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Kellyanne Conway Shares Why She Thinks Trump Will Win; Fighting in Mosul Continues; Cubs and Indians Face Off in the World Series Tonight. Aired 10:30-11a ET.
Aired October 25, 2016 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Donald Trump has had his fair share of troubles winning over female voters. A new CNN ORC poll shows of likely voters, 59 percent said his treatment of women is an indicator of his character, but one woman who would disagree with that is his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway. She's Trump's third campaign manager this election cycle and is the first woman to ever run a republican presidential candidate's campaign. CNN's Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash decided to learn more about her relationship with Donald Trump to get to the bottom of who the real Kellyanne Conway is, and she joins us now.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well I think she's like a lot of - most of us women, and she's got a lot of different layers of who she is, but what is so fascinating about the women and the poll you just put up there is that her expertise as a pollster before she joined the Trump campaign was to tell politicians and corporate clients how best to appeal to women; not so easy though when Donald Trump is your candidate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BASH (voice over): Morning at the Conways.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, CAMPAIGN MANAGER FOR DONALD TRUMP: Sweetheart, how's this? And then which jacket?
BASH (voice over): Scrambling to get the kids ready for school. Familiar chaos for any parent, though Kellyanne Conway is not any parent.
UNKNOWN MALE: Kellyanne Conway bluntly acknowledging the uphill climb.
BASH (voice over): The mother of four young children is Donald Trump's campaign manager. On TV so much explaining and defending her boss, Saturday Night Live dedicated an entire bit to imaging her day off.
BASH: This is so weird. This is exactly the way the SNL house looked. Where is "Walking on Sunshine"? CONWAY: In my head. The pancakes are true to life.
BASH (voice over): These days her mother, who moved in to help, makes the pancakes. Conway has only been on the job since August, Trump's third campaign manager, but the first woman ever to run a GOP presidential race.
CONWAY: I wasn't hired because of my gender. But it's a special responsibility.
BASH (voice over): And often a difficult one. Like this weekend when Trump went off script, attacking the women who say he groped them.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.
BASH: Did you just tear your hair out when you hear him say that?
CONWAY: It's his campaign and it's candidacy and in the end he has to feel comfortable with his voice and his choice, every single comment he gives there.
BASH: But you're the campaign manager. Do you feel comfortable with that?
CONWAY: I think Donald Trump is at his very best, at his very best when he talks about the issues.
BASH (voice over): Translation: Going off message hurt his campaign. Conway insists she's tough on Trump in private.
CONWAY: I don't sugar coat at all and I think he really appreciates that.
BASH: So give me an example: I'm Donald Trump and you're Kellyanne Conway and I say something that really makes you mad at my rally.
CONWAY: I told him yesterday, "Honestly, you and I are going to fight in the next 17 days." And he said, "Why?" and I said, "Because I know you're going to win, and that comment you just made sounds like you think you're going to lose and we're going to argue about it until you win." [10:35:00]
BASH: And what's his response?
CONWAY: He's like, "OK, honey, then we'll win."
BASH (voice over): For a time after Conway took over, Trump was disciplined but not anymore, especially on Twitter.
CONWAY: Literally, people will seriously say, "Can't you delete his Twitter app?"
BASH: That was actually one of my questions?
CONWAY: Of course. It's not for me to take away a grown man's Twitter account.
TRUMP: And I moved on her very heavily, in fact (INAUDIBLE)...
BASH (voice over): When a tape from 2005 came out of Trump describing lewd behavior, Conway canceled Sunday TV appearances, but still helps with damage control.
CONWAY: And I felt like Rapunzel in the tower all weekend and I told Mr. Trump in private what I've also said in public, or a variation thereof, I found the comments to be horrible and indefensible, and he didn't ask anybody to defend them, by the way.
BASH: Did you consider quitting?
CONWAY: I did not.
BASH (voice over): She says she thought his apology was earnest.
BASH: The women who have come forward and said, "It's not just talk. Donald Trump groped me," do you believe them?
CONWAY: I believe - Donald Trump has told me and his family and the rest of America now that none of this is true. These are lies and fabrications. They're all made up. And I think that it's not for me to judge what those women believe. I have not talked to them. I've talked to him.
BASH (voice over): She was raised in New Jersey by a single mom, aunts, and grandmother; all women. As a political pollster, she chose to work in what she calls a man's world, especially as a republican. She recalled a potential client, a man, asking how she balanced kids and work.
CONWAY: It's like, I just hope you ask all the male consultants, "Are you going to give up your wicked golf game and your mistresses?" Because they seem really, really busy too.
BASH (voice over): Still, like most working moms, time with her kids is precious. The question is whether she'll have more time in two weeks after election day.
CONWAY (on the telephone): We're going to add two states to that.
BASH (voice over): When she was hired in August, she told Trump he was losing but could still win.
BASH: Do you think at this point it is still possible to win?
CONWAY: It is still possible to win.
BASH: Probable?
CONWAY: I think that we have got a very good chance of winning.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: So she - I mean, I think some people will look at that and say, "Oh my god, she's exceedingly normal." Why would she be so loyal to a man like Donald Trump who does make mistakes, who does make her job harder?
BASH: Well, she says that she believes in him and she believes in what he says he wants to do with this country. But, you know, there's no question, and she didn't leave it to the imagination for people to get, that she has frustrations just like other people who work for Donald Trump have frustrations. Because at the end of the day, he is an unconventional politician and that does mean he steps on his message with some frequency because he gets angry or he takes the bait or he can't help himself because he feels that he needs to defend his name. But when you're running for president and you have, as Kellyanne Conway said, the issues - they believe the issues are on their side. The Obamacare numbers that came out are a great example of the fact that premiums have spiked more than 20 percent, that is something that should be what he talks about on a loop and not the polls, for example.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Because he's still doing that this morning, so he's taking bad advice.
BASH: Exactly.
COSTELLO: And just a final question: If Donald Trump does lose, like, what's next for Kellyanne Conway?
BASH: Honestly, I'm guessing whatever she wants. She has a reputation already and has for two decades as a solid pollster, not just in politics, but in the corporate world, and I think that by her doing this interview and making clear that she's just sort of trying to do her best and that she's working for a very difficult candidate. I think that's fair to say. A difficult candidate in terms of trying to shape a campaign, people get that.
COSTELLO: Dana Bash, thanks so much. I enjoyed that immensely. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:40:00]
COSTELLO: We're getting new details about some of the recent fighting near Mosul, Iraq; sources inside the city telling CNN fighting broke out Monday between ISIS and Mosul resistance fighters. And now ISIS is punishing the neighborhood by cutting off water and electricity. While the push to retake the Iraqi city has gone more quickly than expected, it's clear ISIS is not letting go without a fight, using suicide bomber, IEDs, drone attacks, and now toxic fires. CNN's Senior International Correspondent Arwa Damon is in Erbil, Iraq with more. Hi, Arwa.
ARWA DAMON, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol, and you were talking about that resistance happening inside Mosul. They are known as the Mosul Battalions and for quite some time they've been carrying out targeted assassinations and other small-scale attacks against ISIS. They're long term plan, or their broader more strategic plan, is to rise up once troops get closer to the city and ISIS has for quite some time also been trying to go after members of this resistance. But it seems as if, as you were mentioning before, these clashes are already breaking out and now ISIS is conducting sweeping operations through those neighborhoods, trying to go after members of this highly secretive battalion. In other parts the front line fighting, it's still intense, it's still ongoing. The closer troops are getting to Mosul, the more difficult it is becoming. [10:44:42]
And then you have what ISIS is leaving behind as it departs some locations. We were just at what was a sulfur factory, a sulfur plant that was occupied by ISIS and just before they withdrew they planted explosives in what was a massive mountain of sulfur and throughout this plant what this has done is released huge clouds of toxic gas that are still burning. And over the last few days, hundreds of people have had to seek medical attention because of difficulty breathing, choking. It really impacts your eyes. In fact, so many people needed medical attention that hospitals ran out of oxygen and this is just one example of the many concerns that troops will be facing as they get closer to that city, Carol.
COSTELLO: So, Arwa, before you go I want to ask you this question since you are on the battlefield and you're there. You know, American politics, we have an election going on, Donald Trump is saying that the operation in Mosul is a total disaster. From your standpoint, is it?
DAMON: I think one it's too early to tell, and I think that this was an operation that many will say will say was a long time in the making. It is one that is absolutely needed. It is one that so far at this point in time, bearing in mind that no one knows exactly what sort of defenses ISIS has mounted within Mosul, but at this particular point in time it does seem as if it has been fairly well planned and is so far going according to what has been strategized, if not slightly faster. And I think a lot of those who are out there on the front lines fighting this will tell you that even though as the U.S. Military likes to say the enemy has a vote, they do firmly believe that their, the U.S., the Iraqi, the Kurdish Peshmerga, the other coalition partner's vote is the one that is ultimately going to win.
COSTELLO: All right, Arwa Damon, thanks so much. We're going to talk more about that after the break. I'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:50:00]
COSTELLO: Donald Trump doubling down on attacks on the Obama administration and its involvement in the Iraqi led fight to retake Mosul. Mr. Trump tweeting, "The attack on Mosul is turning out to be a total disaster. We gave them ten months of notice. U.S. is looking so dumb." Hillary Clinton firing back and saying those comments are dangerous and need to be repudiated. So let's talk about that. With me now is Josh Rogan, CNN Political Analyst and Washington Post Columnist. Welcome, Josh.
JOSH ROGAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST: Thank you.
COSTELLO: So you heard what Arwa Damon said. She said it's much too early in the battle to declare anything about how the fight is going in Mosul. From your standpoint, could it turn out to be a disaster?
ROGAN: I hope not. The point is, like, why would you say that? Why would you root for it to be a disaster? I mean, for months Donald Trump has been calling on the Obama administration to take the fight to ISIL and then when they do it he says it's a disaster. He said it should have been a sneak attack, which doesn't make any sense because you've got a city in the middle of the desert with a hundred thousand troops, right? It's impossible to do a sneak attack. And then he said it's a conspiracy theory by the Obama administration to get Hillary Clinton elected, which is also ridiculous considering the fact that this is an Iraqi mission and on an Iraqi timeline.
COSTELLO: But wait a minute, Josh, wait a minute. Some voters might look at it and say, you know, the battle for Mosul could have started a long time ago. Why didn't it?
ROGAN: The Iraqi government made the decision based on Iraqi timelines. It wasn't up to the Obama administration, so it's totally impossible that the Obama administration could have orchestrated it. They just simply were not in control of it. But the bigger issue here is that Donald Trump is just saying a lot of these falsehoods and conspiracy theories, and there's only really two conclusions you could draw from that. Either he's lying or he doesn't know what's going on on the ground in Iraq. I don't know which one is right, but either way it's pretty troubling.
COSTELLO: He says he has a lot of generals behind him. He touts them all the time, so I would assume he's getting some military advice from them.
ROGAN: Yes, no, if you listen to Lieutenant General Mike Flynn, his lead military advisor, he's saying something totally different. So, yes, he talks to the generals, but he's not listening to the generals. Also, the generals can talk to you all you want, but if you don't have a basic understanding of the reality of these very important national security issues, it doesn't matter how many generals you talk to, okay? You have to take the time to learn what's going on and then be able to make a decision for yourself. That's part of being president, part of being commander in chief.
COSTELLO: And there are a certain number of American troops involved in this mission in Mosul. I'm sure they're not listening to television or radio right at the moment, but still you would think there would be some.
ROGAN: Right, actually we had an American soldier die over the weekend in the operation in Mosul. We have hundreds of U.S. troops in harm's way right now, and imagine if Trump were commander in chief and he was screaming that the mission that they're involved in, that they're risking their lives for in protection of our national security is a disaster. That's not the message you want to send to people who are fighting to protect you. COSTELLO: Josh Rogan, thanks so much. I'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:55:00]
COSTELLO: Indians, Cubs, epic, and it starts tonight. Andy Scholes live in Cleveland for game one of the World Series. Hi, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol, you know it doesn't get any better than this. You know the biggest thing we could have happen in sports right now is the Cubs win the World Series. You know, they haven't won one in 108 years. And for the Indians, you know, Cleveland went 52 years without winning any kind of championship and they could get two in the span of four months, of course after Lebron and the Cavs won back in June. The players going through one last workout yesterday here at Progressive Field before they hit the field tonight for game one. And I tell you what, ticket prices for this World Series rival the Superbowl. Just to get in the ball park tonight is going to cost you around $750.00. That's for the worst seat. Game three in Chicago costs you about $2000.00. We talked to a lot of the players and fans and all of them well aware of how special this World Series is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN MALE: Cub's nation all around the world, all around the country, they're there, they're behind us, and we're ready to give them something special.
UNKNOWN MALE: I think it's going to be a special World Series. I mean, obviously, there's two droughts, so I mean, there's going to be a winner.
UNKNOWN MALE: I never thought this would happen. It's great for the city.
UNKNOWN MALE: I haven't seen this. My father, grandfather, great grandfather, so here we are. You know, we just drove in from Chicago and we have tickets for the first two games and, you know, we're looking to bring it home to Chicago. We're excited.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Now it is fans pulling out all of the stops here at the ballpark today, even bringing goats to the ballpark this morning, Carol. And of course the curse of the Billy goat goes back to 1945 when a Chicago tavern owner(ph) brought his goat to the World Series and he got kicked out. Afterward, he said, "Them thugs ain't going to win no more." They haven't and these Indians fans claim to have found direct descendants of Murphy the goat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN MALE: We bought two tickets for game three for our friends here. Hopefully they'll be allowed into Wrigley field for game three this Saturday, and if they're denied entry the curse will continue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: We'll have to wait and see if that works, but bit night here in Cleveland, Carol. On the other side of Progressive Field, Quiken Loans Arena, the Cavs getting their championship rings. The NBA actually moved that up to 7 o'clock so all the Indians fans could watch that as well. Inside the NBA our friends on TNT they're having a big broadcast, so it's going to be an awesome night here in Cleveland, can't wait.
COSTELLO: I hope they get to bring those goats in. Andy Scholes, thanks so much. And thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. "AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.
