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Trump, Clinton Blitz The Campaign Trail; Trump: Media is Clinton's Single Weapon; Clinton Campaign Debuts Ad with Michelle Obama; Clinton Nabs Endorsement of Former GOP Senator; Former Miss Universe Strikes Back Against Trump; Wells Fargo CEO Forfeits $41M. Aired 9-9:30 ET
Aired September 28, 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, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both claiming a victory to springboard from Monday's debate stage to a full-fledged blitz of the campaign trail.
One hour from now, Mr. Trump will be in Chicago to address the Polish- American alliance. And later today, he hits up events in Iowa and in Wisconsin. And Clinton's campaign rolls out some heavy hitters. Michelle Obama, Chelsea Clinton, and Bernie Sanders will all stump for her from North Carolina to New Hampshire. Their target, college voters.
CNN's Sara Murray is in Orlando where Trump returned to the trail and to the attack, and Joe Johns is following the Clinton campaign and its star-powered surrogates. But let's begin with you, Sara. Good morning.
SARA MURRY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning, Carol. Well, Donald Trump spent a lot of the day yesterday complaining about the moderator, complaining about the microphone on the debate stage, but by the time he got here in the evening, in Florida, he was ready to go on the attack and take advantage of some of the opportunities he may have missed on the debate stage. Take a listen to one of his cutting lines from last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She couldn't even pass her bar exam in Washington, D.C. She failed it. The single weapon that she's got is the media. Without the mainstream media, she wouldn't even be here, folks. That I can tell you, she wouldn't even be here. She wouldn't have a chance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MURRAY: Now, he went after her over her e-mails. He went after her over foreign policy. He called her virtually incompetent.
Carol, at times, it was like seeing the Donald Trump from the Republican primaries. He would interrupt himself to tout his own poll numbers, to insist he won the debate, and to slam the media. It's very clear he's trying to figure out what the right tone is to hit in these coming weeks and to better take on Hillary Clinton when they face off again in the next debate. Back to you.
COSTELLO: All right. Sara Murray, reporting live for us this morning. Thank you. And as Donald Trump steps up his attacks on Hillary Clinton, she's bringing out the big names in a bid to shore up support in key states. Any moment now, the former Republican Senator John Warner will endorse Clinton during an event with Tim Kaine.
And in New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders joins Clinton as she unveils a new plan for college affordability. In North Carolina, Chelsea Clinton returns to the campaign trail. And in Pennsylvania, Michelle Obama will visit both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
CNN's Joe Johns is tracking all of this. Good morning.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The Clinton campaign is pushing hard now to capitalize on what it sees as a big win in the first debate, lock in what's been called the Obama coalition of younger voters, women, and minorities. You could see that in the direct appeals to these groups in her performance in the debate, very evident in what the Clinton campaign is doing today, the candidate herself appearing in New Hampshire with Bernie Sanders, who mastered outreach to younger voters in the primaries.
My colleague, Manu Raju, reports that Sanders will be stepping up his appearances to try to energize the pro-Clinton vote in several of the states where she could use some help.
In the outreach to minority voters and women, the Clinton camp has a new ad out featuring Michelle Obama, a straight-ahead ad in which the First Lady speaks directly into the camera expressing her support for the candidate. And they're also hoping for some more free media coverage of the Alicia Machado controversy, the Miss University from Venezuela who was berated by Donald Trump for gaining weight in an outreach to Hispanics and women.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine, will be in Virginia with the highly respected former Republican Senator John Warner, looking to peel off more of the GOP voters who do not like Donald Trump.
So this campaign, projecting the sense that it's running a victory lap for sure -- it's been called gloating in some of our copy -- at least in appearance of a celebration. Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Joe Johns reporting live for us this morning. Thank you. Donald Trump insists he was holding back at the debate and then he said, just wait until the next debate. He'll double down on his attacks. Hillary Clinton is on the attack, too, hitting Trump on taxes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He actually bragged about gaming the system to get out of paying his fair share of taxes. In fact, I think there's a strong probability he hasn't paid Federal taxes a lot of years. He said that makes him smart. Now, if not paying taxes makes him smart, what does that make all the rest of us?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So let's talk about this. With me now, Ron Brownstein, senior editor for The Atlantic; and Jason Johnson, politics editor for theroot.com, Political Science professor at Morgan State University and Sirius XM contributor. Welcome, gentlemen. So --
[09:05:03] RON BROWNSTEIN, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR FOR STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP, ATLANTIC MEDIA: Good morning.
JASON JOHNSON, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY: Good morning.
COSTELLO: So, Ron, Mr. Trump told an audience in Florida, Clinton committed a horrible crime and destroyed lives. Do you think he'll call her "crooked Hillary" in the next debate?
BROWNSTEIN: I think he'll be much tougher on her, but I think his problem is really more about himself, right? I mean, both of these candidates have lots of dents in the fender. And the biggest challenge, I think, each of them face at the debates was resolving some of those dents, banging them out in front of the biggest audience they will ever have.
Donald Trump at the first debate, instead, reconfirmed, I think, for voters who were skeptical of his experience, his qualifications and his temperament. It's hard to imagine that any voter who was doubtful on any of those fronts came out of the debate more convinced that he's ready to be President.
And getting into an argument with a beauty contest contestant, you know, 40 days away from trying to be the leader of the free world probably doesn't help on that score either.
So, yes, Donald Trump can be tougher at Hillary Clinton. He can go at her vulnerabilities, which are real, but unless he resolves the doubts that he is facing among voters, I think it is still an uphill climb for him.
COSTELLO: But it seems right now, Jason, that Donald Trump and his camp are sort of looking for a way to make Hillary Clinton look bad in the eyes of women. You heard Donald Trump say he's going to bring up Bill Clinton's extramarital affairs. It could be even worse, we don't know. Will he do that in the next debate?
JOHNSON: Carol, I got to tell you, that would be the greatest mistake Donald Trump could ever make. People forget the next debate is a town hall. That means it's not just a split screen with you and the other candidate. It's men and women and undecided voters in the audience.
If Donald Trump decides to waste his two-minute answers attacking Hillary Clinton on what her husband did, you're going to hear an audible gasp from men and women in the audience who can't believe that he's spending that kind of time. His best bet now is to sit down, focus more directly and find ways to remind the American people that he is a viable candidate for President of the United States.
If he ratchets up the attacks, that's not going to go over well in a town hall debate where people want empathy, not assaults.
COSTELLO: Yes. Because, Ron, the next debate is going to be much more intimate.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
COSTELLO: The candidates will be sitting down. They'll be closer together. They'll be two moderators, right? There will be that live audience.
BROWNSTEIN: Right.
COSTELLO: So is it harder for candidates to attack one another in that forum?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes, Jason's exactly right. I mean, that forum is very different. I mean, of course, it is famously that forum where George H.W. Bush checked his watch during the town hall and, you know, it kind of symbolized a candidate that was kind of running out of energy and running out of time.
So, yes, I think, you know, in a town hall, the overriding goal is to show that you understand people's lives, you understand their concerns, and you kind of get what they're going through. It does make it tougher to have that kind of purely political back and forth.
Look, so far this race has been much more about each candidate trying to personally disqualify the other than to either advance their own agenda or critique the other side. We saw a little shift from that in the first third of the last debate, but the last 60 minutes were much more personal.
Again, I think in this town hall debate, maybe for the first time, we will have the two candidates forced to both describe what they offer the American people and what they think is wrong with what their opponent is offering.
COSTELLO: Do you think that will actually happen, Jason?
JOHNSON: I think it's going to have to. I think, you know, Hillary Clinton accomplished what she needed to on Monday, which was to simply remind people, this is why you should vote for me and not just vote against Donald Trump. Donald Trump didn't help himself at all, but I don't think he lost any voters.
But this next town hall debate is key because Trump's entire campaign has been based on the fact that, hey, I understand Ohio, I understand western Pennsylvania, I understand Michigan.
If he is in a conversation with a 27-year-old single mother who says, look, I lost money on a for-profit college and Trump University makes me afraid that you're not going to care about my education, he can't attack that woman. He can't call her foolish or stupid. Hillary Clinton is prepared to answer a question about Benghazi. I
don't know if Trump is going to be ready for those kinds of questions from somebody at a town hall.
COSTELLO: Is Hillary Clinton ready to answer those kinds of questions in an effective way, Ron? Because she has trouble sometimes connecting to Middle America --
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Yes.
COSTELLO: -- and those people in the middle class who can't find jobs.
BROWNSTEIN: Right, and that's why the race is so close despite all of the doubts about Trump. I mean, you have a candidate where 60 percent of country is consistently saying they don't think he's qualified and roughly 60 percent are consistently saying they think he is biased against women and minorities. And yet, he is, you know, right within reach in many of the national polls, at least, before the debate. And that reflects the uncertainties that people have about Hillary Clinton.
I think the biggest hurdle she has to get over is why is she in this? It isn't so much her honesty and voracity. That, I don't know if she's ever going to resolve that. It's, is she in this because she's an ambitious person who wants power or because she wants to make your life better?
That's what she was trying to accomplish at the very beginning of the first debate, and I think the second debate will be a critical opportunity for her to do so. I mean, and if she can't do it there, again, you know, it's hard to imagine that it gets done before Election Day.
COSTELLO: OK. So what are the chances that Trump skips the next two debates because people are talking about that, Jason?
[09:10:03] JOHNSON: Look, if he could get away with it, he would. I mean, what was it? It was back in 2000, George Bush was like, let's try and make sure we have a debate during the World Series, so no one's going to see it.
Look, Donald Trump has recognized, with his new campaign adviser, very smart, he does better -- both of these candidates do better when they're not in the press. If he thinks by not debating Hillary Clinton, that over the next 30-something days, that that will allow him to maintain his lead and continue to advance on Pennsylvania and continue to hold his lead in Ohio, then he'll skip it.
I think the backlash that he'll get being called a coward or a quitter or a loser will be nothing compared to the benefits that he'll get from not getting beat down again in front of 80 million people.
BROWNSTEIN: I --
COSTELLO: Ron's shaking his head. BROWNSTEIN: No. Look, you can't skip the debate. I think that that
becomes the entire story, and again it becomes this kind of Donald Trump, you know, kind of violating the norms of what people expect in a president, which he's pushing the boundaries of by not releasing his tax returns. I think the process would take over.
Plus the fact that they recognize that despite, you know, the momentum and the gains that he's made in polls, he is the one who still has to change the dynamic and continue to gain to win. And I think he needs to perform better at the debates, and that is a much more viable solution than skipping them.
The question is, you know, whether the history is -- because the first debate usually is the most significant, and whether he can undo what he -- you know, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
Eighty million people were watching. It was his best chance to resolve some of these doubts about whether he was capable of sitting behind that big desk. And instead, I think, in most objective, you know, analysis and in the CNN poll, you know, 55 percent of those who watched the debate said they came out thinking that he was not up to the job.
That is a big headwind for him, the biggest one, as he tries to move from the low 40s, where he is in the polls, to something like the mid- 40s he'll almost certainly need to win.
COSTELLO: All right. Ron Brownstein, Jason Johnson, thanks to both of you. Still to come to the NEWSROOM, a former Miss Universe takes on Donald Trump's "Miss Piggy" attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALICIA MACHADO, FORMER MISS UNIVERSE: He tried to destroy my self- esteem, and now I'm a voice in the Latin community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:15:12] COSTELLO: No apologies from Donald Trump for calling a former Miss Universe "Miss Piggy". In fact, he's doubling down on what he calls Alicia Machado's weight problem.
It's t latest weapon in Hillary Clinton's arsenal when it come to Mr. Trump's treatment of women. And now, Alicia Machado is everywhere, hammering her message home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MACHADO: He was really aggressive. He was really rude. He was a bad person with me and that is the story that I need to share, for my community.
We can't accept -- we can't accept more insults for my Latin community. No more. No more insults for the women. I know very well Mr. Trump and I can see the same person that I met 20 years ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: With me now to talk about this is Emme, model, author, and founder of fashionwithoutlimits.com.
Thank you so much for being here.
EMME, MODEL/AUTHOR/FOUNDER OF FASHIONWITHOUTLIMITS.COM. Oh, I'm so glad to be here. It's such a treat, Carol. Thank you.
COSTELLO: Before I ask you the first question, I just want to remind our viewers what Mr. Trump had to say about Alicia Machado yesterday on "Fox & Friends".
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She was the winner and, you know, she gained a massive amount of weight. And it was -- it was a real problem. We had a real problem.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And just to clarify, you're not here to choose any political candidate. You're just here to talk about how these comments might affect women. So --
EMME: Yes. And it does affect women. Excuse me, it affects women, it affects men, it affects women and boys when on such an elevated platform, a presidential candidate says these derogatory things about women. It sets a very toxic -- it sends a very toxic message out into the world. And that is absolutely not acceptable.
COSTELLO: So, some people might say, you know what, Alicia Machado, she won Miss Universe and she weighed 118 pounds when she was crowned Miss Universe and then she gained all of this weight, that was in violation of her contract.
EMME: Well, you know, I do have to say that she probably starved herself to get down to that weight and her natural body went to the place where the natural set point was. She seemed to be very healthy and for someone to come out into the public and to fat-shame her back then, and from what I remember, he had a whole exercise routine with her and it was all public --
COSTELLO: It's funny you should mention that, because we do have pictures of that. Anderson Cooper asked Alicia about that. Back when she was crowned miss universe and gained all this weight, Donald Trump wanted her to lose weight, and he would supervise her exercise routine. So this is video of that.
EMME: God bless her.
COSTELLO: And she's a very young woman at that time, right? Because this was back in 1997.
EMME: Yes.
COSTELLO: Today she says, oh, I would never do that. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MACHADO: In that moment, I was in my -- 19 years old. You know, I had my self-esteem on the floor. I -- you know, it was the most horrible moment that some girl can live.
And you know, I forgot that moment. I have now my career, after 20 years.
[09:20:03] And I know I'm a big voice from the Latin community. And in these elections, our vote will be great. We'll be powerful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
EMME: She brings something up really important. A look at the candidates need to really see who represents them in a fair and equitable raise and rises -- lifts them up. So use the hundreds of millions of women that are out there, especially the women that I represent, the weapon that are size 12 and above, 100 million women, it's a women's issue.
We need to really pick the right candidate that's going to do the best job for us.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: But you can tell how angry she is about this still.
EMME: Oh, of course.
COSTELLO: And she used that anger to propel herself to become this important voice.
EMME: A voice.
COSTELLO: A voice within the Hispanic community.
EMME: Yes, and I think she's using her voice in a very, very good way. Mynida.org, if anyone needs to check in with their kids, the women, the men, to find out how bullied, if you have an eating disorder, mynida.org, please check that out.
COSTELLO: So what should mothers and fathers tell their daughters?
EMME: It's everywhere, so, yes, we're going to have exposure to younger people who are maybe struggling and Donald Trump is not going to trigger somebody into an eating disorder. I want to make that clear.
However, someone has the propensity or has it in their genetic makeup or in their background and they hear that he's speaking about women this way. It could lead them in a direction. It could actually push them in a direction. So, you want to talk to your children. You want to sit them down and
say that this particular man was misinformed. He had not gotten his media points. He has not been trained well in talking about body image issues and that there is diversity.
There is beauty in diversity, and to lead with that. Open the conversations up, because these kids are being exposed to so much, this specifically, and most importantly, is highly toxic. And we need to help our kids understand that this is not appropriate.
COSTELLO: Emme, thanks for stopping by.
EMME: My pleasure.
COSTELLO: Wonderful to see you again.
EMME: Thank you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Thank you.
OK. Still to come in the newsroom, phony bank accounts cost the Wells Fargo CEO $41 million, but will it cost him his job?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:26:42] COSTELLO: Wells Fargo is announcing it will end controversial sales goals by Saturday. This as the CEO at Wells Fargo is fighting to keep his job, but he's willing to give up $41 million to do it. The Fed continues their investigation to how the bank employees opened 2 million bogus bank accounts.
As I said, CEO John Stumpf will forfeit most of his salary for the year, that includes his bonus, and $41 million in stock awards. Senator Elizabeth Warren said he demonstrated gutless leadership and should actually resign. Tomorrow, he will face House lawmakers.
Our chief business correspondent, Christine Romans, is following this for us.
So, is he voluntarily giving up this money?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the big question. Is the board making him do it or is he trying to show some contrition and tell this house panel tomorrow, look, we take this seriously and we're going to make sure, we're not going to be paid bonuses for years in which there were shenanigans at this company.
What were those shenanigans? Carol, to meet really aggressive goals, bankers at Wells Fargo were opening up fake accounts, phony accounts, 2 million of them, signing customers up for credit cards they didn't want or even know that they had, 2 million of those accounts.
They fired 5,300 people, said this went on for about four years. But now many Wells Fargo employees, former employees, are telling CNNMoney this went on longer than the bank is admitting, and that's indeed what the board of the company is probing now. It has already been fined $185 million by the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau and by other regulators. But I'm telling you, the public outreach here is not slowing down. This went on for a period of years. We're talking about 5,000 employees who were fired and all these customers who were, quite frankly, screwed by their bank. And that is really something that just shines such a terrible light on the banking industry in general.
There's a senior executive there, an executive named Carrie Tolstedt, who's going to retire earlier than expected. She also will forfeit a whole boat-load of money, $19 million in stock awards, Carol. She will not exercise $34 million in stock options. She'll still walk away about $77 million.
COSTELLO: What?
ROMANS: She was at that bank for 27 years. So, she had all kinds of deferred compensation, I'm sure, and retirement planning there.
Consumers, angry. Wall Street, angry. Shareholders on Wall Street, very angry. The stock has -- might pop a little bit today, but overall, it's down some 17 percent. It's just been punished.
One of its biggest shareholders is Warren Buffett. He's someone I'm really interested in hearing about, someone who he thinks what looks like a culture of bad behavior, so bankers there and executives could meet goals for higher pay.
COSTELLO: Christine Romans, many thanks.
(MUSIC)
COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
New Jersey governor and Trump advisor Chris Christie facing a potential bombshell in so-called the bridgegate trial. Christie's former ally, an ex-Port Authority executive, claims that Christie was not only told about lane closures on the George Washington Bridge in 2013, he actually joked about the resulting traffic jams.
Christie has adamantly denied, tough, having any knowledge of an order to create that traffic jam to get back at a political enemy.
Jessica Schneider is covering this story for us this morning.
Good morning.
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
You know, bridgegate defectively derailed Chris Christie's presidential bid. And now as he helps steer Trump's campaign, the allegations are mounting that he knew his operatives were shutting down lanes to the George Washington Bridge and that Christie even got a few chuckles out of it.
