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Report: Trump Suggest Ejecting Non-Christian Conservatives from Rally; Gary Johnson Blanks on Naming a World Leader He Likes; 2012 Lawsuit Against Trump Who Wanted Unattractive Waitresses Fired. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired September 29, 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] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Do you really believe that, Betsy?
BETSY MCCAUGHEY, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I do, I do.
HARLOW: Final word, Chris?
CHRIS KOFINIS, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, JOHN EDWARDS: Listen, Donald Trump's worst enemy is Donald Trump. It is his rhetoric and lack of discipline and focus that is the reason why his campaign is where he is. There's no question that I think the American people are angry --
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Well, frankly, where his campaign is where it is -- polls as before Monday, tied.
KOFINIS: Well, listen, depending on -- if you look at the battlegrounds he's still behind. And I'm not questioning the fact he has a message resonating with a certain percentage of people and I understand that and don't diminish it. But if we're going address the problem this country has and fix them. You don't fix the country by dividing it and somehow tearing it apart or isolating individuals based on whether they're Christian and non-Christian, Muslim or non- Muslim, women or men, you try to find a way to bring the country together.
If there's one thing I think most Americans across ideological lines agree, we need to find a way to work together to solve these problems, simply pointing out the flaws and failures of one specific group over another isn't how we'll tackle these big issues.
HARLOW: Thank you very much. Chris and Betsy, thank you for coming on.
Coming up next, did you see it? Another campaign trail slipup by libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. This time he could not name a world leader he respects when asked. Two "Detroit News" editors, the newspaper that just endorsed Johnson for president will join me live.
[15:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Running for president usually requires candidates to know a lot about foreign policy. It's a major part of being the leader of the free world. Look at what happened at MSNBC's town hall last night when Gary Johnson was asked about world leaders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS MATHEWS, MSNBC ANCHOR: Who's your favorite foreign leader?
GARY JOHNSON, LIBERTARIAN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Who's my favorite --
MATHEWS: Any continent, any country. One foreign leader you respect and look up to. Anybody.
BILL WELD, LIBERTARIAN PARTY, VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mine was with Shimon Peres.
MATHEWS: I'm talking about living go ahead. This. Is anywhere. Any continent, Canada, Mexico, Europe, over there, Asia, South America, Africa, name a foreign leader you respect.
JOHNSON: I guess I'm having an Aleppo moment in the former president of Mexico.
MATHEWS: But I'm giving you the whole world.
JOHNSON: I know.
MATHEWS: Anybody in the world you like. Anybody, pick any leader.
JOHNSON: The former president of Mexico.
MATHEWS: Which one?
JOHNSON: I'm having a brain freeze.
MATHEWS: Fox? Zedillo? Get him off the hook, who's your favorite?
WELD: Merkel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Moments ago Johnson tweeted "it's been almost 24 hours and I can't come up with a foreign leader I look up to." I'm joined by the Nolan Finley, the editorial page editor of the "Detroit News" and the paper's deputy editorial paper. Their editorial board just endorsed Gary Johnson for president.
They wrote "this is an endorsement of conscience reflecting our confidence Johnson would be a confident and capable president and an honorable one." Thank you for being here.
NOLAN FINLEY, EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR, "DETROIT NEWS": Thank you.
INGRID JACQUES, DEPUTY EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR, "DETROIT NEWS": Thank you.
HARLOW: I understand you did not know about that gaffe or see it before you hit publish on this endorsement. Do you stand by it?
FINLEY: Yes. Of course. We wouldn't probably urge him to continue to do off-the-cuff interviews. It's just not his strength. But we had --
HARLOW: Well that was a planned town hall event. You've got to do that when you're running for president.
FINLEY: Look, we broke 143 years of tradition of endorsing Republican candidates with this and we kept our tradition of impeccable timing.
HARLOW: Ingrid, does it worry you that he could not name a single world leader he respects?
JACQUES: It's an unfortunate incident and it would have been nice the timing.
HARLOW: He could not name someone. William Weld had to jump in twice.
JACQUES: He was in Detroit a couple weeks ago, we had him in for a good hour-long interview and we really questioned him on foreign policy because we saw that clearly as his weakest point. And he really satisfied most of our questions and assured us that he would keep America's commitments around the world, honor NATO, other treaties. He's --
FINLEY: He had a good grasp of the issues and we did ask him several questions, we didn't ask him to name foreign capitals or foreign leaders, but we asked him where he stood on the issues of the day in the Middle East and other places. And he had good answers, he satisfied us, we found him to be an intelligence man, a little bit wonkish, not all that great on his feet but admired his intellect and integrity and find him to be an honorable candidate.
HARLOW: I read through the endorsement and you acknowledged, you say -- I should just preface this is a paper that for 143 years has come out backing the Republican candidate so this is a clear break from tradition but you acknowledged in the op ed that Hillary Clinton has the "temperament to be the leader of the free world".
But you go on to disqualify her, because of her character. I'm wondering why is Gary Johnson's lack of foreign knowledge at least in that instance last night, you're saying you saw something different, why is that not disqualifying but Clinton's character is?
FINLEY: Well, I think it as a bigger issue, a guy having a bad moment on TV is different than somebody lying repeatedly to the American public, engaging in this pay for play regime at the state department, ethical challenges that have followed her throughout her career. That's more serious to us than a guy who froze on television.
We here in Detroit four years ago when at the Oakland County debate when Rick Perry couldn't remember what department he'd cut and nobody would suggest Rick Perry wouldn't know what departments he'd cut, he just froze.
[15:40:00] HARLOW: It's not just the moment last night people that people are grappling with, right? It's a few weeks ago when he was asked what would you do with Aleppo and he said "What is Aleppo?"
JACQUES: I think people are focusing on the -- rightly somewhat but perhaps too much. We in making our endorsement we were looking more broadly at his experience two-term governor of New Mexico, he did a lot of good there and so I think you need to look at the whole picture of who Gary Johnson is.
HARLOW: As we have this discussion, let's pull up this poll because it's emblematic of the amount of support that Gary Johnson has not just nationally, look at this support in a recent September poll. 24 percent of support among voters under 45 in Colorado. 12 percent in Pennsylvania and 12 percent in Florida, 13 percent in Ohio.
Big numbers that can move a state either way, either for Trump or for Clinton unless things turn around for him, I hear what you're saying that he was better on foreign policy with you privately. But to the public he's shown two instances where he did not have a grasp of foreign policy and this is someone running to be the leader of the free world and.
FINLEY: And that's why we asked him extensively about foreign policy and we were satisfied. We have to base our endorsement on our interview with him not somebody else's. Those kinds of questions weren't what we asked and we didn't care how much he could remember this, that or the other thing. We wanted to get a feeling for his leadership. We felt he is a competent, capable leader. And Donald Trump hasn't wowed us either with his foreign policy.
HARLOW: Ingrid, is this more a vote against Trump?
JACQUES: It's definitely a vote against Trump. We say high up in our endorsement that that is why we're making this drastic change from the history of this paper.
HARLOW: Final thought, you met with both of them, I would assume, William Weld as well and he kept jumping in last night in that town hall and answering the question for Gary Johnson. Do you think that perhaps he should be on top of the ticket?
FINLEY: Well, you could look at all three vice presidential candidates, and say, wow, we wish those were the choices. Gary Johnson told us that he and William Weld would govern as a team, both of them had good records as governors, we think a good team, we found that reassuring and encouraging.
HARLOW: Ingrid and Nolan, appreciate you being with us.
Straight ahead, new details of a lawsuit alleging that Donald Trump wanted to replace female employees at his California golf club because they weren't pretty enough. We'll explain what happened with that lawsuit next.
[15:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: While Hillary Clinton continues to put the spotlight on Donald Trump's record with women, documents just coming to light from a 2012 lawsuit reveal how the now presidential candidate allegedly pushed employees at one of his golf courses to replace women that were working there, that he found unattractive and put better-looking women in the roles.
Let's talk about this with Brian Stelter, senior media correspondent and host of "Reliable Sources." This isn't new and the lawsuit has been settled but it's coming to light and the Trump camp is responding?
BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": It's an example of the scrubbing that happens once someone is a presidential nominee. We're seeing this with Clinton and Trump. In Trump's case there are so many lawsuits and other issues in his past because he's been a businessman for decades. This is one of the examples of that from an affidavit in 2012. The Trump organization says the lawsuit was meritless.
HARLOW: Also something that Donald Trump said last night that I think caught a lot of us by surprise and perhaps isn't getting all the headlines it should today. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The new post-debate poll that just came out, the Google poll has us leading Hillary Clinton by two points nationwide. And that's despite the fact that Google's search engine was suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton. How about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: It's important to note to say, there was no Google poll.
STELTER: Right.
HARLOW: Also, is this baseless? What is he basing it on trying to say that Google's algorithm is trying to help Hillary Clinton win?
STELTER: It's preposterous. He's so far removed from the facts that it's dangerous. Google does try to avoid false news from being spread. If you Googling for things that are false, those hoax stories are buried further below. And that is what he is talking about here. There is a Russian website tied to Russian government called Sputnik news. It has been pushing this idea the Google is suppressing bad news about Clinton. What Google will suppress is false news, things that are simply made up, and unfortunately Donald Trump is perpetuating this made-up information about Google.
HARLOW: Is Google saying anything?
STELTER: They've been trying to show people the truth. Google wants you to be able to find true information when you do a search.
HARLOW: Brian Stelter, thank you.
Coming up, it was a debate moment the Clinton camp is jumping on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Maybe he doesn't want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he has paid nothing in federal taxes.
TRUMP: That makes me smart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Now Donald Trump is defending his response on taxes. Why he says this is what Americans need.
[15:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Donald Trump wants to clarify a few things about his tax returns even though he still has not released them to the public. Trump saying today he did not admit to paying zero federal income tax during that debate exchange with Hillary Clinton. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: On Hillary Clinton in the next day. I say to you what she said yesterday in North Carolina. Hey, if he's not going to pay any taxes and he thinks that's smart, what does that make us? We pay taxes. Are we stupid? How are you going to answer that?
TRUMP: Well, first of all, I never said I didn't pay taxes. She said, maybe you didn't pay taxes.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Right. Speculation.
TRUMP: I said, well that would make me smart because tax is a big payment. A lot of people say that's the kind of thinking that I want running this nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Trump also said previously that he will release his tax returns once an audit is complete. I should note an audit does not prevent someone from releasing their taxes. Nixon as president released his taxes while under audit. Let's bring in our national correspondent Sunlen Surfaty. The Trump camp when you look at this has brand new talking points out about how to handle when we in the media ask them about Trump and his tax returns. What are they trying to emphasize in those?
SUNLEN SURFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is really a fascinating window, Poppy, into how the Trump campaign is attempting here to try to reframe the narrative out of the debate. Which was, frankly, one of the memorable moments, to try to clean it up.
This is a campaign memo distributed to surrogates and supporters when talking to media and attempting to address these concerns and that line coming out of the debate about his taxes. This was obtained by CNN. Three lines from it.
They tell the supporters and surrogates, quote, to say Mr. Trump complies with all applicable rules and regulations. The government unquestionably squanders taxpayer dollars. Another one. It's absolutely proper to let applicable rules and regulations determine how much is paid in taxes.
I think this highlights that they have a pushback to this because they are, in some sense, worried about the narrative coming out of Monday's debate. The line coming out of that is that Trump seemed to admit that he did not pay federal taxes, although, since he has admitted or said that he actually does, so some confusion there.
But certainly the Trump campaign here trying to cast this as Trump -- as someone who is successfully able to navigate a somewhat broken system. We see Clinton very eager to reframe that, a different way we see Clinton already out saying Trump has bragged about gaming the system to get out of paying his fair share of taxes. Poppy.
[15:55:00] HARLOW: We heard Donald Trump in that same debate say, look, I will release my tax returns. I will defy my own attorney's advice if Hillary Clinton, if you release the 33,000 deleted e-mails. Dead in the water at this point?
SURFATY: I think so. I wouldn't hold your breath on that. I think this was the Trump campaign and Trump himself chance at trying to refocus the fire on an issue that Clinton is equaling as bedeviling for her. The question of the private e-mail server and the e-mails. I don't think that is something the Clinton campaign will take the bait on that anytime soon.
HARLOW: One final question, Sunlen. The Trump camp also coming out and putting those Monica Lewinsky talking points in that same set of talking points. What is that the Trump campaign can gain by bringing it up in the next debate?
SURFATY: In the spin room after the debate, this might be something to bring up in the next debate, this is a big warning, a big threat. It certainly opens up a Pandora's box for Donald Trump who himself also has three marriages, a muddy past there as well. It will be interesting to see if he indeed brings this up. Certainly, he is clueing to his surrogates out there that this is something that they should be pushing. HARLOW: Some of his Republican supporters in congress today telling
our reporters on the hill, don't go there, don't do that. It will not help you. We'll see what happens. Thank you so much.
