that turned out I was 100 percent right. We'll have to worry about that. We'll take care of it. It's going to be done in a very humane way. We're going to bring back our country. We're going to have a wall. Mexico is going to pay for the wall. You know why they're going to pay? I have great relationships with Mexico and phenomenal relationships with the Mexican people. Phenomenal. They buy apartments from me. They work for me by the thousands, by the thousands. Phenomenal relationships.

But let me just tell you, we lose so much money with Mexico in terms of trade imbalance. $45 billion last year. Plus, we give Mexico billions and billions of dollars. They will pay for the wall. It will be very interesting. You know what? People are going to come into this country but they're going to come in legally, Sarah.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: "Italian Daily News."

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: Can you talk louder? Nobody can hear.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: He's from Italy. A lot of the European countries are going to build walls to stop the immigration.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION:

TRUMP: Well, walls work. All you have to do is ask Israel. Walls work, if it's properly constructed. Not the walls that these characters, these politicians that we have running our country, who are a disgrace, all talk, no actions politicians, they build a wall this big, they drive cars right through it. Walls work. All you have to do is go and see Israel. They will tell you that walls work.

OK, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

TRUMP: We need pomp and circumstance. Good question, actually. Our country has no spirit. Our country has no gravitas. Our country doesn't feel good about itself. And the primary reason is we have no victories. I mean, where have we had a victory? Where have we had a victory in trade? Where have we had a victory in -- as an example, this horrible with Iran where we're giving $150 billion and we lose everything. We lose everything. It's a laughingstock.