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Trump Attacks Stories of Accusers; King of Thailand Has Died; Samsug Facing Soaring Losses over Cell Phone Issue; Boko Haram Releases Some Nigerian School Girls; Syrian Violence Worsens; Michelle Obama Takes on Trump; Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize for Literature. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired October 14, 2016 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:00:00] GEORGE HOWELL, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: Donald Trump on the attack as women accuse him of sexual advances he attacks their stories and attacks their looks.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW CO-HOST: Also ahead here, Thailand in mourning. The king has died after reigning for more than 70 years. Here's what is next for the country coming up in a live report.
HOWELL: And later, Samsung's soaring losses and expected $5 billion gone because of those exploding smartphones.
ALLEN: Can't be good.
Hello and welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm Natalie Allen.
HOWELL: And I'm George Howell from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. Newsroom starts right now.
Good day to you.
Less than four weeks to go before Election Day in the U.S. can you believe it? Well, four weeks and the republican candidate for President Donald Trump is facing growing accusations for sexual misconduct.
ALLEN: He is calling the women horrible, horrible liars. That's his words and says it's all part of a huge conspiracy.
Jim Acosta has more and we warn you there is some graphic language in this report.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: With a massive crowd of supporters cheering him on, Donald Trump blasted away at allegations that he sexually assaulted women as lies, told by a dishonest news media.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: These vicious claims about me of inappropriate conduct with women are totally and absolutely false.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: The fiery speech was in response to a New York Times story featuring two women who say Trump made unwanted sexual advances toward them, including Jessica Leeds, who claims he groped her back in the '70s.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESSICA LEEDS, TRUMP'S ACCUSER: He was like an octopus. It was like he had six arms. He was all over the place. That if he had stuck with the upper part of the body, I might not have gotten -- I might not have gotten that upset, but when he started putting his hand up my skirt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: That account prompted Trump's attorney to demand a retraction or else saying "Failure to do so with leave my client with no option but to pursue all available actions and remedies." A threat Trump made clear at a rally in Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The story was a fraud and big embarrassment to the New York Times. It will be part of the lawsuit we are preparing against them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: The women say they came forward after Trump denied he ever groped anyone at Sunday's debate, despite the fact he once bragged he had done just that on a hot mic moment caught on video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, AC360 SHOW HOST: Have you ever done those things?
TRUMP: Women have respect for me -- and I will tell you no, I have not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Trump is also denying a story in People magazine filed by a reporter who says, the New York business once forced himself on her writing, "I turned around and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat." Trump lashed out at his accusers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: 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. These people are horrible people. They are horrible, horrible liars.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ACOSTA: Trump insisted their accounts are all part of a media
conspiracy to destroy him weeks before the election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And their agenda is to elect crooked Hillary Clinton at any cost, at any price no matter how many lives they destroy. They will attack you, they will slander you, they will seek to destroy your career and your family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Ever since the Access Hollywood video surfaced of Trump making lewd comments about women.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm automatically attracted to beautiful. I just kiss them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whatever you want.
TRUMP: Grab them by the pussy, you can do anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Allegations of more improper conduct have been building following his every step.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Trump, can you deny, did you ever touch her or kiss her?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: One woman who was a subject of Trump's hot mic comments says it's a teachable moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIANNE ZUCKER, ACTRESS: I want to teach my daughter if she is put in a situation like mommy is right now that she will hold her head high, as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: But many of Trump supporters aren't buying any of it. After a speech in Florida they lashed out at the press, too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not going to believe you anymore. We're mad. Yes, we want our country back. We want you to stop lying.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Joining me now is CNN legal analyst Laura Coates, she's also a former federal prosecutor. Laura, thanks for being with us. I want to begin by playing for you a bit more from one of the accusers. The accuser in the New York Times article, Jessica Leeds describing to Anderson Cooper what she says happened on the airplane.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEEDS: Why doesn't he say something? I mean.
COOPER: Could other people see?
[03:05:00] LEEDS: The guy in the seat across the aisle could see. And I kept thinking, well, maybe the stewardess is going to come and he'll stop but she never came.
COOPER: Do you know how long that went on for?
LEEDS: Not real long. No. No. I would say it would just about, what, 15 minutes? That's long enough.
COOPER: That's a long time.
LEEDS: Yes.
COOPER: Did he actually kiss you?
LEEDS: Yes.
COOPER: On the face? On the lips?
LEEDS: Wherever he could find the landing spot, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Part of her story she told Anderson Cooper, Laura. So, Trump's legal team ask the New York Times to rescind the story or they would sue the New York Times publishes to Trump saying, they were standing by the story. Now there's a libel case. Let's start with Trump. What can his team expect in a case like this?
LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, libel cases in general are very difficult to prove. Because when you have libel for the common Joe, you have a different standard than you would have for somebody who is a very public figure, such as the GOP republican nominee for president of the United States.
And so when you have somebody who is a public figure they not only have to prove any defamation suit that it was a false statement that was made, their reputation was damaged somehow and also could prove actual malice. And actual malice, Natalie, is not whether or not they have a personal negative opinion of Donald Trump. It's whether or not they knew or should have known that the story they were about to publish was in fact false. And so, you have to look at it from the court's perspective. If there
were to be a libel case and say, listen, what did the journalist do or not do to assure that this was actually a credible news source and could run the story.
ALLEN: So, is that a high bar for the media? I mean, what all do they have to do to look into it and stand by a person that they think is telling the truth?
COATES: Well, you know, one of the reasons that some of the New York Times reporters who handled the story kind of got out in front and talked to the different news outlets was in a way they try to say, look, we did our investigative journalistic duty.
And what that means is they've got to fact check. They've got to figure out if there are any problems with the story, a reason to doubt or be skeptical, to try to check and confirm certain dates and times to figure out whether or not this person is trustworthy or credible.
But it's not an insurmountable bar, particularly high really for the press. And the reason for that is because the First Amendment in the United States is such that we want our public figures by the very nature of what they're doing to have kind of an open forum and open discussion about what's going on in their lives.
And so, we allow journalists to say things that are credible, even if it may ultimately end up being something that was false or can be unraveled, not because the journalists don't have to be ethical or be very diligent to the investigation but because the standard is whether they had any reason to know or should have known at the time of publication whether it was false.
ALLEN: And suing, if he were to pursue this, wouldn't it likely open up a line of questioning about his sexual behavior, and if so, could that involve any other allegations against him?
COATES: Absolutely, Natalie. The one of the reasons to think of this, defamation suits are not a criminal action where people go before a prosecutor in the United States. No. Instead it's a civil suit, which means that that person doesn't have the normal Fifth Amendment right to say I don't want to say anything about this case.
No, they have to then go and probably testify in depositions or a trial. And so, it absolutely opens him up. That's the reason why it's one thing to threaten a lawsuit. It's another thing to follow through with one. Because the different -- the domino effect could be just that.
He, Donald Trump, would have to prove that the actual charges are false. That's not the burden of the New York Times or the People magazine.
ALLEN: All right. You mentioned People magazine because there's a case there, as well, from a reporter there.
COATES: Yes. ALLEN: Donald Trump has been sued and are suing others quite a lot. He sued a comedian for five million for a parody then dropped it. Considering how often he sues, do you think this might be his way of lashing out but that he might be advised in the end not to pursue it?
COATES: Well, you know, in full disclosure, I happen to be an attorney and an associate at the law firm that now represents Donald Trump. I never personally handled any of his cases or litigated any of his work and that was nearly a decade ago.
But when they're threatening suit it's not just to try to have some type of a way of undermining other media outlets. There probably is some basis they feel to actually bring a lawsuit.
However, you are right, Natalie. One of the tactics you can use in this defamation and libel cases is to say to just discourage, not only other victims or alleged accusers from coming out but other media sources from saying, listen, I've got to do that much more than I normally would in my normal stories to avoid any type of civil lawsuit.
They're not afraid of prosecution. They're afraid of a civil lawsuit which can be millions and millions of dollars.
[03:10:00] And when you have that sort of a gavel over your head it can be very, very daunting for the average reporter or average accuser.
ALLEN: We appreciate your insights former federal prosecutor and CNN analyst, Laura Coates. Laura, thank you.
COATES: Thank you, Natalie.
ALLEN: Well, certainly this is an issue that has Donald Trump very, very angry. A lot of things as, you know, upset him during this election process but this seems particularly really terrifying to him.
HOWELL: And you do see his surrogates saying, you know, let's focus on the issues. But at the same time when you see the candidate on the campaign trail he is talking about this. He's defending himself as Donald Trump does anytime he's attacked. He defends, you know, aggressively. He is talking about these issues. So, it is certainly a topic of conversation.
ALLEN: Yes, it is. All right. Well, we're going to push on here to other stories we're following around the world.
In the coming hours, the king of Thailand's body will be moved from a Bangkok hospital to the grand palace in a parade. King Bhumibol Adulyadej died Thursday in Bangkok at the age of 88 after spending most of his final years under medical care.
HOWELL: More than seven decades he served as a unifying figure in an often divided country.
CNN's Will Ripley has more on his life and legacy and how Thailand is mourning his loss.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: "Long live the king," they chant outside the oldest hospital in Bangkok. Thousands wait for hours, finally getting the news they hoped wouldn't come. The announcement broadcast on all TV stations across Thailand.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (TRANSLATED): On Thursday, October 13, 2016 at 3.52 p.m. local time, his Majesty the King passed away peacefully.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIPLEY: Outside the hospital where the king died, thousands who gathered to pray are overwhelmed with grief. The only king most of them have ever known is gone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was a father to everybody. A father who work every day for past 70 years. Without holiday, without even vacation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIPLEY: For millions of Thais, King Bhumibol Adulyadej was the soul of their nation, the glue that held together a society deeply divided. He helped maintain stability through more a dozen military coups in a country where citizens were once forbidden to even look at their monarch, King Bhumibol made it a mission to meet his people and improve their lives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the king who would never take anything for himself and just keep giving until his very last moment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIPLEY: In a speech to the nation after the king's death, Thailand's Prime Minister urged citizens to stay united.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (TRANSLATED): Do not let his passing destroy his ambition to see his kingdom prosper and his people content.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIPLEY: Thailand is now in a mourning period. Government employees are asked to wear black to work for a year and state agencies will fly their flags at half-mast for 30 days.
Even Bangkok's famous red light district nearly empty, citizens and tourists asked to show respect.
The government also said it's waiting for a more appropriate time to formally announce when the king's successor will take the throne. The Prime Minister told journalists; Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn needs time to jointly mourn his father along with the Thai people.
What happens next, can wait. Thais right now are grieving their beloved king who ruled for 70 years, the longest reign in Thailand's history.
HOWELL: Thailand certainly in mourning. CNN's Will Ripley, live in Bangkok this hour with more on the king's passing. Will, what more do we know at this point about the royal's succession?
RIPLEY: Well, we know, George, that this hasn't happened for most people living in Thailand in their lifetime. Because it was back in 1946 when King Bhumibol became the king and that was after the mysterious death of his older brother.
And so, this time around, obviously, it's much different in terms of the fact that the crown prince will be replacing a monarch that the -- the ninth monarch of the Chakri Dynasty whose ruled longer than any other reigning Thai monarch.
So, we don't know the timetable, we don't know what exactly the ceremonies are going to look like. It mentioned in the piece there how the crown prince says he needs more time.
And frankly, many people in this country feel it will be so difficult for anybody, the crown prince or anybody to fill the shoes of a king who is so well respected. The imperial household going back to laws written in the 1920s to figure out exactly how all of this is going to work.
And because of lese-majesty laws that prevent any speculation publicly on social media, certainly us on television, as well. You can't even really talk about it. You just have to wait for the official announcements to come.
[03:15:02] HOWELL: We will just have to wait for that. I do want to also ask you, though, Will -- and I think we just lost CNN's Will Ripley, but again, Will Ripley reporting there about Thailand. This nation in mourning at the loss of a king.
We will be back to Will if we can get him and have more information on that.
ALLEN: Nigeria is hoping the release of 21 schoolgirls is just a start. Hopefully, it's been a long-awaited start but it has happened. Boko Haram freed the young women on Thursday. Militants, as you recall kidnapped almost 300 girls from their school in Chibok in 2014.
HOWELL: Some of them escaped but around 200 are still missing. The Nigerian government insists it did not exchange captured Boko Haram militants for the girls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YEMI OSINBAJO, NIGERIA'S VICE PRESIDENT: The whole country has been waiting for you to come back. All of these many months, the whole country has been waiting that one day we will see you again. And we are very, very, very happy to see you. We are very, very happy to see you back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: The Nigerian President's Office says militants also freed a baby boy who was born to one of the girls.
ALLEN: CNN's Nima Elbagir has been following this story since the girls capture and here's her report.
NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's been a long tortious journey. These grainy stills the first sightings of 21 release Chibok girls. The Nigerian border town of Banki left 3 a.m. hand over point.
In April 2014, we travel to Chibok to meet with shell shocked families reeling from the abduction of the almost 300 girls. Nearly 60 managed to escape their captors, but the fate of the remaining girls remained uncertain.
The world waited along with their families, campaigners tirelessly worked to maintain pressure on the government to bring the girls home. Today's release in the negotiations that facilitated it perhaps the fruits of that pressure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAI MOHAMMED, NIGERIAN INFORMATION MINISTER: It is a release the product of painstaking negotiations and close on both sides. We see this as a credible first step in the eventual release of all the Chibok girls in captivity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ELBAGIR: More girls could soon be on their way home.
Nima Elbagir, CNN, London.
HOWELL: All right. Now, for more background on the Chibok girls have been missing for more than 900 days. In all, 276 girls abducted from their boarding school in Nigeria on April 14th, 2014 by Boko Haram gunmen.
ALLEN: Within weeks, protests began over the government's failure to find them. People demonstrated throughout the country, they also used social media and the hash tag bring back our girls.
By May, the hash tag had been tweeted more than one million times by people around the world, including politicians and celebrities.
HOWELL: Then April, 2015, Nigeria got a new president, Mohammad Buhari won that election and he vowed to curve Boko Haram's violence.
This past April, CNN obtained a video showing 15 of the girls then shared it with their parents. The girl's captors sent the video as proof of life.
ALLEN: Aleppo is seeing some of the worst violence yet in the already brutal Syrian civil war. You will hear from the Syrian president what he plans to do with the city if his government army succeeds. That's next.
[03:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT REPORTER: Hi, there. I'm Patrick Snell with the World Sport update.
With the recent international football right behind us all eyes on now on Europe's top domestic leagues that swing back into action this coming weekend. And you could argue nobody needs a win more right now than Chelsea manager Antonio Conte.
The Blue's home English Premier League clash with defending champ Leiscester is a must win now for the Italian as it follows reports that two leading British bookies has suspended betting on him becoming the next Premier League head coach to be dismissed.
Currently, Chelsea sits seven in the Premier with 13 points in Conte's first season with the Blues.
One of the most controversial figures in boxing facing a fight of a very different kind right now. Britain's Tyson Fury voluntarily vacating his world Heavyweight titles as he tries to fully focus on medical treatment and recovery. This, after admitting his battles with depression.
Now it comes as the British boxing board of control announced its decision to remove Tyson's boxing license pending further investigation into, quote, "anti-doping and medical issues."
And we can tell you the national Hockey League Auston Matthews making it a debut to remember in a record fashion with the Toronto Maple Leafs as they lost to the Ottawa Senators.
The 19-year-old rookie becoming the first player in NHL history to score not one, but four goals in a debut to remember. Not only four did he score four, he did this in two periods, as well.
Thanks for joining us. I'm Patrick Snell. Bye for now.
HOWELL: Welcome back to Newsroom.
The Syrian civil war it has been bloody. It has been vicious, fair to say, and now we're seeing some of the worst violence yet, in and around the city of Aleppo.
This is the scene on Thursday where at least 17 people were killed after a car bomb exploded near the Syrian Turkish border.
ALLEN: After Thursday most of the dead were rebels. It isn't clear who's behind the bombing but ISIS has recently carried out border attacks since Turkey started fighting the terror group inside Syria. HOWELL: All right. In the past two days alone, after to say, at least 79 people in Aleppo have been killed. Syria's President explained to Russian newspaper what he hopes to do once his army forces the rebels out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BASHAR AL-ASSAD, SYRIAN PRESIDENT: First of all, it has political gain. Then from the military point of view, you know you don't cut this. It's going to be the spring board as big city to move to another areas, to liberate another areas from the terrorists. This is the importance of Aleppo now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: CNN's Muhammad Lila joins us now from Abu Dhabi. Muhammad, President Assad there seeming to strike a defiant tone in that interview. What can we make of it?
MUHAMMAD LILA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it's interesting because that has been Assad's tone all along, since day one he has said that he has intended through his Syrian armed forces to recapture every inch of territory in Syria, that includes Aleppo, that includes the suburbs of Damascus, that includes effectively the entire country.
But the problem with that approach is that it ignores some of the realities on the ground. I mean, you know, even if his troops were to go in and secure a military victory in eastern Aleppo, which is what his troops say they are planning to do, how would you get rid of all of the people in the countryside and how would you remove the ideology?
Because a lot of these groups that are fighting Assad would rather die than live under Assad. And that's not just a military issue that's also an ideological issue. There is so much anti-Assad sentiment in parts of the countryside that a military victory, fine, you might secure the land but how do you change people's minds and change people's hearts and heal the country again? And that's a much more difficult thing. And Assad really hasn't addressed that up until this point.
ALLEN: Yes. Right. And Aleppo, you know, part of Aleppo has been held by rebels for a few years and now he is giving of course major and brutal push back. And why is Aleppo so critical for him?
[03:25:00] LILA: Well, look, for hundreds of years, Aleppo was one of the major cities in the Middle East. It has tremendous symbolic importance, both to Assad and to the rebels. I mean, it used to be Syria's economic heart land. It used to be the industrial heart land. It was the second biggest city in the country.
And then from the rebel side, basically the rebels have coalesced into that eastern Aleppo region. And you have to remember, this is a city that's been bombed almost every single day for the last four years and still the rebels are holding out and still the rebels are fighting. So, for the rebels, this is a very, very important city to show the
rest of the country, the rest of the world that they're able to resist and that they're able to hold off that onslaught from Assad's forces.
And of course, you know, from a geographical point of view, Aleppo is also a key gateway to some of the other countryside and some of the other regions around it where there's a lot of rebel activity and there is a lot of anti-Assad sentiment. So, both sides clearly Aleppo is crucial to them winning this broader war.
ALLEN: And also, Muhammad, we are starting to see Turkey play a far more aggressive and assertive role, and perhaps that's why there is this ISIS bombing that we talked about. Where is this shift coming from for Turkey?
LILA: Well, you know, it's very interesting. Because Turkey has been attacked by ISIS on Turkish soil. So, Turkey says it has a right to defend itself. And part of them defending themselves involves incursions in to Syria and Iraq.
Of course, the Iraqi leadership and the Syrian leadership both have a very different perspective on that, calling -- having foreign troops -- having Turkish troops on their soil calling it an invasion or an intrusion.
But, you know, all of this seems to have started with the failed Turkish coup that give -- that gave Turkish leadership and Turkish President Erdogan a renewed mandate to basically lead his country. And there's been a lot of support for him that's been expressed inside of Turkey.
And so, we're starting to see Turkey take a unilateral measures both in Syria and Iraq. But of course, you know, the more unilateral actors you have in a very volatile region it may not be good for the stability long term of that region.
So, the worry now is that, you know, with Aleppo almost completely being encircled and the offensive next door in Mosul, in Iraq, about to take place, we could be entering a very dangerous phase in this conflict.
ALLEN: If there can be any more dangerous phases, that is for sure. Such a nightmare, especially right now for the people of Aleppo.
Muhammad Lila from Abu Dhabi, thank you.
HOWELL: The First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, goes off script and takes on the republican candidate running for president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, U.S. FIRST LADY: When they go low, we go high. Yes, we do.
(CROWD CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: When we come back her direct speech about Donald Trump and how his words make her feel. Stay with us.
[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALLEN: And welcome back to our viewers all around the world. We're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.
HOWELL: And I'm George Howell, with the headlines we are following for you this day.
And in the coming hours, the king of Thailand's body will be moved from a Bangkok hospital to the grand palace in a parade.
He died Thursday at the age of 88 years old following parade a funeral bathing ceremony will take place and will be presided over by the crown prince.
ALLEN: Boko Haram militants have released some of the nearly 300 young women they kidnapped from their school in Chibok in 2014. Twenty one former captives are heading back to their families in Nigeria. And I think you can see from their faces what they've been through.
The Information Minister says on Thursday release was not a swap.
HOWELL: And you see it on their faces indeed.
The President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos has extended the country's ceasefire with the FARC rebel group there. Negotiators have until the end of the year to come up with a revised peace deal to end the country's 52-year civil war.
Last month, the two sides signed a peace accord, though, voters rejected it narrowly a week later.
ALLEN: The U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama lit in to Donald Trump while campaigning for Hillary Clinton on Thursday.
HOWELL: That's right. Her very direct speech strongly denounced the republican presidential candidate and his vulgar comments, his vulgar words that were caught on tape.
Jeff Zeleny has more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I can't stop thinking about this. It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn't have predicted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Michelle Obama delivering a blistering rebuke of Donald Trump in his creed comments about women.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: It would be dishonest and disingenuous to me to just move on to the next thing like this was all just a bad dream. This is not something that we can ignore. Not something we can sweep under the rug as just another disturbing footnote in a sad election season.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: She is weighing in with an unusually pointed and personal denunciation of Trump. A call to arms for women, men and she said basic human decency.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We all know if we let Hillary's opponent win this election than we are sending a clear message to our kids that everything they're seeing and hearing is perfectly OK. We are validating it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: A coordinated message with Hillary Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I hope you will see Michelle Obama's speech today in New Hampshire. Once again, she not only made a compelling and strong case about the stakes in the election but who we are as Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: In their fight to hold the White House, democrats believe Mrs. Obama offers the most compelling argument for Clinton speaking from the moral high ground or what's left of it in American politics. She is wading in deeper than ever before and far further than she intended to in this campaign.
Aides tell CNN she was disgusted by Trump's words from a decade ago, revealed on a tape last week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Too many are treating this as just another day's headline as if our outrage is overblown or unwarranted. As if this is normal. Just politics as usual.
(APPLAUSE)
This is disgraceful. It is intolerable. And it doesn't matter what party you belong to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[03:35:02] ZELENY: The Trump campaign says it plans to make Bill Clinton's sex scandal a bigger issue in this campaign. Appearing on The View, vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine said, the former president isn't running.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM KAINE, (D) U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the two on the ballot. I mean, that's the relevant comparison.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: All this as hacked e-mails from the Clinton campaign continued to muddy the waters. Portraying the painstaking calculations behind nearly every move, even sending out a tweet signed by Hillary Clinton herself.
Far from spontaneous, Clinton aides engaged in a remarkable back and forth about language she should use in a tweet. In the fight to raise the minimum wage, communications director Jennifer Palmieri writing, "If we tweet we will immediately get asked if we support 15 and then attack when we have to answer that we do not. Doesn't seem worth it."
With 26 days remaining until Election Day, Clinton's path to 270 electoral votes is widening. Polls show she has a growing command of the race in most battlegrounds, yet democrats are worried about complacency. A point Mrs. Obama addressed head on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We can't allow ourselves to be so disgusted that we just shut off the TV and walk away because remember this, when they go low, we go -- high.
Yes, we do.
(APPLAUSE)
ZELENY: Complacency and contempt for the whole tone of the campaign that's what Clinton's advisers are worried about the most. It's why democrats are deploying Michelle Obama across the country to make the case to voters to turn out in November.
Now Secretary Clinton at a fund-raising event here in California said she know many voters simply want to turn off the news. She urges them to wait at least four more weeks.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Los Angeles.
HOWELL: Fair to say there is a lot to talk about. Joining us from Washington is Jonathan Swan, he is the national political reporter for The Hill. Jonathan, good to have you with us.
Let's talk first of all about Michelle Obama and that speech. And when Michelle Obama was talking about Hillary Clinton's rival, she referred to him as the candidate. And did not refer to him as Donald Trump.
But here's the thing, for Donald Trump or any of his surrogates to go after Michelle Obama, as that campaign does when they are attacked, they go after people, how would that play out?
JONATHAN SWAN, THE HILL NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: They know they can't do it. Notice one thing, Donald Trump has never attacked Michelle Obama. Even Donald Trump, Donald Trump who can't resist taking the bait for any small slight no matter who it's from, a tweet, this or that, he didn't do it.
He spoke after her today in Florida there was nothing about Michelle Obama because he knows she is incredibly popular. And there actually isn't the scandals in the Obama marriage than there is in the Clinton marriage.
So, he finds it much easier to attack Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton as hypocrites when they attack him for mistreatment of women. But that he doesn't have any material either on Michelle Obama.
HOWELL: Well, Jonathan, in Trump's speech today, he described it as very important. And he said the things that would really rile up his base. But the question, when it comes to those independent voters, when it comes to minorities and when it comes to women, a very important voting blocs that Trump would theoretically need to win the presidency. The question people are asking, is this the winning strategy heading in to November 8th?
SWAN: We've seen no evidence that what Donald Trump has been doing since the convention has been winning over these undecided voters, these suburban women, these well-educated white voters that he needs to win the presidency.
In fact, the evidence likely is that he is alienating these very people. We've seen some polling today which has shown an extraordinary gender gap in the Philadelphia suburbs. Donald Trump knows that to win Pennsylvania he needs to do well in the Philadelphia suburbs, and you are seeing 20, 30 point differences in the women voters for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump.
He can't do this. He can't go into November 8th mathematically and hold these margins. He needs to do something dramatically different. And what he seems to be doing is just going back to his base, doing what he did during the republican primary and appealing to basically to people who already like him. So, I don't see how this wins these people over.
HOWELL: So, we see Donald Trump picking fights with Paul Ryan. We also see, you know, the headlines that talk about these scandals, these recent scandals that the Trump campaign has been dealing with.
At the same time, though, Jonathan, we are seeing the Clinton campaign deal with problems of their own. This WikiLeaks issue. And voters on both the left and right are furious about some of the campaign's private conversations. Do they feel like the blowback will hurt them much given that the headlines lately have really belonged to Trump?
SWAN: Ordinarily, this would have hurt Hillary Clinton a lot. There's been no real smoking gun, let's say, in these leaked e-mails from the hacked personal account of her chairman John Podesta. [03:40:02] But, you know, there's enough in there that there is a suggestion that there was some phoniness over her conversion to being an opponent of the Trans-Pacific partnership free trade deal. A lot of political calculation there.
There are some stuff in, you know, her speeches to Wall Street banks where she said you need a public and a private position. Some of these things that reinforce already negative perceptions of Hillary Clinton that, you know, that she is calculating and that she is, perhaps not as forthcoming as she could be.
This stuff would have really, really hurt her. But the fact is she is running against Donald Trump and Donald Trump doesn't seem capable of actually just sitting back and letting the focus stay on Hillary Clinton.
Because if we have learned one thing this campaign, it's that when the focus stays on one of these candidates their numbers go down. Because the public dislike both of them. So, the more they see either of them they go down.
But Donald Trump just can't stay out of the spotlight. So, I think she is going to ride through this if the current trajectory continues.
HOWELL: It is inverse to what one would think, as you point out. You know, typically you'd think the candidates would want that attention heading into this election, but in fact, the candidate that stays out of the media spotlight seems to do better.
But let's a look right now at where the race stands presently. There's a new poll out from Fox News and it shows here, you see Hillary Clinton with a seven-point advantage over Donald Trump. Trump there at 38 percent.
But in the same poll just a week ago, Donald Trump was only two points behind her and now we are learning that the Trump campaign is pulling its resources out of the State of Virginia.
So, Jonathan, it leads -- you know, voters, viewers, to ask what is the winning strategy for the Trump campaign when it comes to the electoral college, specifically with what they are doing with Virginia?
SWAN: If you talk to the Trump people, they never saw Virginia as completely essential to the electoral college. Look, they already had a narrow path, again, let's be very clear. It was a narrow path. Virginia would have been good but it doesn't have that many electoral college votes in there.
So, they are looking at four states, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania. Problem is he needs to win all of them. He needs to win all of them. If he loses one of them -- I mean, this is getting very narrow, vanishingly narrow.
And look, they know they've got problems. There's a lot of bluster from the Trump campaign. You know, he said today, he start his rally he said we're going to win the White House. But you can tell that Donald Trump himself is having doubts because he's now publicly musing about the possibility of losing.
You know, he had this rally in Florida where he said, you know, I don't know what I will do if I lose. And I'll be so angry with the people of Florida. You know, so you can see he is having this sort of public conversation with himself. And it seems to be dawning on his people that this is a really big margin to make up and I don't know that they've got a particularly strategic approach for overcoming it.
HOWELL: Jonathon, fair to say you cannot really compare this political cycle to others. It's like none other than we've seen with Donald Trump, a reality star, meeting the political process. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out come November 8th.
Jonathan Swan, the national reporter with The Hill. We appreciate your insight today. Thank you.
SWAN: Thank you.
ALLEN: Samsung quit making its Galaxy Note 7 because it kept catching fire. And now it is expected to get burned for the decision to the tune of billions of dollars.
We'll go live to the headquarters there in South Korea to talk about it, coming up here.
[03:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALLEN: The red ink at Samsung is gushing, thanks to the disastrous launch of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone. So-called smartphone. The company says it expects losses to exceed $5 billion through at least March of next year.
HOWELL: Wow, look at that image. Wow. Samsung recalled the Note 7's after some of them exploded or even caught fire. It eventually stopped production of the phones altogether.
ALLEN: CNN's Paula Hancocks is in Seoul, South Korea, where the company is based and she's been reporting on this story from the start. Now live here with more, Paula, on how the giant electronics company plans to recover. Where do they go from here?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Natalie, I think the key, according to pretty much all of the experts you speak to is that they have to find out what was wrong with this phone. They have to be able to tell customers this is what the problem was exactly and this is how we are going to make sure it will never happen in the future so you can trust our products.
Now of course, Samsung is in crisis mode now. They are trying to rebuild their credibility. And without being able to say what has happened and what went wrong, it will be difficult for them to do that.
So, today, this Friday, once again, they have said that they will take another financial hit from dumping this Galaxy Note 7, $3.1 billion they say they will lose in operating profits in the next six months up until March of next year -- or through March of next year.
Now this is just the start of this. This is just what they can estimate at this point. What they can calculate at this point. They are trying to keep hold of customers in the United States, for example. They are offering a financial incentive of $100 for every customer who swaps their Galaxy Note 7 for another Samsung product.
So, they certainly are doing what they can to try and keep hold of their customers. Natalie?
ALLEN: Right. I remember you and I talking when they had the first recall. You were in a store there in Seoul, South Korea. People were slowing coming in to turn in their phones but that was before this hit.
While the company is based there, so how important is Samsung to South Korea?
HANCOCKS: Its incredibly important. It is a massive company here in South Korea. The figure that is quoted widely is that Samsung accounts for about 15 percent of the country's GDP, which is a huge amount.
And bear in mind, as well, the Bank of Korea governor on Thursday actually warned that this incident from Samsung would probably have a negative impact on the economy. It would potentially affect exports and growth.
He said at this point it's way too early to figure out exactly how much it would affect the economy. But the fact that what happened to one company would actually seep into the wide economy of a country, this goes some way to show you how significant Samsung is in South Korea. Natalie?
ALLEN: And the power of the smartphone. Everyone has to have one. Paula Hancocks, thank you so much.
HOWELL: So, maybe the times are changing. This year's Nobel Peace prize for literature is caught by surprise by many people by this man, Bob Dylan, his big win. We have more on that ahead.
[03:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: After bringing in strong gusty wind and torrential rain to Bermuda Hurricane Nicole is finally starting to exit the region and very quickly, as well. In fact, the storm system will deteriorate as it continues to race in a general east to northeasterly direction.
Look at that 34 kilometers per hour. It will start to weaken, and basically dissipate over the Atlantic Ocean. So, no longer a concern for land. Now we hop to the other side of the continental United States and talk about another active weather pattern that is impacting the Pacific northwest. We have seen extremely heavy rainfall, or we'll continue to see that
through the course of the weekend for places like Seattle, into Portland, further south into the extreme northern sections of California even the potential for some high-elevation mountain snowfall. And you can see that shaded with the white and pinks.
Otherwise, closer to the valleys we have the potential for 10 to even 20 inches of rainfall with a series of storms that are lining up across the region. Elsewhere, throughout the United States, Chicago, 18 today.
Look at New York City. That's what I'm talking about, 17, blue skies overhead. You got a beautiful weekend in store. If you are traveling to the big apple enjoy temperatures. A wow, feeling very autumn-like right through the weekend and early parts of next week.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOWELL: You got to love Dylan. He's got to love march. So he's already won Grammy's, Golden Globe, and an Oscar, but now Bod Dylan can add the Nobel Prize to his long list of accolades.
ALLEN: Where will that fit on his trophy case.
HOWELL: I don't know if he's got a room.
ALLEN: The Swedish Academy, in case you didn't know, announced Thursday the legendary singer won this year's prize in literature. That kind of took flew people -- a few people by surprise.
Our Paula Newton has a look at his free will and five decade career. What got him to this point.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Folk singer, song writer, modern-day minstrel. Many baby boomers Bob Dylan is the voice of their generation but his winning the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature stunned the Stockholm crowd at their state announcement.
SARA DANIUS, SWEDISH ACADEMY PERMANENT SECRETARY: Bob Dylan.
NEWTON: Mentioned in Nobel speculation for years, but never seen as a serious contender Dylan is the first song writer to win the prestigious award.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[03:55:01] DANIUS: For having created now poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: And Dylan has created so much poetry through the years.
(BOB DYLAN SINGING)
NEWTON: From "Blowin' in the Wind" to "Subterranean Homesick Blues" to his transformative rock anthem "Like a Rolling Stone"
The Nobel is the latest honor for this legendary performer. He's won 10 Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, an Oscar, inducted in to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he's also received a Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom and has sold tens of millions of records in a career spanning more than five decades.
Now 75 years old, Dylan performed this past weekend at the U.S. Music festival dubbed 'Oldchella' and shows no signs of letting up.
Paula Newton, CNN.
HOWELL: Played out earlier, Natalie, I mean, for book, you know, he won for literature. What about books?
ALLEN: Steinbach, Hemingway, Faulkner, Dylan. My favorite is...
(CROSSTALK)
HOWELL: People didn't see that coming.
ALLEN: My favorite song is "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." It's a breakup song and it got me through a breakup.
HOWELL: Well, I think times are a changing for sure. That's my favorite.
ALLEN: Yes. We got to go. Thank you for watching. I'm Natalie Allen.
HOWELL: And I'm George Howell. The news continues here on CNN with our colleague Max Foster in London.
[04:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
