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Trump: "We Are Competing In A Rigged Election"; I, State Department Deny Clinton E-mail Deal; Melania Trump: Just "Boy Talk" On 2005 Tape; Obama Welcomes Italian PM To White House; Pence: "Voter Fraud Cannot Be Tolerated". Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired October 18, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:10] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: OK, got to go. NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Ramping up and counting down. With just one more day to the final presidential debate, Donald Trump is swinging for the fences. He's ripping fellow Republicans who balked at his claims of a fixed election just three weeks to the day before Americans head to the polls.

And Melania Trump breaks her silence and talks to CNN's Anderson Cooper. She discusses and down plays her husband's lewd and sexually aggressive comments caught on tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S WIFE: They were kind of a boy talk, and he was lead on, like egged on, from the host to say dirty and bad stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We'll have more on Melania Trump's interview in just a minute, but let's begin with CNN's Senior Political Reporter Manu Raju. He's in Vegas for tomorrow's big debate. Good morning.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning, Carol. Now, Donald Trump attacking Paul Ryan, renewing those attacks against the House Speaker saying that the House Speaker actually may be motivated against him to preserve his own political future.

This is all part of Donald Trump's efforts to paint the political establishment and the rules of the election against him and saying that he is a victim of an unfair system.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They even want to try to rig the election at the polling booths. People that have died 10 years ago are still voting. Illegal immigrants are voting.

RAJU (voice-over): Donald Trump ramping up his unfounded claim that the election is rigged. TRUMP: You look at what's going on in St. Louis and many other

cities. There's tremendous voter fraud.

RAJU (voice-over): His willingness to accept the election result if he loses now in question.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, DONALD TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Mr. Trump would if there is absent overwhelming evidence of any kind of fraud irregularities.

RAJU (voice-over): Trump frustrating many Republican leaders who have rejected his allegations of rigging. The Republican nominee also intensifying his feud with House Speaker Paul Ryan after he said he wouldn't defend Trump.

TRUMP: Maybe he wants to run in four years or maybe he doesn't know how to win. Maybe he just doesn't know how to win. I mean, who can really know?

RAJU (voice-over): Trump taking his race against the establishment and Hillary Clinton a step further in Wisconsin.

TRUMP: It is time to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.

RAJU (voice-over): Trump proposing a package of ethics reforms aiming to tackle corruption in Washington, including tighter restrictions on members of Congress and White House officials taking on jobs as lobbyists.

TRUMP: This will go a long way to ending our government corruption.

RAJU (voice-over): A proposal sparked by his accusations that the FBI and State Department engaged in a criminal conspiracy.

TRUMP: This is felony corruption.

RAJU (voice-over): After newly released documents suggest a top State Department official pressured the FBI to declassify an e-mail about Benghazi that was on the private server Clinton used while Secretary of State, possibly in exchange for offering to help station FBI agents services.

MARK TONER, STATE DEPARTMENT DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON: The allegations of any kind of quid pro quo is inaccurate. There was no quid pro quo.

RAJU (voice-over): Clinton is not commenting. She's been off the campaign trail for days preparing for tomorrow's final debate. Clinton's campaign now setting its sights on historically conservative states as she widens her lead in the polls, deploying her daughter Chelsea, Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders to Arizona in hopes to turn that red state blue.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Now, the Obama administration has been on the defensive over whether or not the FBI and State Department engaged in any sort of quid pro quo to clean up Hillary Clinton's e-mails over her private e- mail server.

Now, John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, was on "New Day" earlier this morning pushing back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: Not only is there no proof, it's absolutely not true. Completely false allegation. It just didn't happen that way.

Now, what did happen, half of what you said is right. Pat Kennedy did call the FBI and tried to get a little bit better understanding about why they wanted one particular e-mail classified "Secret." We didn't see it that way. We didn't think it needed to be held classified, but the FBI held firm their position and the e-mail remained classified. And, you know, that e-mail, redacted, is on our website. You can go look for it yourself, but there was no bargain sought by the FBI. There was no bargain rendered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, the question is now whether or not the Clinton campaign can move past this. One way they're trying to do that is trying to focus intensely on red states going forward. They're spending $2 million in Arizona, as well as $1 million in Indiana and Missouri to help the Senate Democratic candidates there in those states.

[09:05:09] But the question, Carol, is if these problems over her e- mails sort of continue to linger, how much will that hurt her honest and trustworthy numbers, and how much will that hurt Democratic chances to take back control of Congress. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Manu Raju reporting live from Los Vegas this morning. To another firestorm, Melania Trump tried to put that one out in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. She broke her silence on that damaging tape that captured her husband making lewd and sexually aggressive comments about women. She says the crass 2005 conversation was just boy talk, but that the damage to the campaign is the goal of the media.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: He described it as locker room talk. To you, I mean, you sort of alluded to that as well. Is that what it is to you, just locker room talk?

M. TRUMP: Yes, it's kind of two teenage boys. Actually, they should behave better, right? It was not --

COOPER: He was 59.

M. TRUMP: Correct. And sometimes, I said I have two boys at home. I have my young son and I have my husband, so -- but I know how some men talk and that's how I saw it, yes. I was surprised, of course. But I was not surprised that the tape came out. I was not surprised about that. COOPER: Why?

M. TRUMP: Because, as I said, these many people from the opposite side, that they want to damage the campaign. And why now? Why after so many years? Why three weeks before the election?

COOPER: Your husband has said, maybe, that he felt the Clintons had something to do with it or the media. What do you think?

M. TRUMP: Well, it was the media. It was NBC. It was "Access Hollywood." It was left wing and left-wing media, and you could see that. And the way it comes out is everything was organized. Every Friday. Every Friday, something comes out, so they play, they play, they play and it was hour after hour.

I watched T.V. It was hour after hour bashing him because they want to influence the American people how to vote, and they're influencing in the wrong way.

COOPER: The information about your husband's 1995 taxes were released right before the first debate, then this came out just days before the second debate. You're saying that's not a coincidence?

M. TRUMP: No. That was all organized, yes. They planned that way because they don't want to talk -- the opposition doesn't want to talk about WikiLeaks and the e-mails and Benghazi and all the rest of the stuff. They don't want to talk about it, so they said, let's do something so we will hurt his campaign.

COOPER: "The Washington Post" was leaked the tape and they released the tape. NBC had it for -- they said they had it for several days, and they were reviewing it, but you believe that it was -- that NBC could have released it -- you think they knew about it long ago?

M. TRUMP: Yes, they know -- they knew a long time ago. And I'm sure they did. And "Washington Post," when did we hear or read any great stories from -- about my husband or about me. The true stuff? The facts, the real stuff. Or "New York Times"? We never read. They're bashing, bashing, bashing.

COOPER: You feel they've been very unfair?

M. TRUMP: Yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right. So let's discuss all of this right now. Lynn Sweet is with me. She's the Washington bureau chief of "The Chicago Sun-Times" and CNN political commentator David Swerdlick is with me. He's the assistant editor for "The Washington Post." Welcome to both of you.

So, Lynn, my viewers just heard from Melania Trump. Her interview, did she help Donald Trump? Neutral? Did she hurt him?

LYNN SWEET, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: Well, Carol, she didn't hurt him, but I don't think she maximized the opportunity in the interview because I don't think viewers wanted her to talk about the -- to be a media critic and her views on how the tape came out in the media isn't what I think the role of Melania Trump could have been.

She could have told us about the Donald Trump we don't know. She could have told us about the man that is better than his public images in this case. The man that we don't know. She didn't take advantage of her unique situation of a spouse to try and bring more information to the table.

I would think that's the way she could try and change the story line more than piling on and talking about things that she would have no knowledge of, such as how and why the decisions were made about the tape which people have reported on.

[09:10:08] So when she talks about a media conspiracy, I don't think she helps her husband as much as she could have by talking about the man we don't know.

COSTELLO: Right. But I think that her comments do resonate with Trump's core supporters. You know, I just got back from Ohio. I talked to some of Trump's -- well, he hasn't really told me who he's voting for, but I talked to a union guy who talked about Trump's comments on tape when he was on the bus with Billy Bush and, frankly, he doesn't care. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRYAN RICE, VICE PRESIDENT, USW LOCAL 1200: If you look back when I was a young man and I got divorced, for five years, and if somebody had video or pictures or something the way I was at one time, I'll admit I wasn't a model man. So I don't hold what somebody did years ago against him, you know, because we've all -- I've matured as I've gotten older, but there's things that I've said and done that would be terrible if my children or grandchildren heard them, you know.

I mean, it's not the way you want to treat women, but I do know how men talk in a locker room.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, David, thoughts?

DAVID SWERDLICK, ASSISTANT EDITOR, THE WASHINGTON POST: So, Carol, I agree with Lynn that Melania Trump could have spent more time in that interview talking about the private Donald Trump, the man that she knows. That would have helped more perhaps for his campaign.

That being said, I thought she came across as comfortable, credible. She came across as someone who sincerely supports her husband even now. That being said, you know, the one thing that didn't come across as credible was this idea that Billy Bush egged Donald Trump on. Donald Trump did not have to be dragged kicking and screaming, right, into that conversation. It would have been a more effective interview if it had come out a

week ago, not yesterday, but the prior Monday, right after the "Access Hollywood" tape had come out and if Donald Trump had been sitting next to her. I think that would have done more good for the Trump campaign to signal to their core supporters, like the gentleman who you just showed in that clip, that all was well with the Trump campaign, that they were focused on the issues, that they were a united front and moving forward.

A week went by with Trump lashing out at the media, lashing out at women accusing him of sexual assault. That has not done any favors for his campaign and it's reflected in these polls.

COSTELLO: Well, I will say that many voters told me in Ohio that all of this sex stuff is deflecting from Hillary Clinton's weaknesses, like the controversy that just came out that man Manu Raju was talking about. They're concerned about that e-mail controversy, especially in light of the BFI notes that appear to show a State Department employee tried to influence the Bureau on Clinton e-mails. So shouldn't the media -- and this is what voters told me, shouldn't the media be talking about that, Lynn?

SWEET: Well, we are. You know, there is -- and another way to get even more attention on the Clinton e-mails is for Donald Trump to be disciplined enough to devote his speeches to Hillary Clinton and the WikiLeaks e-mails instead of talking about baseless charges about a national rigging of an election system.

So he is a powerful messenger and he knows that. And instead of blaming the media for not doing enough or this or that, a presidential candidate has a powerful platform. He decides not to use it by going off on his tangent of a baseless charge of a rigged election system.

And as far as coverage goes, if you look at it large, if somebody wants to know about WikiLeaks, you go to the internet, there are a lot of stories being written. There is a trove of information on these e- mails and, by the way, everyone listening, you can go to wikileaks.org and look for yourself. Just type in some names, type in Hillary Clinton, type in debate, type in people in the news and the e-mails pop up.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Lynn Sweet, David Swerdlick, actually, stick around because we're going to continue the conversation after the break.

But right now, I want to take my viewers out to the White House. This is a live look from the south lawn where the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is arriving for meetings with President Obama.

These all caps off tonight with the President's final state dinner. Mario Batali will be in the kitchen, Gwen Stefani will be performing, so it should be quite the shindig.

Also to come in the NEWSROOM, so much for shying away from Trump's voter fraud warning. Looks like Mike Pence just doubled down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:18:52] COSTELLO: Donald Trump and running Mike Pence, they finally being sync. On Tuesday, Pence echoed Trump's claims that the election is rigged and he warned about voter fraud.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Voter fraud cannot be tolerated by anyone in this nation, because it disenfranchises Republicans, independents, Democrats, conservatives and liberals in America. So I encourage you, demand that our officials are upholding the integrity of the vote, but do all you can to respectfully participate in the process and ensure the outcome. The outcome we can all be proud of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. So what Pence just said belies what he just said three days ago. On Sunday, Mike Pence said the campaign would absolutely accept the results of the election.

With me now to talk about this is Lynn Sweet and David Swerdlick.

Welcome back.

So, Lynn, what does Mike Pence mean when he says, "do all you can to respectfully participate in the process and ensure the outcome, an outcome we all can be proud of"?

LYNN SWEET, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: I have to work on decoding that because it is -- it's still a suggestion that there is a problem with the process.

[09:20:07] And when you talk about voting, Carol, as you know, there are multiple jurisdictions in each area that control votes. If you have a complaint, it's usually anchored to a geographic place. You have a problem in name city, precinct and place or there's fraud here or there.

Now, there have been many studies that show that there is not in recent years any basis for saying there's widespread voter fraud, so when Pence talks about it as if something is happening now with no evidence, it is perhaps another way to turn out the base Trump vote by rallying the troops to say, you've got to be there.

Now, what some Democrats are concerned about that you could also hear those remarks perhaps amplified by supporters as a way of intimidation. So I think everyone as to, you know, very knowledgeable when they get to the polls, you know, have your -- to know what's going on.

I think local election officials might also just be saying we have to just make sure everything is right, which they monitor things always anyway. But I think you'll hear more that this may be an interpretation to rally his base and try to discourage people who might think they're going to get hassled on the polls. That's just one interpretation.

COSTELLO: I have heard that.

So, David, supporters at a Trump rally in Wisconsin, I'm going to take you back to last night, let's say they were passionate. They chanted their hatred of the media. They shouted "tell the truth" while Trump told them the system was rigged. Like Lynn said, Democrats are worried that these voters, these supporters will take their anger to the polls and interfere in the process.

Is that a valid concern?

DAVID SWERDLICK, "THE WASHINGTON POST": It is a concern. Republicans are feeding a line to Trump's core supporters that's simply wrong as Lynn noted. There are studies by Loyola Law School, by the Advancement Project, by Brennan Center showing that, yes, there are these isolated cases around the country of voter fraud. It has affected local elections. There's no evidence that it has affected any of our recent presidential elections or that it can affect any of our recent presidential elections.

Ari Berman from NPR wrote a piece for us at "The Washington Post" showing how hard it would be to rig a presidential election and the fact that the Trump campaign sort of keeps putting it out there as if this ongoing and active concern among voters is a disservice to their own supporters, disservice to Democrats, disservice to everybody, to the process, Carol.

Can I just add that it wasn't just pence who said a couple of days ago that he would respect the outcome of the election? In the first debate, Donald Trump said without any caveats that if he lost the election, he would support the outcome of the election.

So, this is a -- this is a switch by the Trump campaign, by Donald Trump, sort of laying the ground work to make excuses if it doesn't go their way.

COSTELLO: So, the Clinton camp appears to be worried about this because they just released this ad. It features "The Good Wife" actor Josh Charles, who plays lawyer on that show.

SWERDLICK: Right.

COSTELLO: The ad is calling for lawyers to help in key battleground states. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, HILLARY FOR AMERICA)

JOSH CHARLES, ACTOR: Honestly, I don't know anything about the law unless it's written for me. It's make-believe, kind of like Donald Trump's claims that he can help our economy.

But you, you're an actual lawyer or law student which is basically the same thing. So, this year, you can make an actual difference like these lawyers here. I'm asking you to join the Hillary for American Victory Counsel, so you can do important work like staffing voter protection hotlines, serving as a poll observer, or proving snacks for celebrities like me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're not going to do that.

CHARLES: OK.

The point is, this isn't a job for actors. It's a job for lawyers and law students.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So, you get the gist of this, right? Right, Lynn? The Clinton camp wants lawyers manning the phones in case any voter is interfered with, you know, they'll have someone to call to ask for advice.

Is this necessary?

SWEET: It's routine in real campaigns, even without this controversy, Carol, to have squads of lawyers to go out for ballot integrity, voter protection. And they're taking it to another level, including, by the way, to bring snacks. So, this is just having a call for even more lawyers to staff more precincts.

That's where you detect problems. That's where you run to court for a restraining order to keep a poll open later, or if there's questions about ballots, to make sure that they're properly handled, why the matters adjudicated or somebody's challenged as to be able to vote.

So these are things that if the Trump campaign were highly organized, they would be doing anyway and especially -- so let's just point out what's not happening in the Trump campaign. If you really thought there's going to be widespread voter fraud and the election is stolen, where are the squads of lawyers for Trump out there announcing that we're going to be in thousands of precincts in election states?

[09:25:08] That's what organization is. That's what we're not seeing.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there.

Lynn Sweet, David Swerdlick, thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: Hillary Clinton pumping out big names and big money to historically red states. Will it pay off?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We are moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Traders are hoping U.S. stocks will follow a global market rally.

So, let's head to the New York Stock Exchange and CNNMoney business correspondent Alison Kosik.

Hi, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNNMONEY BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. And as the opening bell rings, we expect to see stocks rebound off of

yesterday's losses. And at the same time, investors have their eye on the presidential election.