Return to Transcripts main page

At This Hour

Donald Trump Stumps in Wyndham, New Hampshire. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired January 11, 2016 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: He said he hadn't heard from her so he got her landlord to go with him to check on her. Police say so far they don't have any suspects.

Thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

AT THIS HOUR with Berman and Bolduan starts now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman.

You can see it right there, happening now, Donald Trump on stage in Wyndham, New Hampshire, where he will take questions from actual voters. This is a town hall meeting. This is a state where a brand- new poll -- and you can bet Trump has been talking about that -- a brand-new poll with a huge lead for him.

BOLDUAN: A different story in the key state of Iowa where he is neck and neck with Ted Cruz. Cruz is actually up four points there, which has Donald Trump on the attack.

Let's listen in to Mr. Trump in New Hampshire, as John said, where he started off his chat with voters, citing the polls.

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: It was excellent. But I'm standing there shaking hands with club members. Nice people. Great people. Probably some here today. Anybody here? Is anybody here from that club that was very nice? Anybody here? Because I took so many pictures that day. So I did that. I did it as a favor. And other things. He asked me, would I come up and make a speech on behalf of James Foley? I'll do that any time. I think that was good. And I made a big contribution, a very big contribution to James Foley. And I think that's fine.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And I think that's fine. But I came up, I made a speech. I did a lot of things. Strange on, @realdonaldtrump. So, I have millions and millions of followers, especially when you add Facebook. It's like 5.6 million for Twitter, over five million for Facebook. Instagram it's like 11, 12 million people. And I said, what is it? He said, would you do me a favor? This is a few weeks ago. Chris Christie did not make the main stage. I would like you to do me a favor and tweet, and tweet that Chris Christie should be on the main stage. I said, but, Joe, I mean, he didn't make it because he didn't make it, right? You have to go through, you have to get a certain number of points on the polls. Well, he didn't make it but he should be there. It's not fair. Would you tweet? I said, I'll tweet. So I put out a tweet. What am I going to say? I figured I'd be nice. But I knew immediately it was going to draw -- but can you imagine a guy calling me up, knowing he's going to endorse a guy, asking me to use my Twitter to put him in. Other than that, I mean, the guy's bad news. He's not a talented guy.

Then I get a letter -- you won't believe this. I had to take the glasses out because this is worth while to read. I get a letter from one of his top people. Listen to this. Just got it recently. It's to Amanda, that's my person in charge, from Robin Wilson, the "Union Leader." "Hope all is well and that you had a wonderful holiday season. Happy New Year, Amanda. I'm e-mailing today because I wanted to let you know about a special edition we'll be doing just before the New Hampshire primary called Voters First. I have attached a letter that explains what will be included along with the rate card." Rate Card. This guy wants advertising. We just got the letter. It's a personal letter. It's not a letter out from a computer. "There's a perfect edition for you. I really hope you'll consider running an ad. Please let me know as soon as possible. Robin Wilson, advertising manager." OK. I'm saying, I don't believe it. The girl walked up, she said, Mr. Trump, what's going on here? My girl was even surprised. She didn't even know about it. Then the next page, this, then it's the next page after that. Think of this, this guy is running a newspaper into the ground. I mean, you had a guy, Mr. Loeb, was like this legendary guy. Look, two-page spread, $7,500. Back cover for only $3,500. Does anybody want the back cover of a newspaper that lost all credibility?

(SHOUTING)

TRUMP: I'll take it. I'll give you $500. Inside back, the "Union Leader," OK? That's not the way you do business and you have a guy who's out of control, thinks he's hot stuff. He's not hot stuff.

Anyway, I just had to bring this up. It shows the dishonesty with the media. It really does. The media is very dishonest. Although I have to tell you, "Time" magazine did a cover story of me this week. It's one of the best stories I've ever read about myself. And it's really not about --

(LAUGHTER)

It's true. But it's really not about myself. It's really about you. It's about a movement that's going on. And I'll tell you what, I was -- I've been on the cover of "Time" now a number of times in the last three months. Obviously, I should have been picked as person of the year, right? Do you agree?

(CHEERING)

[11:05:00] TRUMP: I think the reason -- the reason -- yeah, maybe next year. Next year would be even better because we can prove we can do things. But they didn't and they picked Angela Merkel, who is -- I mean, do you see what's going on? We talk about immigration, we talk about borders. Do you see what she's done to Germany? Just coming over just before this morning, I'm watching television, the rapes, the riots, what's happening is unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Unthinkable. They've been there for two weeks. And the place is going to hell. She got person of the year. I didn't. I guess I came in second. They felt guilty so they gave me another cover. You have to go out and get "Time" magazine because it's talking about a movement of great people. It's a movement like they haven't seen. Many people are saying, there's never been anything like this in this country, what's taking place like us. Not me. I'm a messenger. It's with us.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: An amazing, an amazing thing. I'm very proud of that story because that was a story -- usually I'll get a story and they usually put a shot in. They'll have three good paragraphs and one total killer. Then five good paragraphs and just a total killer. You tell people, don't read it. The killers make up for it. They have to do it. And they're dishonest. But the "Time" magazine piece -- they're pretty liberal. This "Time" cover story is amazing. It talks about what we've done and what we've accomplished.

So let's talk a little about what we're doing in terms of the competition and then we're talking about the problems of the country and how to fix the problems. Basically, how to fix the problems, elect Trump as president, OK?

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We can cut it short. You know what we can do? That's right, President Obama, you're fired.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: That's an easy one. Thank you. Got a very enthusiastic person.

(SHOUTING)

TRUMP: So, Ted Cruz is a problem. He's got a problem. If you know Congressman Alan Grayson said he's going to bring a major suit. The suit is going to say that he wasn't born in this country. So, whether you like it or not, Ted has to figure it out. You can't be having a nominee if he got -- I think they're going to win very solidly, if you want to know the truth. If you get a nomination, you can't have the person who gets the nomination like Hillary Clinton, who might be sued. She'll be sued on the e-mails. The e-mails -- I mean, she should not be running. Oh, would I love to run against Bernie. I would love -- oh.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: I mean, can you imagine -- remember they took the microphone away. Get off the stage. They told him. This is our president. He goes like this. Oh, excuse me. (LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: And everyone's out there saying, get off the Mike. We wanted to hear him. He walked back like a little puppy. This is going to be our president. I would love please, FBI, please go after Hillary. I want to run against Bernie!

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: Oh, that's a dream come true. This guy, he would make some president. 90 percent tax, everybody. Does anybody mind paying 90 percent? Because you go with Bernie, you'll have yourself a nice 90 percent tax. He wants to take it all away from you. He's sort of dampening it a little bit. He wants to keep it a little low key. He wants a big, fat, beautiful tax. And I don't think the people here are going to go for that very easily. But I want to run against Bernie. That's my dream. That's my dream.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: That's the one I really want. But Hillary will be fine. The poll just said, we beat Hillary. FOX poll just out, we beat Hillary. Honestly, we'll take anybody. With the people we have, with the movement we have, and we have, by far, the largest audiences and, in all fairness, Bernie is second, but way down by comparison to the audiences we get.

We're going to Pensacola next week. They don't even know if they can have it in the whole -- I mean, they can -- the number of people showing up at Pensacola, it's unbelievable. But we had 20,000 people recently, 21,000, 35,000 in Mobile, Alabama. 20,000 in Dallas, Texas. The Maverick Arena filled up. It's unbelievable the crowds we get. And it's only determined by the size of the space.

And I want to thank the fire marshal because he allowed a lot of people in here. They have people standing at doors. Nothing's going to happen, but people standing at the doors. But the fire marshals are the most important people to me because they let us get more people into the rooms. Every one of them, they've been great. I appreciate that.

[11:10:13] But Ted Cruz has a problem because the question is, is he a natural born citizen? The question was asked on "Meet the Press," asked of me by Chris Wallace this weekend. I said, I don't know. Nobody knows. And Lawrence Tribe (ph) of Harvard, a constitutional expert, one of the best in the country, said -- and I wrote it down -- "This is not a settled matter." It's wrong to say it is a settled matter because it's absolutely not. It's not a settled matter. That means -- a lot of people think you have to be born here. You have to be born on this land. Now, John McCain, a Lawrence Tribe (ph) representative of John McCain, he was born outside of the United States but he was born on a military base to two people in the military. That's different. I would never question that. But in the case of Ted, he has to figure it out. I think he can go in for some kind of judiciary proceeding. Look, doesn't matter what he does. You can't have a nominee who's going to be subject to being thrown out as a nominee. You just can't do it. So, you're going to make that decision, folks. I mean, it's one of those little decisions. I'm sure Ted is thrilled I'm helping him out, but I am. I mean, I am. I mean, he's got go and he's got to fix it.

One thing I will say, just to finish, so I have a very strong immigration policy. When I brought up immigration, I mean, and it was brought up strongly in my speech, in my opening remarks. I said, wall and I said all sorts of things, right? That's good. Well, no, no, low key because I haven't really --

(SHOUTING)

TRUMP: No, no, low key. OK, ready? We will build a wall!

CROWD: Build that wall!

(CHANTING)

TRUMP: Who's going to pay for the wall? Who?

CROWD: Mexico.

TRUMP: So you know what I'm saying. I've been saying this for a long time. Yesterday or two days ago, they showed me Ted's plan and it said -- he never said this. It said, it begins by building a wall. It's amazing how far people have come.

(LAUGHTER)

Then triple the number of Border Patrol officers. That's me. Implement e-verify. That's me, too. By the way, Ted happens to be a very good guy. They're all good people. But they all like -- when I was taking heat, Rush Limbaugh said, nobody has ever received more incoming. And it's true. When I announced, I said, boy, for two weeks, I said, is it going to be like this always? It was brutal. Then all of a sudden, a lot of things started happening. Crime statistics started being looked at. Kate was killed in San Francisco, beautiful Kate, by an illegal immigrant, shot in the back. You had Jameel in California, who I think his father is one of the greatest people. I got to know his father over this. Jameel Shaw (ph), who's a young man getting ready to go to college, good football player, good student. He was killed, shot in the face three or four times by an illegal immigrant just walking down the sidewalk going back home to his father. You have the woman in Los Angeles who was a veteran. 65 years old, raped, sodomized and killed by a person that should have not been in this country. Illegal immigrant. And all of a sudden everybody's coming my way. They're all saying, well, wow, you know, he's right.

I don't have any -- I mean, you remember how crazy it was. Macy's was -- we're a member of inclusion. We consider ourselves very inclusive, they would tell us. They got fined $650,000 for all sorts of discrimination and they're always being looked at. As soon as I -- it's not a big deal, folks, shirts and ties. Who cares? I didn't like the ties that much anyway. They were made in China.

(LAUGHTER)

No, but how disloyal is Macy's? I tell people, don't shop there anymore. And their stock has tubed. You see what happened to their stock? Can I take credit, the fact they don't sell my shirts and ties there? The company went to hell.

(LAUGHTER)

It's unbelievable.

BERMAN: Donald Trump in Wyndham, New Hampshire. You've heard about him talking about the polls. He is leading in New Hampshire. Talking about the big paper in New Hampshire, which did not endorse him. It endorsed Ted Cruz -- I mean, Chris Christie. Donald Trump didn't like that one bit. And talking about Ted Cruz and where he was born.

[11:14:40] BOLDUAN: It's gone from suggestion and innuendo in terms of the citizenship question from Donald Trump to this is one of his main points he's talking about it in his rallies. We heard it in Nevada and we're definitely hearing about it here now.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: As we sit here right now in New York, Donald Trump is in New Hampshire, Wyndham, New Hampshire, for an event billed as a town hall. Presumably he will take questions. Before that, though, he's giving a speech. As part of his speech now, every single day, Ted Cruz brings up -- Donald Trump, brings up Ted Cruz and where Ted Cruz was born, wondering out loud if Ted Cruz is eligible because he was born in Canada to be president of the United States.

BOLDUAN: I just don't know.

BERMAN: That's what Donald Trump says.

Inside that room, with Donald Trump, watching this event right now, our chief political reporter, Dana Bash.

Dana, this is now an everyday occurrence. How is the crowd taking it?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You see, by the way, he's still speaking over my left shoulder. And, absolutely, this is something he's repeating over and over again. As we heard live, he says he's doing it to help Ted Cruz. He's a friend of his. He wants to get it out of the way before he -- before Ted Cruz is the nominee, if he is, and Democrats go after him.

[11:20:02] The answer to your question may surprise you. I spent some time walking through this crowd before Donald Trump came in asking whether or not the people here -- most of whom support Donald Trump, some are candidate shopping, but most are Donald Trump supporters -- if it's an issue that Ted Cruz thinks it's an issue Cruz was born in Canada. I didn't find any who say they think it is an issue. Most shrugged their shoulders saying, it's nothing to worry about. Those voters, who are Republicans, saying if he's the nominee, they'll support him whole-heartedly and not worry whether or not he'll get the party tied up in courts as Donald Trump is warning.

BOLDUAN: Dana, do you think for some reason this is maybe not an issue for New Hampshire voters but it could -- it is more of an issue for Iowa voters because obviously when you look at the polls, that's where Ted Cruz is a very big threat to Donald Trump?

BASH: It's a great question. I was with Ted Cruz for a few days last week in Iowa. As you said, that is the place where the Cruz campaign is hoping to pull off a win. And Trump is, you know -- you look at some polls, closer to him than he was before. It is possible that it could be more of an issue there. But, you know, I think the bottom line is, and we've seen this so many times from Donald Trump over the past six months, he is -- whether it's going to be overt or just kind of under the radar, he's trying to sow seeds of doubt about Ted Cruz in a kind of pointed way, in a way that people might not even understand themselves that they see or feel. But that is no question what's going on here. He is a master marketer and that's what this is about.

BERMAN: You're seeing it on stage today. It was yesterday in Nevada. We're going to see just about every day this week, a busier week than usual for Donald Trump on the trail.

Dana Bash, we'll let you get back to watching this event. We'll check in with you in a little bit if and when Donald Trump makes more news.

BOLDUAN: And if he starts taking questions because that's often where there's interesting back and forth with those in the audience.

BERMAN: Indeed.

BOLDUAN: Right now, let's bring in Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator, Donna Brazile; and Republican consultant, Bruce Haynes.

Thanks for joining us.

You were listening in to Donald Trump as we were. First, Bruce, to you. As Donald Trump started off, he talked about the polls. He's talking about the polls in New Hampshire where he has a solid lead. He says, that's beautiful. A very different -- I don't know what kind of descriptor he would say in talking about the fight, though n Iowa. That's where the heat is on despite the temperatures for Donald Trump. Neck and neck with Ted Cruz. Do you think Donald Trump can pull it out in Iowa? What do you think?

BRUCE HAYNES, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT & CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think he can. You know, again, he's right. There is -- the one thing that Sanders and the Trump campaigns have in common is this sense of passion among people supporting him, the sense that it's a movement. You know, the real question is going to be Cruz comes from politics. It's a close primary. He'll know who his people are and he'll have a machine built to turn them out. It's one thing to answer the phone or an online survey and say, I'm for Donald Trump. It's another thing to trudge out in the snow on a cold night three weeks from now in Iowa, show up, raise your hand in front of everyone in the room and say, I'm for Donald Trump. That's what he has to deliver on to get the win.

BERMAN: If he's able to do that, it will be something we've never seen before.

Something I've never seen before in New Hampshire, polling, Donna Brazile. Let me pull up the New Hampshire poll right now. Trump is way out front on the Republican race. He's at 30 percent, doing very well. Look at the grouping behind him. Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, and John Kasich. They are all bunched together right there. Sort of four establishment lane guys, plus Ted Cruz. How do you break through there? These guys obviously now battling hard for second place.

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Actually, I think they're battling for third place if you think about the winner of the Iowa caucuses will likely be in second place. If Ted Cruz, who I believe have a superior organization in the state of Iowa, along the Republican candidates, if he comes up in first place, he'll immediately jump to second place in New Hampshire. So, the establishment lane right now is congested. And that's why you see Mr. Rubio attacking Mr. Christie and Mr. Christie going back at Mr. Rubio, Mr. Bush attacking him, Mr. Kasich. It is really the scene of an accident. So, somebody will come in third place, so to speak. As I often say, if you come in third place, that's a long -- that's the long way home to try to jumpstart your campaign for the final two contests in the month of February, Nevada and South Carolina.

But it's fun to watch how the Republicans are trying to gently go around Donald Trump, who is a master birther. And the fact that he has thrown this birther issue back into the political debate, this time against a fellow Republican, is amazing. It's astounding. But I don't think Donald Trump is going to get a lot of traction but it might hurt Ted Cruz in the short term. Eventually, Ted Cruz will be able to take on Donald Trump one-on-one during Super Tuesday.

[11:25:19] BOLDUAN: It has been amazing even hearing some fellow Republicans say on this birther issue, it's a legitimate question to be brought up. It's been amazing as well.

You were talking about organization and how that's key. Organization also key for Democrats in that wonderful state of Iowa. Let's look at the latest polls in both New Hampshire and Iowa for the Democrats. Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, they are pretty much neck and neck in both of these states. Not what a lot of folks were thinking, you can be sure. Probably if they're being honest and candid, a little closer than Hillary Clinton thought they'd be at this point.

What is going on, Donna?

BRAZILE: Momentum. Bernie has momentum. And three weeks out, will that momentum last? Remember, Hillary Clinton has been running -- she ran back in 2008. She has a superior organization. She has people who understand the caucus process, that you need somebody who will get there, make a speech, galvanize them, motivate them to stand in your corner. Bernie Sanders is new to this process. He's done a phenomenal job, not just with big crowds, as Donald Trump likes to say, but he's put together a very strong organization. He has paid staff, 28 offices, thousands of volunteers. I've visited both campaign headquarters and it's amazing we'll see a competitive race. I know Martin O'Malley is out there today campaigning. I talked to his staff. They said it's cold. You can take the cold, I can't. But we'll have a competitive race. It's going to be a great contest on the Democratic side as well.

BERMAN: You know, Bruce, we were looking at a picture of Bernie Sanders, who's on stage right now. He's holding an event in Iowa right now, where he is creeping up on Hillary Clinton there. We've seen a shift in how Hillary Clinton is approaching Bernie Sanders, just within the last 24, 48 hours.

She was on the Sunday shows and talking about Bernie Sanders' position on the guns over the years. Let's play a bit of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I think he has been consistently refusing to say that he would vote to repeal this absolute immunity from any kind of responsibility or liability. President Obama and I and Senator Sanders were all in the Senate at the same time. Two of us voted against what the NRA says was the most important piece of legislation in 20 years for the gun lobby. Senator Sanders voted with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, Bruce, is this, do you think, a potentially successful issue for Hillary Clinton in dealing with Bernie Sanders now? Do you think it was a mistake for her to back off on Bernie Sanders for a month? She essentially did. She was talking about Donald Trump. She was talking about the Republicans for several weeks, now putting the focus back on Sanders.