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Clinton Vs. Trump, Most Watched Debate Ever; Clinton Slams Trump for Calling Former Miss Universe, "Miss Piggy"; Player Hits Homer While Honoring Teammate Who Died. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired September 27, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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


[15:30:00] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump continues to make comments about former Miss Universe. The woman in question, Venezuela's Alicia Machado said she was once dubbed "Miss Piggy" by the Republican nominee because she gained weight. Hillary Clinton used the incident on the debate stage to attack the way Donald Trump treats women in her opinion.

Today Ms. Machado talked with reporters on a conference call arranged by the Clinton campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALICIA MACHADO, FORMER MISS UNIVERSE, VENEZUELA: For me this election is like a bad dream. Because I never thought and I never imagined then 20 years later I'll be in position. I'll be in this moment like, you know, watching this guy again doing stupid things and stupid comments and so misogynistic, I never imagine something like that. It's a really bad dream for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Trump continues to talk about it today, the comments you're about to hear just this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She was the winner and she gained a massive amount of weight and it was a real problem. We had a real problem. Not only that, her attitude and we had a real problem with her, so Hillary went back into the years and found this. This was many years ago and found the girl and talked about her like she was Mother Teresa. And it wasn't quite that way but that's OK. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: With me now, CNN political commentator and former political director for Ronald Reagan, Jeffrey Lord, also Hilary Rosen, Hillary Clinton supporter. Jeffrey, does continuing to talk about this for Donald Trump today and saying she was no real problem with the weight, does that help him get women voters that are undecided?

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I will say I think it's a distraction and in the scheme of things I think this is a blip and will arrive and leave quickly. The larger point --

COOPER: But doesn't it sort of continue the narrative which has been from the first debate with Megyn Kelly asking these questions.

LORD: Right. The larger part of that narrative, though, which he did not touch on which I imagine he will whether it's in the town hall with you or the debate after, is he will I'm sure bring up Juanita Broderick. And if they're going to get into serious treatment of women that is going to be a serious discussion because that involves not Bill Clinton but Hillary Clinton.

[15:35:00] COOPER: Hilary Rosen, were you surprised that Donald Trump continues to speak about this today and also to Jeffrey's point. One of the things Donald Trump said in the spin room after last night was that he should have gone harder and maybe he will in the next debate. We have that sound. Let me just play that for you and get you to react.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm happy that I was able to hold back on the indiscretions with respect to Bill Clinton because I have a lot of respect for Chelsea Clinton and I just didn't want to say what I was going to say --

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Which is?

TRUMP: Which is I'll tell you maybe at the next debate. We'll see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Your reaction, Hillary?

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, here's my dilemma which is Donald Trump wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act which equalizes health care for women. He wants to appoint supreme court justices that are going to take away reproductive freedoms. He has no history of paying family leave at his buildings, so in so many ways we just want to talk about the issues that really matter to women and families.

But this kind of boorish behavior of his that he doesn't stop, he just -- you know, he did it again today where he was dismissive of women, where he says things about women that are just so offensive and doesn't seem to even have a clue about how offensive it is. He just keeps repeating it.

So it's distracting, Jeffrey's right, from the policy issues. But it does go to some core beliefs that I think women cannot trust this guy to be on their side. And I don't see how he recovers from that because every time he wants to put it aside he steps in it again and almost on purpose.

COOPER: There was also this exchange about stamina which is something that Donald Trump has continually brought up about Hillary Clinton. Let's play some of that exchange from last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: She doesn't have the look, she doesn't have the stamina. I said she doesn't have the stamina and I don't believe she does have the stamina. To be president of this country you need tremendous stamina.

CLINTON: Well, as soon as he travels to 112 countries and negotiates a peace deal, a cease-fire, a release of dissidents, an opening of new opportunities in nations around the world or even spends 11 hours testifying in front of a congressional committee, he can talk to me about stamina.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Jeffrey?

LORD: Her problem is that video of her collapsing on the 9/11 ceremony. I mean, that video is everywhere and in the way of the world of the internet that will be everywhere. As I've said before an image is worth a thousand words and that says it all right there.

COOPER: Do you think last night said anything where she didn't take a drink of water for 90 minutes and he was gulping water like Marco Rubio which is something he used to make fun of people for doing.

LORD: Again, I honestly think that's a blip. I really am going to be anxious to see the polls a week from now on this because I think people out in America are looking at that in a whole different way than we look at this. And they're looking at common sense and things of that nature so I'll be interested to see. That I don't think that will count.

ROSEN: Well, I don't think he really meant stamina. What he said was she doesn't look like a president and what women across America heard was that women can't look like presidents, he did that to Carly Fiorina in the primary. Last night he tried to cover himself by going back to a stamina issue which I think Hillary Clinton swatted away like it was a flea, similar to how Ronald Reagan did on the age issue, that comparison has been made all day basically saying don't challenge my stamina, look at what we're doing here and what I've done.

So I think what he meant was that she doesn't look like a president. That's what the question from Lester Holt was, that's what his insult had been over the course of this campaign but he was afraid to look her in the eye, look women of America in the eye and say no, women don't look like presidents to me.

COOPER: What do you think he meant by saying she doesn't have the look.

LORD: I think he meant that. Margaret Thatcher certainly looked like a prime minister to me. It has nothing to do with being a woman. I don't think that's the case at all.

COOPER: How does Hillary Clinton not look like a president?

LORD: Well, they used to say that Mitt Romney looked like a president. He didn't get elected. I think some people fit the description, the sort of mental image that people have of a president, the way they carry themselves, their voice, their tone, that has nothing to do with their gender. It's just her particular situation.

COOPER: Hilary, for you it's directly related to her gender. If you are commenting on the way somebody looks.

ROSEN: Look, you can go back in history and look at how funny-looking some of our presidents have been over the course of 200 years of this country.

[15:40:00] LORD: Touche.

ROSEN: So Donald Trump's behavior when he made fun of a young man with disabilities, when he attacked a Muslim father of a soldier, that doesn't look like a president to me. He was making a sexist comment and I think women of America heard it as a sexist comment just like Carly Fiorina heard in the primary.

COOPER: Hilary Rosen, Jeffrey Lord, thank you.

Tonight we'll talk one-on-one with former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado. That's tonight at 8:00 eastern on "360." up next, a key moment from the debate. Did Donald Trump skirt federal income taxes.?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Or maybe he doesn't want the American people, all of you watching tonight to know that he's paid nothing in federal taxes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: What is he hiding? That's the question Hillary Clinton is asking as Donald Trump continues to refuse to release his tax returns, breaking with a four-decade tradition among presidential candidates. Clinton offered up a few theories for why Trump is holding back. She said maybe he's not as rich or charitable as he claims to be but here's the one possibility getting the most attention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:45:00] CLINTON: Or maybe he doesn't want the American people, all of you know that he's paid nothing in federal taxes because the only years that anybody's ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities, when he was trying to get a casino license and they showed he didn't pay any federal income tax.

TRUMP: That makes me smart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: I'm joined by John Cassidy, a staff writer for the "New Yorker" who's written a lot about this. What did you make of Donald Trump's essentially just saying, "it makes me smart not to pay taxes."

JOHN CASSIDY, STAFF WRITER, "NEW YORKER": I think it was an astonishing moment. He effectively seemed to be admitting what Hillary was saying was true, that he hadn't paid taxes. Wasn't clear whether he was referring to the '90s or '80s when we know he didn't. But just to stand there on a presidential stage and say "I was smart not to pay taxes" was a remarkable moment, I thought.

COOPER: He was asked later by Dana Bash in the spin room and -- do we have that answer? Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It sounds like you admitted that you haven't paid federal taxes and that that was smart. Is that what you meant to say?

TRUMP: I didn't say that at all. If they say I didn't, it doesn't matter. I will say this, I hate the way our government spends our taxes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: So he didn't really answer the question. I'm not sure what he meant by, "if they say I didn't, doesn't really matter."

CASSIDY: It looks like he made a mistake there. I saw the full version of the interview and did say, "I did pay federal taxes" but he didn't say which year he was talking about. Most of the evidence suggests he hasn't paid many taxes.

We know for four years. Hillary said two years but actually four years. We also know he got a New York State rebate which is limited to people who earn less than $500,000. Now if you earn less than $500,000, you're not paying very much tax by the standards of a supposed billionaire like Trump.

COOPER: He also early on during the campaign said, "look, I will tell you that I try to pay as little taxes as possible." So he made that a selling point.

CASSIDY: Right, it's -- I think he's trying to have it both ways. On the one hand he's saying this shows how smart I am that I don't pay federal taxes, but on the other hand he must realize a lot of people across the country who don't have a choice about how much taxes they pay, it is not going to go down very well with them. So I think that is why he corrected himself after the debate.

COOPER: Which is something secretary Clinton tried to hammer him with saying you're not paying taxes so you're not contributing to service members, to veterans, to hospitals, schools.

CASSIDY: That was a big mistake by Trump because the debate started with him talking about taxes, then Lester Holt changed the subject back to the e-mails and Trump himself gave a quick answer about the e- mails, and he turned the subject back to his own taxes, reopening a wound which he really wanted to be closed.

COOPER: It's interesting. Donald Trump has said I'm under an audit, I've always been audited. He went on a discussion about that last night. One of the things his own attorneys have admitted is that from 2002 to 2008 those tax returns have been audited and are no longer under audit. And so the argument that I can't release my tax returns because they're under audit, for those returns, that's not the case.

CASSIDY: That doesn't hold. He hasn't been pressed on that as much. Hillary may well bring that up in a future debate. He could easily release those tax returns and journalists and the Clinton campaign has asked them to do that. But so far he just uses this blanket, "I'm under audit, I can't release anything."

COOPER: In the past he's said "they're all connected." but again the government has already seen those tax returns.

CASSIDY: Conceivably, I'm not a leading expert on the tax code. I guess conceivably the government could go back in and say there's something in this return which leads us to reopen the return from 2008, but as of now they appear to be closed and he could release them without impacting his current audit.

COOPER: John Cassidy, thank you very much, from the "New Yorker".

While millions were tuned into the presidential slug fest, a magical, emotional really inspiring moment was as taking place in the world of sports. Three days ago the Miami Marlins lost 24-year-old Jose Fernandez who died in a boating accident. The team canceled its Sunday game then as the Marlins returned to the diamond last night, one of Fernandez's best friends on the team, Dee Gordon, a skinny guy just weighing 160 pounds who hadn't hit a homer all season, walked up for his first at-bat, stepped up to the plate wearing Fernandez's jersey, number 16 and his helmet and this happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPORTS ANNOUNCER: Gordon to right. It's deep. And it's gone! Dee Gordon has hit it out and the marlins have a 1-0 lead.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:50:00] COOPER: The whole team there wearing Fernandez's jersey. Dee Gordon joins me now. Thank you for being with us. If you could, just tell us what you were thinking as you stepped up to the batter's box.

DEE GORDON, MIAMI MARLINS, LEAD HITTER: Honestly, I was just trying to honor my friend. My teammate. My brother. I wasn't trying to hit no home run. I wasn't looking to hit no home run. I wasn't trying to be a hero. It really didn't matter if I got out at that time. I just wanted to go out and play hard for him.

COOPER: When you saw how far that ball went, when you saw -- and you're running around the bases, I can't imagine what that feeling was.

GORDON: Yes, man, it's like -- I just kind of like blacked out. It was like -- kind of like an out-of-body experience. It was a great moment for me and my teammates and the city of Miami and the baseball world.

COOPER: It's such a loss. Just tell us about Jose, what he was like as a friend, how you knew him and how you're dealing with this?

GORDON: Man, he was charismatic. He was compassionate. He was a giver. He was just an amazing person. He was always good to me. Even when we played against each other and I was on the Dodgers, he was still good to me.

COOPER: I understand you talked to your teammates last night after the game about god. If you could, what was it you said to them.

GORDON: I told them, I said, if you all don't believe in god, you all need to start. Because they've been with me for two years and they ain't never seen me hit a ball up there. Batting practice or nothing. So I had to be honest. You know, I think I had a little help.

COOPER: You were saying you didn't plan to hit a home run, you just wanted to honor your friend. I mean, did you know you -- you were going to? I mean, was that the -- the goal at all? Or did it just kind of -- you just connected with the ball, it happened?

GORDON: It just kind of happened. I guess -- I told somebody last night it didn't matter who led off, that that was going to happen for them. It just happened to be me in that spot. Like I said, I definitely didn't plan that.

COOPER: I mean, you got a standing ovation for a long, long time. When you were running around the bases, do you hear the fans? Did you hear how they were reacting?

GORDON: Man, it's crazy. I didn't hear or see anything. I just kept just looking down at the bases and, you know, just was in shock. So it's -- I still can't explain it. It's just something that I can't -- I just really can't put my hand on. Yes. Well, dee, again, appreciate you talking to us. I am so sorry for the loss of your friend, your teammate, and thanks for sharing with us today. I appreciate it.

COOPER: All right. Thank you, Dee Gordon.

[15:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)