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Trump Speaks in Pennsylvania; Examining Proposed Actions in First 100 Days of Trump Administration. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired October 22, 2016 - 12:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:13] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, welcome back. Hello and thanks for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Live pictures right now, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where at any moment now we expect Republican nominee, Donald Trump to a verge there.

We are just 17 days from Election Day and we are also still awaiting his arrival there. He'll be delivering his closing argument out of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, of course, made very famous with Abe Lincoln's Gettysburg address.

Trump is expected to lay out his plans for his first 100 days in office, if he is elected. And moments ago, Trump's running mate, Mike Pence giving a preview of what to expect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump has a plan. He's going to talk about it again in Gettysburg this morning. He has a plan to basically reform ethics in our nation's capital. Five-year ban on executive branch officials, leaving government, becoming lobbyists.

The same thing for members of Congress and here is my personal favorite, pass campaign finance reform that says that registered foreign lobbyists cannot raise money in American political campaigns. This is our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, let's begin our coverage now with CNN Sunlen Serfaty who is in Gettysburg and earlier, there was quite the hum in the room. It is very quiet. Is that an indicator that Donald Trump is soon to arrive?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONENT: Hopefully any minute, Fred. He is an hour late for the speech today. We are told he will take the stage very shortly. We saw Rudy Giuliani was warming up the crowd here.

But as you know, this is a very intimate setting, a very small crowd. Not typically a Donald Trump campaign event, a big booming rally. That's on purpose. This is going to be a policy focused address today as we have been talking about all morning. A closing message for his campaign going forward.

No doubt, to project a little presidential tone and re-shift attention away from his own campaign's controversy, his own campaign struggles in these 17 days.

He will lay out, according to the Trump campaign aides, his priorities for the first 100 days of his presidency, if he goes on to win the White House.

Very similar to a speech that he gave in midsummer, in June, where he outlined eight topics, proposals, immigration reform, replacing Obamacare among some of them.

It's not clear, though, Fred, at this point, how much new detail he will be proposing today, whether it will be anything new or a restructuring of something he's already addressed -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, we'll check back with you. Sunlen, thank you so much. The quiet in the room, in anticipation for Donald Trump to arrive. Of course, when he does and as we monitor, we'll take you there live.

So let's discuss all of this right now with CNN senior political analyst and senior editor of "The Atlantic," Ron Brownstein, and CNN political commentator and senior contributor to "The Daily Caller," Matt Lewis. Good to see you guys.

So, in a very good way, meaning experience. How about that? Ron, you first. The symbolism here of Donald Trump saying this is what my first 100 days will look like.

Here is my ten-point policy plan at a place historically remembered for Abe Lincoln's Gettysburg address talking ability the equality of all mankind here in this nation. How do you see this, the symbolism and the real importance of this?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, no pressure. Only the greatest speech in American political history. Nothing to match up to. Not going to equal that. Look, Donald Trump who may be entering right now is looking at a tough final week. His best asset is outsider who is going to shake up the political system. That is where he is going to be the strongest. I'm guessing we're going to hear a lot of that in the next half hour or so.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, great timing. Nice set up, Ron. All right, let's listen in to Donald Trump who is there and listening to the excitement in what they Sunlen describes the very intimate setting.

[12:05:02]Let's hear what he has to say.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you. Please sit down. Thank you. Thank you. It's my privilege to here in Gettysburg hallowed ground where so many lives were given in service to freedom. Amazing place.

President Lincoln served in a time of division like we have never seen before. It is my hope that we can look at his example to heal the divisions we are living through right now. We are a very divided nation.

I'm not a politician and have never wanted to be a politician. Believe me. But, when I saw the trouble our country was in, I knew I couldn't stand by and watch any longer. Our country has been so good to me. I love our country and I felt I had to act.

I have seen the system up close and personal for many years. I have been a major part of it. I know how the game works in Washington and on Wall Street. And I know how they have rigged the rules of the game against every day Americans. The rules are rigged.

Nearly 1 in 4 Americans in their prime earning years isn't even working, 1 in 5 households have no one with a job, 45 million Americans are on food stamps and 47 million are living in poverty. We have failed our inner cities and in so doing have failed our African- American and Hispanic communities.

We have misguided military adventures overseas in wars that go on forever that just cannot be won by the people that are doing it now. They don't know how to win the wars. At home, we have our great veterans dying while waiting for medical care.

Change has to come from outside our very broken system. Our system is broken. The fact that Washington and the Washington establishment has tried so hard to stop our campaign is only more proof that our campaign represents the kind of change that only arrives once in a lifetime.

The system is totally rigged and broken. First, the issue of voter fraud. According to Pew, there are 24 million voter registrations in the United States that are either invalid or significantly inaccurate.

When I say that, there are such inaccuracies it's unbelievable, 1.8 million dead people are registered to vote and some of them are voting. I wonder how that happens, 2.8 million people are registered in more than one state. These are numbers, folks. These are numbers.

Fourteen percent of noncitizens are registered to vote. The system is also rigged because Hillary Clinton should have been precluded from running for the presidency of the United States.

But the FBI and the Justice Department covered up her crimes, which included lying to the FBI and Congress on numerous occasions and included saying I do not recall to the FBI on 39 separate times. She recalls everything else, but 39 separate times, she said, I do not recall. That's a lie, also.

[12:10:03]Then there is the deletion of at least 33,000 e-mails after receiving a subpoena from the United States Congress. That's after receiving the subpoena. As an example, it was announced this week that the highly respected four-star general, James Cartwright, may be sentenced up to five years in prison with a massive fine for lying on one occasion to the FBI and he said he did that for national security reasons. Highly respected man. A four-star general.

This took place two days ago. How must he feel? A big part of the rigging of this election is the fact that Hillary is being allowed to run despite having broken so many laws on so many different occasions. Why is she allowed to run?

The dishonest mainstream media is also part and a major part of this corruption. They are corrupt. They lie and fabricate stories to make a candidate that is not their preferred choice look as bad and even dangerous as possible.

At my rallies, they never show or talk about the massive crowd size and try to diminish all of our events. On the other hand, they don't show the small size of Hillary's crowds, but, in fact, talk about how many people are there, very small crowds. You know it, they know it, and everybody knows it.

Over the last two days, three highly respected national polls said we are in first place. And one of those pollsters was the most accurate poll on the last two cycles, but the media refuses to even say it or put that word out.

They refuse to talk about it. They are trying desperately to suppress my vote and the voice of the American people as an example of the power structure I'm fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN.

A deal we will not approve in my administration because it's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few. Likewise, Amazon, which through its ownership controls "The Washington Post," should be paying massive taxes, but it's not paying.

It's a very unfair playing field and you see what that's doing to department stores all over the country. Very, very unfair and you are talking about billions and billions of dollars they should be paying for taxes.

Additionally, Comcast purchase of NBC concentrates far too much power in one massive entity that is trying to tell the voters what to think and what to do. Deals like this destroy democracy. We'll look at breaking that deal up and other deals like that.

This should never, ever have been approved in the first place. They've tried to poison the mind of the American voter. Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. Total fabrication. The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.

But a simple phone call placed to the biggest newspapers or television networks gets them wall-to-wall coverage with virtually no fact checking whatsoever. Here is why this is relevant to you. If they can fight somebody like me who has unlimited resources to fight back, just look at what they can do to you, your jobs, your security, your education, your health care, the violation of religious liberty, the theft of your second amendment, the loss of your factories, your homes and much more.

[12:15:11]Look at what they have done to you with your jobs. It is just been learned, on video, that the violent protests at some of my rallies like in Chicago where police and others were seriously hurt, you saw that blood pouring down their face were caused by paid DNC and Clinton campaign operatives.

We didn't know this. We didn't know this. This just came out two days ago on tape. We didn't know this. We were amazed at the level of violence. These were paid operatives, paid by the DNC and probably the Clinton campaign.

This is a criminal act. Policemen were badly hurt and so were many others. These people should be prosecuted, but -- but because of the rigged system, they probably won't be. Just like we found out about these paid violent protesters, it was probably the DNC and the Clinton campaign that put forward these liars with their fabricated stories.

We'll find out about their involvement at a later date through litigation. I look so forward to doing that. The rigging of the system is designed for one reason, to keep the corrupt establishment and special interests in power at your expense, at everybody's expense. I have no special interests but you, the American voter.

I didn't have to do this, believe me. There's nothing easy about it, but, I had to do it. I love our country, I love the people of our country and I felt I had to do it. Thank you.

One thing we all know is that we will never solve our problems by relying on the same politicians who created these problems in the first place. Hillary Clinton is not running against me, she's running against change and she's running against all of the American people and all of the American voters.

We now find ourselves at that very special fork in the road. Do we repeat the mistakes of the past or do we choose to believe that a great future, yet unwritten lies ahead for us and for our wonderful, beloved country?

I think it does. I know it does. My economic plan will deliver at least 25 million jobs in one decade. Now, our jobs have been taken away. They have gone to Mexico. They have gone to so many other countries.

It's a one-lane highway where they get the jobs, they get the factories, they get the money, and we get the drugs and we get the unemployment and it's going to change, believe me, it's going change fast.

That goes for all countries. When you look at China, when you look at every country, every trade deal we have is horrible. We should be ashamed of the people and the people that let those seals happen.

They are defective and they knew they were defective. They were done for a reason and believe me, they will be unwound so fast and we will have trade. We will have great trade and it will be free trade. It will be fair trade and it will be real.

My security plan, so important. They have taken the jobs from us. My security plan will bring safety to our poorest communities. Ethics plan will end the corruption in our government. We will -- corruption is massive. We will drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. and replace it with a new government of, by and for the people. Believe me.

[12:20:03]That is why I have chosen Gettysburg to unveil this contract. I'm asking the American people to rise above the noise and the clutter of our broken politics and to embrace that great faith and optimism that has always been the central ingredient in the American character. There is nothing better or stronger than the American character.

I am asking the American people to dream big, once again. What follows is my 100-day action plan to make America great again. It's a contract between Donald J. Trump and the American voter and it begins with bringing honesty, accountability and change to Washington, D.C.

Therefore, on the first day of my term of office, my administration will immediately pursue the following six measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington.

First, a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress. Second, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal work force through attrition, exempting military, public safety and public health.

Third, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated. Regulations are killing our country and our jobs.

Fourth, a five-year ban on White House and congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service. Making a fortune.

Fifth, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government. Very bad. Six, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections. It's what's happening.

On the same day, I will begin taking and really taking strongly seven actions to protect American workers. Our American workers have been treated so badly by politicians that don't have their interests at heart.

And we are going to change that. We are going to change that very, very fast. First, I will announce my intention to totally re- negotiate NAFTA. One of the worst deals our country has ever made signed by Bill Clinton. Withdrawal from the deal under Article 2205. Second, I will announce our withdrawal from the Transpacific Partnership, a potential disaster for our country. Third, I will direct my secretary of the treasury to labor China a currency manipulator. China is a currency manipulator. What they have done to us by playing currency is very sad.

I don't blame them, they have been very smart. I blame our politicians for letting this take place. So easy to stop. So easy to stop. Fourth, I will direct the secretary of commerce and U.S. trade representative to identify all foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers and direct them to use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately.

Fifth, very importantly, I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion worth of job producing American energy including shale, oil, natural gas, and clean coal. We will put our miners back to work.

Sixth, I will lift the Obama/Clinton roadblocks that allow for this vital energy infrastructure projects to go forward. We have road blocks like you have never, ever seen, environmental blocks, structural blocks.

[12:25:04]We are going to allow the Keystone pipeline and so many other things to move forward, tremendous numbers of jobs and good for our country.

We are going to cancel billions in payments to the United Nations climate change programs and use the money to fix America's water and environmental infrastructure. We are paying billions and billions and billions of dollars. We are going to fix our own environment.

Additionally, on the first day, I will take the following five actions to restore security and constitutional rule of law. We have to do that. Cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum, and order issued by President Obama.

Second, begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice Scalia. His wife has a Trump sign, his wife is a phenomenal woman. She has Trump sign in her front yard. Isn't that nice?

I just found that out this morning. Isn't that nice? From one of the 20 judges of my list, you know we are going to make great decisions from 20 outstanding judges on a list we submitted who will uphold and defend the constitution of the United States.

Third, we will cancel all federal funding of sanctuary cities. Fourth, we will begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country.

These are our drug dealers, gang heads, gang members, killers and cancel visas to foreign country them back. And when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, and they had someone who was bad, really bad.

And they brought them back to the country and the country wouldn't take them, she said bring them back. We won't force the country to take them. There won't be one such instance if I become president, believe me.

We are going to suspend immigration from terror prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. If you look at Syria, and the migration, we are taking in thousands and thousands of people into our country. We have no idea who they are, what their thought process is, where they come from.

And Hillary Clinton wants to increase the number of those thousands and thousands currently pouring in by 550 percent. Radical Islamic terror is right around the corner. We have to be so tough, so smart, so vigilant. We can't allow that to happen. We have enough problems.

All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered extreme vetting. We will be very careful. Next, I will work with Congress to introduce the following broader legislative measures and fight for their passage within the first 100 days of my administration.

Middle class tax relief and simplification act, an economic plan designed to grow the economy 4 percent per year and create at least 25 million new jobs through massive tax reduction and simplification in combination with trade reform regulatory relief and lifting the restrictions on American energy.

Need that so badly, jobs, we need jobs. Our jobs have left us. Our good jobs have really left us. The largest tax reductions are for the middle class who have been forgotten.

The forgotten man and woman, they have been forgotten. The middle class with family, of two children, will get basically, approximately a 35 percent tax cut. That's what they can use. That money will go back into the economy.

[12:30:12] The current number of brackets will be reduced from seven to three. And tax forms will like wise be greatly simplified.

The business rate will be lowered from 35 percent to 15 percent. And the trillions of dollars of American corporate money overseas can be brought back at a 10 percent rate. It stuck. We can't bring it back. $2.5 to $5 trillion. Companies can't get it back into the country. Some companies are actually leaving not only because taxes are so high, but because they can't get their money and they are actually leaving to get their money. We are going to simplify that. We're going to have them bring the money back into our country and use the money and spend the money on building our country.

And the Offshoring Act, established tariffs to discourage companies from laying off their worker in order to relocate in other countries and ship their products back to the United States tax free. They leave the United States, like Carrier, like Ford, like many others. They leave the United States. They fire all of their employees. They go to Mexico or another country. They build a beautiful, brand-new plant. They hire other people. They then take their air conditioners, their cars, whatever they are making, they send a tax free across what will be a very strong border, believe me. But they send it tax free across the border. And what do we end up with? We have unemployment, tremendous losses. And we have none of the benefits. So, we will establish tariffs, that when they do that there will be consequences. We'll work wit them. We'll be nice. We'll be fair. But there have to be consequences. And when they know there are consequences, our companies will stop leaving the United States and going to other countries.

The American Infrastructure Act, leverages public/private partnerships and private investments through tax incentives to spare $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over the next ten years. Our infrastructure is in such trouble. We've doubled our national debt to $20 trillion under President Obama. In less than eight years, $10 trillion has been added. Think of it. And we haven't fixed anything. We haven't fixed anything. What have we done? Our roads are broken, our bridges, our tunnels, our hospitals, our schools and we have $20 trillion in debt, all-time high. That's true, our V.A. hospitals are in bad shape and our V.A. is in very, very bad shape. And we will fix that. We are going to work on fixing that because our veterans have not been treated properly. We have illegal immigrants that treated far better in many instances than our veterans. And we're not going to have that.

School of choice and Education Opportunity Act, redirects education dollars to give parents the right to send their kid, their children to public/private charter, magnet, religious or home schools of their choice.

And so importantly, we are going to end common core and bring education supervision to local communities. We do so badly on education. If you look at the lists and you see Sweden, Norway, Denmark, China, different countries at the top, you see us at the bottom. And yet, by far, per pupil, more money than anybody and it's not even close. We spend more money per pupil than anybody not even close. We're at the bottom of the list. Other countries spending far less per pupil are at the top of the list. So obviously, our current system is not working. We will change it and we will make it good.

It expands vocational and technical education, which we've totally forgotten about in this country and make two and four year colleges more affordable. Have you ever gone to school and you've been with people that aren't good students but they can fix an engine or they can build a wall or they can do things that you wouldn't even think about because we can use some of the ones that build a wall. We're going to need them. We're going to need them. We're going to need them.

[12:35:18] But, did you ever see that, how they are genius at fixing a car? They can do anything. But history, not so good. Physics, not so good. And we have to open vocational, again. Those are the people. These are great people.

The repeal and replace Obamacare Act.

Fully repeal Obamacare and replace it with health savings accounts. And we can do that. The health savings accounts, it's one way, there are numerous ways. But this is one very good way. The ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, which we have to do because that's competition. The politicians won't let go of it because the insurance companies, they don't want competition. But we'll open it up. Believe me. We'll get rid of that. I've been saying it for years. And let states manage Medicaid funds. It will be so good.

Reforms will also include, cutting the red tape at the FDA. There are over 4,000 drugs awaiting approval. And we specially want to speed the approval of life saving medications. I mean, they're looking at drugs that are looking very good and you have terminal patients that, it's over. These people, they're dying. They want to get the drug. They won't be living much longer. And we study it for years and years. At some point, they have to do what they have to do. They have to do it properly. But we have 4,000 different drugs and products waiting in line for approval and we can't get them approved. We're going to speed up that process very significantly.

Affordable Child Care and Elder Care Act allows Americans to deduct child care and elder care from their taxes, incentivizes employers to provide on sight, so important, child care services. And you see that with a couple of companies and it's such a great thing to see, and creates tax free dependent care savings of cancer of both young and elderly dependents with matching contributions for low income families. So good.

And Illegal Immigration Act. Fully funds the construction of a wall on our southern border. Don't worry about it. Remember, I said Mexico is paying for the wall, with the full understand that the country of Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such a wall, OK? We're going to have the wall. Mexico is going to pay for the wall. Mexico's -- by the way I met with the president of Mexico two and a half months ago, wonderful meeting, wonderful person. But I told him, it's a two-way highway, not a one-way highway. We have our people. We have to take care of our people. We have to protect our people. So it's got to be a two-way street, otherwise it's going to be a whole different deal.

But, it establishes a two-year mandatory minimum federal prison sentences if people come in illegally for illegally re-entering the United States after a previous deportation. And a five-year mandatory, minimum for illegally re-entering for those with felony convictions, multiple misdemeanor convictions or two or more prior deportations. So, when somebody comes in, we send them out. They come back in, they go to prison for quite a while. If they come back, if they come back again, they go five years. Because what's happening is they're coming back ten times.

And I could go case after case, they come back. Look at what happened in San Francisco. Five times he came back. On the fifth time, he killed Kate, five times. But so many others, one ten times came back, killed somebody after ten times. When they get deported, they stay out. Otherwise, they have very serious prison terms. They will stay out. Once you do that, they will stay out. Right now, they have no consequence. They have no consequences.

Also, reforms on visa rules to enhance penalties for overstaying and to ensure open jobs are offered to American workers first. [12:39:59] Number eight. Restoring Community Safety Act, reduces surge in crime, drugs and violence by creating a task force so in violent crime, and increasing funding for programs that train and assist your local police. We're doing such a great job. Believe me.

The increase of resources for federal law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors to dismantle criminal gangs. And put violent offenders behind bars or out of our country and into the country where they came from.

Restoring National Security Act which rebuilds our military, by eliminating the defense sequester, which has been very tough for our military and expanding military investment.

Now, at no time, practically, do we need a military like right now. We don't want to use it. But it's peace through strength. We need a strong military. Our military is so terribly depleted. It also provides our great veterans with the ability to receive public V.A. treatment or attend a private doctor of their choice. If they are waiting in line and I have the plan up. And we've gotten, as you know, tremendous support from veterans, from law enforcement, from veterans, from the military, tremendous support.

But if they are waiting in line and you see a 22 suicides a day. People don't believe it, 22 a day. But if they're waiting in line for seven days, six days, nine days, they can't get to see a doctor. And a simple procedure or a simple prescription can solve their problem and they become very sick and they die. They die waiting in line. We're going to give them the power to go across the street, to a local doctor, a private doctor, a public hospital or private hospital, all looking to help and all looking to do business. And we'll pay the bill. So much cheaper, but much more importantly, the veterans will finally be taken care of properly. Because what they're going through now is unacceptable.

Also, we're going to protect our vital infrastructure from the new thing. It's called cyber attack. It establishes new screen procedures for immigration to ensure those who are admitted to our country support our people and our values. We want people that love our country or can love our country and people that will love our citizens. We want people that can love us.

And there are ways, through talent of determining that. And other countries do, but we don't. Just come on in, folks, come on in. Clean up corruption in Washington, enacts tough new ethic reforms to reduce the corrupting influence of special interests and donors on our politics.

On November 8th, Americans will be voting for this 100-day plan to restore prosperity to our country, secure our communities and honesty to our government.

This is my pledge to you. And if we follow these steps, we will once more have a government of, by and for the people. And importantly, we will make America great again. Believe me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. (END VIDEO CLIP)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, you are listening to Donald Trump there in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Laying out his plans for his first 100 days in office, if elected, everything ranging from constitutional amendments to imposed term limits on members of Congress, to bans involving people who were once employed by the White House or Congress in terms of whether they could become lobbyist to five year bans for some.

He also talked about re-negotiating NAFTA. He also talked about replacing and repealing Obamacare, a host of things. So let's try and dive into all this now.

Back with me, a CNN Senior Political Analyst and Senior Editor of the Atlantic Ron Brownstein and CNN Political Commentator and Senior Contributor to the Daily Caller, Matt Lewis. We'll also get in our Sunlen Serfaty who is there in the room.

First to you, Matt, as you listen to a very lengthy list by Donald Trump of the things he would want to bring and things he wants to eliminate, what are the things that are more signature of the campaign of Donald Trump that we have seen?

[12:45:05] MATT LEWIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well first, it reminded me a lot of Lincoln's Gettysburg address, I have to tell you.

WHITFIELD: It did. I'm sarcasm, I forget. OK, go ahead.

LEWIS: Well, look so, you know, obviously, the last 20 minutes we're very substantive in terms of laying out a laundry list of policy items. About half of them I think were populous ideas, things like, you know, getting rid of NAFTA and TPP. I think that would resinate and very well could resinate with a lot of working class Americans.

The other half was sort of traditional, conservative things that conservatives want, you know, get rid of Obamacare, school of choice, things like that. But the problem, of course is, that Donald Trump spent the first 20 or 30 minutes talking about other stuff and including saying that he was going to sue these women, he called them liars and saying, you know, talking about suing them. But I think that becomes the headline. And I think this speech is a microcosm of Donald Trump's campaign which is that he has these populous messages that I think very well could sell to a lot of working class Americans in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania. But he steps on it. He overshadows that message by giving the media a better headline, frankly, and so, if -- it's a lack of non-discipline.

WHITFIELD: So, if you were encouraged by hearing that he would try and change the tax bracket from seven to three and he would promise that the middle class might enjoy a 35 percent tax cut, you're saying, Matt that it really was kind of overshadowed by the first items of the list before he got into the 100 days of office that, you know, reminding people that those accusers now what nine, were liars, he plans to sue.

And so, you know, Ron, when people think of the Gettysburg address, you know, government by the people, for the people, you know, and how inspiring it was by Abe Lincoln, Donald Trump made reference to that great address.

But then this was the opposite of inspiring. Was it not? Was it mostly a pessimistic view? Or if you are Donald Trump, do you see that he was kind of shedding light on the optimism he sees if it were his administration?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I agree with everything Matt said. First of all, I mean the Gettysburg address, and the second argue are the all great Lincoln addresses were about unifying the country and finding the common bonds that we endure, that endured even amid Civil War. And Donald Trump is not that kind of leader. He is one and more about drawing sharp lines. And the first part of that speech in particular was extraordinary to hear in Gettysburg. These kind of sweeping attacks on all of these different institutions and individuals.

But I think everything Matt said is exactly right. I mean this speech really underscores what a hybrid Donald Trump is and how he represents almost something that is an independent candidacy that happens to be running under the Republican banner because you do have a variety of traditional arguments that we're kind of salted in there. Repeal Obamacare, cut taxes, reduce regulation to unshackle energy. But then you have all these new notes. Increase infrastructure spending. They're not many Republicans in Congress that are talking about massive increases in infrastructure spending, the protectionism, the ethno-nationalism of the way he talks about immigration and the continuing way that he talks about Mexico essentially bringing crime and danger to the U.S.

I mean he is, and then of course, the attacks on the political class. He is someone who is almost outside, you know, of the traditional Republican, in many ways, label. But running with their imprimatur, and I think the big question is going to be after the election if he can close this gap, could -- does this agenda, this Trumpism have a future, even if Trump prove to be a uniquely flawed candidate because of the personal issues surrounding him?

And I think there's going to be a big debate in the Republican Party about whether the agenda he led out today is a path forward to the presidency or relies too much on appealing to white working class voters, who are shrinking part of the overall electorate and still alienates too many of the other growing parts of the electorate.

WHITFIELD: And so Matt, you know, we've got this full screen here. We tried to truncate some of the messages that we heard from Donald Trump. If we can pull that back up again, everything from, you know, the congressional term limits that Donald t Trump imposing congressional term limits there. He's talking about a hiring freeze for all federal workers except for some essentials and decreasing federal regulations. And he talked about requiring for each new federal regulation there would be two eliminated, re-negotiate NAFTA, lifting restrictions on U.S. energy. And, you know, he said he would bring back jobs particularly as it pertains to, you know, coal mining et cetera. And cancel millions of dollars in funding to the U.N. on its climate change. But instead try to redirect some of that money on cleaning up, you know, climate change here in this country or environmental issues as he put it.

[12:50:04] So matt, you know, is -- are these -- I could go on, I mean because the list is very long. But that's just kind of like a, you know, a cliff note version. So are these the messages that Donald Trump is trying to send to those undecideds to try to, you know, win their attention and support or was he talking primarily to his supporters who might be familiar with some of these ideas already?

LEWIS: Yeah. Well, I would say a couple of things. One, you have a speech that is sprinkled with very good lines. I mean it's a shame that they're overshadowed by Trump's sort of revenge seeking and score settling because they were really good populous lines in there. He said things like you are my special interest. And he said things like Hillary Clinton is not running against me, she's running against change. These are really good lines that somebody put in there. And then what you just had on the screen, that just litany of policy ideas, most of which I think are pretty popular with the American public.

And I think, if the American public were just -- if that's what they knew about Donald Trump, he might win this election. The problem, though, is look he has all these gimmicks to get us to pay attention, right. He holds it in Gettysburg. He sells it as the first 100 days. So these aren't policies, he wants to pass. These are things he's going to do in the first 100 days. All gimmicks to get us to pay attention. And then he overshadows it by talking about suing these women. Who have accused him of things.

And you know the media better than I do or as well as I do, there's no doubt that is going to be the headline on the newspapers tomorrow, in the New York Times. It's not going to be Trump lays out a detailed plan to, you know, to get rid of NAFTA and to bring back, you know, the working class in Ohio.

WHITFIELD: OK. So Sunlen is with us. You were in the room, OK, go ahead Ron with your point as we ...

BROWNSTEIN: ... real quick.

WHITFIELD: Go ahead Ron.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, real quick. I mean there are moments in this speech as there are in the debates where you can almost run the counter factual the kind of ultimate reality version of this campaign. If Donald Trump had been able to run as an outsider business guy and maybe even also the protectionism who would kind of shake up a political system. And these failings to produce results for many average Americans without all of the racial animist which I think is was kind of the original sin of the campaign, which has made it so tough for him to build support in white collar, white American, which is the reason why he's stuck in the low 40s.

And, you know, if he could have done that this speech wasn't that though. This speech was the full monte of the blue collar populism that that he wants to transform the Republican Party into what he's called a worker's party. Even without his personal problems. There are a lot of parts of this agenda that are still going to ring hollow not far from the speech in the suburbs of Philadelphia, which is really heart break hill for him places like that all over the country in this election.

WHITFIELD: So the Trump campaign was calling this a closing argument. Sunlen, you were there in the room. And, you know, we could hear that a number of the supporters there were excited about what he was saying. But also closing arguments, while it may mean everything in the kitchen sink, it's also a summarization of what in this a candidate can do or promises to do. Do people in that room feel like they have a better understanding of what a Trump, White House would look like?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think there was certainly a lot to digest because what we did see from Donald Trump today as you guys have been talking about is that he really did lay out a lot of the policy, proposals that he has over the course of the campaign, almost a restructuring, pulling it all together almost like a cliff notes version of everything he's proposed in one place.

It did seem that there was a lot of response, I have to say, Fred, from the audience when he talked about immigration reform plan, when he talked about building a wall with Mexico, so blatantly new wrinkles and addition to that policy there which the crowd here did seemed to like.

But again, this build as a major policy speech. His 100 days, what he would do in office and certainly his closing message going forward, it did seem that the message was somewhat muddled with the way he approached the speech at the top, spending a full 16 minutes, almost like an area of grievances going after Hillary Clinton, going after the establishment saying that they're trying to stop his campaign. And that might, you know, water down his message about those policy proposals going forward.

WHITFIELD: And so Ron, was it almost as if he's trying to get Donald Trump in the way he structured this speech that perhaps the first part was kind of trying to get the last word on the last debate like just in case you'll need a little reminder, and this is where I'm coming from.

And now, let me get to fast forward, what it would be like if, you know, I were in the White House. So all that being said, does it offer more clarity or more confusion if you were trying to decide on whether you're going for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, well, look, it offers the fundamental dissonance that you get with Donald Trump. I mean the first 15 minutes of the speech in Gettysburg, people were chanting, "Lock her up." I mean you talk about, you know, what more do you need to kind of get a sense of how polarizing a candidacy Donald Trump has offered to be in Gettysburg and saying, "My opponent should be in jail, should not be allowed to run." I mean that just extraordinary. [12:55:19] And then you get to the second half of the speech, where you see the opportunity that is always been there which Trump has seized at points by the way in sections of each of these debates to be the embodiment of change at the time when many Americans don't think the political system works to produce outcomes beneficial for their family. I mean he could have been the business outsider shaking up a corrupt political system or stalemated political system or both. But that, you know, that is only been one piece of his identity. And you see the others in here, kind of -- the kind of personal grievance and the questions about temperament to that race is. And then also of the racial edge in the way that he talks about immigration. Those two pieces are there as well. And there's no way for him to simply disentangle it. And be the candidate solely of outsider change. And we saw it today. He doesn't really want it just be that candidate.

WHITFIELD: All right, we've got so much more. Stick around, Sunlen, Matt and Ron, thank you so much. We're going take a short break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: And welcome back. This is the NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

[12:59:56] So just moments ago, Donald Trump laid out what he had build in a lead up to his remarks in Gettysburg, as he's closing argument to the American people, the Republican candidate using much of the first part of the speech to lash out at his political opponent, the media and women who have accused him of sexual misconduct.