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New NBC/WSJ Poll Shows Clinton with 11-Point Lead; Trump Claims Media Rigging Elections; Trump Accuser to Hold Press Conference; WikiLeaks Releases Transcripts to Clinton's Goldman Sachs Speeches; ISIS Under Attack on Multiple Fronts. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired October 16, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:00] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And an NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll shows Clinton with an 11-point advantage. Both polls were taken after that leaked tape of Trump bragging about grabbing women begging the question now, how is that affecting the race? We'll be discussing all of that this hour. And Trump continues to beat his drum of fear declaring this election rigged, dishonest and saying the media is distorted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The election is being rigged by corrupt media pushing false allegations and outright lies in an effort to elect Hillary Clinton president. But we are going to stop it. We are not going to back down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Those comments just as a ninth woman has stepped forward accusing Trump of sexual assault saying he grabbed her and kissed her at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Meanwhile. The Clinton campaign has its own controversy to deal with ahead of Wednesday night's debate. WikiLeaks released what appears to be hacked transcripts of Clinton's paid speeches to Goldman Sachs. Both candidates are off the trail and preparing for their debate today. But their surrogates are speaking out and this morning Former New York City Mayor and Top Adviser to Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, was on "STATE OF THE UNION". He addressed Trump's claims of a rigged election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: When he talks about a rigged election, he's not talking about the fact that it's going to be rigged at the polls. What he's talking about is that 80 percent to 85 percent of the media is against him, that when you at the "New York Times" and you pick it up every morning, on the top of the paper, there are three stories that are anti-Trump. Some of them, totally baseless, some of them silly. And then at the bottom, you get a little something about WikiLeaks or same thing with "the Washington Post". I mean they're way out of control. The "Daily News", clown outfits of Donald Trump.

JAKE TAPPEN, CNN HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": OK. But Mr. Mayor, I understand that that ...

GIULIANI: So that's what -- and you know that -- please, let me finish. You let Nancy Pelosi go on for like two, three minutes without interrupting her. Now, the reality is that he makes it clear. He pushed right at you at the press. He makes it clear who he thinks is rigging the ...

TAPPER: Then why does he call for people to go to elections, to go to polling places to be election monitors? Why does he say, "If I lose Pennsylvania, it was because that it's stolen?" Pennsylvania, a state that hasn't win Republicans since 1988?

GIULIANI: There are a few places and not many in the swing states. There are a few places where they've been notorious for stealing votes, Pennsylvania, Chicago. There've been places where a lot of cheating has gone on over the years. I know that from my own knowledge of bussing people in from Camden. When I ran for mayor of New York City the first time, some people voted eight and 10 times. The second time, I had fire fighters and police officers outside checking on the buses. So we take down the number of the bus, the bus had voted ten times, and then we wouldn't let the bus vote, again. So when I asked Randy Levine, who is now president of the Yankees who did this for me, I said how much of the cheating did we stop? He said, I think we stopped about 75 percent of it. We're still going to have to give up about 25,000 votes. I'm sorry, dead people generally vote for Democrats rather than Republicans.

TAPPER: So, he's not talking about elections being stolen except in some cases when he is talking about elections being stolen?

GIULIANI: I would -- he wants me to tell me that I think the election in Philadelphia, in Chicago is going to be fair. I would have to be a moron to say that. I mean, I would have to dislearn everything I learned in 40 years of being a prosecutor.

TAPPER: The Republican Party of Philadelphia would disagree with you. They looked into the allegations from 2012 and they said that there was nothing irregular with what happened. There are -- yes, there were areas where people only voted for Obama just like in Utah. There were places that only voted for Mitt Romney.

GIULIANI: Maybe there are situations in which it's right. I remember a case where I was associate attorney general where 720 dead people voted in Chicago in the 1982 election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN Correspondent Chris Frates is joining me now to discuss the response from both the Republicans and Democrats on this. What are you hearing?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred. Well, look, Donald Trump continues to push this idea that the election is somehow rigged despite not providing any evidence to support his charge. And just this afternoon, he tweeted, "The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media, but also at many polling places." But the facts just don't bear that out. For instance, a 2012 investigative project by "News21"looked at over a decade of data and found just 10, 10 cases of voter impersonation at the polls on Election Day. Now, meanwhile, Democrats are using Trump's claims about a rigged election to paint him as a panicked candidate trying to delegitimize the results before he loses the election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM KAINE, (D-VA) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Especially in the last couple of days, Donald Trump has kind started to go wilder and wilder I think after by all accounts losing the first two debates.

[15:05:00] He's started to make wild claims, kind of scorched earth claims, about the election being rigged, et cetera. So, we have to keep putting out a message and we need to call on everybody to speak out about the fact that we run elections and we run them well here. He shouldn't be engaging in those scare tactics. And so, we're needing to push that message and we ask the GOP leaders also to stand up for the integrity of the electoral process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: And indeed, Republican leaders have spoken out on subject including Trump's own running mate, Mike Pence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE PENCE, (R-IN) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will absolutely accept the results of the election. Look, the American people will speak in an election that will culminate on November the 8th. One of the great, great traditions of America is the peaceful transfer of power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Now, Republican Speaker Paul Ryan's office also weighing in on this putting a statement yesterday saying, "Our democracy relies on confidence in election results and the speaker is fully confident the states will carry out this election with integrity." So in a bitterly divided election year, many Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on at least one thing, Fred, and that's despite what Donald Trump says, the polls are not rigged.

WHITFIELD: All right, Chris Frates, thanks so much from Washington.

Meantime, we're awaiting a press conference coming up in about an hour involving a lawyer for one of Donald Trump's accusers. A former candidate on "The Apprentice" is expected to address the media, at least the attorney is our understanding. This as a ninth woman now has come forward accusing the Republican candidate of unwanted sexual advances. Sixty-year-old, Cathy Heller, says the incident happened nearly 20 years ago at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

CNN's Jessica Schneider joining me with more on this. So Jessica, you've actually spoken to Ms. Heller and what more did she tell you? JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Fredricka, Cathy Heller told me she was alarmed by this uninvited kiss and aggressive behavior from Donald Trump. She said it happened at a Mother's Day brunch at Mar-a-Lago in the late 1990s. Her mother-in-law introduced her to Donald Trump and then Cathy Heller tells me this happened, she said, "I put my hand out and said hello and he grabbed me. I was standing and had heels on and almost fell back. He pulled me toward him, he was very strong." She tells me that's when he kissed her.

Now, she says her family saw what happened but they didn't dwell on it. It was, though, about 1.5 year ago that she started telling friends about this just as Donald Trump was rising to political prominence and then, of course, last Friday when that "Access Hollywood" tape came out, she realized that she wasn't the only one that this happened to, and she decided to share her story. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: And so, what has the Trump campaign said since her accusation went public?

SCHNEIDER: Well, the whole campaign, including Donald Trump, they've been responding furiously to all these accusations. But as for the Cathy Heller claim, Jason Miller, the Senior Communication Adviser, has released this statement. He said, "The media has gone too far in making this false accusation. There is no way something like this would have happened in a public place on Mother's Day at Mr. Trump's resort. It would have been the talk of Palm Beach for the past two decades. The reality is this, for the media to wheel out a politically motivated democratic activist with a legal dispute against the same resort owned by Mr. Trump does a disservice to the public and anyone covering this story should be embarrassed for elevating this bogus claim."

Now two responses to that from Cathy Heller. First of all, she admits she is a Hillary Clinton supporter. She's donated to the campaign. She said it's not a legal dispute with Mar-a-Lago. She's been in ongoing talks with her family to get initiation fees back.

In the meantime, Donald Trump has been talking about all these accusations on the stump for the past few days.

Here's a look at what he said yesterday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Total lies that you've been seeing. Total lies. But we're going to stop it. We're not going to back down. And, remember this, it's a rigged election because you have phony people coming up with phony allegations with no witnesses whatsoever ending up from 20 years ago, 30 years ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: So that was on Saturday. And this morning, Donald Trump has also been furiously tweeting those same allegations that these allegations against him are fabricated and false and that the election is rigged. Fredricka? WHITFIELD: And then based on your account when you talked to Ms. Heller thought, Ms. Heller was claiming that her family was eyewitness to her accusations. So when will they or in what capacity would their version of events come out?

SCHNEIDER: Well, she's hesitant to put her family on a spotlight. I spoke with her yesterday. She said, yes, in fact, her extended family was there, her husband, as well. She says they don't want to get -- they don't want to talk about this. She says she's a little bit nervous about talking further. However, I did talk with her friend, Susan Klein, who she told this to 1.5 year ago.

[15:10:00] She recounted it for me as well. So she has substantiated her claims with other people, but of course, CNN is working to further collaborate her story. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right, Jessica Schneider, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

All right, still ahead, what appears to be another batch of hacked e- mails released by WikiLeaks, this time detailing what Hillary Clinton told executives at Goldman Sachs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

So, Hillary Clinton's campaign now facing new questions after WikiLeaks released more of her campaign's hacked e-mails, including what appears to be transcripts of three paid speeches to Goldman Sachs. The Clinton campaign has neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the e-mails. And it is important to note that CNN has not independently verified the authenticity of the e-mails. It's WikiLeaks who claims these are e-mails related to Hillary Clinton.

So, CNN Senior White House correspondent, Joe Johns, is following the story from Washington for us.

So, Joe, what stands out in this latest batch?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, WikiLeaks has been doing this all week, releasing thousands more of the hacked e-mails from the account of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta. This weekend, the batches of e-mails have included everything from apparent texts of Hillary Clinton speeches addressing Goldman Sachs, debate over what types of campaign donations to accept, the inner workings of the campaign. That's a thread that's run throughout. Discussion over allegations concerning Bill Clinton and the controversy that erupted over Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server.

One campaign adviser who is very public, Neera Tanden, writing to Podesta in August of last year urging Clinton to apologize for it, something she would only do the next month. So we have a graphic. "She always sees herself bending to their will when she hands over information, et cetera. But the way she has to bend here is in the remorse, not the, if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't do it."

[15:15:06] "A real feeling of this decision I made created a mess and I'm sorry I did that. No one think she doesn't have the judgment to be president, she's not reaffirming a negative characteristic and saying sorry."

According to the e-mail, Podesta replied essentially agreeing that he was frustrated too, and suggesting they were trying to get her to apologize. The Clinton campaign has been put on the defensive in light of this hacking and trying to deflect attention by blaming Russia. Here is what Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee, Tim Kaine, said today. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAINE: There does need to be a consequence. When a foreign nation tries to destabilize an American election, which is what Donald Trump encouraged back in, you know, late July he said, "Hey, Russia, go see if you can cyber hack and find things that will help me win." But when a foreign government tries to do this, there has to be a consequence. There will be time for figuring what that consequence is but you can't let it go and challenge because if you do, you just could encourage more of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Now, Russia has not officially been blamed for this hack but has been fingered by the U.S. for other WikiLeak releases.

For its part, Republicans are trying to put more attention on the hacked e-mails, for example, once again bringing attention to the cozy relationship some Clinton Foundation donors had with the State Department. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PENCE: Well, I think what Donald Trump is talking about is, frankly, what appears to be the monolithic support of the national media for Hillary Clinton's campaign, their willful ignorance about the avalanche of hard evidence, not allegations, John ...

JOHN DICKERSON, CBS NEWS ANCHOR: But, Governor ...

PENCE: ... but hard evidence now coming out in these e-mails of collusion and pay-for-play politics. And the American people are just tired of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: The State Department and the campaign have denied any pay-for- play allegations. And once again, Fred, we have to put in the disclaimer you did at the top, CNN can't independently verify the authenticity of these e-mails. Clinton campaign has neither confirmed or denied whether they're authentic.

WHITFIELD: Right. And as it pertains to the e-mails that WikiLeaks claims, you know, is some insight into, you know, campaign conversations, does anyone believe within the Clinton campaign or even, you know, in Washington political circles that this is incriminating kind of discussion or is this simply a window into the discussions that take place involving campaigns?

JOHNS: Very much a window. There's certainly been some embarrassing information that's come out in these e-mails, things that people probably wish they had not written down. But I have not seen anything that you would call smoking gun indicating any type of criminal liability. But, certainly, very interesting reading and, as you said, a real window on the way a campaign works.

WHITFIELD: All right, Senior Washington Correspondent, Joe Johns, joining us from D.C. Thank you so much.

All right, let's talk more about these e-mails, the dumping from the WikiLeaks. Let's bring in CNNMoney Correspondent, Cristina Alesci.

So, will any of this information potentially give Donald Trump's campaign more ammunition especially as it pertains to the Goldman Sachs speeches or alleged speeches to Goldman Sachs from Hillary Clinton?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNNMONEY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. These were speeches that she gave several years ago to Goldman Sachs' employees and clients. And essentially, it can give Donald Trump and his supporters plenty of ammunition because she just wasn't that tough on Wall Street.

A good example of that is she was asked about regulation, post- financial crisis and, essentially, what she says is that it was politically motivated. We have an excerpt from that piece. It says, "For political reasons, if your were an elected member of Congress and people in your constituency were losing jobs and shutting businesses and everyone in the press is saying it's all the fault of Wall Street, you can't sit idly by and do nothing." Essentially some people will see that as saying, look, it may not be your fault, but for political reasons, the government had to come down pretty tough on Wall Street.

Then she goes on to say that perhaps regulations went a bit too far because banks now are -- or back then when she made these comments were scared or risk adverse when it comes to lending and that's actually bad for the economy.

So, you take all of these little snippets together and it undermines her argument that she's actually tough on Wall Street. Remember, she said she was one of the first people to raise warning signs of the risks on Wall Street as it relates to the mortgage market and the subprime lending. She also says CEOs are paid too much. Their pay is offensive. And she also wants to close loopholes, tax loopholes, for hedge fund managers.

[15:20:02] So, all of these little snippets together in these speeches may do some harm and undermine her position of toughness when it comes to the financial industry.

WHITFIELD: All right, Cristina Alesci, thank you so much. Appreciate that.

All right, don't forget, the third and final debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is this Wednesday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time right here on CNN. And we are back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. Rigged, dishonest, fixed, Donald Trump is continuing to attack the media claiming there is a "coordinated effort with the Clinton campaign." This as a ninth accuser has come forward, claiming Trump made unwanted sexual advances toward her at his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate.

Let's talk more about this with Donald Trump surrogate and behavioral and psychology expert, Gina Loudon. Good to see you, again.

So, this "Washington Post"/ABC news poll out today asks likely voters what effect did that leaked tape of Trump bragging about grabbing women have on the race? Sixty-three percent of them said, none. We don't have any polling yet about how these accusations will affect polling, but Trump has been tweeting about it all morning. How much is Trump in your view to blame for keeping this issue alive?

[15:25:05] GINA LOUDON, TRUMP SURROGATE: Well, I think that if you feel like something that didn't happen that you've been falsely accused of is getting as much media coverage as this is getting covered, I think the statistics this week were something like one- third of every hour by most media organizations are covering this compared to about one minute per hour.

WHITFIELD: Well, he continues to comment about whether it be at a rally or then he's tweeting. Why wouldn't he just in your view just make the statement and then move on so that he doesn't help keep it alive? I mean, do you not believe he's keeping it alive by continuing to, you know, continuing to talk about it at the rallies and even tweeting about it?

LOUDON: I'm definitely hearing him talk more about the scandals surrounding Hillary,the things that came out in those e-mails from her own campaign and the falsehoods that we found in there. You know this is the thing ...

WHITFIELD: You don't hear him like he said like ,yesterday in Portsmouth ...

LOUDON: We know, because of those ...

WHITFIELD: New Hampshire, he said they're phony accusations? That was yesterday.

LOUDON: I mean, he gives two-hour speeches and we pull out, you know, we pull out five minutes of those and we watch them in sound bites on the news. So, I think that's part of this. But, I mean, this is the playbook and he knows this because we've all read the e-mails from the Clinton campaign now. This is the playbook. They said to win this election, we must try to paint Mr. Trump as a sexual predator. So this is their own playbook.

WHITFIELD: OK.

LOUDON: This isn't Mr. Trump coming up with these ideas. This is their playbook and he have to respond and defend himself.

WHITFIELD: OK. I haven't heard anything about the playbook, but if you say so. So, you know, Trump and his surrogates like Rudy Giuliani are trying to change the subject, saying even louder that the voting system is rigged. Is this a signal in your view that Trump believes that he is losing and he needs to establish an excuse?

LOUDON: Not at all. He was up in a Rasmussen polling. The L.A. Daily tracking poll has him up even more than he was yesterday. So I think it depends on what polls we look. That can be really confusing. But, we have to look there really is voter fraud. And I know that Mr. Trump doesn't say a lot about this. But, I know, for example, in East St. Louis that more people vote than there are citizens in East St. Louis. I know that at my own poll here in California the last time I went I put my ballot in a cardboard box in someone's garage and I asked what they were doing with the ballots at the end of the day and none of the so-called election officials could even answer my question. And so, when you see things like that, Fredricka, you do get suspicious as a voter to what degree your vote counts if your box of ballots are being taken some place else. So I think ...

WHITFIELD: Do you believe he ...

LOUDON: ... keeping an eye on it is the responsible thing.

WHITFIELD: ... would he and you and other surrogates be saying the same thing if the polling, recent polling were flipside showing that he was up as opposed to Clinton being ahead?

LOUDON: Of course. I think every responsible politician is going to have poll watchers these days. And I also think you have to consider, I think part when he uses the word rigged, I think part of what he's referring to is that, you know, Hillary Clinton, according to those e- mails, the Podesta e-mails, she has colluded with the State Department, she's colluded would the FBI, she's colluded with the Department of Justice. I just don't think we put anything past a campaign that is willing to take such a totalitarian approach to winning a campaign. And I think it makes the great majority of us who are trying to look at this campaign of facts when we see these things coming from Hillary Clinton's own campaign people and these e-mails, it makes us suspicious of what kind of unhinged leader she would be if she was to be elected.

WHITFIELD: So, you are behavioral and psychology expert and I wonder how would you analyze Donald Trump in terms of his jargon that he's using right now, his demeanor, whether it'd be at the rallies or even his tweeting these messages, whether it's about, you know, attacking his accusers or whether he's talking about the rigs -- rigged system. What would be your analysis?

LOUDON: You know, the thing about Mr. Trump that I recognize from the very beginning is that he's very real. He's not your perfectly packaged polished politician. And I think that his supporters out there, that's how they take him as a very real person with a flawed character just like many of us, who has said and done things that maybe weren't the best at certain times, but I think that he's apologized for the things that have impacted people, and he's out there trying to win an election because he really doesn't want somebody like Hillary Clinton in the White House. And there's a growing number of people that I believe see the danger in that as well especially ...

WHITFIELD: But your psychological analysis or behavioral analysis will tell you what? How would you ...

LOUDON: Pretty genuine.

WHITFIELD: ... analyze?

LOUDON: Pretty straight forward. Sometimes too straight forward, honestly. You know, I think if you're going to run for political office, sometimes maybe you do need to hold back a little bit.

[15:30:04] Mr. Trump isn't known for that. But I think that's also the counterbalance as to why some people appreciate and believe him and they know that Hillary Clinton is somebody, even many of her supporters I think up to 70 percent of her supporters admit that they believe she is a deceptive person.

WHITFIELD: OK.

LOUDON: And, you know, it depends on what matters, I guess, the most to you, what you want in the White House. But I think that a lot of people will come down on the side of perhaps raw honesty over somebody who is deceptive in making deals with government agencies.

WHITFIELD: OK, Gina Loudon. We'll leave it right there. Thank you so much.

LOUDON: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: All right, still ahead, an operation to snatch a key Iraqi city away from ISIS is imminent. Iraqi forces warning people today not to panic, but to seal their doors and windows. Our Ben Wedeman has the latest from the front lines, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. The terror group ISIS is under attack on several fronts today. In Turkey, a key regional ISIS leader was killed along the border with Syria when police carried out a raid on his house. In Egypt, the military launched what is described as a revenge attack against ISIS militants they say were responsible for killing Egyptian soldiers at a military checkpoint on Friday. And in Syria, rebels from the Free Syrian Army recaptured the town of Dabiq. Observers say ISIS fighters fled the city over overnight. And in Mosul, Iraq, one of the city's key bridges was damaged in an air strike as Iraqi-led forces are preparing for battle to retake the city, which is the last ISIS stronghold in that country.

CNN Senior International Correspondent, Ben Wedeman, is near Mosul.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What we understand already from sources inside the city that they have, for instance, released prisoners and used them to dig a network of trenches and tunnels around the city.

[15:35:00] We know as has happened in the past that they're also planting IED's, booby traps, all over the place. They've also prepared truck bombs and car bombs in the event that the Iraqi forces do get into the city. And, other than that we're also hearing things that would indicate that perhaps their nerves are getting a bit jangled at the moment that some ISIS fighters have left the city. Others are wondering if perhaps they'll be able to take advantage of an amnesty offered by the Iraqi government on the eve of this offensive.

Certainly what we've seen, it's quite impressive to think that back in June of 2014 when ISIS took the city, it was just a few hundred men who drove out tens of thousands of Iraqi security forces, army and policemen from the city. After that in the following weeks, one Iraqi city fell after another and ISIS literally reached the outskirts of Baghdad. But what we've seen since then is that the Iraqi army has been reconstituted, retrained, resupplied and certainly has been able to retake all the cities for the most part that ISIS took. And certainly right now the last goal now is to retake Mosul and, of course, it is the second largest city in Iraq and, keep in mind, also, that it was there on the 29th of June of 2014 that Abu Bakr Baghdadi declared his so-called caliphate. So losing Mosul will be a very deadly blow to this extremist organization.

WHITFIELD: Ben Wedeman, thank you so much, reporting from Iraq.

All right, still ahead amid the sexual assault allegations, hacked e- mails, accusations of a rigged election, Wednesday's debate is likely to be pretty interesting. We'll take a look ahead of the presidential debate upcoming.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:40:43] WHITFIELD: All right, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are spending today preparing for Wednesday's debate. So what can we expect to see in their final face-to-face meeting? Joining me now, Republican Strategist, Brian Morgenstern, and Political Analyst Ellis Henican. All right, gentlemen, good to see you.

All right. So in the past week, we have seen nine women now come out accusing Donald Trump of sexual misconduct. A Hillary Clinton's hacked e-mail leaked by WikiLeaks at least that's what WikiLeak says that they are Clinton related e-mails and Donald Trump claiming the election is rigged. So how will each candidate navigate their own issues? Brian, you first.

BRIAN MORGENSTERN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Oh, boy. Look, Hillary is in the driver seat at this point. She doesn't have to do much because like Napoleon said, you know, when your opponent is destroying himself, just let him do it, you know? So she doesn't need to get in the way. For Trump's part, he needs to get some of the negative slime that has been all over him for the last couple of weeks redirected on to her. So, you know, I would expect him to dig pretty deeply into this WikiLeaks stuff. I mean there were about -- and her speeches where she was cozying up to investment banks which of course is very unpopular with the left where she was discussing trade deals and how she favors open trade deals and open borders. That, of course, has been a theme of this election. So, the Trump ...

WHITFIELD: And again, the Clinton camp hasn't authenticated those e- mails and that information nor has CNN, but continue.

MORGENSTERN: Right. But in order to really get control the range of this thing and try to get it back on track as much as he can, I would expect him to really be hammering on that stuff.

WHITFIELD: So, Ellis, do you see Trump really capitalizing off that or does he have his own stuff that he needs to address with real clarity first?

ELLIS HENICAN, POLITICAL ANALYST: He should, but he can't, right? I mean, what we've learned in the last weeks is that he's a man possessed, right? I mean he's going to beat up on these women, all nine of them, he's going to ignore the fact that he's confessed to the allegations that they have piled upon him. He'll continue to claim that the election is rigged and our entire political system is some global conspiracy against Donald Trump. There's no evidence that we have, that will be anything else.

For Hillary's part, she ought to shift over to quit attacking Donald. I mean there's nothing all she can say really on that and simply put out a clear message to her supporters and potential supporters about the vision going forward about the kind of president she'll be. That's the close the deal comments from Hillary.

WHITFIELD: And both camps know how important it is to clench the female vote and that's a very diverse electorate and both acknowledge and know how important it is to clinch the Latino vote. And we know today Hillary Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine, spoke in Spanish, perhaps even making history as the first, you know, vice presidential candidate speaking in entirety in Spanish campaigning at a church in Florida. In fact, I think we have a sample of that right now.

So, Brian, how potentially advantageous might this be for Hillary Clinton, especially when there is so much noise, so to speak, in both camps?

MORGENSTERN: I mean, you know, it helps to speak people's native languages in terms of making a connection. I think it's, you know, that's sort of a cosmetic thing and it's certainly well below the surface of all the other headlines right now of the allegations against Trump and the WikiLeaks with Clinton. So, you know, it's a nice asset to have. I just don't see that as an element that's going to change the dynamic of this debate or the dynamic of this election in the remaining, however many days you said, 23 days or so left. WHITFIELD: Yeah, 23/24, because the clock is ticking in between. OK, so Ellis, how do you see it?

HENICAN: I mean, you're right, this is not about the VPS, right? I mean, when you have such huge characters at the top of the ballot, you know, I don't think that, you know, one of these candidates on the vice presidential level is going to change too much. I assume it's just going to get ugly or to continue to spiral downward. You know, it will be not nine women, it will be 19 or 39 or something and the Trump conspiracy is playing to the, you know, the crazed part of the base where it will just get darker and more apocalyptic.

[15:45:07] I think that's what we all got for the next 23.

WHITFIELD: All right.

MORGENSTERN: That is awfully dark.

HENICAN: I know that is awfully dark. Real dark. It's getting darker, guys. Cover your eyes, please. Do you want to know the darkest thing in 23 days? One of these candidates is going to be the president-elect of the United States and that's going to be our next four years. Yikes.

WHITFIELD: Well, let's hope that people are hopeful about the election process overall or whatever is to come, gentlemen.

HENICAN: Yes, please, please.

WHITFIELD: All right, we're going to have you back, Brian and Ellis. I appreciate it. Thank you.

All right, still ahead, the CNN election bus is heading to a city near you. Our Chris Moody is in Denver today getting voters' thoughts on the election. Chris?

CHRIS MOODY, CNN SENIOR DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We heard from the professional political class and from politicians, what I've spent the past three weeks, talking to only voters. We'll find out what they have to say about this election up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. So we're just now over three weeks away from Election Day, and CNN's campaign camper, is it a view? It's traveling the country. And inside, our people talking to voters across the country. Among them, CNN's Chris Moody, who today is at a stop in Denver, Colorado. A little windy there. Chris, what have you heard from people? I know it's been wonderful seeing, you know, the country meeting with people.

[15:50:07] MOODY: Well, Fred, I've been traveling the country with CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich. We started New York and we've been on the road for about three weeks. We were just down on the border in Arizona talking to ranchers whose land goes right up to the border fence. Now, these are people living on the front lines of an issue that the presidential candidates have been speaking about quite a lot this campaign season. So we went down to try to find out what they think about this election. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary once opened borders more than anybody. I mean, when you look at her film clips when she was running against Obama, she talked just like Trump does now. We need to secure that border. And now, there's no talk.

MOODY: You think Trump is going to secure the border?

UNIDENTIFIFED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOODY: Now, the ranchers we spoke said many of them are voting for Donald Trump because they believe he's going to be able to resolve an issue that they haven't seen resolved from Washington in decades.

We also were in Tennessee, a deep red state that is very likely going to go to Donald Trump. But we met a man named Davy Crockett, that's his real name, who said he would not be voting for Trump, he'd be supporting Hillary Clinton. And listen to the reason why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVY CROCKETT, NOT VOTING FOR TRUMP: I'm Davy Crockett. I have EMS. Donald makes fun of people with stuff like I have, the EMS. I don't want to vote this man. And I said I hope Hillary gets it.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: And what would you say to Donald Trump if you got to meet him?

CROCKETT: Well, if I got to meet Donald Trump, I would say, what in the world is wrong with you? What makes you think that you should deserve to be president?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOODY: Now, Fred, we've been meeting a lot of people just like that around the country, and the tour is not over. The campaign camper will be headed to Las Vegas this week for the final presidential debate.

WHITFIELD: All right. That should be quite the journey and, of course, quite the destination. All right, thanks so much, Chris Moody, right now in Denver and soon to be Las Vegas, have safe travels.

And CNN is the place to watch the final presidential debate. It airs live here 9:00 p.m. Easter on Wednesday. But first, this week's "Impact Your World".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For Coss Marte, this mock prison cell is more than a clever branding idea for a gym, it's a symbol of transformation. Coss was once a major drug dealer. He was caught and spent four years in prison.

COSS MARTE, FOUNDER OF CON BODY: That's when it woke up and realized that selling drugs is wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: During a routine prison physical, Marte got a second wake-up call.

MARTE: My cholesterol levels, they were like extremely high. They said if I don't start dieting or exercising correctly that I can die within five years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coss developed a full-body workout right inside his cell.

MARTE: I lost 70 pounds in six months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He lost weight and gained purpose.

MARTE: I actually helped 20 guys lose over 1000 pounds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once out of prison, Coss connected with Defy Ventures. The group gets microloans to ex-cons so they can start small businesses and then mentors them.

EDLYN YUEN, MENTOR DEFY VENTURES: What I really like about Defy was their mission. There is a lot to be said about being self-sustaining in the society no matter who you are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coss now trains more than 300 people at his New York gym, Con Body. He's also certifying and hiring other ex-cons as personal trainers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coss has an eerie focus and he's inspiring. Prison does not have to be the end-result.

MARTE: From the ground up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:57:45] WHITFIELD: All right, Donald Trump is hoping for a huge win come November, but what does his look-alike fortune telling machine have to say?

Here's CNN's Jeanne Moos on the All-Seeing Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The candidate who is always talking about his fortune.

TRUMP: I am getting a terrific vision.

MOOS: Is now telling fortunes.

TRUMP: Stare into my crystal ball.

MOOS: The All-Seeing Trump is being seen all around New York City. With his red eyes and intentionally small hands, he's predicting the future.

TRUMP: Everybody loves me. The people at the soup kitchen love me.

MOOS: And attracting crowds.

TRUMP: We're going to make America sexy again.

MOOS: He's modeled aft Zoltar in the movie "Big". Now, fortune- telling Trump has gone big. When he was placed by Trump Tower, security didn't know what to do with this. Police finally turned off the sound to shut him up. He's the brain child of anonymous anti- Trump artist who paid $9000 to Characters Unlimited to create him. Those pursed lips were the tricky part.

OLAF STANTON, CHARACTERS UNLIMITED: His lips are kind of sticking out, and when they pulled it out of the mold, it's kind of hard to get out of mold without ripping his lips off.

MOOS: Hit the button, he talks. Moving on from President Obama's birth certificate to ...

TRUMP: Is Elvis Presley still alive?

MOOS: At one point, outside Trump International Hotel, All-Seeing Trump died.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is historic. Donald is silent.

MOOS: Repairman to the rescue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like this better than the real one.

STANTON: I'm voting for Trump.

MOOS: He's the guy who made All-Seeing Trump who spits out what they call misfortunes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He who expects nothing will be pleasantly surprised when I'm president.

TRUMP: Excuse me.

MOOS: Occasionally, even the real Donald Trump projects a little too far into the future.

TRUMP: Make sure you get out and vote November 28th.

MOOS: But the All-Seeing Trump is no dummy. He knows Election Day is November 8th.

Jeanne Moos, CNN ...

TRUMP: Of the two of you, I only want the attractive one to come up to the booth.

MOOS: ... New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Wow. Only in New York.

All right. The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

[16:00:06] All right. Hello again and thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredericka Whitfield. So, countdown is on. Less than 23 days until the election and two new major polls show Clinton in the lead.