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Clinton, Trump Spar in Final Presidential Debate; Philippine President on State Visit to China; Typhoon Slams Philippines; Chibok School Girls Return Home. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired October 20, 2016 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00] JOHN VAUSE, CNN NEWSROOM L.A. ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. Thank you for joining us, I'm John Vause. This is NEWSROOM L.A. Down in the polls, and with the struggling campaign, Donald Trump, the republican nominee for President of the United States has refused to commit to accepting the outcome of the election. And when he said it, there was an audible gasp from the audience at the third presidential debate in Las Vegas. Trump appears to have broken more than two centuries of American political tradition and a peaceful transfer of power.
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR, DEBATE MODERATOR: Do you make the same commitment that you will absolutely -- sir, that you will absolutely accept the results of this election?
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will look at it at the time. I'm not looking at anything now. I'll look at it at the time.
VAUSE: CNN's senior reporter for media and politics, Dylan Byers, joins us now live from Las Vegas. And Dylan, that moment has clearly overshadowed the entire debate.
DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR REPORTER FOR MEDIA AND POLITICS: That's absolutely right, John. There's one headline coming out of this debate that rises above all of the others and that is Donald Trump's unwillingness to accept what is the bedrock of American democracy, that is the peaceful transition of power. Look, you know as well as I do, this has been a very vitriolic partisan campaign season going back to the beginning of the republican and democratic primaries, 16 or 17 months ago. We can debate the issues. We can debate policy. We can debate, you know, sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump or Bill Clinton or what have you. The one thing that really rises above the rest is, Donald Trump's sort of insurgency against the American democratic system, which is really sort of an expression of a far- right populism, far-right nationalism even, that has sort of taken center stage in this debate, thanks to Donald Trump, thanks to his embrace of far-right talking points and a far-right world view. But questioning the legitimacy of American elections, it's really a new low, at least in modern American politics.
VAUSE: And one of the reasons Trump is giving for this, it's the media. Listen to this.
TRUMP: The media is so dishonest and so corrupt and the pile on is so amazing, and The New York Times actually wrote an article about it, that they don't even care. It's so dishonest and they poisoned the minds of the voters.
VAUSE: Donald Trump is not the first politician to complain about reporters and not getting a fair shake, but what he is saying seems to play into this wildly held belief among his supporters of a grand conspiracy.
BYERS: That's absolutely right. And well, you're right that previous politicians, especially republicans have criticized the media. Donald Trump is taking it to a new and unprecedented level, and you're also absolutely right that he is expressing this view, this sort of conspiratorial view that exists on the far-right, that somehow there's this conspiracy of democrats, corporate America, the FBI, and most importantly, the media and that they are all sort of out against, to sort of undermine American sovereignty, working in the favor of a sort of open borders globalist elite. The media - the suggestion that the media could even be that sort of coordinated, you know, is comical when you look at just how hard it is to get a single media organization on the same page about anything. But you're absolutely right, he's playing to his base. And then the big question for Donald Trump is, if you actually want to win a presidential election, if you actually think that three weeks out from Election Day, you have a shot at winning this thing, why aren't you making a broader appeal to other voters? Why do you keep playing in to that base? That is the big question that everyone has for Donald Trump.
VAUSE: And the question, of course, came from the Fox News anchor, Chris Wallace. This was a big night for Fox News. The first time one of their anchors moderated a presidential debate. Here is Wallace mixing it up at another part of the debate with Donald Trump.
WALLACE: You said several things in that debate, which were not true, Sir. You said that Aleppo has basically fallen, in fact there are - in fact there are --
TRUMP: It's a catastrophe.
WALLACE: It is a catastrophe. There are - there are a quarter of --
TRUMP: Have you seen it? Have you seen it?
WALLACE: Sir.
TRUMP: Have you seen what's happened to Aleppo?
WALLACE: Sir, can I finish my question?
TRUMP: OK. So, it hasn't fallen. Take a look at it.
WALLACE: Well, there are a quarter of a million people still living there and being slaughtered.
TRUMP: That's right.
WALLACE: You also - TRUMP: And they are being slaughtered.
WALLACE: Yeah.
TRUMP: Because of bad decisions.
VAUSE: So overall, is Wallace being widely praised for tonight?
BYERS: Yes, he absolutely is. And, you know, the moderators, the television hosts who moderate these presidential debates, there's so much pressure on them and there's so much criticism of them, even when they do a commendable job. Chris Wallace really despite expectations that he might be, you know, too favorable to Donald Trump because he comes from Fox News or too favorable to Hillary Clinton because he was trying to overcompensate for those expectations, none of that happened. He moderated a very fair debate. He also kept control over the process of the debate. The key thing for me, what he did is, he focused on issues. Yes, we discussed sexual assault allegations, we discussed Hillary Clinton's e-mails, but he started off with the conversation about the future of the Supreme Court, by launching this debate with the focus on substantive issues like that, then turning to issues like immigration, he kept the candidates in the space where they had to focus on policy issues. That led to a much more substantive debate, and I think a much more - a debate that gave us a much greater insight into what these candidates would actually do in the Oval Office than I think we've seen in previous debates.
VAUSE: Dylan, thank you. Dylan Byers live there, 10:00 in the evening in Las Vegas. Thank you. CNN's instant poll after the debate, found 52 percent thought Hillary Clinton was the winner, 39 percent scored it for Donald Trump. And for the first 26 minutes, this presidential debate seemed like, a presidential debate. The candidates talked about the Supreme Court, abortion and gun rights, but then Hillary Clinton mentioned the Russian president and his alleged relationship with Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think that this is such an unprecedented situation. We've never had a foreign government trying to interfere in our election. We have 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyberattacks come from the highest levels of the Kremlin and they are designed to influence our election. I find that deeply disturbing. And I think that --
TRUMP: She has no idea whether it's Russia, China or anybody else.
CLINTON: I am not quoting myself, I am quoting 17 -
TRUMP: She has no idea. Hillary, you have no idea.
CLINTON: Do you doubt 17 military and --
TRUMP: Our country has no idea.
CLINTON: -- civilian agency as well.
TRUMP: Yeah, I doubt it. I doubt it.
CLINTON: He'd rather believe Vladimir Putin than the military and civilian intelligence professionals who are sworn to protect us. I find that just absolutely --
TRUMP: She doesn't like Putin, because Putin has outsmarted her at every step of the way.
WALLACE: Mr. Trump --
TRUMP: Excuse me. Putin has outsmarted her in Syria. He's outsmarted her every step of the way.
WALLACE: I do get to ask some questions.
TRUMP: Yes, I know.
WALLACE: And I would like to ask you this direct question. The top national security officials of this country do believe that Russia has been behind these hacks. Even if you don't know for sure whether they are, do you condemn any interference by Russia in the American election?
TRUMP: By Russia or anybody else.
WALLACE: You condemn their interference?
TRUMP: Of course, I condemn, of course I can. I don't know Putin. I have no idea.
WALLACE: I'm not asking you -
TRUMP: I've never met Putin. This is not my best friend.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Live now at Moscow, Matthew Chance. So Matthew, would the Russian president be pleased with the amount of airtime he received during this debate? What's the view from the Kremlin?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm sure he would be. I know, I'm quite interested as well to see what - to hear that Russia is so prominent in the U.S. presidential campaign. But yeah, I think you've got a really important point, which is that, you know, it isn't, you know, exactly clear the extent to which Russia is or isn't actually interfering in the - in the U.S. presidential election. But one of the big foreign policy objectives, internationally, all for Kremlin is to show that it has influence in the world, that it should be at the top table of international countries, and the very fact that it is so prominent now is an issue, even if it is a negative issue in the U.S. presidential campaign, I think we will receive some satisfaction here in Moscow amongst the upper echelons, the Kremlin, amongst Vladimir Putin, with Vladimir Putin himself, for instance, there is now at least, being seen as a country that has the power, whether it is or not, the power to influence the outcome of the presidential race.
VAUSE: Matthew, thank you. Matthew Chance, live at 8:00 in the morning in Moscow. Thank you. Let's go back to Las Vegas now, CNN Political Commentators, Lanhee Chen, a Republican who worked with Romney and Van Jones, he worked for the Obama administration. Van, first to you, this question with Donald Trump not accepting the outcome or refusing to commit to the outcome of the election. Let's take the tradition and everything out, to one side. What does this say about the question of temperament?
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it was -- he made history tonight, but not for a good reason. I don't think in the history of the republic, 240 years, you've had a major party nominee, say on the front end that he has so little faith in American institutions, so little faith in American voters. Frankly, so many - so little faith in republican governors and republican secretaries of state in the swing states, that he could not, on the front end say, that he would respect the outcome. It was shocking, and it does go to a question of temperament. This is a guy who loves polls when he's up, but when he's down, he doesn't like them. He loves the media system when he's getting, you know, billions of dollars of free advertising. But then, when the media starts pointing out that he's got, you know, some problems with sexual assault, suddenly the media is rigged against him and rigged the whole election. You can say whatever you want to about that kind of personality and that kind of temperament, but you wouldn't ordinarily call that presidential.
VAUSE: And Lahnee, this does put Donald Trump at odds with almost every senior republican leader, puts him at odds with his own running mate, and puts him at odds with his own campaign manager.
LANHEE CHEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It absolutely does. You know, Marco Rubio, who ran against Donald Trump for the nomination of Republican Party earlier this year, said that this is very dangerous talk and that Donald Trump basically needs to knock it off. Unfortunately tonight, he went and doubled down on this notion that somehow this election is not going to be fair, that it's going to be rigged. And I think that, that does real damage, not just to his own candidacy, but frankly to the Republican Party and to the country. So I hope that he could turn this around and stop saying these kinds of things. As Van noted, and as you have noted, you've got his running mate, Mike Pence, you got all sorts of republican leaders. You've got folks around the country basically saying, this is not the right approach, and tonight unfortunately, he came out there and just doubled down.
VAUSE: You know, for the first 26 minutes, it seemed he was disciplined, he was on message. He was appealing to, you know, the broad conservative base out there on issues like gun control and abortion. This was one of the exchanges he had with Hillary Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If you go with what Hillary is saying in the ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother, just prior to the birth of the baby. Now, you can say that that's OK, and Hillary can say that that's OK, but it's not okay with me, because based on what she's saying and based on where she's going and where she's been, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, on the final day, and that's not acceptable.
VAUSE: There is some factual issues there and obviously, the language is very harsh. But Lanhee, have we - have we sort of gone to the point now where we've learned that Donald Trump can have a disciplined debate for about 30 minutes.
CHEN: Well, you know, Donald Trump is who he is. We've known that he is a guy who is very easily flustered and tonight, I think you saw that, the minute Hillary Clinton began to poke at him a little bit, which I thought she did quite skillfully. You know, he sort of ran into the same problems he's run into before. You know, the challenge is Donald Trump tonight, was speaking to a bunch of voters he already has. He did not really expand the base of support he has, and in order to win this election, he's going to have to appeal to more voters. So tonight was really his last chance to do that.
JONES: What is remarkable to me about that answer - I'm sorry. Go ahead.
VAUSE: Exactly. I was going to say, it seems Donald Trump does not have a magic microphone where only his supporters hear what he has to say.
JONES: Yeah. Well, I mean, what's so interesting about that answer was how tone deaf it was. It definitely was good red meat for his base, but if you compare that to the vice presidential debate, where you had Pence, dealing with the same subject matter, but dealing with it in a way that really showed real respect, real concern. He opened - he left the door open, Pence, his running mate, for female voters to feel like, at least the guy understands, whereas Donald Trump, did not do that. And that's part of the great tragedy here. There was a moment for an outsider, to be able to come in and shake up the system. The message was there, but you needed a messenger. The first thing he had to do would have been to get the nomination and then secure the support of his party. He has not been able to unify his party. The speaker of the house won't even stand on the same stage with him. He's not been able to unify his campaign. Kellyanne Conway, his manager was on a different point, up with him on this very question when it comes to whether or not he's going to accept the election. He can't even unify his ticket. He and Pence are in different positions on the legitimacy of the American elections. He can't unify his family. Ivanka Trump was out there today, saying that he should accept the results of the election. So if you're going to be a national leader, a global leader, you got to at least be able to unite your own party, your own ticket, your own campaign, your own family. He has failed on all four, and that's why he's going to lose.
VAUSE: OK. Well, one of the issues that - well, the big issue we thought before the debate, was the women coming forward accusing Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, there's been none of them at least so far. We thought that may in fact dominate this debate. It did come up and this is how Donald Trump dealt with it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity, their self-worths, and I don't think there is a woman anywhere, who doesn't know what that feels like.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: OK. That was Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump -
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: Yeah, Trump fired back saying, basically all the allegations against him have been debunked, which isn't true. But Lanhee, we know that the Trump campaign invited one woman to the debate who accused President Bill Clinton of sexual assault decades ago, but all of this sort of went nowhere, why was that?
CHEN: Well, it went nowhere because Bill Clinton is not the guy running for president. It's Bill Clinton's wife who's running for president. So I think this was all some kind of mind game to get under Hillary Clinton's skin. I don't think it worked and unfortunately, I think it setback the republican cause because Donald Trump is at the top of the republican ticket and ultimately what he says and does reflects not just on him, but on republicans across the country who are running for office, including in some very key U.S. senate races. So this whole maneuver in my mind, was a complete waste of time.
VAUSE: And Van, to your point, why wasn't this issue brought up by Hillary Clinton? They seemed to stay clear of it, it was actually brought up by the moderator, Chris Wallace.
JONES: Well, I think that Hillary Clinton, her job tonight was simply to, you know, defend. She prosecuted him on two important issues, one, his love affair with Russia. It should really be the Trump-Putin ticket at this point. She prosecuted him on that, which I thought was very important. She prosecuted him on a few other areas, but, you know, some of these stuff has been well litigated. I think that, you know, she is probably is well served not to get too far into the sexual assault territory. She's got some vulnerabilities there with her husband, and she didn't have to go there, because you know, he keeps re-raising it, attacking the women. He had his wife out there, re-raising it a week later, 10 days later. So they keep it alive. She does not have to.
VAUSE: Finally getting Trump to keep interrupting when this debate went off the rails. And there was one moment, right at the end of the debate, which a lot of people are talking about. This is it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: That's part of my commitment to raise taxes on the wealthy. My Social Security payroll contribution will go up as well, Donald's, assuming he can't figure out how to get out of it. But what we want to do, is to replenish the social security --
TRUMP: Such a nasty woman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Lanhee, what a nasty woman. How is that going to go down with some of the female voters, who Donald Trump really needs right now?
CHEN: Yeah. I mean, the big problem with this is, is that Donald Trump needs female voters. This is a constituency that he has not done well with and that if he has -- wants to have a pathway to the presidency is all -- at all, needs to be able to demonstrate he can win. And unfortunately, those remarks tonight were not only, in my mind, mean spirited, but politically, rather gauche, because you know, it turns off exactly the constituency that he needs if he wants to have any pathway to the presidency.
VAUSE: Van, a final thought?
JONES: Listen, you know, what a nasty man. What a nasty, disgusting, embarrassment for the United States of America, is Donald Trump. That's my final comment.
VAUSE: We'll leave it at that. Van Jones, Lanhee Chen. Thank you both for enduring the planes and staying up with us. And if you missed it or want to watch it again, stick around for a full replay of the final presidential debate, about 40 minutes from now. And we will have much more on the debate later this hour, including reaction to another Trump phrase, "bad hombres." But next, the gulf between how ISIS describes life in Mosul, compared to what recent refugees have been saying.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PATRICK SNELL, WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: Hi there, I'm Patrick Snell with CNN World Sport headline for you. Lionel Messi scoring a hat-trick as Barcelona punished 10-man Manchester City, the European Champions League this on Pep Guardiola has returned to his former club. Fernandinho slipped inside his own box, putting Messi clear for the first. And Kevin de Bruyne losing possession allowing Andres Iniesta to setup the Argentine for his second before completing his 37th hat trick for the Catalan's, to make matters worse for City, their keeper and former Barca player Claudio Bravo seeing red for handling outside the box. Barca stroll in the park, they win 4-0. But Messi didn't (INAUDIBLE) the headlines since Arsenal's Mesut Ozil also scored a hat trick, the very first of his career, in fact, the host already 3-0 up, when Ozil decided to double the score line personally. Arsenal hitting the Ludogorets Bulgarian champions for six and the North London has now won seven games in a row in all competitions.
Lewis Hamilton may have had his feelings towards press conferences, he may -- well, have made them very clear indeed in Japan recently, but any hopes he may have had of avoiding media duties ahead of the U.S Grand Prix in Texas this weekend, have been well and truly dashed. British World Champ who is now behind Nico Rosberg in the standings, coming under scrutiny for taking to Snapchat during questions from reporters saying fans should be asking the questions despite the sport's governing body (INAUDIBLE) has named (INAUDIBLE) one of six drivers to take part. Thanks for joining us, I'm Patrick Snell.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: An Iraqi commander says his forces are five or six kilometers from Mosul's outskirts. But he says protected forces are needed to hold on to ground newly liberated from ISIS. Part of the Christian town Qaraqosh has been cleared, but the Iraqi-led forces are facing fierce resistance from ISIS in the center of town. A militia leader says the operation has been complicated because ISIS fighters have surrounded themselves with civilians. This map shows the battle lines at the moment, Mosul and the territory south and west of the city under ISIS controlled that's in red. Everything in yellow is controlled by Kurdish fighters, the Peshmerga. The area in green is under control of Iraqi security forces.
ISIS has portrayed Mosul as a safe community where residents have everything they need. But as Ben Wedeman reports, refugees are now telling a very different story.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So-called caliphate is a land of peace and plenty is recently posted ISIS propaganda video from Mosul would have the faithful believe. People are coming and going says this man. People are happy. Ask those who have fled the city, however and it's a different picture. From the outside it looks nice, nice picture says Salem, but in reality, it's a life of fear and hardship. Salem is waiting for security clearance from Kurdish intelligence officers at Debaka Camp south of Erbil. Anyone coming from ISIS-controlled territory is a suspect. Well, yet another truckload of women and children arrives. They escaped the ISIS- controlled town of Hawija in central Iraq.
Ibrahim from Mosul, didn't want to show his face on camera. I ask if he'd seen the ISIS clip portraying Mosul as a paradise. In the beginning, it was all right, he says, but then they started ordering around and killing people. Everyone is afraid of them. Relief workers set up a school in the camp but there are no classes here. The school now shelters hundreds of women and children, whose men folk are still in security detention. When ISIS leader Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi declared the reestablishment of the caliphate on the 29th of June 2014, he called upon the faithful to rush to his new realm. You'll own Rome and conquer the world, he said. This is what's become of that delusion. The war with ISIS has driven around three and a half million Iraqis from their homes, as yet another generation grows up amidst death, destruction, and displacement. The bitter fruit of a delusion that has ended in disaster. Ben Wedeman, CNN, Debaka Camp, Northern Iraq.
VAUSE: The battle for Mosul has uncovered a network of tunnels used by ISIS fighters. CNN International Correspondent Arwa Damon takes us inside one of those tunnels.
ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Take a look at this, it's an entrance on the side of a hill top, an ISIS tunnel. Actually, a fairly common tactic that they do use, digging well into these hills. Some of these tunnels that we've seen before are more complex than others. Some actually have small rooms, living quarters that are dug off to the sides. This one -- we're having to crouch a bit lower than at least I have had to than some of the other ones that we have been through. But it winds its way, and then it comes out on the other side of the hill where we were standing, and as the Iraqi and Kurdish troops have been pushing towards Mosul, they have actually come across ISIS fighters popping out of hillsides, popping out of what seems to be relatively flat and non-descript terrain and firing upon them and it's pretty much because of these tunnels systems that they have dug, like the one we just walked through, and if we turn around, the entrance that we came through is just right there. And this entire landscape here is very similar, wide, rolling hills. We've come out just right here and then it keeps going not only deeper into the hillside, but at multiple points, the ISIS fighters have dug this out in such a way that it would actually give them different vantage points from the entire surrounding of the hills, so that they would be able to both hide from and jump out and surprise any potential attackers. And this entire tunneling complex just weaves its way through, going further and further back. Arwa Damon, CNN, Southeast of Mosul, Iraq.
VAUSE: Well, next here on Newsroom L.A., more on the third and final U.S. Presidential Debate including Donald Trump's criticism of the Republican Party icon, former President Ronald Reagan. And later, 21 Chibok school girls meet the man who helped secure their release.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:32:16] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause, with the headlines this hour.
(HEADLINES)
VAUSE: Donald Trump says he may not accept the outcome of the U.S. election. He made the announcement at the final presidential debate in Las Vegas. Hillary Clinton called the statement appalling and horrifying. A CNN/ORC polls shows 52 percent of debate watchers thought Clinton won and 39 percent gave it to Donald Trump.
Joining us now for more on this Democratic strategist, Dave Jacobson; and Republican consultant, John Thomas.
Again, debate night. This is the third one, we're done. This is the home stretch. Obviously, the big take away is Trump's refusal to commit to the outcome of the election. Clinton was able to portray Trump as someone who believes everything is rigged if he doesn't win. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The FBI conducted a year-long investigation into my e-mails. They concluded there was no case. He said the FBI was rigged.
He lost the Iowa caucus. He lost the Wisconsin primary. He said the Republican primary was rigged against him. Then, Trump University gets sued for fraud and racketeering. He
claims the court system and the federal judge is rigged against him.
There was even a time when he didn't get an Emmy for his TV program three years in a row and he started tweeting that the Emmys were rigged against him.
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I should have gotten it.
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: This is a mindset. This is how Donald thinks. And it's funny but it's also really troubling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: John, it was a funny moment but it is an effective line rolled out by Hillary Clinton.
JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yes, is it a good case to make? And, look, Donald Trump laid out a big ultimatum saying he may not accept the outcome of the election. I will say in fairness, Al Gore contested an election --
VAUSE: Yeah, but never ever said he would not accept the results.
THOMAS: Donald Trump -- it's not that he said he wouldn't. He said he may not, depending upon what happens, because Trump thinks there is massive voter fraud. Let me be clear. That is not a thing.
(CROSSTALK)
THOMAS: That's right. So I hope he gets past this. I hope he doesn't contest it. It has ramifications far beyond this. In fact, if he does lose I hope it's by a wide margin so no one can make that claim.
VAUSE: Wow.
[01:35:11] DAVE JACOBSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I thought it was explosive but it disqualified his presidency. We have heard outlandish, outrageous things from him throughout the course of this campaign, how he treats women, what he says about Muslims and other minorities. This was beyond the pale. This was too extreme. We are at a point where Paul Ryan needs to detach himself from Donald Trump. He needs to remove his endorsement. Mitch McConnell needs to do the same. The RNC needs to do the same. This is beyond party, if you want to put your country first. It underscores his scorched-earth campaign in that this guy is so selfish and self centered that he will undermine the fabric that holds our democracy together.
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: -- the Republican Party.
THOMAS: Well, potentially. I think the rigged line was an opportunity until he made that particular statement.
VAUSE: Way too far.
THOMAS: Rigged in the sense of saying the establishment, pick your poison, the Republican establishment, the Democratic establishment, want me to fail. There was an opportunity there. But to say the institution that our elections are based on, that was too far.
VAUSE: Trump did seem to be better prepared. Apparently, he did put in some hours. Clinton, too, was particularly prepared, especially when it came to her record. And there was this exchange between the two.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: From the 1980s, I was working to reform the schools in Arkansas. He was barrowing $14 million from his father to start his businesses. In the 1990s, I went to Beijing and I said women's rights are human rights. He insulted a former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, called her an "eating machine."
TRUMP: Give me a break.
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."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Dave, effective?
JACOBSON: Absolutely. This is the contrast she should be pursuing throughout the rest of the election. I think it underscores the difference between the candidates. I think later in the debate, Trump said, look, you would be so proud of me, Hillary, and everybody would be so proud of me if I conducted the country or ran the country like I did my business. I don't think he understand what that means though. He exploited workers by shipping jobs overseas. He went bankrupt multiple times. He didn't pay small business vendors at his casinos. The guy has a terrible business record and he shouldn't be proud of it.
THOMAS: Well, she could -- if she was running against a talented opponent, she exposes her vulnerability. She is running on her experience, which, by and large, the direction of the country, people don't like. That is vulnerability.
VAUSE: But they don't like it every election cycle. Every election cycle, people are concerned about the direction of the country.
THOMAS: 70 percent of Americans are concerned about the direction of the country.
VAUSE: Right. It's particularly high right now.
Right at the end, it seemed that Clinton dumped the last of the file they had on Donald Trump. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Back in 1987, he took out a $100,000 ad in "The New York Times" during the time when President Reagan was president, and basically said exactly what he just said now, that we were the laughing stock of the world. He was criticizing President Reagan.
CHRIS WALLACE, DEBATE MODERATOR: We're running out of time.
TRUMP: I disagreed very strongly on Ronald Reagan on trade. I disagreed with him. We should have been much tougher on trade even then. I have been waiting for years. Nobody does it right. And, frankly, now we're going to do it right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: As a Republican, did you just get heart palpitations or break out in a sweat?
THOMAS: No, I think he is being honest. Donald Trump is a populist. He's not a classic Republican. I think he was having an authentic moment.
Here's the take away tonight, there was nothing that shifted the direction of the race tonight. Now it's in God's hands of what happens.
(LAUGHTER)
VAUSE: OK.
JACOBSON: Or women and Latinos and minority voters.
VAUSE: And Americans.
(LAUGHTER)
VAUSE: Let's recap what has happened in the last two weeks, since the last debate. Donald Trump has been accused of sexual assault. He implied that some were too unattractive to warrant his interest. He declared war on the GOP. He implied there is a wider conspiracy to stop his election. Accused Hillary Clinton of taking drugs, called for a drug test before the debate, alleged voter fraud, accused the media of conspiring with the Clinton campaign to rig the election. And this is in no way definitive.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: -- by what happened tonight. This is the thing. The temperature is so high it takes something like what Trump said tonight for people to be shocked by this candidate.
THOMAS: You have to wonder if it's intentional when he ups the ante. We're not talking about the Billy Bush tape. We're not talking about that now. We're talking about election rigging. In fact, he may be -- is he using this as a turnout vehicle for his base? I'm not sure. It might be by accident.
[01:40:07] JACOBSON: I think it's a transition to Trump TV, which we have heard rumors about that. I think he is trying to build and establish a fan base and a revenue stream for that. He knows he is in a position to lose.
A poll came out today by "Arizona Republican," he is down in Arizona by five points. And Hillary Clinton is up in Georgia --
(CROSSTALK)
JACOBSON: Yeah, right. She has a lead of eight points nationally in the polling averages.
VAUSE: Yeah, he wants $9.99 for the subscription service from 30 million Trump fans.
(LAUGHTER)
And there was one moment in the debate, and we talked about how much he needs women, African-Americans, Latinos, and then he said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: One of my first acts will be to get all of the drug lords, all of the bad ones. We have some bad, bad people in this country that have to go out. We're going to get them out, we're going to secure the border, and once the border is secured, at a later date, we'll make a determination as to the rest. But we have some bad hombres here and we're going to get them out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: At least he's speaking Spanish.
(LAUGHTER)
You have Mike Pence, his running mate, who is whipping out the Mexican thing. You have Donald Trump getting rid of the bad hombres, what message is that saying?
(CROSSTALK)
THOMAS: He loves taco bowls and loves hombres. Donald Trump, through he is a gaffe machine, he also is real.
(CROSSTALK)
THOMAS: And there's something appealing to that.
Hillary Clinton, it is so sickly sweet all of the canned lines that she has on the reverse side. The difference is her lines just leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. VAUSE: The WikiLeaks has exposed almost a highly controlled and
cynical campaign dealing with the press and with the public in general, right?
JACOBSON: Sure, but it's a drip, drip, drip. But you haven't seen a bombshell like with the 2005 audio tape of Donald Trump. And it's been largely her staffers, John Podesta or Robby Mook. It hasn't been any bombshell announcements --
THOMAS: Just her senior level staffers.
VAUSE: It is embarrassing but not huge.
JACOBSON: They pale in comparison to Donald Trump's tape, which is his voice. That's the difference.
VAUSE: Pollster, Nate Silva, he of the legendary polls. He looked into the numbers. Going into the first debate, Clinton was up 1.4. Before the second debate, she led by 5.6. Before this debate she was up 7.1. Clearly, Donald Trump does not do well in debates if you look at those numbers.
Dave, reaching for the polls in the coming days?
JACOBSON: She has the momentum and the wind at her back. There is electricity on the ground. I saw a poll out of Texas the other day that she is within the margin of error in Texas. Texas, that's a safe Republican state.
THOMAS: My prediction is it's going to tighten back but the problem is even, if Donald Trump runs perfectly the remaining time, there's not enough time to close the gap.
VAUSE: This race seems to be a five or six point race that comes back on a rubber band. We'll see.
JACOBSON: The other thing, if I can add --
VAUSE: Sure.
JACOBSON: -- there has already been 1.4 million people who have cast their votes, half a million people in Florida alone. It doesn't calculate in the polls. Those are actual votes. There are people turning in their ballots.
VAUSE: And the Democrats have a very good ground operation game getting people to register and vote early, which Trump does not have. It will be an interesting debate.
Guys, thank you so much.
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: If you don't know what we're talking about because you did not see the debate, you can see a full of the third and final presidential debate in about 15 minutes from now. If you've already seen it, why not watch it again.
We'll take a short break now. When we come back, the controversial Philippine president is in China for his first official state visit.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:46:52] VAUSE: Controversial Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is in China for his first official state visit. The Philippines is a long-time U.S. ally, but Mr. Duterte has recently been critical of Washington. Now, he is cozying up to China to strengthen their relations.
Matt Rivers joins us live from Beijing with the latest.
How is the visit going? What's been happening with Mr. Duterte and his Chinese hosts?
MATT RIVERS, CNN ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR: Well, today is the big day for the state visit. President Xi and Duterte are scheduled to meet as we speak. They are expected to witness the signing of several different agreements. We're not sure what those agreements look like yet, you can expect that will be in the commercial side, perhaps things like infrastructure, fishing, perhaps financial investment. You can expect there won't be agreements signed about their tensions in the South China Sea. We can show you a map of how these countries are claiming area. China, with that dashed line, has historically claimed rights to all of the areas in the South China Sea and that is a position the Filipinos have long been in opposition to.
But yesterday, at a press conference with international reporters, President Duterte appeared to agree with the Chinese position that has historically they have rights to some Filipino territory. Let's play that sound.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RODRIGO DUTERTE, PHILIPPINES PRESIDENT: Let us be clear on this. There are the ones that give us the right. China has the historical right and they are insisting, and the Chinese government think they are right? Do we argue or do we just talk? Let us put it some other day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATT: But in the past, President Duterte has said that that area that is disputed is Filipino territory, so a bit of a mixed message. But no matter his position, John, don't expect any agreements about the South China Sea tensions between both countries to be signed on this particular trip.
VAUSE: Matt, thank you. Matt Rivers, live this hour in Beijing.
Typhoon Haima has slammed into the northern Philippines with heavy rains and winds. The storm is expected to impact three million people. Thousands are in evacuation centers already. Haima is the second to hit the Philippines in just a week. Pedram Javaheri joins us now with the latest -- Pedram.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John, not only the second typhoon in a week it was the first time going back in the last 60 years -- we -- several times that we've had multiple category 4s make landfall in a one-week period. And this storm putting 15,000 people in evacuation shelters. You can clearly see it has weakened significantly from that category 4 to a category 2. And we think further weakening possible but the system could migrate to the West and northwest in the coming days. And the reason for that is the population density in eastern China. The track takes it in for landfall about 50 kilometers east of Hong Kong. Some variabilities so far. 11 million people live in this region. And heavy rainfall, typhoon winds and category 1 equivalent and urban flash flooding would be a concern. If it favors the Western side it could stay east of Shanghai. A lot of people could be impacted by the storm system in the next couple days.
[01:50:05] VAUSE: Pedram, thanks for the update.
JAVAHERI: Thanks, John.
VAUSE: Still to come here, just a week after they were release, 21 Chibok schoolgirls are speaking out. What some want to do after years in captivity? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:55:06] VAUSE: After two years in captivity with Boko Haram, 21 schoolgirls are enjoying their freedom. On Wednesday, they met with the Nigerian president who signed off on their release.
My co-anchor, Isha Sesay, was there.
These women were teenagers when they were taken by the terror group from a boarding school in 2014. Around 200 were kidnapped. Some of the released girls want to go back to their studies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Happiness?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
SESAY: It's wonderful. Very, very happy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very happy.
SESAY: Will you go back to school?
(CROSSTALK)
SESAY: You will go back to school?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
SESAY: Yes?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: At the president's villa, the girls posed for photos. And the smiles, well, masking the horrors they endured over all of these months.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
In case you missed it, a replay of the entire U.S. presidential debate is after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
