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New Poll Show Trump Behind Clinton in Key States; Are Trump Controversies Weighing on the Trump Brand?; The Fight for North Carolina; Obama's Essay on Feminism; Hero in Miami. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired August 06, 2016 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Polls show how critical this stage is in a tumultuous week. A new poll show how critical this stop maybe.

Let's take a look, Trump is now behind Clinton in the granite state by 15 points. However, there could a bright spot for him there and that poll was taken before he made a play for party unity last night endorsing New Hampshire senator, Kelly Ayotte as well as House Speaker, Paul Ryan and Senator John McCain.

So are we really seeing a party that was divided actually united? And could it be enough to turn things around for Trump in New Hampshire?

Our White House producer Kristen Holmes is in the city of Windom where Trump will hold an event and will get underway soon. What is he going to say there? Tonight, has sort of -- well, the anger, I'm sure among some of the Republicans there that he didn't get behind their senator, you know, form the get-go?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Yeah, of course but we're going to be looking for that. We're going to be looking of course if he can stay on that message of unity.

Of course last night was seen as a major reversal, coming off of what was called by several people Donald Trump's worst week yet. He feuded with a gold star family. Following that, he angered and stunned Republican leadership when he refused to endorse Paul Ryan.

He spent the later part of the week, cleaning up those situations. You know, a time that several Republican leaders have said he could have spent attacking Hillary Clinton. Instead, he went on to last night clean up his remarks on a baby that he had said that was going to get thrown out of a rally, to also endorsing Paul Ryan, as you mentioned, Senator Ayotte, and John McCain.

Now, we do know from Senator Ayotte's spokesperson that she will not be attending this event here today. She did however issue a statement saying she appreciated Donald Trump's endorsement and look forward to defeating both her opponent Maggie Hassan and Hillary Clinton in November.

And I just want to add that, you know, that this was a last minute stop, this New Hampshire stop on Trump's schedule. He had virtually stopped doing these weekends rallies. So it's prompting a lot of speculation from political analysts that he is trying to react to this falls, Poppy?

HARLOW: Kristen, thank you. We'll wait for updates from the event tonight there in New Hampshire. We appreciate it.

Let's talk more about the we can that was as well as what appears to be quite a shift towards Republican party unity from there Presidential candidate.

With me now we to break it all down, CNN Politics Reporter, Tom LoBianco and CNN Senior Political Analyst, Editor of the "Atlantic", Ron Brownstein. Thank you both for being here.

Tom, let me begin with you. Gosh, looking at the week that was, I think it was clear to a lot of folks that something happened on Thursday night, whether it was that the advisers finally got Trump to listen, something happened that caused him to A, tweet out that he was wrong about saying he saw video of money going into Iran coming off a plane, that video that didn't exist. And frankly, that he did a complete about-face and endorsed McCain, Ryan, and Ayotte last night.

What do you think is driving this pretty dramatic shift?

TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, you know, one of the most fascinating dynamics, of this entire cycle has been the push and pull of -- where Trump will say something that's just, you know, seemingly off the wall, sort of apologize for it, sort of not apologize for it, and then see the light at the end of the week.

You know, I think in this case, though, it was hard to ignore the poll numbers. You know, coming out of the Republican Convention, he had a nice little bump. He was playing tight in the states that he needed, they absolutely needs to win in November. And you know, coming after this last week it was hard to -- you couldn't just ignore the change in the numbers. You couldn't just chalk it up to a Clinton Democratic poll bump. At that point, it's kind of -- it's a come to Jesus moment, if you will, or come to Reince Priebus moment.

HARLOW: Well, I think and it's interesting this week, right, Ron. I mean, we thought some major Republican Party defections ...

RONALD BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANLAYST: Yeah.

HARLOW: ... whether it was one of the top women on Chris Christie's camp deflecting and going to support Clinton, whether it's Meg Whitman, the CEO of the H.P. Enterprises, a Republican and was running for governor in California backing Hillary Clinton. And those are just two of them.

You're working on piece right that looks at the turn of the history of this, the history of infighting in the Republican Party, comparing the defectors over gold water in '64 or McGovern in '72 to now. What have you found? What's the historical comparison here?

BROWNSTEIN: I think this is at the high end of defection right now. I mean, there's one similarity. If you look at 1964, which was the fig biggest previous example of Republicans fissuring over the nominee. Lyndon Johnson was the president and Hubert Humphrey is vice president, we're able to announce a National Independence Committee for Johnson-Humphrey that had a lot former Republican office holders and a lot of big business types.

So they appealed from the Eisenhower's Cabinet, they had Henry Ford II. But what they didn't have is two other things that you see now.

[16:05:01] I mean one, we didn't have the kind of procession of military and national security officials that we talked about in the last hour who are raising questions about Trump. And the biggest difference of all is you simply didn't have the current and recent elected officials publicly indicating their distance from the nominee.

I mean Dwight Eisenhower privately was very skeptical of Barry Goldwater but he did not denounce him publicly, in fact made a radio had with him, the way that Mitt Romney has or the Bushes had distance themselves.

And you didn't -- you have a few elected in New York, the camp of Jacob Javits and John Lindsay who went to be a mayor, who, you know, said they wouldn't vote for him. But not what we've seen with Mark Kirk ...

HARLOW: Right.

BROWNSTEIN: ... and Richard Hanna, and ...

HARLOW: True.

BROWNSTEIN: ... Mike -- the, you know, the congressman in Colorado who's running an ad saying "I don't think much of Donald Trump," or the one in Virginia who now says "I'm going to vote Libertarian." This is a very different issue and it, you know, what it does create kind of an atmosphere against the backdrop of this barely can see a bare date on between Trump and the party leadership in which more Republican-leaning voters may feel comfortable crossing to the other side than usual, not as a partisan Republicans but conservative Independents that usually vote Republican.

As a college educated white man in particular where he is way under performing, I think all of theses does have an effect.

HARLOW: And you know we didn't have then? We didn't have Twitter.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, we did not.

HARLOW: So we had less to talk about. Hey Tom, I thought it was interesting in Jake Tapper's interview with John Kasich pushing him saying look are you going to get behind your party's candidate or not and Kasich spoke about the importance of actions, even more important than words. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: I mean, I didn't go because -- I just don't -- I think it's about manners. You know, if I went prepared to go there and get up and endorse a nominee, I just thought it was inappropriate to go into that convention hall. I just believe that there are solutions. I believe that we have to recognize the problems, but we have to be positive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLIOW: All right. He also said in that interview, Tom, that his actions speak the loudest, the fact that he didn't go to the Convention in his home state, the fact that he hasn't gotten behind his party's candidate. Scottie Nell Hughes, a Trump supporter told me last hour, he can't win the White House without winning Ohio.

If that is his path and it has never been done by the way in a Republican in history getting the White House without Ohio, he has to win Pennsylvania, and he's down 13 points there. How much does he need Kasich?

LOBIANCO: Yeah, you know, well, I'm not sure that he can win the White House without winning Ohio. And you know, his campaign earlier in the cycle had been pointing that out that the states that they need to win. And Ohio is right there square in the rust belt. There are so many electoral votes. You can't loose it to put simply.

You know, I want to build on what Ron was saying earlier, though.

HARLOW: Yeah.

LOBIANCO: With that Kasich interview was very fascinating because classically in politics, the politician what they will do is if they don't like the candidate, the nominee from their own party they will never tell you that out front. They'll say -- they'll come up with a convenient excuse for not showing to the convention.

It's a little bit harder when it's -- when you are the home state governor, for instance ...

HARLOW: Yeah.

LOBIANCO: ... but you find something to say. The fact that Kasich is out there so openly saying ...

BROWNSTEIN: Right.

LOBIANCO: ... just blatantly saying this speaks to this rift.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

LOBIANCO: You know, when I talk with Republicans, there is a lot of folks who are looking past November at this point, again, you know, chalking this up as a wash.

HARLOW: Well, it ...

BROWNBSTEIN: Poppy ...

HARLOW: ... I think, yeah and just I want you to weigh in on that ... BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

HARLOW: ... Ron, because I think that is how a lot of us in the media and pundits see it. But when you're talking about the average American it may, you know, embolden them to go to the polls and they say, "Look the establishment that has failed us isn't getting behind our guy, Ron."

BROWNSTEIN: Absolutely, first to Tom's point of the generational contrast between George Romney, as the governor of Michigan who was largely silent on Goldwater and Mitt Romney actively opposing Trump or Jim Rhodes the governor of Ohio who managed to avoid talking about Goldwater till late October and John Kasich is striking him. There is more direct overt operation.

But you're right, Trump's biggest asset is that he has seen as an agent of change, much more than Hillary Clinton. And for his piece of the electorate, that is a motivating factor. The problem I think is it's pretty clear in the polls that that is not a majority.

And what you've got is this coalition where he is facing historic deficits amongst minority voters 91 to one among African-Americans in the NBC Wall Street Journal poll this week, 2 percent in Michigan in the poll there but also this resistance among college educated white collar white voters where he is significantly underperforming where the desire for change right now is being outweighed by the sense that he is not prepared to be president and for many of them that he is too racially divisive with many of his proposals.

So, simply motivating his coalition that is most alienated from the establishment can take him part of the way but he can't get them all the way. He's going to have to break some of that resistance among those other ...

HARLOW: Yeah.

BROWNSTEIN: ... two big blocks in the electorate.

HARLOW: Yeah and there's a big difference between primary and the general. All right, Ron Brownstein, Tom LoBianco, thank you both.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

LOBIANCO: Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: Coming up next, Trump's campaign to make America great again may not be great for his businesses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[16:10:05] DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Trump steaks Where are the steaks? Do we have steaks throughout? We have Trump steaks.

We sell water. And we have water. And it's a very successful.

Do you see that wine because you mentioned Trump Vodka? It's the largest winery ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right, a fascinating look ahead at some new signs signaling that Trump's controversial views, his campaign, weighing on his brand. Also, President Obama's very personal essay about his wife and his daughters and being a feminist in America.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Donald Trump's presidential campaign maybe impacting in his brand. There's new data out from Four Square and it suggested that there's a pretty clear decline in foot traffic to some Trump's brand in golf courses, hotels, and casinos in the United States since he entered the presidential race last June. Cristina Alesci has the numbers and the details. Cristina?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy. Trump branded businesses may be taking a hit here. That's according to data from Four Square. Now the tech company says there's been a clear decline in foot traffic to Trump branded golf courses, hotels, casino. And it has a pretty good sample size. It's based on the activity of 50 million monthly active users.

The data show a dramatic fall off in March, down 17 percent in that month. And in April from the same period a year earlier.

Just another point of comparisons, traffic to those sites was steady year over year before Trump announced his bid for president. So what is happening?

Now, some of these businesses are located in Blue States. New York's Trump SOHO for example, Chicago's Trump International Hotel and Tower, those two properties saw some of the steepest declines.

[16:15:00] And Four Square also points out that women are playing a role. It reports a double digit decrease in visits from women this year. Perhaps the sign that sign this idea of Trump being anti-women is resonating.

Now, it's important to note that this doesn't necessarily mean that profits are hurting at any of these properties. We don't know if these people would have been spending a tremendous amount of money at these properties and remember that Trump makes money from licensing his name.

So for the parties that he doesn't own out right which there are many, it's unclear if he gets paid less on licensing deals just because foot traffic is down, Poppy.

HARLOW: Yeah, it's a great point, Cristina, thank you so much. All right, let's talk about that. That foot traffic, that Four Square data what it all really means.

Brian Stelter, Senior Media Correspondent and Host of "Reliable Sources" is with me. So, my immediate thought was my mom doesn't know what Four Square is. And by that, I mean people who are older -- you are not old mom, older, right, if you look at the information here, urban areas, in importance ...

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: And younger, yes.

HARLOW: ... and younger. So that kind of sways that data, right?

STELTER: Yeah, Four Square's mainly used by young people in urban areas ...

HARLOW: Right.

STELTER: ... but the data was adjusted to reflect for broader retail trends, so the company did the best it could to check this data against other broader trends and it found a significant drop off, more so in blue states than in purple or red states which also was interesting.

Maybe people -- maybe young people in urban areas who tend to be liberal are going to be less likely to buy Trump branded products but I'm not sure they we're buying that much to begin with.

HARLOW: Right.

STELTER: Even the data shows though is Trump's brand is changing. Trump's brand was a bout power, personality and wealth, and now it's much more of the clearly political brand, a conservative brand. And that will have implications for him down the line.

HARLOW: And we know he said multiple times that if he didn't win the general election he would have considered it a complete waste of time.

STELTER: Right. Right.

HARLOW: And we'll see if he doesn't win, what kind of certain impact does that had on his businesses as he goes back into the private sector. Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks goes on Bill Maher.

STELTER: And made a lot of news last night.

HARLOW: Made a lot of news last night because he was pressed on, well, would you hack some Donald Trump's stuff, are you going to get us Donald Trump's tax returns. Talk with the exchange and whether or not it was a joke or not.

STELTER: This is very curiously as Assange is being pressed by Maher on this subject, you know, Assange's WikiLeaks published the DNC e- mail ...

HARLOW: Right.

STELTER: ... a couple of weeks ago based on a stolen troll of e-mails in the Democrat National Committee. There's a lot of people that believe that Assange is against Clinton and maybe pro-Trump. HARLOW: And there's a personal animus there.

STELTER: Yes, definitely. And so, Assange was asked, "Why don't you go and hack into Donald Trump's Tax Returns?" Assange said, "We're working on it but then today WikiLeaks has backtracked in saying it was a just a clearly a joke on a comedy show, they are not actually trying to hack in those tax returns."

HARLOW: Why would they feel the need to clarify ...

STELTER: I think if WikiLeaks sees itself as a whistle blower organization ...

HARLOW: That's true.

STELTER: ... not as a place that goes out and hacked in private and get information on it's own.

HARLOW: Right.

STELTER: They're more of a recipient, they say if you give us the documents we'll help share them. But it is a reminder of this, you know, generation-long president that's been broken by Trump, to not release his stock returns whether WikiLeaks gets a hold of them or someone else does ...

HARLOW: Yeah.

STELTER: ... other hacker's do or not.

HARLOW: Yeah.

STELTER: Journalists has to keep asking for these documents because it is so unusual that he hasn't disclosed them.

HARLOW: And it brings them the impression that if he does win the election and he's sitting in the oval office and then the audit ends and what the results are and the trickle down effective. You know what that could be.

STELTER: Right, and by the way Assange today spoke at the Green Party Convention ...

HARLOW: Yes.

STELTER: ... as a supporting, not supporting Jill Stein per se, but speaking in the convention, he said the choice between Trump and Clinton is a choice between cholera and gonorrhea. So we can I guess count him as being in favor of neither, a major candidate.

HARLOW: Who are early in the day for those words, thanks Brian Stelter.

STELTER: I thought it was that provocative. He is nothing if he's not provocative. HARLOW: All right, just take a look at this. This is a new Trump video on Facebook that has made to look like Hillary Clinton like a Pacman eating the e-mails. I think we can play it.

STELTER: So they turned this into a web game it's very creative, I think ...

HARLOW: Yeah.

STELTER: ... the campaign gets points for creativity. You know what they're doing here they're trying to take advantage of facts that they don't have as much money to spend on traditional ads at Clinton campaign. They are so badly outmatched.

HARLOW: It was Pokemon last month.

STELTER: Yeah, it's Pokemon and then now it's Pacman of course. They're putting this u on Facebook making them unto a web ad, which costs almost nothing. Hillary Clinton is buying T.V. ads during the Olympics. So she is going to be in front of many more people with traditional advertising. It just another example of how Trump is doing things differently from past candidates.

HARLOW: All right, Brian Stelter, thank you so much. Big show tomorrow morning.

STELTER: Tomorrow morning, 11:00 a.m. we'll be here.

HARLOW: And you slept 11 hours last night. You are ready to go.

STELTER: I'm ready to go.

HARLOW: Thank you. Let's take 11 hours every night, thank you, Brian.

STELTER: Thanks.

HARLOW: All right coming up next. The battleground states, from our reliable red states which we talked at coming up, we look at the battle for North Carolina. Stacey went for Obama in '08, Romney in '12. The major impact of Far Hill stake it could have on this year's presidential race.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:23:41] HARLOW: All right. The fight is on for North Carolina. One of the big battlegrounds in this year's election. Once a Republican stronghold it went blue for president Obama in 2008. Then back to red for Mitt Romney in 2012. This year, you can call it a deep shade of purple. Here's our Sunlen Serfaty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm going to be in North Carolina so much that you are going to get so sick and tired of me.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In North Carolina ... HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We're going fight for every vote in this state.

SERFATY: This is where the rubber is meeting the road. Hand to hand political combat being waged door by door ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you vote for Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton?

SERFATY: ... and one phone call at a time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are trying to get all the registered voters and so we need all hands on deck.

SERFATY: And the stakes couldn't be higher.

STEVEN GREENE, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, NC STATE UNIVERSITY: If Hillary Clinton wins North Carolina it's almost a sure thing that she has won the election. For Donald Trump, it is an absolute must- win state.

SERFATY: On the ground a stark contrast in approaches. Team Clinton has 12 field offices open throughout the state in coordination with the Democratic National Committee with a paid Clinton campaign staffer in each of the 25 regions. The Trump campaign has a smaller foot print relying almost exclusively on the Republican National Committee for offices and staff.

[16:25:00] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I saw Donald Trump mock a disabled person I was just shocked.

SERFATY: The Clinton campaign spent $5 million on T.V. ads on the state since early June with another $2.5 million coming from its allies. The Trump campaign has not spent any money on T.V. ads yet; only one group supporting Trump is on the air, the NRA with a modest $250,000 buy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary as president? No thanks.

SERFATY: Another factor affecting the dynamics of the race, North Carolina's rapidly changing demographics. The state is growing more diverse, more urbanized with an influx of college graduates and the Clinton campaign is hoping to capitalize on these trends, to mobilize a coalition of voters that helped then Senator Obama become the first Democrat since Jimmy Carder to carry the state in 2008.

PRES. BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES: Are you fired up?

SERFATY: It's why the president and Hillary Clinton made North Carolina the place for their first joint campaign appearance last month.

OBAMA: I'm ready to pass the baton.

SERFATY: But Clinton campaign officials say one of their top targets in the Tar Heel state are gettable Republicans skeptical of Donald Trump.

PATSY KEEVER, NORTH CAROLINA DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIR: Certainly, whereas Secretary Clinton may not be the person that some of the, Republicans who are unaffiliated really want, she certainly is a much, much better choice.

SERFATY: The Clinton campaign is directing its efforts towards college educated suburban women.

KRISTIN DAVIS, ACTRESS: Hi, I'm good. How are you?

SERFATY: Bringing in celebrities to help make the case.

DAVIS: I know that I would not want to vote for someone who calls women dogs. If ever there was a year where people might be open to changing how they would traditionally have voted I feel like this is it.

SERFATY: Like Rafaela George, who has voted Republican before but not this year.

RAFAELA GEORGE, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: And I've said this to my friends. That I know that she as a lot of baggage and people have criticisms of her but I just can't go for Trump.

SERFATY: But others aren't convinced.

TRACY RICHARDS, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: But I wish there was honestly a better candidate to run as a Republican this year. But again I feel so strongly about the other option that I won't vote for her.

SERFATY: The Trump campaign is tailoring its outreach, too, focusing in getting out their core base of supporters.

KARA CARTER, RNC NORTH CAROLINA COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: We are looking to identify, persuade and turn out GOP conservative leaning unaffiliated voters.

SERFATY: A strategy being carried out step by step by Trump volunteers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will be a little further up.

SERFATY: Not visiting every house. Only knocking on doors they know ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, how are you?

SERFATY: ... are open to voting for their candidate. Sunlen Serfaty, CNN Railey, North Carolina.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Sunlen, thank you so much. And from North Carolina, we will take you next to Georgia. Long, long - it has long been a Republican stronghold. But could this state finally turn blue? We're going to show you the surprising brand-new poll numbers out of Georgia that give Hillary Clinton the edge. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:31:30] HARLOW: A surprising new poll out of a red, red state, the State of Georgia. Hillary Clinton is now leading, according to their latest polling. She is leading Donald Trump in Georgia.

This is the latest poll from the Atlanta Journal Constitution and it shows that Clinton is four points ahead.

Our Suzanne Malveaux with this now, she's in picture as, Martha's Vineyard where the president just went with his family on their summer vacation.

Suzanne, Georgia showing a bit of a flip here, it's still early as Trump supporters would point to. But how significant is this?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's pretty surprising when you think about this, because certainly, the Democrats don't want to spend a lot of money in Georgia. It just quite yet, they're not ready to do that.

But let me tell you, it was just back in May they Commission that the poll and that was exactly the opposite. You have Trump at 45, to Clinton at 41, now that has flipped. There's a couple of reasons why. First of all, she seems to have gained when it comes to independents. They reliably will vote Republican. They are very conservative while they have the same numbers now at 36 percent for Trump, 36 percent for Hillary Clinton. So, she's making gains among the independents.

Secondly, take a look at the surge in the African-American vote in the State of Georgia. She garners 87 percent to Trump's 2 percent. He has made literally no gains when it comes to the African-American community and that is what he needs to focus on.

But, Poppy, I have to say there are still some areas in which she is weak. 20 percent of white voters support her. So she needs to really gain ground with that group, as well as people who are over 65.

And if you look at the issues that they're concerned about, this makes sense because Hillary Clinton, she's been emphasizing a steady hand when it comes to foreign policy, immigration, and health care. Those are all issues in which she does better with Georgia voters.

Trump does better when it comes to fighting terrorism, fighting ISIS and also looking at the economy as a whole. So that is how it is breaking down here.

But it is fascinating to see because we've been watching states like New Hampshire, and Michigan and Pennsylvania where Clinton has been dominating and really making sure that she is ahead. Those are states that are critical to Trump.

HARLOW: Yeah.

MALVEAUX: No one really took a look at Georgia.

HARLOW: Right.

MALVEAUX: So that is what we're seeing now.

HARLOW: You got to wonder if the Clinton camp was surprised themselves when they saw this polling out of Georgia.

But let's talk about where you are, you're on Martha's Vineyard, the president is taking his vacation. He is taking this vacation on the heels of pretty high approval ratings, 54 percent. We saw this week the highest of his second term. How much does that help Hillary Clinton?

Some have called this number, this approval rating for the president, one of the most significant factors in numbers in this race thus far.

Well, it only helps in the sense that what happens in the next couple of months leading up to November because obviously, President Obama is really trying to shore up his legacy and what people believe his legacy is. If there is a terrorist attack, if there is a shooting, God forbid, if there is some sort of national disaster that could dramatically change the equation here.

Take a look at the jobs numbers. We just saw the jobs numbers come out in on Friday. Good economic news if people -- if that continues and people see those numbers and tie that to the Obama Administration, then that's a good thing. And then they will see that as something that they should go ahead and vote for the Democrat.

So, it really kind of depends on what happens in the next couple of months. But Poppy, it's anyone's guess, really.

HARLOW: And that's what makes it exciting politics coverage. Suzanne Malveaux, live for us in Martha's Vineyard. Thank you so much.

Coming up next, have you thought about the ability of some to hack our own voting machines, it can happen.

[16:35:04] The tech expert that called in after the hack on the DNC, the one that investigated all of that, we'll join our Laurie Segall to talk about it all ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE KURTZ, CROWDSTRIKE CEO: And 40 years ago, we had water gate, right? And that's where yu ad a, you know, a couple of box of files that were stolen. Now, we're talking about 20,000, 30,000 files.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. From the DNC to Hillary Clinton's campaign for the White House, hackers have penetrated American politics like never before, releasing sensitive documents online. And now, hackers could actually influence the outcome of the presidential election.

Could they? That's a big question. To find out, our CNN Money Senior Technology Correspondent Laurie Segall went to this conference called, "The Black Hats Conference" where the best of the best hackers meet to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: I think a hacked U.S. election could tip the balance to one candidate or the other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY SENIOR TECH CORRESPONDENT: Over the last few months, hacking in politics have become a dangerous combination with the DNC and Clinton campaign getting hack.

We're here in Las Vegas, The Black Hats. It's a conference where the best hackers in the world get together to talk security.

Now, while there's no indication that the voting process has ever been hacked, we decided to ask some of the hackers here, it will even possible.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEGALL: You guys were pulled in to help the DNC figure out whether or not they've been hacked. And you did figure out that they had in fact been hacked. And all signs point to Russia.

[16:40:04] What are the implications of this?

KURTZ: I think this is really a bit of a watershed event. In 40 years ago, we had water gate, right. And that's where you had, you know, couple of boxes of files that were stolen.

Now, we're talking about 20,000, 30,000 files that are being dumped on the internet.

SEGALL: Do you worry that there are other state actor sitting in on some very internal important conversations that pertains the U.S. election?

KURTZ: That's a 100 percent certainty. It's not even a doubt in my mind that there is other actors that are out there that have yet to be found. And it's just -- it's too big of an opportunity for them. It's too easy to get in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEGALL: But it goes beyond the campaigns being vulnerable, what about the actual machines we use to vote?

A security firm called, "Semantic" actually purchased a couple of electronic voting machines on eBay to see how secure they really are.

Now, you have to remember that there is a ton of different types of voting machines out there and each U.S. County uses what they feel works including electronic and optical scanning devices. And about 75 percent of the country still makes their choice on plain old paper.

Now, in this particular case, these hackers say they found some major issue. Here's their perspective.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN VARNER, SENIOR RESEARCHER, SYMANTEC: So, what we're seeing is what a voter would be presented with when they go into a precinct.

So, when you get your voter identification card, which is a smart card.

SEGALL: OK.

VARNER: And you would insert it into the machine, and then go ahead and start your voting process. With the smart cards running small little computer systems on there, a device as tiny as this can be used to manipulate the smart card to allow you to vote multiple times.

SEGALL: So the idea behind this is anyone who is able to kind of get their hands on the cards that are going to be used if they have the technical skills they could essentially build what you just built which allows them to go cast their vote as many times as possible.

VARNER: Well, I can probably put about 400 votes in myself in less than a couple of minutes and the poll workers would be none the wiser.

SEGALL: Take us through what happens after you submit your vote. What are other ways that this can be vulnerable?

VARNER: These devices have to communicate with some sort of database system. We don't know what the transport network looks like between this machine and the actual database server. So, anywhere along that path if a hacker wants to have something installed, then the communications could be intercepted.

SEGALL: Given all this research, what would you say is safer, electronic voting or voting paper?

VARNER: Well, I can tell you this year, I will be voting via paper with the mail in ballot.

SEGALL: As someone who is kind of me deep in the vulnerability, he always sees like has the worst could happen, what keeps you up at night?

VARNER: A compromised election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEGALL: He doesn't believe we're that close to a compromised election just yet, but he does want to raise awareness with these types of vulnerabilities.

What I did hear from these guys is that even if one voting machine is even perceived as compromised, that has broad implications in how the American public trust the political system, Poppy?

HARLOW: No question about that. Laurie, fascinating report. Thank you so much. Coming up next, President Obama penning a very candid essay about what he believes feminism means in the 21st century and where he says he himself fell short. His new essay honoring the women in his life, we'll discuss it with Anne-Marie Slaughter next.

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[16:47:01] HARLOW: President Obama this week publishing an essay in "Glamour" magazine titled "This is What a Feminist Looks Like".

He focused on the unique challenges that women and girls face right now including his teenage daughters, Malia and Sasha (ph) and his wife. The president writing "Yes, it's important that their dad is a feminist, because now that's what they expect of all men." He called on every man to fight sexism and to work hard at creating truly equal relationships.

Let's talk with this with Anne-Marie Slaughter, a perfect voice for this. The author of the 2012 essay "Why Women Still Can't Have It All" for "Atlantic" magazine and the author of the book "Unfinished Business" which by the way comes out in paperback on Monday.

So nice to be with you. Thank you for joining us. You read the president's words. And, you know, it's interesting. He said this is a "extraordinary time to be a woman." Is it?

ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER, WROTE "WHY WOMENT CAN'T HAVE IT ALL" ESSAY IN 2012: It is. And he talks about, you know, how far we've come and the world that his daughters will enter in or have entered and how different that is in the world his mother and grand mother were in. So partly he is saying absolutely it is a great time to be a woman. But then he's also saying, we have a long way to go.

HARLOW: He discussed his own short comings. This is what struck me most, right? He said, "Look I try to do the best I can but I have fallen short." And he said, "When our girls were young, I was often away from home. I can look back now and see that while I helped out it was usually on my schedule and my terms. The burden disproportionately and unfairly fell on Michelle." What did you make of that?

SLAUGHTER: You know, that's the part I absolutely focused on the most, too because it's really important. He's acknowledging that he wasn't an equal parent. That he was helping. Helping is not where what -- that really doesn't get at equality. You have to be the one who is making the trade-offs just as much as your partner is. And he talks about realizing that. And he -- now as he looks at his daughters, of course he wants them to be able to really pursue their careers while they have family. And he realizes that their partners are going to have do a lot more than he did. HARLOW: And I think, look, you've written about this extensively in "Unfinished Business". I'm sort of living through it now with a newborn at home, right? Because I have a husband who has been truly an equal partner and that's been facilitated by the fact that his company gave him an extended amount of time off so that he could be an equal partner. I mean this really comes down to the fundamentals of society and what is allowed and given to parents of both genders.

SLAUGHTER: It does. And really right now, we are discriminating against fathers, right? We're giving mothers not enough time, but mothers this good companies get six weeks to a couple of months and fathers at most are getting two weeks. And that means they never have a chance to bond with their babies the same way. And they never have a chance to be equal caregivers because if mom's there most then they do end up in a secondary role.

[16:50:04] HARLOW: Right.

SLAUGHTER: So we need to talk about parental leave.

HARLOW: Yeah. No question about that. You wrote an op-ed about all of this on cnn.com. And it's fascinating. You talked about news that was made in the past way or so about the Chairman of Saatchi. And Saatchi, a huge company, Kevin Roberts getting ousted from his company after he said in interview that the debate over gender equality is over and that women have an intrinsic, circular ambition to be happy unlike men's vertical ambition.

SLAUGHTER: Yes.

HARLOW: But it's interesting because you took a different approach. You said this is a blessing in disguise because if we can't hear it, we can't fight it.

SLAUGHTER: Yeah. I mean, yeah. I think it was an incredibly stupid career move. And obviously he's now been relieved of his position. But I do think it's important that he said what he thought. Because I think a lot of men thing that.

Well, women don't really want to be at the top. They're happy being at home with their kids and working some. And my point is women aren't getting real choices, right?

HARLOW: Yeah.

SLAUGHTER: If you have a family and you want to take care of your family, it doesn't mean you don't also want to be at the top. But it means you have got a different set of things to juggle. And true equality is putting men and women in the same position and then letting both of them have more time to negotiate caregiving and then still be able to make it to the top.

HARLOW: So I think the president got to that at the end of his essay in "Glamor". And he wrote, "We need to keep changing attitudes that raises our little girls to be demure and our boys to be assertive." Right? This comes down to calling little girls bossy for example. And I wonder if you think that gender stereotypes have changed in the right direction since you wrote that now famous essay back in 2012, "Why Women Can't Have It All".

SLAUGHTER: I think we're getting there. And that is the other part of the president's letter that I love. Because he essentially says, look, I had a really macho image of masculinity growing up. And I've realized that that just wasn't me. And he says things have gotten easier since I just let myself be myself. So he said, we've got to let girls be assertive but we also have to let boys shed a tear.

And I think we need to embrace a much broader concept of masculinity and men who can be caregivers, who can be emotional, who can be their whole selves just as women can be nurturing but also could be bosses and real leaders.

HARLOW: And I think you're right. There's nothing more attractive in my book than an awesome dad. I'll tell you that for sure. Anne-Marie Slaughter, thank you so much and congrats on the book, "Unfinished Business" coming out in paperback on Monday.

Up next, he put his life on the line to stop an arsonist. You have to meet this police officer. Wait until you hear his story, when we go beyond the call of duty.

Also a programming note. Our Chris Cuomo take you inside the hideout of the notorious drug lord El Chapo. How did he evade authorities so many times? This is the CNN special report, got shorty, inside the case for El Chapo tomorrow night, 8:00 p.m., only right there. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:57:00] HARLOW: Well, he considers himself just a regular guy. But to the people of Miami, he is no question a hero. Officer Mario Gutierrez went beyond the call of duty when he stopped a man from setting a gas station on fire. Our Ed Lavandera has his story and the daring decision that nearly cost him his life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: On an October night in Miami Dominique Jean tried setting fire to an 8,000 gallon underground storage tank at this gas station next to Miami's International Airport. Surveillance footage shows the smoke smoldering as Jean grabs a gas pump and starts dousing the ground.

MARIO GUTIERREZ, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY POLICE OFFICER: It scared me because I thought, wow, we're going to die.

LAVANDERA: That's Miami-Dade County Police Officer Mario Gutierrez who happen to be patrolling the area, racing in, jumps out of his car, hits the emergency shut off to the gas pumps then find himself standing over a simmering time bomb. Unsure if the tanks would explode.

GUTIERREZ: There would have been a massive chaos at the who. They would have thought it was terrorism, who knows. They wouldn't have been able to talk to me because I would have been nothing but vaporized.

LAVANDERA: Gutierrez tries stopping Dominique Jean with a taser but it didn't work. Jean starts wildly trying to stab Gutierrez with a knife and a screwdriver.

GUTIERREZ: It came for my throat and I blocked it.

LAVANDERA: Gutierrez falls to the ground. Jean viciously swings at him more than 20 times.

GUTIERREZ: That was a fight to the death. And only one person was going to walk away from that.

LAVANDERA: Gutierrez is stabbed about a dozen times but he's able to briefly kick the man up just long enough to grab his gun, firing five times killing Jean on the spot.

GUTIERREZ: I never heard the gunshots. Never heard them. All I heard was the clinking of the shell casings hitting the ground.

LAVANDERA: It lasted 30 seconds but dealing with the emotions hasn't always been easy.

GUTIERREZ: I felt like I failed. I was -- I need to know that I put up a fight, that I fought this guy because I didn't remember it. I had no recollection of it. So that really, really bothered me.

LAVANDERA: These days Officer Gutierrez patrols the Miami airport alongside his hero.

Who are these guys we are going to see?

GUTIERREZ: Juan Leon who saved my life.

LAVANDERA: It was Officer Juan Leon who found Gutierrez bleeding on the ground that night.

JUAN LEON, POLICE OFFICER: When I pulled up, I knew he was in trouble. His brown shirt was completely covered. It was just red.

LAVANDERA: Leon raced his friend to the hospital just in time to save his life.

LEON: He's my brother.

GUTIERREZ: Yeah.

LEON: He's my brother.

LAVANDERA: That's the unbreakable bond of officers on the front lines. Ed Lavandera, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARLOW: Top of the hour. So glad you're with us. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. We begin with politics. And after a week long standoff, Donald Trump's icy relationship with GOP leaders appears to be thawing to some degrees. The latest truce for was just last night. It became a breaking news as Trump ended weeks of speculation by coming out and endorsing House Speaker Paul Ryan and other ...