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Linda McMahon Talks Trump; Trump: Clinton Using Woman Card; Judge's Scathing Words When Sentencing Dennis Hastert. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired April 27, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: In comparison, Hillary Clinton, who has been secretary of state, she's been quite specific in some ways. It's fine with you that -- you know, I've heard you say he's obviously capable of being commander-in-chief and he could hire advisers. That's how you feel confident.

LINDA MCMAHON, (R), FORMER WWW CEO & FORMER SENATE CANDIDATE & CEO, WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP LIVE: I think he'll hire confident people around him and laid out a good plan today. I do think that America does need to be strong.

BALDWIN: OK. What about -- so this recent controversial North Carolina bill banning people from using the public restrooms that don't correspond with their biological sex, it also cites from protecting transgender and gay people from this anti-discrimination ordinance. As a conservative woman, where do you stand on that?

MCMAHON: Well, you know, I really think we have to use common sense about these issues. I mean, I've taken my little granddaughters and grandsons into restrooms with me. I think there just needs to be common sense with it. I don't know that it has to be legislative. Why not allow non-gender specific restrooms, if they are just one stall that you go into. You go into many of those.

BALDWIN: As a successful businesswoman, what about business in North Carolina and how people are pulling out because of that?

MCMAHON: Well, you know, I live in the state where businesses are pulling out because taxes are too high, and because we have driven businesses out of the state. So what I would like to see are business-friendly environments so that our economy can grow and we can put people back to work. That's one of the reasons I formed Women's Leadership Live.

BALDWIN: Tell me about that.

MCMAHON: It's a company that we form to train women for success. I have two partners, Stacy Sheffland (ph) from HSN, and Debby Sabiano (ph), our social media strategist. We want to train women for success and how they define success. Maybe it is moving from middle management to the suite. Maybe it is running for office. Maybe it is transitioning back into the workforce because they have left to have a family. So all of those things are very important. And women need a community of support. (CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Why do you think some women don't do that?

MCMAHON: I don't know. I found when I campaign sometimes that women don't support other women and we have to get behind each other.

BALDWIN: We do.

MCMAHON: We have to support each other. We are in the right. Not just because we're women but because we're moving forward with the right plan and the right agenda and right qualifications.

BALDWIN: And people can learn more by going to?

MCMAHON: Womensleadershiplive.com. Our first event is in May. We would love to have everyone come.

BALDWIN: Linda McMahon, thank you for today.

MCMAHON: Thank you.

BALDWIN: We appreciate your time.

MCMAHON: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Coming up next, we will continue this conversation on gender here, gender in politics. Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton is playing the woman card. What does that mean? If she were a man, he says that she wouldn't have but 5 percent of the vote. The former secretary of state's campaign is firing back. We'll discuss that in depth.

Also ahead, scathing words from a Chicago judge today calling former house Speaker Dennis Hastert a "serial child molester" before handing down his punishment. We'll have live report on details from inside the courtroom.

Stay with me. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:37:35] BALDWIN: On the heels of a highly successful primary night, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are quickly pivoting to the general election against one another. And in Trump's victory speech last night, he portrayed the looming competition as a card game, some critics are saying a sexist card game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: If Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she would get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she's got going is the woman's card.

(APPLAUSE) TRUMP: And the beautiful thing is women don't like her. OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The woman card, as in she's attracting support because she is a woman.

Secretary Clinton is, of course, is used to the criticism. This is how she responded at her victory rally in Philadelphia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: If fighting for women's health care and paid family leave and equal pays playing the woman card, then deal me in!

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let me bring in Tana Goertz, the senior advisor for the Trump campaign; CNN's senior political reporter back with us, Nia- Malika Henderson; and CNN political commentator, Margaret Hoover.

Ladies, nice to have you on.

Tana, to you first, what is the woman card he's talking about?

TANA GOERTZ, SENIOR ADVISOR, DONALD TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Mr. Trump doesn't care about gender. He cares about the qualifications of a person. He wasn't busting on women, just busting on Hillary, that woman. He wants to see qualifications for how -- what she's going to do, and she doesn't have anything to prove that. It had nothing to do with being a woman or not liking women. That was just -- it was -- it's not gender specific.

BALDWIN: Margaret?

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I would love to believe that. This is a problem. This is -- first of all, there are different rules when you run as the first woman to run for the presidency ever. But what we all fear -- I'm one of these Republicans who really -- you know, it would be great to see a first woman president but I've never been a supporter of Hillary Clinton. The hard part is there are 30 percent to 40 percent of Republican women who find themselves in a really difficult position wondering whether they can pull the lever for Donald Trump.

And when he says things like the woman card, as though this woman is only there because of her gender, that somehow there's a quota and there's this -- she's had unfair advantages because she's been a woman throughout her professional advancement and career and that's why she is where she is. Look, every woman who is a professional knows what that language means. And that has a risk to it if he continues to speak that way.

BALDWIN: Go ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

GOERTZ: I'm a professional woman and it didn't offend me at all.

[13:40:06] HOOVER: You're a Trump supporter so it wouldn't offend you.

(CROSSTALK)

GOERTZ: Even if I wasn't a Trump supporter. I'm a confident woman. And I realize my qualifications are what matter. It's not if I'm a man or a woman. It's, how good am I. And Mr. Trump, he hires people who are qualified. As you know, the majority of the executives in the Trump organization are women. He wants someone of strength. It doesn't matter if you're a man or woman, if your name is Jane or Joe. He wants to see, what is she going to do for women?

She hasn't done anything for women yet. But the average woman who isn't really involved in politics or isn't really using her own brain, to go, let me see, what does -- what has this woman done for our country? They are saying, I guess I should vote for her because she's a woman with. I don't know why they are doing, why they are doing that, but a lot of women are doing that. What Mr. Trump is saying is look at the policies. What is she doing? Nothing.

HOOVER: That's not true. I feel like with the Democratic primary, especially among Millennials, they are not voting for her because she's a woman. Frankly, they're voting for Bernie Sanders by 29 percentage points. So there is no sort of gender --

GOERTZ: I didn't say the Millennials. I understand that. I know who the Millennials are voting for. I wasn't mentioning the Millennials.

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: But this notion she's winning because she's a woman is just not true. I mean, it is -- she's actually winning because the argument you're making.

BALDWIN: OK, can I jump in?

Nia-Malika Henderson, let me bring your voice in, because when I heard the woman card, and, yes, some people would agree with Tana and there are a lot of women who I know that this infuriated. And I'm wondering, it brought me back to the binders full of women comment from, you know, Mitt Romney. During that debate when he was talking about, when he was governor of Massachusetts he was combing through binders full of women of job applicants. That really hurt him. People went out for Halloween as binders full of women that year. Does this hurt Trump or not?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yeah, you know --

(CROSSTALK) GOERTZ: Not at all.

HENDERSON: -- he's in a difficult position at this point. And if you go back to 2008, you had John McCain try to appoint Sarah Palin as a corrective to the problems that he had with women. And then, of course, you saw Mitt Romney in the same way talk about binders full of women. And you saw Democrats run that war on women strategy, very effectively against him in 2012 with Barack Obama winning something like 11 percentage points of women to Mitt Romney.

But I think what is also is what sort of miss, when we talk about the gender card, is the ways in which Donald Trump himself is playing the gender card. You know, we often think of women as only having gender. Men have a gender, too. And I think there's probably no presidential candidate that we've seen in moderate times more obsessed with his own masculinity than Donald Trump. Here's a person who got on the debate stage to talk about the size of his hands. And guess what? He was not talking about the size of his hands. Here's a presidential candidate who --

(CROSSTALK)

GOERTZ: -- bring up his hands?

HENDERSON: He did on the debate stage. He did on the debate stage.

(CROSSTALK)

GOERTZ: He didn't bring it up. That was brought up so he talked about it.

HENDERSON: -- is bringing up whose wife is hotter with Ted Cruz and this whole idea of, you know, he's going to punch somebody out at a rally. He's certainly playing this role as the alpha male, which is certainly a form of playing the gender card. So I think we too often sort of see women as the only people who have a gender and forget about the ways in the sort of subtle and overt ways that men certainly benefit from the gender card, too.

GOERTZ: And they do.

HENDERSON: And it's more subtle, in some ways, for that.

BALDWIN: Valid points.

Tana?

GOERTZ: I agree with you. But I would agree with you that men do use the gender card. But it is different when a man does it because men aren't offended by another man using hi gender card. It's always a woman is offended by another woman using the woman card. Why is it that we, us sisters, get so upset about our gender?

We should be proud. We're not -- men would never have this conversation. All three of us would not be here on the television set if we -- if it was a man, if we were men. Men don't care about things like this. A woman just always wants to prove that we're subordinate and we're second-class citizens and we are the poor us victims. No! Mr. Trump, like I said, he hires on strength. I'm a proven entity of that. I'm a woman. He's hired me. I've known him for 11 years. He's always supported me. It doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman. If you're good at what you do, you will be elevated. Bottom line.

BALDWIN: Last word from you.

HOOVER: That's a great message. We should see people as individuals, not strictly through a prism, any sort of prism, especially gender. The challenge is, as you know, as Mr. Trump approaches the general election, it's no longer an issue of Republican primary voters who believe a lot of what you have said. It's a matter of general election voters who are concerned about some of the rhetoric, especially the female rhetoric. You have negatives that are 78 percent with women. You have a lot of work to do.

[14:45:16] GOERTZ: Hey, look at last night, ladies. Look at last night.

BALDWIN: What about last night?

GOERTZ: People in Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: No, he did really well. It was a strong showing.

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: -- the Republican primaries.

GOERTZ: Exactly.

(CROSSTALK)

GOERTZ: But guess what, those same people will go out and vote for -- those same women will go out and vote for Donald Trump.

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: They are 25 percent of the general election primary voters.

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: You have to win the Independents and you've got to win the Democrats.

BALDWIN: Tana Goertz, Margaret Hoover, Nia-Malika Henderson, thank you very much.

GOERTZ: And he has.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: We'll talk again.

Thank you ladies, so much.

Coming up next, Dennis Hastert sentenced to 15 months in prison today. The judge called the former House speaker a, quote/unquote, "serial child molester." But it's what was what he accusers said on the stand that shocked the courtroom. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:50:25] BALDWIN: Some breaking news today on the former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. This federal judge in Chicago just sentenced him to 15 months in prison plus two more years in supervisory release in a high-profile hush money case. 74-year-old Dennis Hastert paid out $1.7 million to cover a sexual abuse that stems from decades years ago.

Let's bring in our senior legal analyst and former prosecutor, Jeffrey Toobin. But first, CNN correspondent, Ryan Young, outside the courthouse with a little bit of what happened in there.

Including the fact that the judge called him flat-out a serial child molester.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Brooke. We decided to stay on the inside here. Let me tell you, you could feel the judge's anger. If he could sentence him more, he would. He talked about the idea of being a serial child molester. Asked him the question straightforward, did you do this one? Did you do the second one? The third one? He admitted to two of them and said the other he could not remember.

In the courtroom, you could hear the pin drop because he was talking about what happened so many years ago. One of the victim's details in the court that Hastert had a chair on the edge of the shower and used to watch the wrestling team take showers all the time. Everyone started looking around at each other. The judge was like, for you to abuse the idea of being a coach and also being a teacher, to take advantage of these boys is absolutely disgusting. When one of the victims talked about what happened to him, he said he didn't tell his family for years. In fact, he just told them last year that this happened.

You could feel so much anger in terms of when people were walking out trying to figure out the details from this.

And when you hear the emotion from one victim's sister talking, you understand what people were dealing with.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOLENE BURDGE, SISTER OF DECEASED VICTIM: Steve indicated to me that it was all through high school. Now that doesn't seem to be what's happened with the other boys but I have always felt like they had a different relationship. And I don't mean different in a bad way. Just -- he just kind of took Steve under his wing, you know. He was the manager of the wrestling team. Him. You know, on trips and at the gym and before school and after school. You know, if anybody wants to know specifics, you should ask Denny, he knows.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Everyone talked about the fact that Dennis Hastert's wrestling team won the state title and he was revered. Everyone loved him, especially as he moved on to become the speaker of the House. That's what the judge said. He really took the balance of power too far. And talked about how even one of the victims as young as 14 years old, he brought him into a room and there was sexual abuse that went on.

We do know he'll be able to turn himself in at some time as a final place to house him with all the medical issues he has. He decided to speak. Hastert did talk to the judge, begged for forgiveness. Also told everyone he was sorry. It took him four to five times to stand up. We know he had a stroke a few months ago. So you could see he was dealing with health issues. But the judge said, if you were old enough to do a crime, you are old enough to face the punishment for it.

He talked about all the payments he tried to hide, the $1.7 million worth of payments to one of the victims here and tried to turn it around on the victim after he came forward with being caught with all these payments and was paying over the federal limit.

So just an interesting case here. You can see how far that people were hurt over the years from what has happened.

BALDWIN: Horrible, going back so, so long ago, and to finally have him in court begging for forgiveness from the victims and the judge.

Jeffrey Toobin, when you hear the details -- and we know Hastert's attorneys, they wanted probation. The judge said, because of his older age, he didn't give him more time because it would essentially amount to a death sentence. What are all the factors to giving him 15 months?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Brooke, I have to tell you, I don't think the public has fixated enough on just how amazing and horrifying this case is. This man was second in line to the presidency. Two --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Two heartbeats away.

TOOBIN: Two heartbeats away. And he is a serial child molester, acknowledged. Where were the journalists who should have found this out? Where was law enforcement? Where were all the people writing profiles of him for all these years? Where were his political supporters, his political opponents? How could this have gone on? How could he be a revered figure? Everybody in the House called him "Coach." That was his whole persona, being a wrestling coach. And he was a serial child molester. I just find this story incredible.

BALDWIN: So the 15 months?

[14:55:00] TOOBIN: I used to prosecute these cases about currency. And usually they don't get any jail time at all. Obviously, this was not just a case about currency, about not filing transaction reports. It was about paying off hush money for child abuse. That's what got it up to 15 months. It's a long sentence by the standards of this crime. But given the magnitude of this crime, given the lives it appears he wrecked, it's a very -- it's a very modest sentence.

And I'm sorry, you know, I'm sorry he's sick. But I have been in many courtrooms where these older defendants always have the horrible illnesses that they can't be sentenced, and it happens all the time, and these guys are usually fine.

BALDWIN: Does it?

Point taken earlier. Truth, Jeff Toobin, truth.

Thank you very much, Jeff Toobin, and Ryan Young there on the Dennis Hastert sentencing.

Meantime, more breaking news today. This involving the estate that superstar Prince left behind. We now are learning the judge just handed down an early decision on what happens next in that process.

Plus, sources tell CNN, on politics today, that Ted Cruz will name Carly Fiorina as his running mate very soon, even though, by the way, Ted Cruz is far behind Donald Trump in terms of the Republican nomination. Yet, he's naming his running mate. More on that coming up.

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