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Trump Attacks Claims of Sexual Aggression; Trump, Clinton Blitz Swing States; Pence: Evidence Coming to Debunk Allegations; Multiple Women Accuse Trump of Sexual Misconduct; Trump: Claims "Pure Fiction and Outright Lies"; Trump: We Have Evidence to Dispute These Lies; First Lady Fires Up Supporters; Clinton: Election is Still Unpredictable. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 14, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Poppy Harlow. Good morning. I'm in today for my friend, Carol Costello. So glad you're with us. We begin with politics.

Donald Trump in the battleground states in waging war against the latest threat to his campaign, Trump lashing out at the women, now accusing him of unwanted sexual advances. He says they are lying and he will prove it. But one argument raises eyebrows. He apparently challenges the credibility of one accuser by criticizing her looks. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Take a look. You take a look. Look at her. Look at her words. You tell me what you think. I don't think so. I don't think so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Trump is running low on time to get his campaign back on track. Look at the clock there. It is now less than 25 days until Americans head to the polls so both campaigns today blitzing the swing states. Trump is in North Carolina. Pence, his running mate Mike Pence hits Florida. Bill Clinton visits Ohio as thus the president. And Chelsea Clinton today is in Pennsylvania. Hillary Clinton notably is absent. We will discuss why in a moment.

But let's begin with Trump's response to the allegations. CNN's senior political reporter Manu Raju joins me now live. Trump's camp vehemently denying all of these accusations but in an interesting turn this morning, his running mate, Mike Pence, is the one who is out doing this network interviews saying we have hard evidence and you'll see that in a matter of hours. That's what he said on the "Today" show.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. We'll see what it has to say. But it's clearly an effort by Donald Trump to paint himself as the victim of an unrelenting media and political establishment. The Trump campaign, trying to sell themselves as the outsiders battling the insiders and also completely attacking these allegations saying that they are completely false and that they are vicious. Here's a little bit of what he had to say yesterday when he fired up supporters in a very fiery speech yesterday afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: These vicious claims about me of inappropriate conduct with women are totally and absolutely false. We already have substantial evidence to dispute these lies and it will be made public in an appropriate way and at an appropriate time, very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So we will see what he has to say when he brings out this evidence. But I can tell you that Republicans don't really know how to respond down ticket. They believe that this race is spiraling out of control and they are trying to survive and control their own seats. Later today, Paul Ryan expected to address college Republicans, the first time he will answer questions today. We'll see if he addresses Donald Trump and these allegations, Poppy.

HARLOW: Manu Raju, live from Madison, Wisconsin this morning. Manu thank you. We appreciate it.

Multiple women have come forward, you have heard them. They detailed what they call sexual misconduct and unwanted advances at the hands of Donald Trump. One of them is a former Miss USA contestant. She shared her story with our Don Lemon last night. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMANTHA HOLVEY, MISS NORTH CAROLINA 2006: They lined us all up and Trump went down the line. He shook your hand and you know, looked you over, looked you up and down, head to toe, it was just checking everybody out.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And you thought, you felt?

HOLVEY: I felt very dirty. It was very creepy. It's kind of like when you're at a bar and a creepy guy is checking you out. That was the experience for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Donald Trump and his campaign have staunchly denied all of the allegations brought against him, calling them "vicious reports, pure fiction and outright lies." For more on the allegations against Donald Trump, I'm joined by Deb Feyerick. Deb, when you look at these allegations takes span many years, many decades, OK? One of them that has gotten the most attention, she did an interview with Anderson last night, is from the '70s.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. And she's one of six women who CNN has confirmed were essentially the targets of unwanted attention by Mr. Trump. The woman's name is Jessica Leeds. She was 38 years old at the time. Donald Trump would have been about 35. They were sitting on an airline together in first class. And they began to talk. And then all of a sudden Mr. Trump raised the arm rest and began to move towards her. This is her story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSICA LEEDS, CLAIMS TRUMP GROPED HER ON FLIGH: He was grabbing my breasts and trying to turn me towards him, and kissing me and then after a bit, that's when his hands started going -- I was wearing a skirt and his hands started going towards my knee and up my skirt, and that's when I said I don't need this and I got up --

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Is that literally what you said?

LEEDS: I don't know if I said it out loud or -- but --

COOPER: That's what you were thinking?

LEEDS: I do remember thinking the guy in the other seat, why doesn't he say something.

COOPER: Do you know how long that went on for?

LEEDS: Not real long. No. No.

[10:05:16] I would say just about, what, 15 minutes. That's long enough.

COOPER: That's a long time.

LEEDS: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And now this woman, Jessica Leeds, had a second encounter with Mr. Trump a couple years later, and she remembers it very, very vividly, as do many of the women who have made these allegations against him. Mr. Trump has no recollection of it but here's what Miss Leeds said happened at that time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEEDS: I hand him the ticket for his table and he looks at me and he says I remember you. You're the woman from the airplane. Now, he used another word.

COOPER: What did he say?

LEEDS: It's obscene. It's obscene. And I just I don't want to go there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And you know, Poppy, one of the reasons that these women are now coming forward is because they watched the debate on Sunday in which Anderson asked Mr. Trump whether in fact he -- this was just talk, whether any of this had ever materialized. And he said no, it was just talk. And a lot of women stood up and they said no, and the reaction has really been very immediate and very visceral as well.

HARLOW: And to Trump has said he will sue the "New York Times" who first published Miss Leeds' story. The "Times" said basically bring it on.

FEYERICK: Right, absolutely. It's not just the "New York Times," it's the "Palm Beach Post." They reported a story of a 23-year-old woman and it's interesting because -- the "New York Times" general counsel wrote a letter. And in that letter, they basically said the essence of a libel claim, of course, is the protection of one's reputation. Mr. Trump has bragged about his nonconsensual sexual touching of women. So far no suit has been filed but threats have been made.

HARLOW: Thank you Deborah Feyerick for reporting. We appreciate it. We are going to talk about all of this. With me now to discuss it, Democratic strategist and Hillary Clinton supporter Robert Zimmerman, CNN political analyst, Rebecca Berg, she is a national political reporter for "RealClearPolitics" and David Catanese senior political writer for "U.S. News & World Report" and CNN political commentator Scottie Nell Hughes, she supports Donald Trump. Thank you all for being here. Good morning.

Yesterday, Trump said he has evidence to disprove these allegations. Today on the morning shows, his running mate Mike Pence doubled down. Listen to what he told Matt Lauer on "Today."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT LAUER, HOST "TODAY": If there's a time to come up with that evidence and show us that evidence, this is the time. Has he shown you that evidence?

GOV. MIKE PENCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, Matt, I think it is coming. And it's coming in frankly probably in a matter of hours. I know that Melania Trump, through her attorneys, has already reached out to one of the publications, "People" magazine, to call for a retraction.

LAUER: That's different than showing us evidence.

PENCE: Well, just, you know, stay tuned. There's more information coming forward. But Donald Trump has made it very clear that he's categorically denied these allegations. He can't be more definitive than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Scottie Nell, let me begin with you as a Trump supporter. Categorical denials, yes. Evidence, no. We haven't seen any evidence refuting these claims. We hear that that will come in a matter of hours. What kind of evidence do you think that could be, because as Deb just reported, there are six different claims here. SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, unlike us talking about accusations, I as well like to have substance, I like to have facts. And I think that's why we're waiting on this evidence. You can Google, you can start doing your research and you will see there are definitely some loopholes and some issues with some of these women's stories that we need to talk about. -- And I think what the Trump campaign is doing --

HARLOW: Let's go through some of them, Scottie.

HUGHES: Well, like I said, it's not my place to say because I have not seen what the Trump team is actually reviewing. I have my own personal experience --

HARLOW: You just mentioned that there are some loopholes.

HUGHES: There are.

HARLOW: What are they?

HUGHES: This is my own personal experience and they are in the pageant experience. Miss USA even admitted when we were talking about Miss Arizona, even the beauty pageant winner, she admitted that there were chaperones in the room. Isn't that the whole job of a chaperone --

HARLOW: That there were what?

HUGHES: Chaperones in the room. That there were contestants and there were chaperones when Mr. Trump entered the room. That is the -- sole job of the chaperone is to make sure that inappropriate activities do not exist. You have to look at the timing of this, Poppy. - If this was really inappropriate activity that happened -

HARLOW: So are you saying because there were chaperones it didn't happen? Are you saying they're lying?

HUGHES: If a chaperone was in the room, she should have -- first of all, stopped it from happening. That is their sole job. And more importantly it should have been made prominent. It should have been made public, something other than 20 something odd days before an election. -- But that's just one of them. That's my own personal observation. There's other evidence out there. Let's wait to the Trump team. Let's actually deal in facts now, not just pure accusations. We are in America. We are innocent until proven guilty.

HARLOW: We are waiting for that evidence to come out. As soon as it does, I can guarantee it will be on CNN. Let's listen to what was said this morning, just a few hours ago, on "Morning Joe." Ben Carson, a big obviously primary

[10:10:16] competitor with Mr. Trump, now a supporter of Mr. Trump, was asked about these accusations. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATTY KAY, HOST "MORNING JOE: Are you saying that these women are lying?

DR. BEN CARSON, TRUMP SUPPORTER: That's your characterization because you need to characterize it that way to try to make me the bad guy.

(CROSSTALK)

KAY: No, no, no, no. You just said -- it's a question.

CARSON: Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop, stop, stop, hey, can you turn her microphone off, please?

JOE SCARBOROUGH, HOST "MORNING JOE": No. It's a simple question. Yes or no, do you believe these woman are lying or not? Nobody's trying to paint you as a bad guy. We just want an answer, straight talk.

CARSON: It doesn't matter whether they're lying or not --

KAY: Of course it matters!

CARSON: Listen, it doesn't matter whether they're lying or not. What Matters is that the train is going off the cliff. We are taking our eye off of that. We are getting involved in other issues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Rebecca Berg, your thoughts?

REBECCA BERG, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER "REALCLEARPOLITICS": It's pretty amazing to me that Ben Carson would get on television and say that it doesn't matter whether these women are being truthful because of course, if they are being truthful and there's no evidence so far to dispute their accounts, this is a very bad piece of news for Donald Trump. It really lends itself to this larger narrative that he does demean women, that he doesn't treat them with respect. And this is a very serious problem for the Trump campaign. I think Donald Trump himself realizes that and recognizes that based on the public statements he has been making and the push- back he has been making.

But it's really crucial that we have not yet seen this evidence that Donald Trump keeps talking about to potentially dispute these women's accounts. It really shows me at least that this campaign was not prepared for some of the attacks that might face them, and Donald Trump notably is one of the few presidential candidates in my recent memory who hasn't submitted to extensive vetting within his own organization so that they could be prepared for some of these attacks.

HARLOW: You know, it's interesting, Anderson Cooper asked Corey Lewandowski last night, Trump's former campaign manager, about the reporting that's been out there that apparently Lewandowski wanted to do this opposition research on. Trump on his own candidate and Trump denied him that request. Anderson asked Lewandowski if that's true and he said he was not going to get into that. But you wonder, as you say, you believe they weren't prepared for some of what was going to come. At the same time, David, just look at the numbers. Let's pull up this Fox News poll. Brand new Fox News poll not only shows Clinton ahead nationally by seven points. What it shows is a 19-point gap among female voters, Republican and Democratic voters, women. He is behind by 19 points. What does he need to say, to do to narrow that divide?

DAVID CATANESE, SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER "U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT": Look, there's not going to be evidence to disprove this happened. How are you going to provide evidence to show that he didn't put his hand up a woman's skirt some 20, 30 years ago. That he didn't force himself on a woman in a pageant 10, 15 years ago? There's not going to be irrefutable evidence. This is a case of now six women coming out against his word and it looks worse and worse by the day.

Now, if you're a Republican, you are probably pretty suspect about the timing of this. That all these women came out at once, decided to come out at once. I think that's a legitimate question of why they came out now. But look, Donald Trump was already losing this campaign, already in a terrible position with women, before all of this happened.

HARLOW: So, -- we know just to jump in there, Robert, what Trump's response is and his surrogates' response often is, but look at how Bill Clinton treated women when he was in the White House, and then when you say well, he's not running for president, they point out Hillary Clinton. And they say, look at how she treated those women or things she said in public and private about those women. Do you think it would behoove Hillary Clinton, Robert, to speak more publicly about that time, to speak more publicly about those women?

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST AND HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: Absolutely not because those situations are not germane to her candidacy or to her. And if fact, Tom Foreman and Jeffrey Toobin, who were fact checking this issue just two nights ago on CNN, made it clear that Hillary had very little to do with those situations or the claims that she --

HARLOW: Why are they not germane to her? Because those women do feel, if you are talking about believing everyone, right, those women do feel like Hillary Clinton shamed them or pressured them not into saying anything. And I absolutely understand the facts and that they are very important and Tom Foreman laid them out on CNN. You can go to CNN.com. But my question is, why would it not behoove her to speak more openly about them and address what they are saying this presidential candidate, how she made them feel? That's my question.

ZIMMERMAN: Well, because here's the point. Hillary Clinton didn't in fact target these

[10:15:16] individuals despite all the right wing spin about that. She obviously defended her marriage and her husband, but the more important point is. She's focusing on running for president. She is focusing on her vision for the future for this country. And let's also remember, it was Donald Trump who didn't believe those women that attacked -- that attacked Bill Clinton, he called them vile names and in fact, the chief prosecutor in fact persecutor against Bill Clinton in fact also didn't investigate many of those individuals as well, because he didn't believe them as well.

So it's very important to -- for Hillary Clinton to keep focused on her message. Focus on her future and the country and not fall into the trap of engaging in the right wing spin or the right wing debate. At the end of the day, Donald Trump has to hold himself accountable because the issues at stake here are issues he bragged about doing. He's the validator.

HARLOW: I have to leave it there. Robert, Rebecca, David, Scottie Nell, thank you all very much.

HARLOW: Coming up, Michelle Obama's Trump take-down. You have heard it by now. She didn't even have to say his name. And it made waves.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:22] HARLOW: Welcome back. Hillary Clinton has harnessed the star power of the White House enlisting the president, the vice president and the first lady to campaign for her. But their speeches, you heard them yesterday, anything but typical stump speeches. They confronted the sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump head on and the first lady, Michelle Obama, gave weight to why some call her the closer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Because I can tell you that the men in my life do not talk about women like this and I know that my family is not unusual, and to dismiss this as everyday locker room talk is an insult to decent men everywhere.

(APPLAUSE)

The men that you and I know don't treat women this way. They are loving fathers who are sickened by the thought of their daughters being exposed to this kind of vicious language about women.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Let's bring in CNN's senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar. Brianna, you know -- reaction to that, it is Michelle Obama who is getting the most attention certainly from what she said yesterday. This, at the same time that Hillary Clinton is not out campaigning today, she's raising money. Why that strategy?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think she's trying to keep her powder dry. Right now, the Clinton campaign believes that Donald Trump is in free-fall and they don't want to do anything that will cushion his landing in any way. You can see that, Poppy, when you see how they respond to the leaks of John Podesta's e- mails, these hacked e-mails, these WikiLeaks e-mails and there are things in there they just don't want to discuss. They are even saying, you know, they are basically raising the question of whether they are real or not. Well, if they were fake, they would certainly say that some of these individual e-mails are fake. So, you can see that they are trying to kind of pivot away from her doing anything in a forum that is going to make news. They want the news to be Donald Trump and what are really bad headlines for him. At the same time, there's a concern, this is something Hillary Clinton outlined in a very safe forum on "The Ellen Show." And that is that some voters may think that she's actually doing well enough that they will stay home and not go to the polls. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's a lot that is coming out which is distressing on many levels, but I don't want anybody to think this election's over because it's been so unpredictable up to now that I'm not taking anything for granted. We have got to work really hard for the next three and a half weeks because who knows, who knows, what can happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And the big concern, Poppy, is the enthusiasm factor. There are some voters out there who really would like to not vote for either one of these candidates but some of them I think, -- they think in a pinch, would maybe vote for Hillary Clinton because they don't like Donald Trump. But if they feel like she's doing well in the polls, they are going to say you know what, I'm not going to go out to the polls. I think that's a concern that the Clinton campaign is having right now.

HARLOW: Absolutely. I have heard it from so many people not excited at all about going to the polls for either of those candidates. Bri, thank you very much for that, from Washington today.

Let's bring back in Robert Zimmerman and Scottie Nell Hughes. Guys, let's just talk about the enthusiasm gap quickly first. Because you know I heard it yesterday from a Clinton supporter who said to me, why isn't she, doing better with all this. Take a look, I mean, the national polls matter but the swing state polls really, really Matter. And when you look at Ohio, Robert, they are within one point. Trump is beating Clinton by one point in the critical swing state of Ohio. Why is it, that Hillary Clinton is not out there rallying her base? Why is it that she's not exciting people that are on the fence and instead, as Brianna said, staying off the trail, keeping her powder dry, raising more money?

ZIMMERMAN: Well, actually, in fairness, not only she raising more money which has helped build her campaign to this level, but let's also remember she's also doing debate prep and she has won the last two debates very solidly. I think her strategy is working in that regard. Let's also be realistic about the fact we are a divided nation. And as a matter of fact, Bill Clinton himself never got 50 percent when he ran for re-election. Barack Obama only won by 4 percent over Mitt Romney. Let's understand this is going to be a close election.

HARLOW: But are you saying there's as much enthusiasm for her right now as there was for Barack Obama in 2008? ZIMMERMAN: Well, I think, clearly her enthusiasm is growing, as Larry Sabato pointed out, enthusiasm for Democrats grows as the campaign moves closer to the end. So, I think, we are growing there. But the bigger point here is, Democrats have to understand this is going to be a close election. We can't take any margin in the polls for granted, and the greater concern I have personally is that the level of attacks that are coming at both Hillary Clinton, the in fact, reality of Donald Trump's conduct, it could clearly suppress the vote, could clearly convince people just to stay home because they are disgusted. That's not the answer. --

HARLOW: It's an interesting point about suppressing the vote. Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, as you both well know, Scottie,

[10:25:16] was on CNN this week with Anderson Cooper and he asked her about that strategy. Is it the strategy of the Trump campaign right now three weeks out to basically suppress turnout from Clinton's supporters. Do you believe there's merit to that argument and if so, is that a smart strategy?

HUGHES: Well, I think there's merit to that argument but let me take off my Trump supporter hat and put back on my strategy hat. I think this is a problem both campaigns have right now. As I talk to everyday people, the question isn't about am I going to support Hillary or Trump. The question is am I going to vote and if I vote, am I going to be held responsible for whoever gets put in the oval office, the actions they do. I feel like America right now because it's gotten so dirty on both sides are like I don't want to have any responsibility. I don't want people to look at me and say that's your person, you voted for them. And I feel like that detachment is coming from both sides. Now, on the Trump side, the one good thing is we are seeing his rallies are bigger than ever, 10, 15, 20, 25,000 people standing in line, doing these rallies. If anything, this is energized his base for sure guarantees turnout --

HARLOW: But he already has his base. Scottie, he already has his base. He doesn't need --

HUGHES: But it's about motivated. --

HARLOW: But he doesn't need to convince them. He needs to convince others, right? I mean, you want him to win. What would you whisper in his ear to get those on the fence to come out for him?

HUGHES: Well, he's got some cards stacked against him right now. Because I think Hillary Clinton is smart in doing this, she's staying off so that she's not asked about everything going on with WikiLeaks that's coming out. That's extremely damning to her. And so she's staying off the trail so she doesn't have to answer those questions. I agree with that strategy.

HARLOW: To be clear, she has held far more press conferences than Donald Trump has in the last month and a half, two months, since she started holding them again, final thoughts?

(CROSSTALK)

ZIMMERMAN: And also, Scottie, the polling states clearly in Hillary's favor--

HUGHES: I don't consider being on a plane a press conference, when you talk about both sides not talking to the other side's media, the more favorable media --

HARLOW: 30 seconds, final thoughts, final thoughts, Robert.

ZIMMERMAN: Excuse me, Scottie. Let's be clear. Whatever she is talking to the press, it's a great deal more than Donald Trump is doing in terms of talking to the press. But the bigger point is, as you see Hillary Clinton -- has more and more support amongst swing voters. Now she's winning among suburban women by 24 percent, winning among women by 19 percent. You see a campaign that's growing and building support. -

(CROSSTALK)

HUGHES: Zimmerman, it all comes down to Election Day --

HARLOW: Got to leave it there. Well said, Scottie, it does all come down to Election Day and it doesn't matter what we say. It matters what the voters do. Guys, have a great weekend. Thank you for being with me.

Coming up, Trump and Clinton are in a virtual tie as we just showed you in Ohio, but can Trump voters win over. Can Trump win over the voters there by a wide enough margins? You will hear from voters themselves, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)