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Report: Behind the Scenes with Trump's Campaign Manager; Vets Being Forced to Repay Sign-Up Bonuses; Trump Speaks Live in Battleground Florida. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 25, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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


[15:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: She spent two days with Kellyanne Conway, she's been parodied by "Saturday Night Live". This is the woman who is the campaign manager for Donald Trump. She has four little ones back at home. How does she do this. Behind-the- scenes look coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: As we await Donald Trump's arrival, officially, the plane has landed there in Florida, we are awaiting his arrival in Sanford, we'll take it live, we'll talk about the woman who -- not Melania, but the woman closest to him right now during this crazy election season, his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway. Dana Bash is still with me. Dana, you spent, what, part of Sunday and Monday with her and her children. Is it as crazy as you would think?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's crazy for any parent that has four small children but it's quite different because her job is different but I wanted to talk to her because people are really fascinated by the fact that she's on TV all the time explaining, defending Donald Trump and a lot of people say what is she really like? Does she believe the things she says? We went to New Jersey because she invited us to her house to find out. Morning at the Conway's.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Which jacket?

BASH: Scrambling to get the kids ready for school. Familiar chaos for any parent, though Kellyanne Conway is not any parent.

[15:35:00] TV REPORTER: Kellyanne Conway bluntly acknowledging the uphill climb.

BASH: 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 imagining here day off. This is so weird, this is exactly the way the SNL house looked.

CONWAY: Interesting pajamas?

BASH: Where is walking on sunshine?

CONWAY: In my head. The pancakes are true to life.

BASH: These days her mother who moved into 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: And often a difficult one like this weekend when Trump went off script attacking the women who say he groped them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Do you tear your hair out when you hear him say that?

CONWAY: It's his campaign and it his candidacy and in the end. he has to feel comfortable with his voice and choice.

BASH: You're the campaign manager, do you feel comfortable that?

CONWAY: I think Donald Trump is at his very best when he talks about the issues.

BASH: Translation, going off message hurts his campaign. Conway insists she's tough on Trump in private.

CONWAY: I don't sugar coat at all.

BASH: So: give me an example, I'm Donald Trump and you're Kellyanne Conway and I say something that makes you mad.

CONWAY: I told him yesterday on the plane you and I are going to fight for the next 17 days and he said why and I said because I know you're going to win and that comment you made sounds like you think you're going to lose and we're going to argue until you win.

BASH: What was his response?

CONWAY: He's like, OK, honey, then we'll win.

BASH: From 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 one of my questions.

CONWAY: Not for me to take away a grown man's twitter account.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: I moved on her very heavily.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: when tape of 2005 came out of Trump describing lewd behavior, Conway canceled Sunday TV appearances but still helped with damage control.

CONWAY: I felt like Rapunzel in the tower all weekend. I told Mr. Trump I found the comments to be horrible and indefensible and he didn't ask anybody to defend him by the way.

BASH: Did you consider quitting?

CONWAY: I did not.

BASH: She says she thought his apology was earnest. The women who have now come forward and said it is not just talk, Donald Trump groped me, do you believe them?

CONWAY: Donald Trump has told me and his family and the rest of America that none of this is true, these are lies and fabrications, all made up and I think that it's not for me to judge what those women believe. I've not talked to them, I've talked to him.

BASH: 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 hope you ask all the male consultants are you going to give up your wicked golf game and your mistresses because they seem really busy, too.

Bush: 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. When she was hired in August, she told Trump he was losing but could still win. You think at this point it's still possible to win?

CONWAY: It's still possible to win.

BASH: Probable?

CONWAY: I think we have a very good chance of winning.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Brooke, the irony is that Kellyanne has spent most of her professional life focused for her clients, both corporate and political, on trying to explain how to reach women, both consumers and female voters.

[15:40:00] It's not something she has been successful with in with her current client, the Republican nominee. BALDWIN: It was awesome seeing you behind-the-scenes. I would love

to see more Kate McKinnon, she nailed it on SNL. And I am sure she is flattered nonetheless, thank you so much.

Coming up, Donald Trump's plane just landed in Sanford, Florida. Cue the music, ready to see the man walk down those stairs expected to take the stage at his rally any moment now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Thousands of American soldiers who put their lives on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan are being forced to pay back bonuses that the government says should never have been awarded to begin with but they were paid out due to oversight by mismanagement of military staff now the government wants its money back.

Sergeant first class Bryan Strother is joined by his attorney. Gentlemen. Let me begin with you.

BRYAN STROTHER, SGT. FIRST CLASS, CALIFORNIA NATIONAL GUARD: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Bryan, you were offered this $15,000 bonus to return to your position.

STROTHER: I was ordered to a retention seminar, one-star general making these contractual offers for reenlistment up to six years, $15,000 in bonus student loan repayments. I hesitated, I had just come back from a deployment within that year and took the bait, went on the deployment, was ordered to Iraq three months later, exercised that deployment in good faith.

Five years later I got my congressman involved and they responded to a collection letter they have sent out to thousands of people stating we were in violation of state and federal law simply for reenlisting and that we could contact an attorney or chaplain. And there began the appeal process. The appeal process that's continuing to this day.

Yesterday I received this in the mail concerning the student loans and in here there's several mistakes, mistakes that can be looked at with my paycheck stub. They have the wrong amount on here as to here. There's accusations that it's all about good faith. It's within the language of the filing of the lawsuit that the attorney who had to fly across the country out here to California working pro bono when our congressman, our senators could wave the magic wand.

BALDWIN: Pro bono. Pro bono to help. Let me just say though you did spend four years, right? You were fighting these claims. Help us understand how difficult that was for you.

STROTHER: It's been ten years. That's the average half of a military career of 20 years and my thought is they're just legal foot dragging. I was going to get out at 19 years, a year ago when they started recouping from out of my paycheck which really upset me, my commander and first sergeant convinced me to stay in. That was when attorney Willman got involved, he came out here, we

filed this class action lawsuit and magically within this year after appeal after appeal they come back and there's a good faith exception and this isn't what's getting out there. And this is what's in the language of the lawsuit that every one of these veterans needs to look at and use. It's a good faith exception. They said I did that contract with good faith, executed in good faith.

BALDWIN: But because of that and this is for your attorney, to Daniel, you still continue to fight this suit. Why is that?

DANIEL WILLMAN, BRYAN STROTHER'S LAWYER: Thank you, Brooke. What they're trying to say about Bryan's case is that this is moot because he got financial relief and the thing is there's so many tens of thousands of people impacted by this.

There's a series of case law called capable or repetition yet evading judicial review and Bryan's case is -- this is the first and only case that I know of where so far along in the process that we are so close to take this up to an appellate court whether to win or lose, if Bryan's case became moot somebody else would have to start from ground zero to get this case to where it is.

I keep hearing people on TV, congressmen, people in the military talking about good faith and the only place I heard good faith is when I researched the military code. I would love them to look at the motion that we felt the response to the government's motion, the remedy for the good faith to apply to all soldiers, it is in there.

There's already a good faith exception in there, it's just applied in an arbitrary manner, it's not applied across the board and if they embraced that language in there -- I would love to have congress step in, make this go away.

BALDWIN: They might, let me jump in, California congressman Adam Schiff told CNN there should be a solution. There's been talk of them jumping in to waive all of this. We're going stay on this, gentlemen, I have to go. Appreciate your time. Sergeant, this is important for you and I know other soldiers as well. I promise you we will cover this at CNN. I want to thank both of you very, very much.

Let's pivot to Florida now and to Donald Trump. Let's listen.

TRUMP: The lines at the voting booths are record. And I notice that a lot of the people on lines, you see the pictures, they're wearing the red hat, the white hat, this hat, they're wearing buttons all over the place. I think those are people that are inclined to vote for us, do you agree?

[15:50:00] This was supposed to be a rally in that hangar. After the first few hours they realized that's not going to work too well. That's fantastic. Thank you, everybody. Look at that. We're going to have a big victory. The lines are record-setting, which I knew they would be. A lot of people are being very surprised. It's very, very surprising. After the first few hours they realized that's not going to work too well. That's fantastic. We're getting a big vote. So it's going to be a little early to tell

you what those numbers are, but it's a big, big vote in the state of Florida. We're leading Iowa. We're leading Ohio. We're doing great in North Carolina. Pennsylvania we're going to a lot. I think we're going to do great there. They put the miners out of work. We're putting the miners back to work. I think we're going to do great there. 75% of the American people think our country is on the wrong track.

Every poll says it. We are going to fix it, and we are going to get our country back on the right track very, very quickly. Together we're going to deliver real change that, once again, puts America first. Repealing and replacing the disaster known as Obamacare. You saw what happened yesterday. The rates are going through the sky. We all knew that. I knew it before it was passed. I have been saying this for a long time.

My first day in office, I am going to ask congress to put a bill on my desk getting rid of this disastrous law and replacing it with reforms that expand choice, freedom, affordability. You're going to have such great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost. And it's going to be so easy. It's just been announced that Americans are going to experience another massive, double-digit hike. Now, they said 25%. Forget -- you'll take 25%. It's going to be 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%. In the great state of Arizona it's over 100%.

It is crazy, one in five Americans trapped in Obamacare will only have a single insurer to negotiate with in your state. Congratulations. Lots of fun. To have to brush up your negotiation ability, believe me. Even Bill Clinton admitted Obamacare is the craziest thing in the world, where people wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. Then he was forced to take it back the following day because that night he suffered greatly. He suffered. Because Hillary Clinton wants to double up and triple up on Obamacare, the numbers will go through the roof.

Your taxes will double and triple. And in the end, it's not affordable. You can't do it. The Democratic governor of Minnesota said the Affordable Care Act -- remember this -- the Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable. He doesn't know what to do. But I said this before it was passed. It couldn't have worked in a million years. Insurers are leaving, companies are fleeing.

By the way, it's putting your companies out of business, it's putting your small businesses out of business. And Hillary Clinton -- here is another thing we can say. I am going to repeal it and replace it. She is going to expand it, and it's going to get more and more expensive. It's no good anyway. Because the deductibles are so high -- I mean, unless you have a really long-term serious problem at the highest level, you're never going to be able to use it, folks. Hillary Clinton wants to double down on Obamacare and make it even worse.

She wants to put the government totally in charge of your health that it's no good. It will be much more expensive than even today. Repealing Obamacare and stopping Hillary's health care takeover is one of the single most important reasons that we must win on November 8th.

Boy, this is a big crowd, by the way. That's a lot of people. Thank you. You know, it is funny, because, you know, you listen to this phony media. I get a call an hour ago. And they say, sir, we have a problem. I say, oh, here we go.

[15:55:00] What is it? They said this. And I laugh. But they said, the people don't fit into the hangar. I said, but that's a good problem, isn't it? Change has to come from outside our corrupt system. The fact that the Washington establishment has tried so hard to stop our campaign, which is actually a movement. This is a movement, folks. And this is the last time we're going to have a chance -- four years, it's over. It's over. In four years, you don't have a chance.

All these characters that want to run in four years, they can forget it. They're wasting their time. You don't have, even a little bit of a chance. This is it. And we're really close. We're going to win Florida. By the way -- no, no. These guys won't tell you that about it. But when they interview -- when they interview -- these are the most corrupt people. When they interview the people standing on the line and they Trump, Trump, Trump -- they say, all right, let's get out of here. This is bad. This is bad news. These are the most dishonest, almost as dishonest as crooked Hillary.

I love those pink signs. Women for Trump. I love the signs behind me! Blacks for Trump. Blacks for Trump. Those signs are great. Thank you. Going to be a lot of -- there's going to be a lot of Brexit happening in about two weeks. A lot of Brexit. Remember that?

Everybody went to bed. They said, oh, gee, I think it's not going to -- and I said it was going to happen. And they criticized me. Can you believe this guy? Can you believe this guy? Just like crooked Hillary. She had a rally. You know, her rallies last for about 15 minutes and there are very few people. But she talked about how we want peace at our rallies and this and that.

She hired people, thugs, to go into my rallies, 1500 people. Right? 1500 people. Listen to this. $1,500 and an iPhone. Go in the rally and beat people up. And you remember, in Pennsylvania, different places, in Chicago, remember that one? Where they were fighting. They found out our people are not so easy to beat up. That's for sure. But you remember -- do you remember the policeman with blood pouring down his face.

There was another one with a badly gashed -- this was all thugs put in there. Then I am listening to her talk about peace at our rallies. We want peace. This is one of the great phonies of all time. She shouldn't be allowed to run for president with what she's done, I'll tell you right now. The fact that the Washington establishment has tried so hard to stop this movement is only more proof that our campaign represents the kind of change that only arrives once in a lifetime.

This is once in a lifetime. I'm telling you, I opened the door, I looked out the window. I said, wow! It's so different from what they report. These people up here. They are the worst. And you know what it's called. By the way, you know what it's called, don't you? It's called voter suppression. Because people give up. People give up. We're going to win in Florida, and we're going to win Iowa and we're going to win Ohio, right? And I think we're going to win Pennsylvania. And we're going to win North Carolina. We're going to have a lot of victories just keep it going, folks. We're fighting a --

BALDWIN: You have been watching Donald Trump there, at a rally. Sanford, Florida. I am Brooke Baldwin.

[16:00:00] Thank you so much for being with me here in New York. We'll see you back here same time tomorrow. In the meantime, let's go to Washington. "The Lead" with Jake Tapper starts right now.