Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Clinton and Trump Face Off on CNN Tonight; Adviser: Mr. Trump is a Game Day Player; Clinton Camp: We Expect a Subdued Trump; Clinton to Get First Question in Debate on CNN; Houston Shopping Center Shooting Wounds Several People; Trump, Clinton Debate Just Hours Away On CNN; The 20-Year-Old Washington Mall Shooting Suspect To Enter A Plea Today. Aired 9-9:30 ET

Aired September 26, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning and thank you so much for joining me live from Hofstra University in Long Island, New York, the site of the first Presidential Debate. You can feel the excitement already, let me tell you.

I'm Carol Costello. It is the presidential election that has rewritten the political playbook. And just 12 hours from now, a new page of history might be added.

Tonight's Presidential Debate could draw an audience of 100 million viewers, a staggering number usually reserved for the Super Bowl, and it underscores why this could be the single most important moment yet in the race.

This is a sneak peek of the stage where Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will face off in their first one-on-one debate and the stakes could not be higher. The latest poll show the race is now virtually deadlock, both nationally and in key battleground states.

And we're covering all the angles of tonight's show down. Jason Carroll is inside the debate hall. Phil Mattingly is outside. But let's begin with Jason.

OK. Show us the stage and what's going to go down tonight, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, you mentioned the Super Bowl. I guess we could call this the Super Bowl of politics. The stage is set behind me. There is much anticipation.

The topics for tonight's debate, America's direction, achieving prosperity and securing America. There has been a lot of talk about the details. Let's go over some of them for you.

The debate will last about 90 minutes. It would be broken into six 15-minute segments. There has been a lot of talk about some of the rules involved with this debate. Some of the rules were decided by mutual consensus between both of the campaigns. Some of the rules were decided by a coin toss.

Clinton's podium will be stage left and Trump's podium will be stage right. That was decided by a coin toss. Clinton's podium is slightly shorter than Trump's podium. That's for optical reasons. She is slightly shorter than Donald trump -- a lot shorter. She's about five-six; he's about six-two.

Something else that was decided by a coin toss and that is who gets the first question? Clinton will receive the first question. She'll have about two minutes to answer. Trump then in turn will have about two minutes to respond.

About a thousand people will be packed into here, this hall here at Hofstra. And as you said, much anticipation, about 100 million people expected to tune into watch. Carol?

COSTELLO: Unbelievable. Jason Carroll, many thanks. All right. Now, let's pull back the curtain for a glimpse of what we haven't seen, the preparation, the rehearsals, the strategies. CNN's Phil Mattingly joins us live with those details. Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, there's a traditional way to prepare for a debate, and I'm not going to shock you here when I tell you Donald Trump is not necessarily subscribing to that idea of how to prepare for a debate. But one thing we know going into a debate that all campaigns can do, including Donald Trump, is try and set expectations. Take a listen to what an aide of Donald Trump said and what an aide of Hillary Clinton said just this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON MILLER, SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Debates are always important, and Mr. Trump is a game day player. He'll be ready for this evening. And again, I take you back to the -- let's look at the energy and momentum coming into this weekend.

We see the poll numbers looking good for Mr. Trump. We see these crowds, these rallies. They're drawing tens and thousands of people.

BRIAN FALLON, PRESS SECRETARY, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: For all this talk of which Trump is going to show up tonight, I think we are pretty well convinced that we're going to see Trump Number Two, which is this Kellyanne Conway creation, a subdued Trump. A Trump that shows restraint, separated from his Twitter account for 90 minutes, try to come in and desperately try to seem presidential.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: So, Carol, that's what the campaigns want to see in front of the scenes, what they want to see publicly. Now, behind the scenes, here is what we know.

Hillary Clinton, as I noted, staying very traditional. Preparation is crucial for her and her team. It always has been. She's been on the national stage for these types of debates for years now. What her team has been doing at a hotel conference room, a couple of miles away from her home in Chappaqua, she and top advisers have been running through mock debates four hours at a time, two separate sessions including, on Saturday and Sunday, they went late into the night, almost trying to prep for the 9:00 p.m. start time tonight. Now, Donald Trump, his advisers, Carol, have been a little bit more

tightlipped, but here's what we know. Inside Trump Tower, he's been meeting with top advisers -- Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christie -- not doing mock debates, not having standards. They're not traditional in that sense, but what advisers tell me, they want him to be comfortable. That's the most important thing for Donald Trump. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly, thanks so much. So joining me now to talk about all these is Mark Preston, CNN Politics Executive Editor; Jackie Kucinich, Washington Bureau Chief of The Daily Beast; Meena Bose, Kalikow Chair in Presidential Studies for Hofstra University; and Ed Lee, he's the Executive Director for Debate at Emory.

So, Mark, first to you, the face-off between Clinton and Trump, that moment we will see both candidates on stage. They're going to touch each other. So, serious, this is what people were asking me all weekend. Will they shake hands? Will they ignore each other? Because, obviously, they dislike each other.

[09:05:07] MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: I think dislike is actually a very soft way of describing the animosity that exists between these two. Listen, they're going to walk up, they will shake hands, and then all bets are off about the potential back and forth that we will see.

This could become a slug fest or it potentially could be Donald Trump takes a step back and goes very, very light on Hillary Clinton. If he does that, he probably will be better viewed at the end of the debate actually, so he doesn't look like he's attacking.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE DAILY BEAST: But these two do need to kind of pack away some of their dislike for each other because Donald Trump can't look like he's bullying Hillary Clinton. He can't be mean to her. And Hillary Clinton can't look like, why am I on the stage with this guy? Sort of the Al Gore model where, you know, rolling your eyes, sighing, that sort of thing. That can't happen either. So as much as these two don't like each other, they kind of have to, you know, put that away honestly for 90 minutes.

COSTELLO: So, Meena, will it be a warm handshake, you know, very firm like this, like --

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: -- or will it be kind of like?

(LAUGHTER)

MEENA BOSE, DIRECTOR, HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY PETER S. KALIKOW CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY: I think maybe somewhere in between. I think it will be quick, just and getting to the point. I think both candidates need to be strong on substance. It is easy to lose a debate; it is harder to win a debate. But you win on substance. COSTELLO: But we're going to talk about the optics first before we

get into substance, at least in this clock, OK? So, Ed, I'll post this question to you. So, Hillary Clinton gets the smaller podium because she's around, oh, five-feet-five. He's over six feet tall. Some women might ask, what's with the smaller podium?

ED LEE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, EMORY UNIVERSITY BARKLEY FORUM: Well, it's far more important for the candidate to be comfortable and confident in the environment than a much large podium that looks like it's of the same height. To be one, that's extremely uncomfortable for her where it causes her to fidget, where it causes her to look like she is stressed, and the nonverbals of the interaction are far more important than one evaluating the podium size. That's not what we're going to talk about at the end of the day.

We're going to talking about whether or not she looked like a winner, whether or not she looked like she was capable of engaging in the debate and controlling the environment. And creating a podium that allows for her to do that is far more important than the size of the podium.

COSTELLO: OK. So when Ed said podium size, Mark, you perked up?

PRESTON: Well, only because I have negotiated probably 25 debates on behalf of CNN in the presidential primaries, and this is always a big issue where one candidate gets upset if another candidate gets an apple box, which is a small box that lifts them up.

The optics, as you said, are just as important as what is talked about and when it comes to policy because the optics are what people are going to walk away from. And if we talk about a hundred million people watching tonight, you know, half of them probably are really tuning in for the first time to see these two.

COSTELLO: OK. Let's talk a little bit more about optics and the size of the candidates because we all kind of look the same size, right? And in broadcasting, they do that purposely so we all look like we are on even footing. Well, they're not going to do that in tonight's debate because Hillary Clinton, Jackie, will look a lot shorter than Donald Trump.

KUCINICH: Well, I mean, I don't know how -- but if they put her on Donald Trump's level, it also would look kind of strange because she's not six feet tall, so it does seem like -- I mean, that's reality, right?

But I do think, at the end of the day, while optics are important, I don't know that the height is going to matter as much as what they say and as much as how they treat each other and the kind of nonverbals. As your other guest was saying, I think that's going to play more than technicolor (ph).

COSTELLO: He says that there was a coin toss, right? So will Hillary Clinton speak first? Because that's how it's going right now, as we understand it. There's going to be a coin toss. How important is it for a candidate to speak first? BOSE: Well, I think it certainly gives the initiative, if you will,

to set the tone, but it's a 90-minute debate. So, you know, coin toss is democracy at work.

(LAUGHTER)

BOSE: You can't get more democratic than that, so.

COSTELLO: Yes, yes. But, Ed, the person who speaks first really gets to decide the tone, right, right off the bat? Isn't that important?

BOSE: Well, it --

LEE: Oh, absolutely. The first person gets to set --

BOSE: They get to start the conversation but, obviously --

LEE: -- the tone of the debate, they get to establish --

BOSE: Please continue.

COSTELLO: Go ahead, Ed.

LEE: Yes, the first person absolutely get to set the tone of the debate and to determine actually the way in which it proceeds. That's one of the things that I would be most concerned about in preparing this debate is that they're not -- the candidate is prepared for any of the sort of immediate news coverage or things that are occurring in the world, that those first set of questions can really fluster a candidate or set them up for a success. And so that definitely has to be kept in mind.

COSTELLO: And I mean, you got to expect that certain things will come up right off the bat like the recent shootings. There was shooting in Houston this morning. There were six people shot in Houston just this morning.

PRESTON: Right.

COSTELLO: We had the New York bombings, right? So will those things be brought up right away no matter what the candidate is asked by the moderator, you know, in that first question, Mark?

[09:09:53] PRESTON. Well, if you're referring to the first question actually answered, it will be interesting to see what Hillary Clinton and who Donald Trump actually addresses before they go into the question. Will Hillary Clinton say it is a time for healing, it's a time for coming together and then go ahead and answer the question.

As far as the police violence and what have you, that's a very fine line to walk. Both candidates have to be careful in the sense that they want to appeal to minority groups. They also want to appeal to the middle of the road White voters who are sketchy on both sides of them. At the same time, you cannot alienate the police and you can't alienate their supporters. COSTELLO: Absolutely. OK. So we're going to pause for just a moment

because I do want to inform my viewers more on what's happening in Houston this morning.

Another tragedy strikes and it involves a gun and shooting. Let's go out to Houston right now. Do we have someone there?

All right. Houston police say they've actually shot the suspect who opened fire at a shopping center this morning. Jean Casarez is following this for us. What do you know?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've just gotten some new information. Actually, there are 20 EMS vehicles on the scene. Two doctors are on the scene. People are being transported right now to local hospitals. Now, the Texas Office of Emergency Management is saying, very preliminarily, that six people are being transported to the hospital with injuries. The police department confirms that this is fluid and that we do not know the severity of these injuries at all.

But here's what we do know. At 6:29 this morning, there was a call to the Houston Fire Department saying that an active shooter was on the scene. It was a parking lot at the Petco. Now, the shooter is down. People do not believe, the police does not believe, that more than one participated in this. But this is an active investigation right now and as we do know, the injuries are unknown at this time, six being taken to the hospital.

But the area is southwest Houston, it's Weslayan and Bissonnet. Police are saying stay out of that area, do not go near it, roads are closed. It is an active investigation and, Carol, there should be a briefing in time. But this morning, 6:29, the call made to Houston Fire Department of an active shooter, nearest shopping center in southwest Houston.

COSTELLO: All right, Jean Casarez reporting live for us this morning. Thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, tonight's debate expected to draw Super Bowl like ratings, but will it really be a game changer when it comes to swaying voters?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My American dream is for 11 million undocumented Americans like myself not have to live in fear anymore one day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Getting a well enough job to support my family in the future.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Having the ability to go out and make a name for yourself. We live in the land of opportunity so we do have the ability to come from nothing and really become very successful in this country. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Wow, the American dream. When it comes to heavyweight political bouts tonight, Clinton and Trump contest is among the biggest and perhaps will answer that question, how will they make your American dream possible?

Some 74 percent of Americans say they will watch this debate that's according to a new "Washington Post"/ABC News poll, which also found that 80 percent of Americans say tonight's debate will not change their minds about who to support.

So are the majority of the millions tuning in tonight just, I don't know, hoping for a train wreck? My panel is back. Mark, many viewers are wondering which Donald Trump will show up, will it be the less energetic Donald Trump or will it be this guy? Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: First of all, this guy is a joke artist and this guy is a liar. This little guy has lied so much out my record. Don't worry about it little Marco.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are the single liar.

TRUMP: Don't need a weak person being president of the United States, OK, because that's what we'll get. You are getting beaten badly. I know you are embarrassed but keep fighting, keep swinging.

JEB BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You are never going to be the president of the United States by insulting your way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So Mark, will it be that guy or it will be teleprompter Trump?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: It's going to be teleprompter Trump. I mean, you might hear him call Hillary Clinton a liar in the course of a discussion over some issue, but I am fairly certain that his campaign has told him to dial it back a little bit for two reasons.

One when he is teleprompter Trump, he comes across more presidential, and two, while some people may not agree with this and saying it is sexes, attacking a woman is not viewed very well and Donald Trump, the way he attacks could be seen as really, really destructive towards --

COSTELLO: But here's the thing and I will post this question to Ed. Trump supporters like his zingers and they like it when he says Crooked Hillary, right? And they dislike Hillary Clinton a lot. So would it make much difference to Trump supporters whether he insults Hillary Clinton or not?

ED LEE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF DEBATE, EMORY UNIVERSITY: The most fascinating part about this debate tonight is that it will give us an indication how coachable Donald Trump is actually. That you identify there are about 18 percent of people who identify that they can change their positions or possibly are open to doing that.

His supporters are not going to change his position. Donald Trump coming out with red meat and attacking Hillary Clinton is only trying to communicate with the converted.

But a Donald Trump that does as what your other panelists identified is more subdued and focused and attempts to speak to policy is one that is trying to convert a different audience and speak to those who are center right, who are very much concern about the direction of the country and the way in which politics are leaning.

And so we'll get a much better idea of who Donald Trump is as a debater and someone who is capable of being coached after this event.

COSTELLO: But see, Jackie, to me, the spectacle has already started because you know, Hillary Clinton said, you know, Mark Cuban is going to be in the front row and he's going to make some sort of faces at Donald Trump to distract him and then Donald Trump invoked Jennifer Flowers, who had an affair with Hillary Clinton's husband?

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "THE DAILY BEAST": That's going to be one of Donald Trump's biggest issues, not taking the bait and not doing something. The Jennifer Flowers thing, it brought up all these questions of sexism again. The worst part of Donald Trump because his ego is bruised.

So he can avoid that and manage to look presidential, he will probably have a good night. It is very easy to look a jerk on that debate stage. Remember President Obama, you're likeable enough, Hillary.

She actually reacts very well to that. So that's a dangerous zone for Donald Trump and would be bad for him if he does sort of cave to his (inaudible) nature, I guess.

COSTELLO: Meena, you have to believe that Hillary Clinton is going to play to minorities, right? She's strong with minorities and to women. So how might she bring up these things to make Donald Trump look negative?

MEENA BOSE, CHAIR IN PRESIDENTIAL STUDIES, HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY: Well, I think her strength is talking about what she's going to do and talking about the problems the country is facing and the shooting this morning and the series of shootings and the horrible tragedies we have seen over the last several weeks and over the summer and talking about what she's going to get done. I think that's her strength. I think for Donald Trump, one liner can be effective. Just what Jackie says and Obama and in New Hampshire.

COSTELLO: I mean, presidential debates are all about sound-bites, right? So If Trump gets a few zingers in, and has a few great sound bites, won't that last longer than a big long talk about policy from Hillary Clinton's status that might be.

LEE: Well, I agree. That we live in a Twitter fight communication environment where each of the candidates are looking for ways to create sound-bites, but the particular sound-bites -- we are not in the environment in which all press is good press as Donald Trump has clearly come to see with the way in which he's dealt with people in the military.

The way in which he has had to deal with these issues of sexism, and he does not want to come away with us having conversations about Donald Trump being a sexist candidate. What he does want us to come away thinking is Donald Trump is reserved and someone willing to tell it like it is.

That's a fine line, that yes, you want Donald Trump to be Donald Trump, but that is a very dangerous place if you are the person that's running this campaign

COSTELLO: Mark, Trump's camp, already said their biggest worry is if Hillary Clinton sort of interrupts him and ask him a lot of questions about policy and throws him off his game.

PRESTON: Well, they may be worried about that, but I think we are all looking forward to that because I really do think that that is going to be the differentiator in how Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump reacts to one another. Body language and body language. Split screen, when someone attacks the other one, how does the other one react. We'll learn a lot just in their reactions.

WHITFIELD: All right, I have to leave it there, Mark Preston, Jackie Kucinich, Meena Bose and Ed Lee, thanks to all of you.

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, head to head for the first time, the presidential debate airs tonight right here on CNN starting at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, he's accused of shooting five people at a mall outside of Seattle. Now, investigators are working to find out why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:27:36]

COSTELLO: And good morning from the site of the first presidential debate in Hofstra University on Long Island. Thank you so much for joining me, I am Carol Costello.

Guilty or not guilty, the lone suspect held in a shooting at a Washington State mall is expected to enter plea today at his arraignment. The 20-year-old is accused of killing five people on Friday at a mall north of Seattle.

After a nearly 24-hour manhunt, he was captured walking on the street near his home. CNN's Stephanie Elam has more for you live from Burlington. Good morning, Stephanie.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Arcan Cetin is looking at five counts of first degree murder. This all happened at around 7:00 on Friday evening. When he was seen on surveillance video entering the mall that you see here behind me without a rifle in his hand and then about 10 minutes later, he reappears with the rifle.

Went into the Macy's makeup department and that's where he killed four women and one man. After that, they said he fled this way across this parking lot to Interstate 5 and disappeared.

It took 24 hours for police to track down where he went and that's through tips and surveillance cameras in the area. They discovered him about 20 miles away in Oak Harbor, Washington. That's where one police officer was looking at his computer, recognized him walking down the street and did a quick U-turn apprehended him.

There were no struggle that the suspect was also zombie-like when they took him into custody here. Now just to give you a little bit more about what we know about Cetin is that he is 20-year-old. He lives in Oak Harbor.

He is a permanent legal resident of the United States. He emigrated from Turkey. We also know that he had an ex-girlfriend who worked at a Macy's, not at this Macy's. Police say that they've interviewed her for any more information as well as his family.

They've interviewed him as well, but still a lot of questions here because at this point, there is no motive. They don't know why and they don't know if there is any reason that he could have been targeting this one Macy's.

They are also saying that have no reason to believe that this was terrorism related, but they are not ruling it out at this point -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Stephanie Elam reporting live from Burlington, Washington this morning.

Calmer but still tense in Charlotte. Officials lifting a mandatory curfew after days of protest over the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott.

Also this weekend, the release of new dash cam and body cam videos the moment that Scott was shot. There are still so many unanswered questions. CNN's Brynn Gingras is following this from Charlotte for us. Good morning.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning to you. Those two videos released by police just one day after Keith Scott's wife release cell phone video of the incident. Of course, mounting --