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Trump Claims Election Being Rigged; Clinton Team Dealing with Latest Batch of WikiLeaks E-mails; Nine Women Accuse Donald Trump of Sexual Assault; Florida's Greatest Percentage of Senior Voters; Republican HQ in Orange County, NC, Firebombed Overnight; Anthony Bourdain in Sichuan. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired October 16, 2016 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And his latest rhetoric is so clear, so matter of fact, there is zero room for spin or interpretation.

Earlier today, Trump tweeted, "The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing crooked Hillary, but also at many polling places. SAD."

The tweet sent this afternoon contradicts what we heard from Trump's own adviser, Rudy Giuliani, this morning right here on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NYC 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 to 85 percent of the media is against him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, also seemingly splitting from the candidate. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK TODD, NBC HOST, "MEET THE PRESS": Will you accept the results of the election in.

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will absolutely accept the results of the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Mike Pence saying we will accept the results of the election. The election that his running mate calls rigged. Trump's insistent that the election is rigged comes from two brand new national polls to show him trailing Hillary Clinton.

A "Washington Post-ABC News" has Trump four points behind and "NBC/Wall Street Journal" poll shows Clinton with a much bigger lead, 11 points. Her campaign is far from (inaudible), however.

Clinton's team now dealing with the latest batch of hacked e-mails released by WikiLeaks. They include purported excerpts from speeches that she gave at Goldman Sachs events.

And now, Clinton suggests political reasons made it necessary for lawmakers to take action against Wall Street at the financial crisis.

Let's talk more about all of this and Trump's running mate, Mike Pence and his reaction to Trump's assertion that the election is rigged when we bring in CNN Investigative Correspondent Chris Frates.

Chris, Trump is yet, and correct me if I'm wrong, to give any evidence as to what he means behind this claim of a truly rigged, hijacked election.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Poppy. I mean, we've not seen him bring any kinds of evidences that this charge that somehow the election is rigged is true. And as we just saw he made that claim again today, right, tweeting that the election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media but also at many polling places.

And that's kind of important, too. This idea that it's being rigged at polling places is not just the media. The facts really don't bare that out, Poppy. For instance, if you look at a 2012 investigative report by a group named "News 21", they looked at over a decade of data. They found just 10 cases, 10 cases of vulgar impersonation at the polls on Election Day over those more than 10 years. And the report also found that while fraud does occur, the number of cases are, "infinitesimal", Poppy. So, a very small amount of fraud that's been found out there, not a lot of proof from Donald Trump, Poppy.

HARLOW: But, I mean, to make the case staying, Chris, because one of the top supporter is former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, on "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper this morning made the case, and he said, you know, democrats control inner cities and elections are rigged always in democrats' favor. I mean, what is he basing that on?

FRATES: Well, he's basing that on mostly anecdotal evidence and the democrats really hitting republicans, including Giuliani, about these claims. They're essentially trying to paint Trump as a really panicked candidate, a guy who's trying to delegitimize all of these results before he loses the election. Take a listen to what Tim Kaine had to say just today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Especially in the last couple of days as Donald Trump has kind of started to go wilder and wilder, I think, after -- by all accounts, losing the first two debates, he started to make wild claims, kind of scorched earth claims about the election being rigged, etc.

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 GOP leaders also to stand up for the integrity of the American electoral process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: So, there is Clinton running mate Tim Kaine making a political hay out of all of Trump's claims and Poppy, when I talked to both democrats and republicans, you know, they kind of they see this as an effort by Trump to depress voter turnout, right, essentially hoping that voters declare a plague on both party's houses which they think will end up benefiting Trump. So, that's a little bit what we're seeing there, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right, Chris Frates, live, fresh from Washington. Thank you, Chris.

FRATES: You're welcome.

[17:05:00] HARLOW: So, as we just discussed, what is the basis then, that Trump is pinning this all on, that this election is rigged and hijacked? Is he setting up for possibly explaining if he doesn't win on November 8th?

And bigger, potentially more importantly, what are the dangers of saying that to this democracy? My political panel joins me now. With me here in New York, CNN Senior Media Correspondent, host of "RELIABLE SOURCES," Brian Stelter, in Washington, Stephen Collinson, Senior Reporter for CNN Politics and also Ryan Lizza, CNN Political Commentator and Washington Correspondent for the "New Yorker."

Brian, let me begin with you. You certainly made your feelings very clear on your show this morning about it. Let's just talk about history. Supreme Court rules in 2000 against Al Gore. He doesn't win the election because he doesn't take Florida. He conceded that race. He said that's it. That's the end. We have to accept it. That is our democracy.

Trump appears to be on a very different path, unwilling to do anything like that if he loses. But his running mate, Mike Pence, this morning on all the morning shows, on CBS, he called, "the peaceful transfer of power, a hallmark of American history." Parties aside, what's the danger of talking like this?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Pence and Trump may be down the same page and maybe they need to have a phone call because Trump is creating this very dangerous situation by being explicit now about the idea of an election being stolen.

If you ask historians, they have to reach back all the way basically to the Civil War to find a time like this, where there was a presidential nominee talking like this.

We've seen from Gore and Kerry and McCain and Romney how it's supposed to go, how it always has gone in our lifetime. So, this is an unprecedented challenge. A challenge for journalists but really a challenge for the GOP, for party leaders, for the Paul Ryans and Mike Pences of the world to stand up much more strongly than have break so far and break from Trump and try to clean this up. Because, unfortunately, many of Trump supporters believe this crap that he's saying.

HARLOW: You know, so many of the party leaders, Stephen, broke from Trump over the 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape which, you know, even Trump himself says he shouldn't have said those words. But they're not, at least not yet, breaking with him because he is questioning America's democracy. What do you make of that?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: I think, Poppy, we're starting to hear it sort of bubbling up. I think people have started to talk about it in the last few days privately in Washington, in the White House and Congress. We saw a statement by Paul Ryan's spokesman, basically saying that the election would be fair. I think what's different here is ...

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: But still -- but I would just interject, because some just tweeted, bashing Ryan. He still is endorsing Trump. He didn't say, that's it, you can't question the legitimacy of our elections. What do you think of that?

COLLINSON: That's the tightrope republicans have been walking all the time. They can't afford of this going (ph). Paul Ryan is trying to hang on to the house, so needs the votes of Trump supporters in some districts to send him back as speaker of the house.

But I think what's different about this Donald Trump strategy is we had disputed elections in the past. You mentioned Al Gore. There were thoughts of 1960 of Richard Nixon challenging John Kennedy's election, which he decided not to do. But that was challenging the election after the fact.

What we're seeing here is a candidate going into the election three weeks before the election, saying it's going to be corrupt, saying it's going to be rigged. And as Brian said, that gets to something fundamental about democracy. The idea that the electoral system is, you know, underpinned by the fact that people believe that the president who emerges from an election will be legitimate. And that's something that's very, very different and I think it is something that is going to get party leaders on both sides of the isle engage in the next few weeks.

HARLOW: So there's one thing to say these things, words versus actions. I want to read you two things, Ryan, that really stood out to me today at the beginning of a lot of reporting.

"The Boston Globe" quoting a 50-year-old Trump supporter named Dan Bowman. Quoting this man as saying, talking about Clinton, "If she's in office, I hope we can start a coup. She should be in prison or shot. That's how I feel about it ... We're going to have a revolution and take them out of office if that's what it takes. There's going to be a lot of bloodshed ..."

Then as "The Globe" reports, he placed a Trump mask on his face and posed for pictures. That was at a rally.

Also today, the sheriff of Milwaukee, Sheriff Clarke, who supports Donald Trump, tweeted this image. This was yesterday, and with this image, he wrote, "Pitch forks and torches time."

Ryan, we're talking about people proposing action based on an election they believe is not legitimate.

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Trump is stirring up some really dangerous ideas in the electorate right now. And I agree with Brian, that the condemnations have to come from republican leaders.

Frankly, the four of us can sit here and talk about this until we're blue in the face and a lot of the people that this message needs to reach won't care all that much.

The place, the responsibility for condemning this, you know, Barack Obama is not going to have much impact, Hillary Clinton is not going to have much impact, but Mitch McConnell, leader of the senate; Paul Ryan, leader of the house; republican leaders, people like Rudy Giuliani, people like Chris Christie that are close to Trump, Mike Pence, that's where it has to come from. And frankly ...

(CROSSTALK)

[17:10:00] HARLOW: But let me -- let me push back on that. Because those are actually the establishment politicians that the people that are saying things like this or tweeting things like this don't, you know, don't want to hear from. They don't care what those establishment republicans say.

STELTER: Conservative media figures are going to be important here. Conservative media ...

(CROSSTALK)

LIZZA: That's the one place that might have -- at least has to step forward with a plan. You know, look, Trump is very erratic. Who knows? Maybe on election night, he will call Hillary Clinton and concede gracefully and this will have been, you know, a smoke screen.

But the republican leadership needs to have in place a plan on election night to come forward in force if Donald Trump loses, to make sure that we have what we've always had in America, and that is a peaceful transfer of power. One party, if the results are clear-cut, with no recounts necessary, conceding and everyone moving forward.

And you know, as Brian pointed out, even before that, they need to step forward a little bit more forcefully than Paul Ryan did and condemn this because we now have a split. We have a split between Mike Pence and Donald Trump over this.

We have a split between Trump and his highest profile surrogate, Rudy Giuliani. I mean, Trump literally went out today and said, no, don't listen to my surrogates. It's not just the media. It's happening at polling places. Now, there are no polling places open yet. I mean, there's early voting but he's making some very wild, irresponsible allegations here.

HARLOW: Brian, the biggest newspaper in Arizona that came out has always endorsed republicans, came out just a few weeks ago endorse Hillary Clinton. And now, what is happening to them and their staff is unbelievable.

STELTER: Yes, a number of death threats, and this morning, the paper responded to that, explaining what they are doing about it, what they are saying about it.

Virtually every major newspaper that has endorsed a candidate so far has endorsed Clinton, especially in red states, which is really the surprising part of this.

We haven't seen this kind of one-sided sort of endorsement situation in an election season like this before. So there's been a (inaudible) getting from a death threat of endorsement is an example of how overheated the rhetoric is.

Another example, Out of North Carolina today, the firebombing of a local GOP office. We have no idea who has done this, we don't know if it's a republican, a democrat, a moon man. No idea. Could be some form of extremist, some form of radical.

Hopefully we'll get more information soon. But that action is unacceptable and a need to have the temperature come down on all sides right now. Unfortunately, Donald Trump is the lead in terms of raising the temperature at this moment in time.

HARLOW: Stephen Collinson, Ryan Lizza, Brian Stelter, thank you, guys, very much.

Coming up, Hillary Clinton's paid speeches to Goldman Sachs. WikiLeaks releasing what she reportedly said. Could it impact the debate on Wednesday? You can bet it will come up also.

Another woman coming forward with another claim about Donald Trump's behavior. A closer look at the ninth accuser. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

[17:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Welcome back. So glad you're with us. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Let's dive into this WikiLeaks dump because WikiLeaks says they have some 50,000 different e-mails from democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, and part of them are purportedly her speeches to those Wall Street banks.

It is what appears to be transcripts of some of those speeches, three in particular, that she gave to events hosted by Goldman Sachs. Let's dive into it. CNN's Cristina Alesci is here. I mean, where do we begin?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN CORREPSONDENT: This is kind of bad for Hillary because essentially, she doesn't really go tough on Wall Street, she goes easy on Wall Street. And ...

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: In these private events.

ALESCI: In these private events, right. And it kind of contradicts or undermines her toughness or what she says is toughness on Wall Street, particularly, she's asked about regulation post financial crisis and what she says is that was more of a political response, which kind of suggests that they didn't deserve to be cracked down on as hard as the government came down on them.

HARLOW: The constituents of lawmakers were so upset, right?

ALESCI: Yes. So we have the quote from the excerpt itself. It says, for political reasons, if you are an elected member of congress and people in your constituency are losing jobs and shutting businesses and everybody in the press is saying it's all the fault of Wall Street, then you can't sit idly by and do nothing.

And so what she's saying is, look, when the public wants a head, you kind of have to give it to them and then lower down in the speech. She talks about the fact that maybe regulations went too far because banks aren't lending as much as they should be lending maybe because there's too much regulation.

So, it's this kind of slice in the face of what she said, I'm so tough on Wall Street. I rang the early warning bells that there was a crisis in the sub-prime market. I'm tough on CEO pay, that it's outrageous.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: And she doesn't come on any speeches, right, and say Dodd- Frank was absolutely the right kind of Wall Street reform, I'm going to make it even tougher, like she has said to the American public and like she said in response to Bernie Sanders criticizing her about these transcripts they're not releasing in the primary, she doesn't in this Wall Street say this is the perfect regulation and, by the way, I'm going to make it even tougher on you.

ALESCI: Yeah. At that time, in 2003, she says basically the jury is so out on this regulation. So ...

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Two thousand thirteen.

ALESCI: Two thousand thirteen, sorry, you're right. Basically, this is music to Wall Street's ears, right? This is what they want to be hearing and when they go to congress and they say these regulations are too tough, they say, we're not lending and that's bad for the economy. So she's basically making or regurgitating their arguments back to them, and it's something that is very favorable to that crowd.

HARLOW: This one have been pretty damaging to her in the primary.

ALESCI: But now we're past ...

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: I mean, that's ...

ALESCI: Right.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: ... what Bernie Sanders was, I mean, all hammering at. But now we're past the primary. Do you wonder what kind of impact it will have?

ALESCI: You're absolutely right. And her aides were even very concerned that these would come out, which is the reason we have access to these documents because they were e-mailing them around saying, like, hey, these are the spots in the speech that could cause trouble for us.

So, you're right, the timing does favor her a bit. And you know what? In reality, there are no bombshells. There are no pay for play, you know, Wall Street is give-me-money-and-I'll-do-these-favors.

[17:20:00] HARLOW: Exactly. Cristina, thank you so much. You'll be with us all night.

It is the latest batch of, as I said, the 50,000 stolen e-mails Cristina just outlined the Goldman Sachs speeches -- speeches to Goldman Sachs.

Now, let's dive into some other things that were purportedly said because if they're authentic, and Clinton's campaign isn't saying whether they are not at this point in time, then they show what she said behind closed doors.

Our Senior Washington Correspondent Joe Johns is with us now. So many documents to pour through. We could spend hours going through them. A few things jumped out at me.

First of all, the Qatari government talking in some of these e-mails among Clinton staff, talking about a million-dollar donation that Qatar wants to give to former President Bill Clinton or the Foundation. But the timing is important because this is while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State and there wasn't supposed to be any foreign governments donating to the foundation.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Right. And this is one of the WikiLeaks e-mails released last week, indicating that someone from Qatar wanted to meet for five minutes with WJC, apparently William Jefferson Clinton, in 2012, to give him a check for $1 million for his foundation as a birthday gift from the previous year.

The "New York Times" sort of did a deep dive on this. And there are some questions surrounding it including whether the meeting ever happened. Perhaps the most important question, which has been raised before by critics of the Clintons, is whether a gift like this offered or accepted could have been construed, if you will -- as an attempt to curry favor with Hillary Clinton, who was Secretary of State from 2009 until 2013.

The foundation points out that Qatar actually first started giving to the foundation in 2002, according to the "Times", so this was a long established practice.

Hillary Clinton has denied before making any decisions as Secretary of State based on who gave what to the foundation. But there are some questions in there, Poppy.

HARLOW: Right. There are other country's donations to the foundation that were not reported initially. The foundation said that they missed those and then later reported them. All right, Joe Johns, we'll have you back later with more. Thank you very much.

Coming up, the sexual assault scandal and allegations surrounding Donald Trump is throwing more detail about the ninth woman accusing him of unwanted sexual advancements. We'll have next.

[17:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: A total of nine women have now come forward to accuse Donald Trump of sexual misconduct. This all started after he was caught on a hot mic back in 2005 making lewd and sexually aggressive comments about groping women.

Former "Apprentice" contestant, Summer Zervos, is one of the women who have come forward. Zervos Attorney Gloria Allred, she said Trump made aggressive advances toward her back in 2007 and she spelled out her allegations at a press conference Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUMMER ZERVOS, FORMER "APPRENTICE" CONTESTANTS: He then asked me to sit next to him. I complied. He then grabbed my shoulder and began kissing me again very aggressively and he placed his hand on my breast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Trump has denied the allegations of all nine accusers. He addressed Zervos' claim the campaign rally directly in New Hampshire yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The cousin of one of these people, very close to her, wrote a letter that what she said is a lie. That she was a huge fan of Donald Trump. That she invited Donald Trump to her restaurant to have dinner, which by the way, I didn't go to.

I didn't even know who the heck we're talking about here. But these allegations have been many of them already proven so false.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: The accusers attorney is Gloria Allred and takes the issue with how Trump has responded to his accusers. Jessica Schneider is on top of it all. She joins us now for details.

Gloria All right has held a press conference, right, this afternoon. What did she say?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This has developed, Poppy, into a serious war of words. Gloria Allred is lashing out at Donald Trump, saying that he's bullying his victims and not taking these claims seriously.

Gloria Allred also introducing today a friend of Summer Zervos. That friend said Summer told her in 2010 about Donald Trump's sexual advances back in 2007. But the friend also said that at the time, Summer had a tough time reconciling Trump's stature as a successful businessman with what had happened to her, and she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt at the time, thinking that Donald Trump had just made a mistake.

All Gloria Allred is saying that she is also speaking out today because of Donald Trump's repeated disparaging comments about those alleged victims. Allred with these biting words.

Well, she spoke out today, Gloria Allred. I guess they don't have that sound byte she spoke out, saying that Donald Trump is bullying these victims, that he has disparaging comments about women.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Sounds like we have -- we have the sound byte. OK, let's go to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY FOR THE DONALD TRUMP ACCUSER: If he thinks he's going to intimidate accusers from coming forward by bullying or by trying to find someone who will say something negative about them, it's not going to work because women will not be bullied into silence.

I can assure him that more women will be coming forward. I can assure him that when he said he was -- he's the victim, that he's not the victim. I can assure him there is no conspiracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: And Gloria Allred is promising that more women have contacted her. She said more women she's sure will be coming forward including the ones who contacted her.

And just so you know, the woman sitting next to Gloria Allred is that friend of Summer Zervos, who Summer allegedly told about this alleged attack back in 2010.

HARLOW: Right. Thank you, Jessica Schneider on top of it, bring us more. We have it again, Gloria Allred saying there will be more, we will see.

Coming up next, you heard from the candidates, you head from the pundits. Not it's time to hear just from the voters in the key swing states. So we traveled up and down Florida's pivotal "I-4 Corridor" and spoke with people who could turn this election either way. Their candid comments on Clinton and Trump next.

[17:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Florida, the Sunshine State, once again expected to play a pivotal role in this election. So, we traveled along Florida's crucial "I-4 corridor" to speak with voters, no pundits, no candidates, just the voters, in Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Florida, home to endless beaches, Mickey Mouse, no income tax and an unemployment rate below the national average. It's a fascinating electorate made up of an increasing number of retirees who lean more and more to the right, and an influx of Puerto Ricans who lean left.

Whichever side garners more support gets a critical jackpot, 29 electoral votes. You've heard the candidates courting retirees here. Why? Because Florida has the greatest percentage of seniors of any state in the country. And seniors vote in big numbers.

Conway Cafe in East Orlando is where these men meet every Thursday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been coming here for years. The waitresses are really nice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What was once a reliably blue voting block is no more. Seniors, specifically white seniors, have been moving more and more to the right in the last decade.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, I cancelled the Orlando newspaper because they slant the news a lot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're all voting, they say, for Donald Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the economy needs some jump starting real bad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The worst thing about our country is it is so divided now. It's not like it was before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we mostly feel it's not so much that we're real crazy about Donald Trump, but most of us want a change.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that's the common thread among many of the seniors we met in Florida. There is a sense that the country is headed in the wrong direction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of countries are nipping at our heels.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We met these neighbors in Sarasota. Their dissatisfaction with what they see as the status quo runs deep.

[17:35:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She has talked about increasing the amount of immigration. That's stunning that we would allow that many people to come in. That will ensure a liberal culture forever.

Who is the visionary? There's only one candidate that fits that role. That's Trump. And I have no compunction about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're coming out of this recession slower than we have previous recessions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would strongly disagree with the assumption we're better off now than we were seven, eight years ago. Strongly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The thing is, by almost all measures, the U.S. economy has improved significantly in the last eight years.

Unemployment is half of what it was in 2009, and the stock market has almost tripled from its lows that same year. But it is the national debt that really troubles these voters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it really kind of scares us that we're staring at $20 trillion in debt, not knowing how our grandchildren will repay it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I never, ever could vote for Hillary. So it will be Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This Trump volunteer calling attention to what she believes is hidden Trump support.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you talk to women, they're not out in the public telling you they're for Trump. They're afraid. People are afraid in this era. And why? Because that is a politically correct nonsense.

But once they see a shirt or they see me and I start talking right away, they go, I can't tell anybody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But Clinton has her own growing demographic support, Puerto Ricans. There are, by some estimates, 100,000 more Puerto Ricans in Florida now than there were for the 2012 election.

MIRIAM CASANOVA, FLORIDA VOTER: The most important thing besides that the Lord is there is education. E-D-U-C-A-T-I-O-N. Education. They need it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We met Miriam and Elsie at Puerto Rico's Cafe in Kissimmee.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My vote is going to Hillary Clinton. To me, (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lizbeth Martell's family owns this restaurant. LIZBETH MARTELL, FLORIDA VOTER: well, if we're looking at the recession about five years, six years ago, the economy is a lot better.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But if they're not enthusiastic about supporting Clinton, she'll have a hard time overcoming the strong retiree support for Trump here.

MARTELL: Hillary's situation for me, being a woman, it would be an amazing but, you know, coming with all these trust issues, it is very disappointing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's still undecided but won't vote for Trump.

ELSIE AGOSTO, FLORIDA VOTER: We need in office someone that is Christ-like, someone that knows the value of Christianity and of human beings, and definitely neither one of them showed me that they do have that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what about Cuban Americans? A group that makes up about 30 percent of eligible Hispanic voters in Florida.

Not long ago, it was reliably red.

MARIA GARCIA, FLORIDA VOTER: You know, Cuba is a communist country. And as I was telling the girls, anything that's going a little bit to the left, I have problem with that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But now, it's a voting block that's moving more and more blue. Miguel and Maria Garcia moved to the United States in the early 1960s following the Cuban revolution.

MIGUEL GARCIA, FLORIDA VOTER: I have a lot of reservations about both nominees.

MARIA GARCIA: This year is a tough year. I'm not having such a tough time. I have problem with Trump in a sense of the filter here, it is working, the way he thought to people is (inaudible). On the other hand is Hillary, I honestly don't trust her.

CARMEN GARCIA, FLORIDA VOTER: If it wasn't for your fear of communism, you would be democrat because you believe in equal opportunity.

MARIA GARCIA: I saw it in Cuba. People didn't have incentive because their government was giving them everything. I know we have to leave some part to help because there is always the need to help.

DELIA GARCIA, FLORIDA VOTER: These two people right here ...x

(CROSSTALK)

C. GARCIA: That's what I ...

D. GARCIA: ... are the biggest helpers that you ever want to meet.

MARIA GARCIA: Republicans have to.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ninety-seven-year-old grandma Maria has cast her ballot for many republican candidates over the years. But not this time.

C. GARCIA, (BY TRANSLATION): What about Donald Trump?

C. GARCIA: Donald Trump.

MIGUEL GARCIA: (Speaking in Spanish).

(LAUGHTER)

C. GARCIA: (Speaking in Spanish).

GRANDMA MARIA GARCIA: (Speaking in Spanish).

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Florida, with its changing demographics, clearly remains in play, but who can play their hands better here?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:40:00] HARLOW: You can see much more at CNNMoney.com/battlegroundstates. And we should know this was actually filmed before that 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape of Donald Trump surface. So we called back all of the Trump supporters we interviewed on the road, and nearly every single one, with the exception of just a few, are still supporting Donald Trump and planning to vote for him.

Quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Nine women have now come forward accusing Donald Trump of groping or kissing them without their consent and Trump is denying any wrongdoing. He calls those claims pure fiction and false smears.

The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows that Trump is behind Clinton by 20 points among female voters. Twenty points. That is the broadest gap that we've seen.

Joining me now, Juliette Kayyem, Former Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security and author of "Security Mom, An Unclassified Guide to Protecting our Homeland and Your Home".

Juliette, you just wrote about this. Let me read part of it to our viewers. "This past week may have redefined the "Security Mom" in a much more personal matter ... it is the very same demographic -- the suburban college-educated mothers that aren't prioritizing terror of the jihadist kind but terror of the sexual assault kind now. And they are leaving the party that once promised them safety." What do you see playing out here in the wake of these comments? I

mean, these are the security moms that the Republican Party could rely on election after election after election.

[17:45:00] JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: And certainly, I mean, just going back a bit, they are the very demographic that Trump and the republicans not only needed, but it was in their grasp as early as June and July after the Orlando attacks.

Donald Trump was just a few points behind Hillary Clinton on the female voting demographic. Kellyanne Conway comes in to sort of appeal to that group. Everything was looking like, you know, terror and fear and, you know, remember Trump changed his slogan to make America safe again.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Right.

KAYYEM: But really what you've seen more recently is the same demographic. The white suburban, college-educated woman, essentially turning away on that idea that we need to be protected from ISIS and much more closely following a different kind of security vote which is the personal security vote and all these allegations -- substantiated allegations, I should say, sexism and sexual assault by Donald Trump.

And also the defense is by people like Kellyanne Conway, who was once seen as someone who could bring in the female vote. But I think you're seeing a different kind of definition of security and that same demographic is putting aside the ISIS threat right now.

HARLOW: I mean, A, what is this based on? I mean, is this anecdotal evidence that you've seen or are you seeing this play out across many different groups of these mothers, some suburban some urban. What do you think?

KAYYEM: Mostly it is suburban demographic which you can see poll after poll, not only Hillary Clinton has run away but he female vote -- and I think the poll today shows 20 points in one of the polls today.

You also see it in the same polling when you look at who would be best to deal with terrorism. Up until about a month ago, Donald Trump kept beating out Hillary Clinton on that one issue.

That has now turned as well. You're seeing this same group of women turn away from -- or at least start to look at Hillary Clinton as a viable option for the priority they put on safety and security. It is an -- it is a unique way security is being defined.

Much more intimate, much more, as you say, anecdotal, the experiences that you and I and others have likely had over the course of our careers and ones that are compelling from Donald Trump about.

HARLOW: Let me read something else that you wrote. You write in this "Working women like me have long laughed off or even forgotten those slights and inappropriate behavior -- until last Friday's video reminded me of all those times when forging a career in a predominantly male field and having three kids wasn't without its abuses."

KAYYEM: Yeah. You know, it's not funny. I guess I should say that. I have been in a rage this past week. I'm a democrat. I was already going to vote for Hillary Clinton but I think for women of a certain age, maybe the Michelle Obama age, you sort of remember these things.

My husband actually had to remind me of two or three incidents I had completely forgotten of uncomfortable, untoward, or cornering under a staircase, drinks after a meeting, all sorts of things that I think a lot of women can relate to that sort of uncomfortable feeling.

What Donald Trump has said -- we don't have to say he alleged to say -- much worse or anything I've experienced or anything most woman has experienced, but I think I am not alone in not believing that this is funny, but believing that this is too familiar for so many of us.

HARLOW: What's really interesting when you look at those new polls out today, I mean, one of the NBC polls shows 32% percent of people believe that the "Access Hollywood" tape disqualifies him from being president or changes their vote and two-thirds of people say in another ABC poll that it doesn't change their vote, that it is not affecting whether they're voting for him or not. It is interesting to see the polling in reaction to that.

KAYYEM: Yeah.

HARLOW: Juliette, thank you very much.

KAYYEM: Thanks Poppy.

HARLOW: This just in to CNN. The republican headquarters in Orange County, North Carolina, firebombed overnight. The attack causing major damage to the office.

The Republican Party there saying an explosive device was thrown through a window of the office while on the side, someone spray painted the words, Nazi republicans leave town or else.

This attack has been condemned by state officials as well as politicians including Hillary Clinton and North Carolina's Democratic Party.

Much more on that as we happen again, no one claiming responsibility and no word yet from officials who may be responsible.

Just ahead, time in prison not only helped one man rethink his life choices, it may have also saved his life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[17:50:00] COSS MARTE, CONBODY OWNER: My cholesterol level they were like, extremely high. They said if I don't start dieting or exercising correctly, that I could die within five years. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: He took that message to heart. Lost weight, got in shape. Now he has a new goal. We'll bring to you here live in CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTE: You wanna be in prison that bad?

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.

That's what really woke me up. I realized that selling drugs was wrong.

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

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coss developed a full body work out 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 1,000 pounds.

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

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

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coss is very focused and it's inspiring. Prison does not have to be the end result.

MARTE: From the ground up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: You can hear more about this story and find out how you can help those get back on their feet. Head to cnn.com/impact.

Coming up on "Parts Unknown", Anthony Bourdain heats things up from the Chinese province of Sichuan with the taste of Chinese spicy cuisine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[17:55:00] ANTHONY BOURDAIN, "PARTS UNKNOWN" HOST: What happens with America's favorite bad boy chef and upright meets star French chef, Eric Ripert go to China.

Eric never been to China before nor is he used to the elevated levels, shall we say, of heat and spice.

ERIC RIPERT, FRENCH CHEF: This is very sweet and sticky but I like it a lot.

BOURDAIN: His delicate system totally can't handle what he's about to get.

RIPERT: Oh, my god. My sinuses are so open. You have no idea.

BOURDAIN: He's so in for it.

RIPERT: Holy God. Whoa. That spice prevents me to think.

BOURDAIN: Right. Spicy.

RIPERT: I feel that my face is changing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Anthony Bourdain in Sichuan tonight, 9:00 p.m. Eastern. A quick break. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Top of the hour, 6:00 p.m., Eastern. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. So glad you're with us. We begin this hour with Donald Trump's unprecedented claim on a rigged U.S. presidential election. His rhetoric to the leaving zero room for interpretation. The candidate tweeting, "The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing crooked Hillary, but also at many polling places. SAD."

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