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Asian American Voters Leaning Heavily Democratic; Dozens of Villages Retaken from ISIS; Star Jones Campaigning for Hillary Clinton; Cubs and Indians to Face Off in World Series. Aired 10:30-11a ET.

Aired October 24, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00] MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: We don't have a lot of women in leadership positions within the republican context. I mean, there's Cathy McMorris Rodgers and that's sort of it on the house side. And so we frankly need to get more - we view - I, my opinion, is we have to get more women elected into office and then they could be the messengers for the ideas that the republican party stands for.

CAROL COSTELLO: So I know that a lot of republican women don't really care much for Hillary Clinton, but is the fact that she's female, will that in a strange way help republican women ...

HOOVER: You know it's interesting. I think the Clinton campaign really was hoping that that would be the case. I think they were hoping for high profile republican women to come out, maybe a Susan Collins or maybe a Lisa Murkowski, to come out and really support Hillary Clinton because she would be the first woman president. I think they were really banking on the historic nature of the first female candidate to help usher her into the presidency. And frankly the irony is that it's actually been Donald Trump who has made the case for women better than Hillary Clinton by his, frankly, you know, the misogyny, the sexual assault, the totally unforgiving attitude about women, the dismissiveness, the objectification of women - that has actually helped make Hillary's case as the first female candidate more than ...

COSTELLO: So let me ask the question this way: I believe women will decide this election.

HOOVER: They will and we're seeing that in the numbers already.

COSTELLO: We're definitely seeing that. So will that make those republican leaders finally sit up and taken notice that, you know what, you have a powerful block of women and they want a certain kind of candidate, maybe we do need to support women candidates for governorships and state legislatures and ...

HOOVER: What I would argue is, yes that's true; they believe they're doing that already, but they need to do it fundamentally differently. Because what they've been doing hasn't worked.

COSTELLO: Thanks so much for stopping by.

HOOVER: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: It's a fascinating conversation. Trump is not just having problems recruiting women. Republicans in general could have problems with a normally reliable voting block for the GOP. That would be Asian Americans. They are increasingly voting democratic. CNN's Victor Blackwell went to Florida and talked to Asian Americans in that key state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): On the campus of the University of North Florida, politics is the topic of the day and most of these students will be voting for Hillary Clinton.

JUSTIN DATO, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH FLORIDA STUDENT: I think ultimately her vision for the United States, it kind of aligns with my vision of open-mindedness, kind of accepting everyone.

BLACKWELL (voice over): Justin Dato and his friends are at the leading edge of a seismic political shift among Asian American voters from once reliable republican votes to a democratic stronghold. In the 1992 three-way race, republican president George H. W. Bush earned 55 percent of the Asian American vote. Twenty years later, democratic president Barack Obama got 73 percent over Mitt Romney.

KARTHICK RAMAKRISHNAN, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL ASIAN-AMERICAN SURVEY: We have never seen a swing like that for any group.

BLACKWELL (voice over): Karthick Ramakrishnan is the director of the National Asian American Survey.

RAMAKRISHNAN: Democrats are far more likely to be reaching out to these voters than republicans. We also saw Bill Clinton do a lot in terms of outreach activity and also nominating Asian Americans.

BLACKWELL (voice over): And democrats hope that outreach will pay off this year as Asian American voters could have an oversized impact in November.

RAMAKRISHNAN: There are these new destination states - states like Florida and other states like North Carolina - that are not battleground states for the presidency. These are the states where you have newer Asian American populations and they're growing very rapidly.

BLACKWELL (voice over): At the top of the list, Jacksonville, Florida. It's mostly Filipino community has the highest population of Asian Americans in any of the 2016 battleground states. Most analysts say Donald Trump needs to win Florida to win the White House. And it's Mauro Gines' job to find the votes. He's with the Filipino- American Republicans of Northeast Florida.

BLACKWELL: The statistics would show that democrats are doing very well recruiting Asian Americans. MAURO GINES, REPUBLICAN: I think they appear to have very effective

recruiting and I would probably yield to that statement. I guess they have the support of what they hear, meaning the media. So if there's too much they hear from the media about the democrats, they will lean toward that.

RAMAKRISHNAN: We've also seen factors on the republican side that have pushed them away.

BLACKWELL (voice over): And in an August rally when Trump reiterated his proposals to ban immigrants from what he calls terrorist nations, he mentioned the Philippines.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Hillary Clinton wants to have them come in by the hundreds of thousands.

BLACKWELL (voice over): Soon after a Philippines lawmaker proposed banning Trump from entering their country.

RAMAKRISHNAN(ph): A majority of Asian American registered voters have a very unfavorable view of Donald Trump. And that should be very concerning to the republican party because it's possible that Donald Trump will turn off Asian American voters even more.

[10:35:00] BLACKWELL (voice over): A survey found that 59 percent favor Clinton and just 16 percent favor Trump. But there is opportunity for each party here. For these two voters, the choice is less about who they want to be the next president, but more about who they don't.

BLACKWELL: Are you a Trump supporter?

GINES: I am a Trump supporter.

BLACKWELL: Tell me why.

GINES: Because I cannot be for Hillary.

BLACKWELL: Are you excited to vote for Hillary Clinton?

DATO: I wouldn't necessarily say excited, just, I'm excited not to vote for Trump.

BLACKWELL (voice over): Victor Blackwell, CNN, Jacksonville, Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Still ahead in THE NEWSROOM: The march toward Mosul continues: Five more villages taken back from ISIS control. But tragedy hits one village when civilians celebrate too soon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00] COSTELLO: Iraqi and Kurdish forces are retaking dozens of villages from ISIS and they're closing in on ISIS-controlled Mosul, Iraq's second largest city. That progress is won with a price though(ph). In one town, a local leader says 40 civilians were executed when they started celebrating their liberation too early. ISIS member came back and they killed them. CNN's Senior International Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is in Erbil, Iraq. Hi Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, another incident today involving villages and ISIS, one perhaps with a more positive note, a report from residents of Mosul, the city itself, saying that unidentified men began attacking ISIS militants. Now we don't know much more apart from that, but it is the first sign we've seen of what many thought might be an insurrection against ISIS in that huge city of 1.2 million people still left inside who've been living under ISIS oppression for years. And many though perhaps they might turn against their occupiers, frankly. One sign of that today, the troubling incident you mentioned of civilians being killed because they frankly had thought ISIS had left when they hadn't. Well we've heard other instances too of ISIS herding people from their villages toward Mosul itself as human shields.

But today the Peshmerga are talking about their continued advance. That's the Iraqi Kurdish forces working alongside the Iraqi military. I say advance, they seem to be going through and around a lot of villages; kind of moving their front line forward quite quickly. The question is, what's behind them as they go. And we've seen ourselves how there are a lot of incidents in which ISIS hide in tunnels, leave out (ph) mines, and it seems at this point the phrase "cordon off" is being used a lot. The Peshmerga are basically encircling population areas; not cleaning them out. There seems to be a lot of shelling happening too. That could cause a problem going forward, ambush in the rear of the Iraqi army and Iraqi Peshmerga as they move forward, but also problems for civilians trying to flee Mosul proper itself. It's moving quickly. It's only the first week of this stage, and we're not even near - anywhere near the urban sprawl of Mosul itself yet. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Nick Paton Walsh reporting live from inside Iraq. Even before Iraqi led forces make it to Mosul, the humanitarian crisis in the region is getting worse. According to the Norwegian Refugee Counsel, 5000 people have already been displaced by the Mosul offensive and it's expected to get much more severe. Capacity at newly built camps is currently around 60,000 people and once Mosul is retaken, around 200,000 people are expected to be displaced.

So far more than 1000 refugees have been removed from a notorious migrant camp in France, known as the Jungle. Dozens of buses have been enlisted to take the migrants out of the camp in Calais and then those migrants have the option of going home or resettling in other parts of France. Clashes in the camp broke out Sunday between the migrants and police there. Many of the migrants are expected to refuse to leave as the camp is being demolished. Coming up next in THE NEWSROOM: She's one of Donald Trumps' former apprentices. But she's putting her star power behind Clinton. We'll talk to her next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:45:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The branding absolutely missed the mark. You were judge of branding. Star, you're fired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That was Star Jones. She was fired from Celebrity Apprentice five years ago. Today, she's trying to get Hillary Clinton hired. She's hitting the trail for Clinton, even making a pitch for her at the democratic national convention. Besides being a TV personality, she's a women's advocate and president of the professional diversity network. Star Jones is with me now, welcome.

STAR JONES, WOMEN'S ADVOCATE AND PRESIDENT OF THE PROFESSIONAL DIVERSITY NETWORK: Thank you Carol. It's nice to see you in person, rather than me watching you every day on television.

COSTELLO: But I'm grateful that you watch. We like that. You are very much part of Hillary Clinton's ground game. You recently returned from Florida. What were you doing there?

JONES: One hundred percent. I am surrogate for Secretary Clinton and I have traveled this entire year. Literally one year ago this week I started out in South Carolina, recently returned from Florida. The secretary wanted me to go down to Tampa in particular to talk to minority and women-owned business leaders. That was really important because the money that she wants to put into businesses - small businesses - for women and for people of color, that's really a big part of her platform and it was my job to get out there and talk about it.

COSTELLO: You talk to all different community groups right?

JONES: Oh, absolutely.

COSTELLO: All different.

JONES: Absolutely. I went to beauty salons, beauty supply stores. I went to restaurants. I had a forum with about 30 African American lawyers who were really galvanizing and ready for election night, should there be a reason to have to go and help out because of voter intimidation.

COSTELLO: So, did you run into any Trump people who were executing their own ground game?

JONES: You know what, Carol? I have to tell you none at all. And I went up and down the African American community, different sections. I went to East Tampa, Tampa proper. I met with so many people, not just African Americans.

COSTELLO: Did you find that unusual?

JONES: Extremely, because this close in the race, Florida is obviously a state that he must win in order to get to 270, but I ran into no Trump supporters. I ran into no Trump people handing out leaflets or moving around during that time. Now I understand that they had a pretty big rally, but you have to have that rally turn into a ground game. And Secretary Clinton's ground game is really based in community.

COSTELLO: I want to talk a little bit about The Apprentice, because it was a very popular show, right?

JONES: Yes and I won $175,000.00 for the American Heart Association, so that was the best thing I could get.

COSTELLO: So it was worth getting fired?

JONES: Oh my gosh. I've been fired before, so this one was nothing (ph).

COSTELLO: We bounce back. So, but, I just - it's just so fascinating to me. You know, you liked Mr. Trump at one time.

JONES: I did.

COSTELLO: Did you ever think at that time that you would be- I guess campaigning against him?

[10:50:05] JONES: One hundred percent. Now I can tell you in 2010, right after we taped The Apprentice but before it aired, if you'll remember that was one of the times he was flirting with running for president. And I had been and was a surrogate for President Obama. And I was out (ph) campaigning and making a speech and Donald called me personally and said, "What do you mean you would never support me?" because I had said under no circumstances would I support him. I said, "I wouldn't. One, I'm a democrat, but two, more importantly, I'm a surrogate for the President of the United States. And by the way, I don't like the way you're talking about him." So I read him the riot act all about that birther nonsense back then in 2010. He knew where I stood then. He knows where I stand now.

COSTELLO: But you still liked him?

JONES: I liked him then until his language changed. And 2010 was really a turning point for me. That's when he started casting the President of the United States as an other. And when I say that that made me feel scaly (ph). Like maybe he looks at me like other also. And so once I had the conversation with him, I actually spoke with his wife, Melania, I spoke with two of his kids about my concerns. And I got poo-pooed. So when you poo-poo me, hey, boy, bye.

COSTELLO: So Ivanka, because she's played a big part in this campaign. We don't really see her as much on the campaign trail as I would have expected.

JONES: Well, she's a working mother and so obviously I give her a pass any time she needs to take care of her family.

COSTELLO: She just had a baby. JONES: Right, exactly. But also I've had a very good relationship with Ivanka. I have a wonderful relationship with Ivana. I love her mom very much. Obviously, they support Donald. But Ivanka has always impressed me as somebody who really does make her own decisions. This I've been conflicted about. The vitriol that has come out of his mouth, the misogyny, and then aligning himself with, literally, the trifecta of misogyny with Giuliani, Christy and Gingrich, I mean, it's just something I've never seen before.

COSTELLO: Except that it's obviously not - it's obviously not how Ivanka thinks of her father.

JONES: Not at all.

COSTELLO: That's not her father in her mind.

JONES: Well, you know what. This is so interesting. I remember after I lost so much weight, my friends and family would say, "I never thought of you as that big." I weighed 300 pounds. Carol, I was big, OK? I was morbidly obese. Just because somebody sees you through rose-colored glasses, doesn't mean you're not actually that person standing there.

COSTELLO: Final question to you: Do you think that the Donald Trump on the campaign trail is the real Donald Trump?

JONES: I think what you're seeing is the master marketer. I've known for the past year watching some of his behaviors that the end game if it wasn't 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it was his own fiefdom. And I think that he is going to get exactly what he wants, but it won't be the presidency. He's going to get what he wants. He always does.

COSTELLO: Star Jones, thanks for stopping by.

JONES: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Always a pleasure to have you. You will not believe how much it will cost to watch 70 years of anguish end: Coy Wire with the high cost of a ticket to the World Series. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:55:00] COSTELLO: The World Series starts tomorrow, and if you want to see the Cubs and Indians play in person, you're going to need some serious cash. Oh my gosh. Coy Wire, it's insane.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Carol, insane indeed. These two clubs own Major Leagues Baseball's two longest championship droughts, so no matter which team wins this series, they're going to send their respective city into an absolute frenzy. The Cubs haven't even made it to the World Series since 1945. That's before color TV. And they haven't won it since 1908. Cleveland hasn't won a World Series since 1948, and if they can win the championship, like their Cavs did, it would be the city's second pro sports title in the same year after more than a half a century without one. So could you imagine that? Forty-one thousand seats at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Average ticket price for the three scheduled games there more than $3800.00 for a single seat. That's according to ticket tracker TicketIQ. Now the cheapest ticket listed on the secondary market for game one which is in Cleveland tomorrow, $700.00 and that doesn't even get you a seat. That's to stand there and watch the game.

Championship droughts are one of the factors driving the price of these tickets through the roof. These teams have fans who've waited literally a lifetime, sometimes multiple generations, to see their squad win the World Series. Also a factor: Supply compared to demand. Season ticket holders aren't going to just give up those seats, even with potential for some big profit, right? So in Chicago, for example, there are only about 1600 tickets available online per game, less than half those available in Cleveland. Both these cities could take over the top spots for the most expensive World Series tickets ever sold; both of them. Chicago is on track to more than double the current leader, averaging almost $3900.00 a ticket. Big cities like San Fran, New York, Boston, were the top three, but even Cleveland has a chance to surpass them, currently averaging $1640.00 per ticket. Carol, in nine days or less one of these teams is going to give their series some relief from long, long suffering without a World Series.

COSTELLO: I hope Cleveland wins. It's Cleveland's year, Coy, it is. You know it. Like the Cavs, they won the championship and we'll just ignore the Cleveland Browns because right now they don't exist in my mind, but the Cleveland Indians, wow. Good for them.

WIRE: Absolutely, Carol. Good for them, indeed.

COSTELLO: Are you going to the games? You are aren't you?

WIRE: Mr. Andy Scholes is in Cleveland. He may be joining you tomorrow with some good news to report from Cleveland.

COSTELLO: I've got to bribe him for something. OK, Coy, Thanks.

WIRE: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. "AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.