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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump: Bring Back "Stop & Frisk" Laws; Officials: U.S. Atty. Investigating Weiner Sexting Allegations; Daily Mail: Weiner Had Online Relationship With 15-Year-Old; Battle For the White House; Tulsa Police Officer Charged With 1st Degree Manslaughter; Does Trump Have A Path To 270?; CNN Electoral Forecast: Iowa Now Swinging To Trump; Trump Leading Clinton By 5 Points In Ohio Poll of Polls; Trump, Clinton Hoping To Sway Ohio Independents; Ohio's GOP Gov. Kasich Isn't Supporting Trump; Clinton Camp Has More Ohio Field Offices Than Trump; Early Voting in Ohio Starts Oct. 12; Yahoo Confirms Hacking of 500 Million Accounts. Aired 4:30p-5p ET

Aired September 22, 2016 - 16:30   ET

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


SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER (voice-over): And a report from the New York attorney general shows just 3 percent of stop-and-frisk stop resulted in convictions from 2009 to 2012. And in more than 5 million stop-and-frisk stops, police recovered guns 0.02 percent of the time.

[16:30:02] Trump's call for reviving the controversial practice coming just days after he spoke favorably about racial profiling, all as he tries to make inroads with minority voters.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: What do you have to lose?

MURRAY: But a WSJ/NBC News poll shows an overwhelming 81 percent of African-American voters prefer Hillary Clinton compared to 7 percent who back Trump. And Trump's pitch has come with stumbles, like insisting African-American communities have never been worse off.

TRUMP: Our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape that they've ever been in before -- ever, ever, ever.

MURRAY: As well as lingering questions about the years he spent questioning President Obama's birthplace.

TRUMP: We want to get on with the campaign. A lot of people were asking me questions.

MURRAY: And today, a Trump campaign official in Ohio, Kathy Miller, is resigning after sparking outrage with comments like this.

KATHY MILLER, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIR, MAHONING COUNTY: I don't think there was any racism until Obama got elected.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: Now, the Clinton campaign has been seizing on Donald Trump's previous birtherism as an indication that he will not be able to win over black voters. They put out a statement that points out "Trump spent five years championing a conspiracy theory to undermine our first African-American president".

And, Jake, the Clinton camp believes that Donald Trump will not be able to move beyond that.

Back to you.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Sara Murray, thanks.

We're going to talk lots more about the things you just reported in the next segment in the panel.

Be sure to tune in next week to a special CNN town hall event with President Obama at the Fort Lee Army Post in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The president will answer crucial questions posed to him by active service men and service women, veterans, their families and myself. At 9:00 p.m. Eastern Wednesday night.

No Republican, meanwhile, has won the White House without winning Ohio. Why Donald Trump may have a slight advantage in the Buckeye State. That story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:36:46] TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD.

Our politics lead now. We're just getting a look at four new Quinnipiac swing state polls showing Donald Trump leads Clinton by seven points in Iowa and he has a healthy seven-point lead in Georgia as well. While Hillary Clinton is ahead by six points in the Commonwealth of Virginia and she's up by two in Colorado. That's within the margin of error.

Let's bring in our political panel to discuss the state of the race. Washington bureau chief at "The Daily Beast", Jackie Kucinich, and "New York Times" national political correspondent Jonathan Martin.

Let's start with something light and then we'll go on to some of the more heavier issues. We start with Hillary Clinton's interview with Zack Galifianakis today. He hosts the show "Between Two Ferns". President Obama did the show obviously.

Galifianakis asked Clinton whether she would move to Canada if Trump won.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I would stay in the United States.

ZACK GALIFIANAKIS, HOST, BETWEEN TWO FERNS: And what would you try to --

CLINTON: To try to prevent him from destroying the United States.

GALIFIANAKIS: So you're going to lead the civil war?

CLINTON: No. I wouldn't -- I wouldn't take up arms. I think that might be a little extreme.

GALIFIANAKIS: Oh, right, because you were saying before we were rolling that you wanted to take away everyone's guns. Very cool. Cool. Cool. Cool.

CLINTON: I really regret doing this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

TAPPER: Funny stuff. But obviously trying to go after millennials who, as of right now, she has a problem with, Jackie.

JACKIE KUCINICH, THE DAILY BEAST: Well, yes, this is the latest thing that they've done. She posted, post on Mike (ph) this week. She was at Temple University. She adopted parts of Bernie Sanders college plan. She is bending over backwards to get millennials out.

But it hasn't -- the enthusiasm just isn't there yet. It's not that she is worried about them flocking to Donald Trump. It's them showing up. And that's going to make a big difference in sort of uniting that piece of the Obama coalition to beat Donald Trump in the fall.

TAPPER: And that's one of the interesting things, John, is that the millennials are not sold on Trump, but they're inclined to go -- too many are inclined to go to Stein or Johnson or just stay home.

JONATHAN MARTIN, THE NEW YORK TIMES: They're contemptuous about Trump, don't like him at all, but they just don't have no deep affection for Hillary Clinton. And that is one of the over-riding concerns now at the Clinton campaign office, this flirtation that you see of younger voters with both Jill Stein and Gary Johnson. It's making the race a lot closer right now, but I think they would have assumed because if you look just to 18 to 29-year-old voters, Hillary's advantage is nowhere near, Jake, what it was when Obama had four years ago with the same demographic in the region. And the reason for that is because you've got those two other third-party candidates.

TAPPER: So, the pitch to them cannot be just anti-Trump. It has to be pro-Hillary to a degree.

KUCINICH: Well -- exactly. But one of the things that she is running up against is the sort of crony capitalism pieces that millennials just don't like and they're not buying. When I've been to college campuses talking to kids, that's what they bring up because they think this is all part of the system and, you know, someone like a Jill Stein or a Gary Johnson isn't and, you know, might be part of a protest vote.

MARTIN: Yes. And just no connection whatsoever to the current political establishment either. No real ties to either party. No real investment, necessarily, in sort of party loyalty. It's just not of their thinking. TAPPER: Speaking of struggles, let's talk about Donald Trump and the

African-American community. First of all, if a law is -- like stop- and-frisk is unconstitutional in New York, presumably it would also be considered unconstitutional in Chicago.

[16:40:01] But beyond that, for a candidate to say that African- Americans have never had it worse, never ever, ever, ever, ever, as he said, just shows an appalling ignorance of the history of race in this country.

KUCINICH: It's preposterous. It's just -- it's just an ignorant thing to say. And stop-and-frisk was not only -- it didn't work. It's unconstitutional and it's reviled by the black community. So why he thought -- I mean, I know Rudy Giuliani is one of his closest advisors. That might be some advice he would have wanted to pass on.

MARTIN: I mean, Trump speaks off the cuff and says things that pop into his head and we're kind of used to that, it's par for the course.

But, Jake, what's remarkable is the level of tolerance for this among people in his party. You know, the fact that he can say in North Carolina, African-Americans have never, ever, ever had it so bad and you don't hear a peep from other people in his party, a party that's concerned in some respects about their struggles with non-white voters. And they just let it go.

And the reason they let it go is because this is now a more competitive race. They don't want to undermine Donald Trump because the closer he is in this election, the better their odds are to hold the Senate and to hold the House. So the tolerance level for Trump -- and the things he says -- is now much greater among folks in his own party because there is a closer race. It's raw politics.

TAPPER: It does really underline the question that a lot of Trump critics have, which is, is his so-called outreach to African-Americans legit or is he just trying to convince white people, hey, you can vote for this guy. He's not racist.

KUCINICH: It seems to be the latter. You would have to talk to people and get their point of view. He was asked this morning, I think, what the black community wants from white voters. He couldn't answer them. He talked about the event he had yesterday and how many great people were there. I don't even know that he's talking to the people he is visiting.

This all seems all for show. And I haven't seen anything, in the polls or anything that he says that proves that he's talked to any of the people he's visited.

TAPPER: But just for the record, hundreds of years of slavery, hundred years of African-Americans being denied civil rights. Jim Crow, lots of bad times before today.

Jonathan and Jackie, thanks so much.

Right now, we're finding out that there are charges that are being filed against the police officer in Tulsa. Let us take a quick break. When we come back, we'll bring you more on that story.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN BREAKING NEWS.

[16:46:44] JACK TAPPER, CNN'S THE LEAD ANCHOR: Welcome back to THE LEAD. We have some "BREAKING NEWS" for you. Another scandal involving Former Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner, and this one is not only disgusting, it is potentially criminal. The Daily Mail reported that Weiner engaged in an online relationship with a 15-year old. The Mail claims the relationship began last January before Wiener and his wife Huma Abedin, who is, of course, a top adviser to Hillary Clinton, publicly separated. Now the teen, whom the Mail did not name, alleged that she told Wiener she was 15 and a sophomore in high school. The Mail says messages reportedly from Wiener confirmed that Ex-Congressman knew she was underage. And messages shown to The Mail by the teen allegedly include some that are in an explicit nature. The teen claims Wiener asked her to undress and to masturbate over online video chat. Wiener responded to the allegations about this new sexting revelation in a statement saying, quote, "While I have provided the Daily Mail with information showing that I have likely been the subject of a hoax, I have no one to blame but me for putting myself in this position. I am sorry." And now, some "BREAKING NEWS" into CNN that the allegations published by the Mail are being looked into by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York Police Department. CNN's Evan Perez is on this story. And Evan, the U.S. Attorney's Office just issued subpoenas. What are they going after?

[16:48:02] EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, they want to see all these records of these purported text messages. There -- they've issued a subpoena for Anthony Wiener to produce phone records and other records in order to see whether these allegations have any merit. Now again, at this point, as Wiener has pointed out in his statement, his public statement, he believes this is a hoax. So now, the FBI and the New York Police -- New York City Police Department are conducting their own investigations to see whether or not that is true. The U.S. Attorney now here in - here in Manhattan, Preet Bharara has issued the subpoena to take a look at those records of the phone and any other devices that he may have been using to communicate with this person. Again, the allegation is simply that this is a 15-year-old high school girl, purportedly, who was exchanging these messages with Anthony Wiener. And so now, this has drawn the attention of the U.S. Attorney here in Manhattan and the FBI, as well as the New York City Police Department, Jake.

TAPPER: Alright, Evan Perez, thanks so much. We will continue to bring you more on this story throughout the day. It's a key state for any Republican hoping to win the White House. We'll take a look at the state every Republican Nominee has won on his or her way to the White House. I guess it's just his way to the White House. That's next.

(END VIDEOTAPE) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[16:53:26] TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. We have even more "BREAKING NEWS" for you in our "NATIONAL LEAD" now. The Tulsa County district attorney has decided to charge Police Officer Betty Shelby. She's the white officer who killed Terence Crutcher last Friday. Here is the announcement that came in just minutes ago.

STEVE KUNZWEILER, TULSA COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: In the matter of the death of Terence Crutcher, I determined that the filing of the felony criminal of manslaughter in the first degree against Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby is warranted. Officer Shelby, although now charged, is presumed to be innocent until a judge or a jury determines otherwise.

TAPPER: A warrant has now been issued for Officer Shelby's arrest. And arrangements are being made for her surrender. Two police cameras, a helicopter and a dash-cam showing Terence Crutcher with his hands up, seconds before she shot him. An attorney for Officer Shelby says she had an exchange with Crutcher before the shooting and, according to her, she could tell Crutcher was under the influence of something. Since that shooting, police said Crutcher had PCP in his SUV. Authorities have not said whether PCP was found in Crutcher's system at the time of his death. Shifting back to politics. As we know, what matters in this election is not the national polls, it is the state by state polls. Especially in those Battleground States, and those polls have been tightening. But if you're Donald Trump, have they tightened enough as of now? The answer as of now is no, which explains why the Republican nominee is in Pennsylvania today. CNN is updating its electoral outlook. And as of today, the road to 270 electoral votes still looks easier for Hillary Clinton. CNN is shifting Iowa from Battleground territory to leans republican. That means that we think the Hawkeye State which President Obama won twice is now swinging decidedly towards Mr. Trump. Two states, Maine and Nebraska, award their electoral votes by congressional district, instead of winner-take-all. Today, we're labelling a congressional district in each of those states, a battleground. So, where does that leave things? Well, if you add up states leaning blue, and those solidly in Clinton's camp, she is at 272 electoral votes as of right now. Trump is at 196. So, if this map were to hold and Trump wins the 70 electoral college votes, still up for grabs in Florida, Ohio, Nevada, North Carolina and those two congressional districts in Nebraska and Maine, which is entirely possible, all of that still would not be enough. He needs Pennsylvania, which has not gone republican in a presidential election since 1988. And that, of course, explains why Trump was in Pittsburgh just hours ago.

Now, let's focus in on one specific Battleground State, Ohio. It's a state so crucial for republicans, they held their National Convention there this summer in Cleveland. And now, six weeks before the election, our most recent CNN Poll of Polls shows good news for Donald Trump in this key Battleground State. An average of five recent polls showing Trump leading Clinton by five points among Buckeye State voters. CNN correspondent Martin Savidge travelled to the Buckeye State to get a sense of the race on the ground there, and he filed this report for us.

[16:56:39] MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the clock ticks down in the Buckeye State, both campaigns are going after unlikely Ohioans. For Trump, that's voters like Jeff Hill.

JEFF HILL, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Donald Trump is who I'm voting for.

SAVIDGE: Would you say you're a Republican?

HILL: Tis year, I am. I'm not ordinarily, though. This year I'm Republican.

SAVIDGE: He's older, white, blue-collar. Trump's voter's sweet spot. Since this number show Ohio has more like him than any other Battleground State, which explains why Trump has been here more than Clinton. Showing up on traditional Democratic turfs, like factory towns, coal fields, even union halls.

BOB PADUCHIK, OHIO DIRECTOR FOR TRUMP CAMPAIGN: The people are concerned about national security. They're concerned about domestic security. They're concerned about jobs and some of the trade deals. And I think that resonates with not just Republican supporters of Mr. Trump but also Independents and Democrats.

SAVIDGE: But Trump isn't the only one after non-typical voters. This is the town of Powell, it's a suburb just north of Columbus. It's definitely predominantly white, it's upper middleclass. And it's very heavily Republican. There's a Trump office right across the street, for goodness sakes. And yet, these are exactly the voters that the Clinton campaign is going after. How do you speak to that kind of a voter? It's a little bit of a different conversation, I would think.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We certainly do talk about Donald Trump and his divisiveness and the rhetoric that we've heard from him consistently for the last year and a half while he's been running. But we also certainly talk about Secretary Clinton and her career of fighting for children and families.

SAVIDGE: That's the same message Clinton's campaign has been hammering home on Ohio TV, where she and her allies have outspent Trump and his backers by nearly a four to one margin in the state.

HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The goals we will strive for the principles we will live by.

SAVIDGE: Sherry Scarton is a long-time Republican, voting for Reagan, McCain and Romney, but she can't vote for Trump.

SHERRY SCARTON, CLINTON SUPPORTER: Hillary is a smart woman, and Trump is just - he's just -- I hate to say it. I - he's a maniac.

SAVIDGE: Another more high-profiled Republican is also not committing to vote for Trump. Popular Ohio Governor John Kasich. But the key now is turning out the vote. And organizationally, Clinton seems to have the edge with 55 field offices and plans for two-dozen more, compared to Trump's 31 so-called victory offices. Early voting in Ohio starts in less than four weeks. Plenty of time, political expert Paul Beck says, for things to change for either candidate.

PAUL BECK, OHIO STATE POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR: Nobody has got this state wrapped up.

SAVIDGE: I don't think so.

TAPPER: That was CNN's Martin Savidge. Reporting in our "MONEY LEAD" now. 500 million, that's the number of victims whose Yahoo accounts were hacked in a recent massive data breach just a couple of hours ago. Yahoo confirmed that half a billion users' personal information was compromised, adding that it was the work of a, quote, "State- sponsored actor." The stolen data includes names, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hacked passwords. Yahoo believes that this alleged "State-sponsor" hack sometime -- happened sometime in late 2014. Also, this hacker is reportedly trying to sell the Yahoo account credentials. That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. You can follow me @JakeTapper on Twitter or @TheLeadCnn. I now turn you over to Wolf Blitzer. He is in "THE SITUATION ROOM." Thanks for watching.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN'S THE SITUATION ROOM ANCHOR: Happening now, "BREAKING NEWS" State of Emergency. Tension grips Charlotte after two --