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Presidential Debate Set-up and Rules; Candidate's Debate Performance; Undercover Video. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 19, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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


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[14:00:18] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here we go. Vegas, baby. Here we are in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN live special coverage here.

It is debate day. We are in a city world renowned for its prize- winning fights and the prize tonight could not get any bigger. In just a couple of hours it will be Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton in the final presidential debate here on campus at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, UNLV. Thank you for having us.

Let's be honest, the gloves came off long, long ago, but no presidential candidate in modern history has taken the pummeling of scandals and of controversies that Donald Trump has received this month alone. And the damage is showing in the polls. So much so that CNN's brand new electoral map details a dominating road to victory for Hillary Clinton.

I've got John King with me on that. We'll talk to him and the panel in just a moment.

But, still, despite all that he is facing, if Trump has proven anything in this election, it is the fact that he can and often does deny expectation.

So with that, let's begin with Sunlen Serfaty. She is here at UNLV at the debate site.

Sunlen, give me a lay of the land and the rules, please.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, we spent some time earlier today out there on the debate floor inside the debate hall to get a sense of the room. And I have to tell you, it certainly felt like the calm before the storm. But we wanted to show you this, the details, the setup and the stage where this is all going to go down tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: This here is the stage where Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will make their closing arguments tonight. And you'll see here that this is back to the formal podium-style debate that we saw in the first debate between the two of them. Right here is Donald Trump's podium. That over there is Hillary Clinton's podium. The same stage positioning that they've had in the previous two debates.

You will hear from Hillary Clinton first tonight. That was decided by coin toss. She will get the very first question.

I want to flip this around and show you the view that the candidates will be seeing when they're up there behind the podium. About a thousand people here in the audience tonight.

And here's how this will all go down. There will be six 15-minute segments, each with a particular focus - debt and entitlements, immigration, the economy, Supreme Court, foreign hot spots, and fitness to be president. Each candidate will have two minutes to answer each of those questions, then it will lead into open discussion period for the rest of the 15-minute segment. There will be no bathroom breaks, no commercial breaks, a solid 90 minutes here under these bright lights.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: And each of the candidates' families will be sitting in the front row. They'll be sitting lined up into their line of sight. And when you're in the room, Brooke, you get the sense how close these families are truly sitting. It's only a matter of feet. Just that small aisle separates them.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Sunlen, thank you so much. Sunlen Serfaty outside of the debate hall.

And now let's talk about the new CNN electoral map. This is based upon the latest state and the latest national polling. Now, keep in mind, the magic number here is 270. A candidate needs 270 electoral college votes to win. And this latest map here shows an even bigger victory in the Electoral College for Hillary Clinton. But remember, as you see the numbers here, there are still 20 days to go, 20 days until Election Day.

Joining me now here in Vegas, I have CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, CNN senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar, "Inside Politics" anchor and Mr. Magic Wall himself, John King, and CNN political analyst Kirsten Powers.

So, awesome having you all here. John King, I defer to you on all things maps. So walk me through why this is looking even better for the Hillary camp.

JOHN KING, ANCHOR, CNN'S "INSIDE POLITICS": The debate season has been quite damning to Donald Trump's prospects for putting together the nuts and bolts, the math, 270 electoral votes.

Let's go back to the map a little bit and look why it's so significant. Number one, if you look at the map heading in - if we were having this conversation on September 26th, Hillary Clinton still would have been ahead in this race, but we - it was - the race was trending Donald Trump's. He had come to two points in the poll of polls. He is leading in some national polls. If you look at the map there, we have Nevada now, we're leading it blue. It was tied or Donald Trump was ahead the day of the first debate. Florida we now lean it blue. Donald Trump was tied or ahead the day of the first debate. Virginia, we lean blue. He was within five. Pennsylvania we lean blue. He was within five. Not anymore. Double digit leads for Clinton in Pennsylvania. Double digit leads in Virginia. And today what we're doing is Nevada and Florida, we have moved from toss-up to lean Democratic. That is enormous. Donald Trump can't win without Florida.

BALDWIN: Tell me those two states again.

KING: Nevada and Florida -

BALDWIN: Nevada and Florida.

KING: We've now put in the lean Democrat.

BALDWIN: Yes.

KING: Twenty-nine electoral votes in Florida. There's just no way. It's impossible to get Donald Trump to 270. So if you look at that -

[14:05:02] BALDWIN: In 20 days you say it's -

KING: It's - he could - I'm not saying he can't change them in 20 days.

BALDWIN: Yes.

KING: You noted at the top of the show, this has been the most unpredictable, volatile election. So I'm not saying it's impossible, but it is very hard to turn - he has to turn a lot of aircraft carriers.

BALDWIN: Yes.

KING: He's not just turning one, he's turning many aircraft carriers. And it's hard because you want to turn Florida. Florida is a certain kind of electorate. You have a big Latino population. You have a lot of independents. It's a more moderate state. So you have to turn Florida.

Well then how do you turn Pennsylvania, where you're looking at a different electorate? And so that's a different strategy and more time and more energy. And he just has Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

If we can go back to the - back to the map for a minute, though, this is what's important. What we've taken away from Donald Trump, we've given Hillary Clinton, for now in this - our projection, Florida and Nevada, but we've taken away Utah and Arizona. This is what makes this election so stunning. Those are ruby-red Republican states. Mitt Romney got 72 percent of the vote in Utah in 2012. And so we're saying now there's a possibility Clinton could win, a possibility a third party conservative could would. Still possible Donald Trump wins Utah. But the fact that we are 20 days from an election - BALDWIN: Yes.

KING: And the Republicans have to worry about Utah and Arizona tells you all you need to know. Right now, you mentioned at the top, Clinton has a nine-point national lead if you average the most recent national polls. Think about our polarized politics going back to Bill Clinton. This is unthinkable that any party's candidate is plus nine. The Obama-Romney race on the day of the third debate was tied. This race is plus nine.

BALDWIN: The math is key. You mentioned the "s" word being strategy. And in strategy I'm thinking about the debate tonight and I'm looking at you, Brianna Keilar, because I'm thinking of some of these - we'll call them semi surprise guests. The cat's out of the bag on some of these folks, including the Trump team is bringing in President Obama's half-brother, you know, lives in D.C., Kenya -

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Kenyan born, yes.

BALDWIN: Kenyan born. And - and, you know, he's someone who is supporting Donald Trump.

KEILAR: Yes.

BALDWIN: And perhaps the Trump folks are hoping that this will be a dis for Democrats and here's an Obama who would support Trump. Would it work?

KEILAR: This one is baffling to me because, on one hand, you have Hillary Clinton, who has so many Republicans who have come over and have supported her. But this isn't the same kind of thing, right? Malik Obama clearly has a big beef with his half-brother Barack Obama. And by inviting this guy to the debate, I think that Donald Trump is ticking off Obama supporters. Hillary Clinton is trying to bring along some of these Obama supporters. Why would you do something to motivate them, especially when you sort of look at, you know, his background. This is a guy who dedicated his 2012 book to Moammar Gadhafi for making the world a better place. OK, this is not the same thing as saying, well, Michael Hayden supports me, right? This is not the same thing. This is something to try to get under someone's skin, but I don't even - does this get under Hillary Clinton's skin? I don't think so.

BALDWIN: What -

KEILAR: Maybe - maybe if you were debating Barack Obama. And even then I don't get this.

BALDWIN: What could potentially get under her skin, Kirsten, is what we've been talking about in the news with regard to WikiLeaks, the back and forth between the FBI and State and how she could be on the defensive when she's asked some of these tougher questions tonight. So off of the potential surprise guests and I don't know if Hillary Clinton will even care who's sitting in the audience if she's focused on the issue at hand -

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I don't - yes.

BALDWIN: How does she handle all of that and the potential for Trump to bring up her health, according to "The Times"?

POWERS: Well, I think - look, I think that he will look bad if he brings up the health issue and I'm sure she's already - you know, she's been spending five days doing debate prep. I'm sure that was one of the questions. And so, you know, I think - the truth is, Trump has some good issues to prosecute her with. The thing is, he hasn't been that great at doing that because he sort of gets sidetracked by these other sort of little grievances that he has. And so I think if - if he did stay focused and did go after her on those issues, then it - then it - potentially he - you know, he may be able to lay a glove on her a little bit and score some points. But can it change the trajectory of the race at this point? I think that that part is highly unlikely.

BALDWIN: One of the lines we've been hearing for Trump, and especially louder this last week, he's almost quadrupling down on the election is rigged, there's widespread voter fraud, even though you even have the John Kasichs of the world, right, saying this morning that's like saying nobody landed on the moon.

I do want to play some sound. We just turned this in. This is Ivanka Trump now on the record being asked about whether she thinks the election is rigged. Here she was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: It's been a struggle (ph) with a lot of people on the conversation in the last week has been your father's accusation that it's rigged. Do you believe that this election is rigged?

IVANKA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S DAUGHTER: I will tell you that the media has been vicious. And, look, there's a lot of business people in the room. We've all had articles written about us by the business press that we say, hmm, you know, that wasn't exactly fair, you know, the fact check, there was a few things off. But, you know, this has been - this has been a different level. I had - and, you know, we - look, we take it personally. Obviously there's some things said that are deeply personal, but just, you know, in a - on a less emotional example, this week or the - in the last couple of days I - I saw on the front cover of "The New York Times" a story talking about how the Trump brand was being decimated due to the campaign.

[14:10:04] Our team had provided statistics as it relates to our hotel company, for example, showing traffic patterns and actual analytics and data. They insisted on using quotes from random people. I have no idea where they called. They chose to use a booking engine that represented a total last year of 16 bookings. But they didn't say that. They said the decrease in bookings, this booking engine which doesn't typically book at luxury hotels, and across we have - we have so many hotels. We have thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands (INAUDIBLE) a year and they took a company that booked 16 room nights with us and didn't say that but instead said that our bookings went down 38 percent last year. And we told them, we said that this isn't a relevant metric. They only did 16 room nights. They're not - they're not - it's not Expedia. You know, this is not a relevant metric by which to judge our performance. We gave them the facts. All they had from us wasn't the quote where we actually shared the facts of our performance. They had the quote that we think this is a mischaracterization of how our business is doing and they didn't mention the lack of volume that this provides.

So it's very - you know, it is demoralizing when you're working very hard and you have teams who are working tremendously hard to read these type of things. So I think that the bias is very, very real and I don't think I would have said this to you even a year ago. I don't - but I've just - I've seen it too many times. It's tremendous.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They, obviously, the Trump -

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right, so let's come in. This was this - this is this event. She's speaking. She's being interviewed. And so specifically from what I could hear off the top, I heard the word "media"

KEILAR: Yes.

BALDWIN: I want to know if you - both of you - Doug, I want to hear your voice as well, media. So maybe not the polls, but it's the media that's skewed everything.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, I think that's what the Trump light crowd is saying, it's the media that's rigging things. But Donald Trump himself is saying the whole system is rotten and rigged. And it was amazing to hear a president of the United States, Obama, rebuke him as a whiny human being that before a vote's even cast, to start discounting the entire free and fair election process of the United States. That's one of the crown jewels of what it means to be a Democrat. And your map is not going to please Donald Trump, He was liking your map for a while, but that map shows he's becoming like Donald Dukakis, there's a hemorrhaging.

BALDWIN: What do you expect him on the rig line tonight, because he has so much other material to go with, will he go there?

KING: Well, there's no reason to think he's going to change his mind because his vice presidential candidate, a whole bunch of Republican governors and secretaries of states, his daughter there tried to turn it to the media, his campaign manager, this morning, tried to turn it to the media, but Donald Trump keeps saying there is widespread electoral fraud happening now - happening at polling places. He means rigging the vote. And he keeps saying it. There is zero, I repeat zero evidence of any widespread change in election, electoral fraud in any of our lifetimes at this table when we're talking about a presidential election, a race for governor, a race for Congress, it just doesn't happen. He keeps saying it. Why? Is he reacting because he's losing, he has to blame somebody else? I don't - I don't - I don't read minds.

BALDWIN: Planting a seed.

POWERS: Yes. KING: But I would say that what his staff now, including his daughter's saying, is often very different from what the candidate says. We're 20 days from a presidential election. The voters should listen to the candidates.

BALDWIN: Go ahead.

POWERS: Well, I think part of the reason that he's saying it is, all he really has left is his base, right? I mean to have - to not have a total humiliation, at least have them come out. The things that he's saying are things that are very popular with the base. They are always complaining about voter fraud. They are convinced that there are people - that Democrats are selling elections. If you tune into talk radio at any point, this is what they've been talking about for the last four years probably. So - and they talk - and so I think that he's really trying to get them and so he's excited and engaged by giving them what they want.

BALDWIN: OK.

KEILAR: But it's fascinating that he is saying it's the polls, that it's actually the system, and there's no basis in fact for that. He's talking about widespread voter fraud. And he -

BALDWIN: No, there's no basis for fact. Let's say that again, there's no basis for fact.

KEILAR: There is no basis in fact. Even - Republican polling officials are even taking offense because they're in charge of this in a lot of areas. It is fascinating that his daughter is completely not backing him up on that.

KING: Quickly.

BALDWIN: Please. Yes.

KING: If there is such widespread election fraud, the Republicans have won everything except the presidency the last 10 years. They took the Senate back. They took the House. They have 30 governors. They've gained almost a thousand state legislative seats. So if somebody's rigging the system, you'd think you'd rig it for the people who are winning, right? Besides the presidency, the Republicans have won everything.

BRINKLEY: Good point.

BALDWIN: You're making a little bit of a sense there - a bit of sense.

KING: It's not rigged. It's not rigged, period.

BALDWIN: Thank you all so much. Again, the debate, 9:00 tonight here on CNN.

By the way, caught up tape, there's this new video that shows a democratic operative talking about inciting violence at Trump rallies, calling Trump supporters psychopaths and saying they're easy to, quote/unquote "pop off." We'll get response from the Hillary Clinton campaign on all of that.

Plus, as Trump faces allegations of misconduct or worse from now accusers coming forward in the double digits, you have Trump's legal counsel, he's trying out a new defense. He says Trump would never be attracted to these women. We'll discuss all of that.

You're watching CNN's special live coverage here from UNLV ahead of the big debate night.

[14:15:10] We'll be right back.

To the band.

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BALDWIN: Ladies and gentlemen, it is the UNLV marching band. How fun is this? This band has performed for President Bush, President Clinton and, yes, even Richard Simmons. How's that for some trivia for you.

Great to be here in Las Vegas on campus here at UNLV. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN.

It is a huge, huge day today. Tonight, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will face off for the final presidential debate. Both candidates have an entire campaign of controversies to confront. But just as Hillary Clinton is huddled in her final debate prep, an undercover video is appearing, it's leading to the ouster of not just one but actually two Democratic operatives hired by the DNC. The video appears to show Democratic staffers explaining how to provoke Donald Trump's supporters into violence at his rallies.

[14:20:14] So I have Drew Griffin standing by. He's our investigative correspondent who can address this video.

Important to note here, the video comes from a discredited conservative activist who has been criticized for strategically editing I know video footage in the past, Drew.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: He's certainly being discredited by the Democrats, that is for sure. He has a conservative bent and he does a lot of work undercover. And it's undercover, Brooke, where he got this really disturbing conversations, candid conversations with these two Democratic operatives.

Let me tell you what's going on here. The Democratic National Committee hired Democracy Partners, a group that gets out counter protests and events at all Mike Pence and Donald Trump events across the nation. That's legitimate political stuff that goes on. What is disturbing is what took place undercover when these guys were having candid conversations when they said basically they were training people and telling people and putting people in position to try to incite violence at these Trump rallies for the sole purpose of getting good press. Listen to what one of these now - I guess you would say fired people has to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, honestly, it is not hard to get some of these (EXPLETIVE DELETED) to pop off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a matter of showing up to want to get into the rally in a Planned Parenthood t-shirt or, you know, Trump is a Nazi, you know, you can - you can message to draw them out and draw them to punch you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: So that was Scott Foval and he has since been separated from the work at Democracy Partners, Brooke. The guy who ran the entire operation is a guy named Bob Cramer, long time Democrat supporter. He's actually married to a Chicago Democratic congresswoman. He has also removed himself from doing any work on the Clinton campaign, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Drew, when were the videos taken? How old are they?

GRIFFIN: You know, I don't have the exact timing on these, but they were taken, according to James O'Keefe, the filmmaker, within the last year or so. That is what he says. We don't have any time stamps on these. And CNN has not independently looked at the raw video yet.

BALDWIN: OK. Drew, thank you so much.

Let's get the Clinton campaign immediate response. Kristina Schake is with me, deputy communications director for Hillary for America.

Kristina, good to see you in Vegas.

KRISTINA SCHAKE, DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Great to be here.

BALDWIN: Just quickly off of the reporting, the James O'Neill (ph) tape, I have to ask, did the Clinton campaign have anything to do with this?

SCHAKE: Absolutely not. We didn't participate in this in any way. This is not something that we would ever support. Actually, I think it's also important to point out that when the GOP convention was taking place in Cleveland, there were lots of reports there were going to be protests and unrest. We encouraged our supporters not to participate in any way in those protests and actually to spent their time out there registering voters. But this is not something that -

BALDWIN: But she has. She has called Trump out for violence in his rallies -

SCHAKE: Certainly.

BALDWIN: But the videos show that Democrats are not angels either.

SCHAKE: But let's keep in mind, as you said in your reporting, this is from a discredited source. This is somebody who's actually a convicted criminal. Somebody who has doctored these kind of videos before. With that being said, this is not something that we would ever participate in, not something that we would ever support. This was a contractor to the DNC and we think they took the appropriate action.

BALDWIN: OK. On the issues, the questions she'll certainly face tonight from Chris Wallace, the new, you know, the WikiLeaks information that's come out that this - the Podesta material, the Wall Street transcripts and, of course, the back and forth between FBI and State, not to mention Chris Wallace. I mean she sort of stepped in it when she was talking to him a couple of months ago on Fox. Has she, after all these many months, perfected her answer?

SCHAKE: You know, let's just keep in mind first and foremost about this WikiLeaks, this is a criminal hack. As Senator Marco Rubio came out and said today that Republicans should not be using this for political purposes. This, we know from U.S. intelligence agencies, was a hack at the direction of the Russian government trying to influence the United States election. That should terrify every American.

BALDWIN: But it doesn't dismiss the reality of some of the revelations.

SCHAKE: But, you know, let's just say -

BALDWIN: You can't downplay that.

SCHAKE: But let's just say, first and foremost, we're not going to say that these are accurate. We don't know what was doctored or what wasn't. But keep in mind, again, this is a criminal hack that was at the direction of the Russian government trying to influence this election, trying to put it out I think, obviously, to try to distract us, to try to get this kind of coverage in the days before the election.

BALDWIN: But she will be asked about it.

SCHAKE: Certainly.

BALDWIN: Has she perfected her answer?

[14:25:00] SCHAKE: She is ready to talk about whatever they - Chris Wallace wants to ask her tonight. You know, she is really looking forward to this debate tonight, Brooke. This is her chance. The first two debates were very meaningful. They haven't really - they've really mattered to American voters. We saw that in the aftermath of that. She knows this is her chance tonight to get out there and talk to millions of American voters directly about her experience, her values, and what she would do as their president.

BALDWIN: I happened to be on a flight into Vegas last night -

SCHAKE: Yes.

BALDWIN: With, of all people, Steve Bannon -

SCHAKE: OK.

BALDWIN: Who's the Trump CEO - the campaign CEO. I introduced myself, as any journalist would, getting off the plane.

SCHAKE: Yes.

BALDWIN: And I - and I - you know, he was - he was happy to answer a couple of questions with me very informally. And I asked him, you know, tell me, why are you putting forth this President Obama Kenyan- born half-brother who is supporting Trump? And he said to me, "oh, Brooke, that's just an appetizer."

SCHAKE: You know what, we have no idea what stunts they'll pull tonight. I think we've seen there's no low the Trump campaign won't go to. But what they won't do, and they haven't done throughout this entire campaign, is talk to the American people about real solutions to their problems. I mean we've seen time and again with Trump distractions, stunts. He did that at the last debate. We fully expect him to do that tonight.

BALDWIN: You expect that?

SCHAKE: Well, you know, I think what the American people want to hear out of these candidates is, what are their plans? How are they going to make the economy work for everyone? How are they going to lower the cost of college and prescription drugs? That's what people want to hear and that's what Hillary Clinton is prepared to come and talk about this evening.

BALDWIN: One more note from Bannon last night. I said, well, if in the case Trump loses the election, what will November 9th look like for you? What will your response be to me? And he continues to point out the crowds at the Trump rallies, the anger and he said to me, "Brooke" - as we are even hearing chants out here - "lock her up." He said, "lock her up." How would you respond to Mr. Bannon?

SCHAKE: I would just say this is the way they run their campaign. You know, again, it's distractions and stunts. It's not putting forth a real vision for this country of how to bring people together and get things done. That's who Hillary Clinton is that's what voters are going to see from her tonight at this debate. She is really looking forward to the opportunity to get out and talk to people about her experience, what she's done for children throughout her life as a children's advocate and what her real plans are to make a difference in their life as president.

BALDWIN: Last question. We heard from Trump. He made news saying that he would propose an amendment to have term limits for members of Congress. And that's something I even talked with the Democrat running against John McCain who said, you know, what, I agree with that. I think of other Americans who would as well. Is that maybe somewhere she might agree with Mr. Trump? Would she agree to term limits?

SCHAKE: You know what, Brooke, I think this is just the latest stunt. He has said many times that he's against term limits. Now that he's in a fight with Paul Ryan, he seems to be taking this on and want term limits.

BALDWIN: But what would she think?

SCHAKE: I think this is more of a fight between him and the Republican leadership. It's - his campaign has continued to flounder. He's just taking on more and more fights. But, you know, that's not a part of her platform. But what is, and from the very first event that she did in Iowa, when she started this campaign, where she talked about campaign finance reform and how important that is to get money out of politics and have transparency in the system. And she said in her first 100 days she will propose a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. She is absolutely devoted to that and she thinks that's the right solution.

BALDWIN: But with all due respect, Kristina, would you answer the question, would she support congressional term limits?

SCHAKE: It's not a part of her platform. What she thinks is really important is campaign finance reform.

BALDWIN: OK.

SCHAKE: And she is absolutely an advocate. She has said she will get that done.

BALDWIN: OK, Kristina Schake, thank you so much for your time. Good luck.

SCHAKE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Good luck tonight.

Coming up next, a big question I know many of you have asked, would Donald Trump concede if he loses the election? His daughter, Ivana, just answered that very question. Stand by for that.

I'm Brooke Baldwin here in Nevada. Cue the band. You're watching CNN's special live coverage here in Las Vegas.

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