Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump's Biggest Challenge is Women's' Vote; Fiery One Liners & Zings at Presidential Debate; Clinton Calls Trump Putin's Puppet for Trump's Refusal to Believe Russia Behind Hacking. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 20, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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


[14:30:00] MARIA ECHAVESTE, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF UNDER CLINTON: What I'm saying is that Donald Trump's idea of how to create jobs is to have a tax cut for the wealthy and have yet another version of trickle-down economy -- economics, which has been shown over and over again not to be the way to create jobs. Hillary's plan is much more nuanced and it is focused on finding those middle-class -- creating those middle-class jobs, providing the training, the skills, ensuring those industries in the future are the ones our workforce will be prepared for.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Appreciate your voices. Marco and Maria --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: -- thank you.

MARCO GUTIERREZ, FOUNDER, LATINOS FOR TRUMP: Thank you very much.

BALDWIN: Got to move on.

Any moment now, Ivanka Trump will be speaking at a campaign event in Wisconsin making a final pitch to voters. We'll bring that to you live.

Also I'll speak live with Donald Trump's daughter-in-law. Her reaction to the debate in Las Vegas, his comments about women, much more.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:35:30] BALDWIN: 19 days to go, not that anyone is counting here. One of Donald Trump's biggest challenges is his disadvantage with women. Last night's third and final presidential debate was another opportunity for him to broaden the base, make his case to those undecided female vote, but then he said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's part of my commitment to raise taxes on the wealthy. My Social Security payroll contribution will go up, as will Donald's, assuming he can't figure out how to get out of it, but what we want to do so to replenish --

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Such a nasty woman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That, "You're such a nasty woman," which is where I'd like to begin.

Joining me to talk about this, two women who know Donald Trump very, very well. Lara Trump is his daughter-in-law. She's married to Eric Trump. And Lynn Patton is vice president of the Eric Trump Foundation.

So, ladies, first and foremost, I know you're functioning on zero sleep so appreciate you being here today. Thank you.

Lara, let begin with you.

He's under fire for saying, "You're a nasty woman." Democrats are pouncing on it. You heard it. How did it sound to you?

LARA TRUMP, DAUGHTER-IN-LAW OF DONALD TRUMP: Look, Donald Trump is an equal opportunity offender. My sister-in-law, Ivanka, said that one time. If he feels like someone is coming at him unfairly, he'll attack them. It doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman. With this case it was Hillary Clinton and he felt the need to say something.

BALDWIN: Appreciate you saying equal opportunity offender, but it a little before that he said, I respect women the most, or he said nobody has more respect for women than I do, nobody." Then he says, "You're a nasty woman."

LARA TRUMP: Wherever you look at Donald Trump's track record with women, look at the Trump organization. Donald Trump employs more female executives than male executives. He's always paid women the same as men. In fact, he was one of the first maybe in the country but definitely in New York to have a female head of his construction. A woman was head of the construction of Trump Tower.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Barbara Rez (ph), who we had on two weeks ago, who says, no way, Jose, would she ever vote for Trump.

LARA TRUMP: But this is a man who always championed women. There's another narrative people suggest but that's why Lynn and I decided to speak on behalf of the man we know cares about women.

BALDWIN: We're just talking words. You're pointing out action in hiring women.

Lynn, to you.

You were in the room. You can hear the laughter, though, from some in the audience when he said "nobody has more respect for women than laughter. LYNN PATTON, VICE PRESIDENT, ERIC TRUMP FOUNDATION: Well, you know

what, if I can piggyback on the name calling, you know, I would challenge first Hillary Clinton to respond to that as well. She called half of the American people deplorable. She called Bernie Sanders a doofus. She called his supporters --

BALDWIN: John Podesta did.

PATTON: -- basement dwellers. So unless I'm dating the wrong guy, those, last I checked, are not terms of endearment.

BALDWIN: They're not.

PATTON: And quite frankly --

BALDWIN: You're right.

PATTON: -- I'm also -- I'm also --

BALDWIN: But the issue is women and trying to reach out to the women to vote for him on November 8th.

PATTON: Yeah, and you know what? Here it is. I'm proof positive that not only does Mr. Trump hire strong women, he raises them. Ivanka, Tiffany, excellent role models. It's clear he instills the same respect and appreciation in his sons by virtue of the fact that they marry strong women, too. Lara, Vanessa, true examples of that.

BALDWIN: I don't doubt that. I don't know these ladies personally. I wouldn't challenge you. You know them.

But, Lara, I have to challenge you on -- when Donald Trump -- when the issue of these women coming forth came up, and he again reiterated, "Lies, not true," Clinton campaign who started this whole thing, which to my knowledge from the Clinton campaign that's false. The Hillary Clinton campaign jumps in and says, "He's even taken the accusers to task on their looks." And he said, "No, no, no, I have never done that." But he has.

Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Well, he held a number of big rallies where he said that he could not possibly have done those things to those women because they were not attractive enough for --

TRUMP: I did not say that.

-- them to be assaulted.

TRUMP: I did not say that.

CLINTON: And he went after me on the plane. Yeah, I'm going to go after her. Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you. Take a look. You take a look. Look at her. Look at her words. You

tell me what you think. I don't think so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So he says one thing in one place, one thing in another. How do you reconcile that?

[14:40:05] LARA TRUMP: Look, Donald Trump has vehemently denied any of these accusations as completely false. I stand behind him.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Can you understand why people are questioning that? If he says they were false but, yet, he says at the debate last night he never said anything about their looks.

LARA TRUMP: I think that's subjective. You can take his words different ways, I understand how you're suggesting they were taken. Some people might take them a different way. All you have to do it look at the fact that this is a billionaire, a famous billionaire we've known for over 30 years.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: How has he been with you?

LARA TRUMP: He has been incredible with me. He's been incredible with me. In fact, he was so happy wherever I said, "I'd like to help with the campaign." I mean, I'm his daughter-in-law and I know the man very well. And he said, "Go do whatever you want. I trust you." He put a lot of trust and faith in me, and I appreciate it. He's always championed everything I've done, personally, professionally.

But look at the timing of these, Brooke. It's not a secret to the American people that it looks ridiculous four weeks before an election when a man has been famous --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Well, you also have the tape that came out of him saying he would grab the "you know what."

(CROSSTALK)

LARA TRUMP: And never before have we heard accusations until four weeks before an election.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Lynn, to Lara's point on how Mr. Trump has been with her, how respectful he has been with her through the years, how enthusiastic. Why don't we see more of that Donald Trump publicly?

PATTON: Well, you know what? I think we do. I just think the media doesn't show it. BALDWIN: No, don't say the media.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: I would love to show it. I'd love to talk to Trump. The issue is --

(CROSSTALK)

PATTON: I do challenge you, Brooke, a little bit because --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: -- the attractiveness of his accusers, it doesn't look good.

PATTON: When you think, though, Brooke, let's be honest, when you think of the level of coverage given to these unsubstantiated claims as opposed to the substantiated information being disseminated by WikiLeaks on a daily basis, it's insulting. It's a personal affront to the American people. They want to talk about the issues. The good news is I know voters are smarter than the media thinks and know a smokescreen when they see it.

What the Clinton campaign is trying to do is parade out this Cosby- esque parade of women with accusations hoping that where there's smoke there's fire. But unlike Cosby, Mr. Trump has never been accused through a pattern of years of ever assaulting anybody until about three weeks ago, like Lara said, so I think that pretty much speaks for itself.

BALDWIN: Lynn, I have never compared, I've never even brought up Bill Cosby in regard to Donald Trump. You did. I agree with you. I think the voter is smart and it's up for them to judge.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Last question, Lara --

(CROSSTALK)

PATTON: And also, let's not compile the two. What I'm trying to say is that he's completely different and the media is trying to make it appear as though there is a Bill Cosby-esque parade of women coming across but, again, unlike him --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Well, I'm having both of you on --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: -- you have major respect for Donald Trump, so this is your opportunity to tell me how wonderful and respectful he is.

And on that, if I may, Lara, I want to end with you. You've been on the planes with Donald Trump. I would love a story. After a debate, you're on the plane, what is he like? Is he talking about the debate? Is he asking for your thoughts? Is he -- I don't know.

LARA TRUMP: Yeah, well, after every debate, we're all very energized and he is always talking to all of us, what did we think, what did we like, what is our feedback.

BALDWIN: He is?

LARA TRUMP: He is, of course. We're his family. He knows he can trust us. And we're all very candid and we offer up our thoughts on things. And if they replay the debates, we'll watch that on the plane as well. It's a very energetic atmosphere, as you can imagine. But it's great. Honestly, one of the best things about this process, as nasty as it's gotten, is it has brought us closer together as a family. And I'm really grateful for that. It's been great.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

LARA TRUMP: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Lara Trump, thank you so much.

Lynn Patton, thank you as well.

PATTON: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Ladies, appreciate it.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:48:33] BALDWIN: Zing. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton landed fiery one liners, comebacks and zingers at their third and final presidential debate. Here is a look to the more memorable lines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You do have experience. I'd say the one thing you have over me is experience, but it's bad experience.

CLINTON: I'd be happy to compare what we do with the Trump Foundation, which took money from other people and bought a six-foot portrait of Donald. Who does that?

TRUMP: I sat in my apartment on a very beautiful hotel down the street known as --

CLINTON: Made with Chinese steel.

When it comes to the wall Donald talks about building, he went to Mexico, had a meeting with the Mexican president, didn't even raise it. He choked.

TRUMP: But we have some bad hombres here and we're going to get them out. CLINTON: And on the day when I was in the situation room monitoring the raid that brought Osama bin Laden to justice, he was hosting the "Celebrity Apprentice."

He didn't get an Emmy for his TV program three years in a row and he started tweeting that the Emmys were rigged.

TRUMP: I should have gotten it.

I don't know Putin. I have no idea --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I never met Putin. This is not my best friend.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Putin, from everything I see, has no respect for this person.

CLINTON: Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president of the United States.

TRUMP: No puppet, no puppet.

CLINTON: And it's pretty clear --

TRUMP: You're the puppet.

CLINTON: My Social Security payroll contribution will go up as will Donald's, assuming he can't figure out how to get out of it, but what we want to do is to replenish --

TRUMP: Such a nasty woman.

I will tell you at the time. I'll keep you in suspense.

CLINTON: Well, Chris, let me respond to that because that's horrifying.

TRUMP: And wait until you see what happens in the coming years.

Lots of luck, Hillary. Thanks a lot for doing a great job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:50:15] BALDWIN: In the history books.

Coming up next, Donald Trump says he refuses to believe Russia is behind the hacks around the election and Hillary slammed him by calling him Vladimir Putin's puppet. We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Donald Trump accusing Hillary Clinton of, quote, "playing with Russia," suggesting her presidency would risk starting a nuclear war. Hillary Clinton firings back with accusations that Donald Trump is simply Vladimir Putin's puppet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Look, Putin -- from everything I see has no respect for this person

CLINTON: Well, that's because he'd rather have puppet as president.

TRUMP: No puppet, no puppet.

CLINTON: It's pretty clear --

TRUMP: You're the puppet.

CLINTON: It's pretty clear you won't admit that the Russians --

TRUMP: You're the puppet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Jill Dougherty, former Moscow bureau chief for CNN, now a global fellow for the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Jill, nice to see you.

Hillary Clinton referenced 17 intelligence agencies both military and civilian who say Russia was indeed behind the hack of those Democratic e-mails. Donald Trump says quote our country has no idea. What do you make of what he said?

[14:55:25] JILL DOUGHERTY, GLOBAL FELLOW, WOODROW WILSON CENTER: He's puzzling in a way because he's had these briefings presidential candidates do and the director of National Intelligence and Homeland Security have said that all the evidence that they have points to the fact that it is being done by the Russians and in fact it's being done by the highest levels of the Russian government. Now Hillary Clinton last night even said it's Vladimir Putin. But let's take that out of the equation. It's puzzling why Donald Trump would say, "I don't believe that," because, again, it comes from intelligence briefings. The only thing that I can possibly think is either he doesn't believe those briefings or it could be part of the "don't trust the government, everybody lies" type of approach.

BALDWIN: Donald Trump last night said what we've heard from before. He doesn't know Putin, he's not friends with Putin, but he said it wouldn't hurt if he were to become president if he were to have better relations. He condemned foreign interference in the election. Does Russia have a history, Jill, of interfering in elections?

DOUGHERTY: Well, they have interfered in countries around the world. In fact, in Europe, you could argue there is at least financial interest, that they have that do tend to, to influence elections in Europe. This is unprecedented because you haven't had cyber war and the ability to do this historically. But I can tell you Brooke, there's an important thing to remember. Everything Donald Trump says is very much what President Putin would like to say about the United States election system, which is it's rigged, it's not -- it's fraudulent, et cetera. Don't forget that Vladimir Putin has his own presidential election coming up in 2018 and that, in a sense, has already started, so if he can kind of preempt early, inoculate everything by saying, look, the U.S. is going to criticize me for our elections, but look at their elections. And President Putin does this all the time. "You think you have democracy? Look at the electoral college." He always using that. So you have to look at some of this in the way that president Putin is using it in terms of protecting his own interest in his own campaign coming up.

BALDWIN: Context.

Jill Dougherty, thank you.

DOUGHERTY: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, moments ago, Donald Trump says he would be willing to accept the result of the election, but there was a catch. What did he say? We have it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)