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Bill Clinton's Role in Hillary Administration?; John Kasich Speaks Out; Donald Trump's History With Women. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired May 16, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:02]

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, the court has basically said, look, you will have to get tested, and you will have to pay for it -- Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Sara Sidner at Prince's estate there, thank you so much, Sara.

BALDWIN: All right. We roll on, top of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for starting your week with us here.

Let's begin with Donald Trump. Donald Trump is today blasting a front-page story in "The New York Times," calling the piece about the way he treats women -- quote -- "a fraud."

The title of this piece is "Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private."

According to the paper, it says its reporters conducted more than 50 interviews, including talking to ex-girlfriends, former employees, former pageant contestants, and their stories, quoting the newspaper, "reveal unwelcome romantic advances, unending commentary on the female form, a shrewd reliance on ambitious women, and unsettling workplace conduct."

That's from "The Times." Those are the reporters on the byline of the piece. Now, the first person portrayed in this article dated Trump in the early '90s and said she will vote for him in November, and today she came on live on to CNN, and she denounced "The Times"' account of her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROWANNE BREWER LANE, ONCE DATED DONALD TRUMP: I'm very displeased with the way that it came out.

They promised me time and time over again that the piece would not be a hit piece, that it was just merely each person's explanation of how they had interactions with Donald, what we -- you know, what I thought of him.

And I made it very clear many times that I had a very pleasant relationship with Donald and that I never felt like I was being, you know, depicted as, you know, a piece of meat or anything like that. I was never offended by anything that he had said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: She called for an apology from "The New York Times." These are the two reporters behind the piece. And they tell CNN they absolutely stand by their work.

We first go to CNN political reporter Sara Murray.

And, Sara, you talked to a number of the women interviewed in this "Times" piece. What did they tell you about their interactions with Mr. Trump?

SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, what I thought was interesting is some of the women I talked to had worked for Mr. Trump in the past, had worked with Trump in the past.

And, you know, they agreed that at times Trump could be boastful about his sexual exploits or his relationships with women. He definitely liked to be surrounded by beautiful women, and at times he would say things that were a little bit off-putting.

But a lot of women who worked for him just kept kind of their heads down. When you look at a number of the women in this piece, they acknowledge that they were given these really high-profile roles in the construction industry at a time where that was very rare for women.

And they sort of felt like the opportunity outweighed the negatives and that, you know, Donald Trump kind of could be like this. He had a negative side for anyone, whether that was men or women, and, you know, a couple of these comments just sort of stuck with women more than others.

But, Brooke, the other thing I want to point out this piece is when the reporters were on, they pointed out that they spoke to dozens of women. So, it's clear that there were some in the story who felt that his comments or his actions, you know, giving a pageant contestant an unwanted kiss on the lips, for instance, just went too far.

BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. Sara Murray, thank you for setting it up.

I want to have a big conversation all this now with CNN political commentator Donna Brazile and Tana Goertz, former "Apprentice" contestant and Trump senior adviser.

So, ladies, welcome.

Tana, just to you first. In that initial anecdote in the piece when it talks about Ms. Brewer woman in the bikini that Trump wanted her to put on at the pool party, and she said on CNN, she said it was a positive experience, she felt flattered.

But there are other anecdotes in this piece about apparently Mr. Trump, when his daughter was in his -- teens asked about how hot she was, and another woman about, well, you must be eating a lot of candy -- I'm paraphrasing -- because he was noticing she was putting on weight. How would you feel if you were on the other end of that?

TANA GOERTZ, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Well, I worked for Mr. Trump, and I have been mentored by Mr. Trump and I have been in his boardroom. I have had a lot of unique experiences with Mr. Trump.

And he's never once ever once crossed that line. I highly doubt he ever said that about his daughter Ivanka. I mean, seriously, he is a father. He adores his daughter. That's actually perverted and disgusting, in my opinion, that anybody would ever even repeat that.

But Mr. Trump has always been great. How would I feel if he said you put on weight after I used to be thin and gained a lot of weight? I would say, wow, maybe I did gain some weight.

But he is -- Mr. Trump is an honest man. He is a kind man. As Sara knows, she's seen me at many of these rallies with a huge smile on my face because I'm working for the next president of the United States, and he gives me a great position on the campaign utilizing my skill set to the best of my ability.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: So, you would be OK if whether it was a woman -- let's say a woman, but in this case, we're talking about a man, commenting on your weight, even if you had put on some pounds? You would be OK with that?

[15:05:02]

GOERTZ: Yes. Yes, absolutely. Brooke, I do not have thin skin.

If you are going to work for Donald Trump or be in his presence, you have got to be able to realize that gender is not a job qualification. Mr. Trump hires you or surrounds himself with you because you are good at what you are. Whether that's you're a model and beautiful, whether that is you work for his campaign and you're a professional speaker, whatever it is, he puts you in a position to exceed and to succeed.

And, no, I would not have any -- I would not be upset if at all if somebody said, you put on some pounds, if I did. Not at all.

BALDWIN: To be fair, there are positive anecdotes. There was a woman, I think she worked for him for something like 16 years, Mintz Sunshine. He talked about -- I guess Mr. Trump, when she had put on some weight, she said she interpreted it as friendly encouragement, Donna Brazile.

GOERTZ: Right.

BALDWIN: So, do you see this -- Donna, do you see this as sort of eye of the beholder?

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, as you know, women have been subjected to the kind of taunting and the kind of what I call crude remarks for centuries, and from men who employed them to look a certain way, walk a certain way, dress a certain way. And if you look at the classic definition of sexual harassment, one could argue that maybe he did cross a line, if some of these statements are true. Look, we have spent most of today, I know all of yesterday, talking about Donald Trump's past with women, his past behavior, his statements, the allegations that are out there.

There's a lot of what I call stuff that, as the chairman of the Republican Party said, that -- personal behavior that he will have to explain or own up to.

But I think, for the larger picture out there, Brooke, and what we're looking at is the future president of the United States, and no one wants to be treated as an object, an object of scorn, an object of lust or what have you.

And people are going to look at this and judge for themselves whether or not this of character and the kind of skill sets we need in the next president of the United States. And I have formed my opinion already, but I will leave it to those who will look up the legal definition and know that some of these statements are just totally out of bound.

And I don't even want to get into the Howard Stern interview, because even in listening to it, of course, we're subjected -- we're subjected to everything these days. I just put it down.

BALDWIN: OK. Yes. We are not going to go there on that either.

But Trump says -- he has said he's plotting more nasty attacks, roughly quoting him, more nasty attacks, looking ahead, on Hillary Clinton, going after her character.

You know, with these issues, Tana, coming up with women now, how will that look once Donald Trump and presumably Hillary Clinton are really going at it back and forth?

GOERTZ: Well, women don't really like Hillary Clinton either. So...

BRAZILE: That's not true.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: That's a blanket statement.

GOERTZ: Some women. Some women.

BRAZILE: That's not true. Yes, be careful when you say that. I understand you want to blanket...

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: I don't -- let not make these kind of gratuitous false attacks when we're talking about substance, issues in an article that appeared on the front page above the fold in "The New York Times" yesterday.

(CROSSTALK)

GOERTZ: And the woman -- and the woman who the article was about denounced it and said it was completely false and that it was a hit piece.

So, it is like I say. We have women who have actually worked or experienced Mr. Trump or dated him or whatever the case may be who are speaking out, saying that is not the man that we know. And I'm one of them.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: But on to Hillary Clinton, Tana, on to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

GOERTZ: Yes.

BALDWIN: If they're going back and forth, how will that look?

GOERTZ: How's that going to look? It is going to look exactly the way Mr. Trump and the campaign want it to look.

They will put out whatever the American people need to know about Hillary Clinton. There's been a lot of things that the American people want to know. What happened in Benghazi? You know, the fog of war, there is no such thing as the fog of war. I do not know what the strategy is behind going forward in the...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: But he has talked about how she was an enabler of her husband. He has talked about infidelity.

GOERTZ: Yes. Right.

BALDWIN: And why is that OK, but talking about the past and Mr. Trump and women, why is that, according to him, off the table, just to be fair to both?

GOERTZ: Well, because -- well, the thing is, is those things are proven true, what President Bill Clinton did.

Those are, in fact, true statements that the public knows about. These are hit pieces. These are statements that have no credibility, that no one has come forward and said, actually yes, he did this to me, he did that to me. Yes, I have tape of him saying this about -- it's all false.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: OK. Let's -- let me move on. "The Times" is standing by the story.

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: Well, Brooke, first of all, let me just say this. I mean, we all know. We lived through -- at least many of us lived through the '90s. I did. I'm old enough to tell you that I did live through the '90s. God bless the '90s.

And all of the trash that Mr. Trump and any of his allies intend to throw out there to impugn the dignity and character of Hillary Clinton or Bill Clinton, you know what? There are many of us who are going to be able to stand up and defend their honor and their integrity.

[15:10:06]

He made mistakes. Did they have trouble in their marriage? And you know what? They made it through. They got through it, like many other Americans who have trouble in their marriages.

And if Mr. Trump wants to make their marriage a subject of conversation, then you know what? Then subject yourself to the same type of criticism. And that's all I want to say about marriages, because, as you know, Brooke, I'm a single lady. I'm a Beyonce kind of single lady.

BALDWIN: I do.

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: And I don't want to travel along this street, unless I have to.

BALDWIN: Donna Brazile, I don't even know what to do with that.

Let me ask you both of you please to just stand by. We have Trump gotten some new sound in. I would love to hear both of you to respond to this. This is Hillary Clinton speaking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's just imagine I'm on a debate stage with Donald Trump.

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: Now, personally, I am really looking forward to it.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: And so let's suppose here's the question. So what is your plan to create jobs? His answer is: I'm going to create them. They're going to be great.

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: I know how to do it. But I'm not telling you what it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Oh, let's get out of that. I think we just at least got enough. That was Hillary Clinton just there speaking in Kentucky.

Forgive the quick rewind or whatever that was.

But that appeared to be a bit of a Donald Trump impersonation.

Tana?

GOERTZ: That's -- well, that's a horrible impersonation, by the way, but how is he going to create jobs?

Let me just say, I don't know, what has he been doing for the past 20- some years creating jobs for tens of thousands of employees at the Trump Organization? I go to these rallies. I'm at these rallies, and the college students are desperate for someone like Mr. Trump in office who has actually a track record of employing people.

He knows how to create jobs. As a matter of fact, he has just donated something to the MikeroweWORKS Foundation to help put skilled tradespeople back to work, to give them money so that they can be hardworking American citizens. He is doing his part.

How many people has Hillary Clinton employed?

BRAZILE: Lots of people. And how many people has she helped and Bill Clinton helped lift out of poverty? How many people have they helped to raise their wages and raise the standards of education?

These are substantive issues, not sound bites that makes it sound great, but these are individuals who have served our country with dignity and respect who can talk about the serious challenges facing the United States of America in the 21st century.

And while I don't like to mimic anybody and do all of those great things -- and, besides, I don't have that kind of good hair -- I must tell you, the debates this fall are going to be serious debates about the future and what we intend to do to continue to raise the living wages of all Americans.

And I hope Mr. Trump is ready for the debate, because Hillary Clinton -- I can tell you this much -- and I'm sure Bernie Sanders, who is still competing for the nomination -- she is smart, she is sincere, and she knows how to get it done.

BALDWIN: Donna Brazile and Tana Goertz, thank you very much.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: I know you each think each will do phenomenally.

BRAZILE: Right.

BALDWIN: That will be a debate. Those will be debates to watch. Thank you both so much.

BRAZILE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Presuming it is Hillary Clinton who locks it in.

GOERTZ: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

BRAZILE: Thank you, Brooke.

GOERTZ: Take care.

BALDWIN: Just in as -- thank you -- as Mitt Romney reportedly tries to recruit potential third-party candidates, a la a John Kasich or a Ben Sasse, we have Governor Kasich speaking out now in his first interview since dropping out of the Republican race. Hear what he just told my colleague Anderson Cooper.

Plus, Hillary Clinton reveals -- speaking about jobs here, reveals what specific role her husband will play if she wins.

Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:17:55]

BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Almost two weeks after he dropped out of the race for president, former Republican candidate John Kasich is giving his first one-on-one interview. He talked to Anderson Cooper in a conversation you will see in full this evening, but here's the first preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Your name has come up in the news a lot just the last couple of days. And I wanted to ask you about it.

There's a story in "The Washington Post" this weekend. It's got a lot of pickup, that a number of Republicans, conservatives, Mitt Romney among them, has been looking at the possibility of a third-party candidate or an independent candidate or a conservative candidate. Your name is mentioned.

Has Mitt Romney reached out the you? Have you had conversations...

(CROSSTALK)

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: Well, I don't want to get into who -- I have had a phone call with somebody that wanted me to run, consider running as a third-party candidate.

COOPER: Are you considering running?

KASICH: No. I'm not going to do that. No.

COOPER: Why?

KASICH: Well, I think that I gave it my best where I am. And I just think running third party, it doesn't feel right.

I think it's -- it's not constructive. And, you know, one of the things that's interesting is, it's really hard to be thoughtful when you're dealing with the media, because many of them think that everything is sort of a political ploy or a political play.

It's been a little bit of a disappointment for me. In fact, I have talked to so many in the media to say, you have a responsibility. You know, it's really been interesting. You can have depth to something, and people think, well, that is just politics.

No. When I talk about two paths, you know, the path of rebuilding the country or pushing people down into the ditch, that's not some political ploy that somebody calculated for me. That's my insides. That's my soul. And so a third-party candidacy would be viewed as kind of a silly thing.

And I don't think it's appropriate. I just think it would be the right thing to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's bring in CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston.

You just heard the Ohio governor. I noted, so, yes, he's gotten the call. No, he's not going to do it was what he said.

[15:20:03]

People change their minds. Or I'm also looking at him, thinking, you know, would you be willing to be vice president? What do you make of that conversation?

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, exactly.

I mean, that sounded like a pretty hard no to Anderson there on the third-party run. And I think that that is obviously -- a lot of people in the party feel that that's a much riskier strategy. It's very hard to see that being successful in the fall.

But, to your point, I think the more interesting question is, would he -- you know, would he reconsider on the V.P. choice, because it would be such a fascinating matchup with Donald Trump and John Kasich? They literally could not have run two more opposite campaigns.

And right now, John Kasich has said zero chance I'm doing that, no, never, not going to do it. But a lot of times after these guys get the phone call, if they're thinking about the future of the party, I think a lot of people could change their mind and sort of evolve and get on board with Trump going forward. It is going to be interesting to watch.

BALDWIN: We saw Marco Rubio on with Jake. We have now seen John Kasich on with Anderson. We will see if a no means no come July.

RESTON: Exactly. BALDWIN: Maeve Reston, right? Right. Thank you. Thank you so much.

And do not miss the entire interview with Anderson. It's on "A.C. 360" this evening, the full interview with Governor Kasich. And he will answer that question as to whether or not he considered being Mr. Trump's V.P., 8:00 Eastern here on CNN.

Coming up next, just how far is Donald Trump going to discredit that "The New York Times" story about his behavior with women? The Republican front-runner personally called CNN's live control room this morning speaking with producers to make his point crystal-clear -- those details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:17]

BALDWIN: Donald Trump has been taking hits from all kinds of directions lately, but, today on CNN, he got some help hitting back, and from an unlikely source.

A woman featured prominently -- it's the first anecdote this "New York Times" piece about women and Mr. Trump. He says the story is misleading. This particular woman never had seen Trump treat women with anything other than respect. I'm talking about Rowanne Brewer Lane.

She talked to John Berman and Kate Bolduan earlier today, and she said her comments were taken out of context.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BREWER LANE: If I know Donald Trump, I will probably hear from his camp at some point, you know, just to say thank you for the honesty.

I honestly think that the way that the article was depicted and as many times as they promised me they weren't going to do exactly what they did, they probably owe me an apology and probably him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Trump has been blasting "The Times" story, calling it a hit piece, and even taking matters into his own hands to shape news coverage, trying to, include picking up the phone and calling the control room here at CNN this morning.

CNN's Dylan Byers is with me now from Los Angeles. He's our senior reporter for media and politics. With me here in New York correspondent, our CNN media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES," Brian Stelter.

Stelter, let me just start with you first on the actual dialing of the CNN control room number, which presumably he has, because he's called in a number of times.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Right, right. BALDWIN: And then what?

STELTER: Yes, this was a surreal experience for the control room producers, who might be used to picking up the phone and hearing from someone in Atlanta or D.C., but not from Donald Trump himself.

The candidate called up because he wanted to alert us to an interview that had earlier on FOX earlier in the morning. And, of course, you know how control rooms are. Everyone can see what's on the other channels. So, we already knew about this interview.

BALDWIN: We're watching. We're watching.

STELTER: We are always watching.

But he wanted to make sure we had seen it and make sure we were paying attention to it.

BALDWIN: Wow.

STELTER: He wasn't explicitly saying, you have got to go cover this. And we already were going to anyway.

But it's a example of how Trump is so tuned in, he's so aware of media coverage about him, and in his own way tries to control and influence coverage.

BALDWIN: So, we were already on it. The phone call comes in.

Dylan, my question to you is, the man is all atwitter, tweet after tweet after tweet on this. Do you see any other candidate who would even come close to picking up the phone to call a control room, whether it's CNN or the others?

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR MEDIA AND POLITICS REPORTER: No, not at all.

I think Donald Trump -- well, I think two things are happening here. One, Donald Trump is very much running his own campaign. He doesn't have a huge network of people who are going to tell him it's a smart idea to call up CNN and do that for him.

But, two, he understands very intimately the way that the media works and the way that cable television works. And I think you see him wanting to play the role of producer here. You see him wanting to drive coverage.

And, yes, in this instance, he actually called up a control room, but this is something that he does all the time. And he does it in his tweets. He's trying to direct media attention to think about stories and to interpret stories the way that he wants them to.

And he was handed a gift here in terms of this source, this former girlfriend coming on the record and saying, you know, trying to undercut "The Times" report, and never mind that the reporters at "The New York Times" talked to dozens of women who have known Trump and wrote a very what I would call substantive and well-sourced report. As soon as you can poke one hole in that, you can change the entire narrative. And Donald Trump knows how to do that. And that's what he did today.

STELTER: Yes, by noon, he was saying the entire story was a fraud just based on this woman's complaints about the story.

But it does goes to show how quickly the tables turned. At 6:15, she's on FOX criticizing the story. And right away, Trump seized on that and made sure everybody was paying attention to it.

BALDWIN: Incredible.

STELTER: I think it's sort of a strategy of swamping the media, right, using a series of tweets and maybe even phone calls to try to influence coverage and make sure people -- make sure -- in this case, he wanted "The New York Times" on the defensive, instead of him on the defensive.

BALDWIN: Swamping, a new Stelter term for presidential elections 2016.

Dylan, let me -- let me pivot and ask you about this Facebook story.