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Wolf

State of the Presidential Race; A Look into Kellyanne Conway's Life. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 25, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's noon in Panama City, Florida, 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 8:00 p.m. in Baghdad. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Up first, two weeks to go. Fourteen days and counting until the presidential election here in the United States. The candidates are in a sprint to the finish line as they fight for key battleground states. One of the biggest, of course, Florida, with 29 electoral votes.

Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, they are campaigning in Florida today. Clinton holds an early voting rally in Coconut Creek and Trump holds rallies in Tallahassee and Sanford, Florida. Obama -- President Obama will also campaign for Hillary Clinton in Orlando on Friday.

Our Correspondent Boris Sanchez is joining us now live from Sanford, Florida. Boris, Trump said today that he thinks he'll win Florida, that he'll carry the state. What is his message, his strategy there over these final two weeks?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the strategy is simple. He's trying to swarm the state of Florida, having events crisscrossing the entire sunshine state. Just since Sunday, he's had events in Naples, Palm Beach county, St. Augustine, Tampa, earlier today in Doral. You mentioned the event he's having later in Tallahassee.

And in just about two hours, his plane is going to pull up here to this airport in Sanford where the crowd is already excited. His real message here is to go after President Obama on the economy. Earlier today in Doral, he talked about jobs. He had employees with him that were touting his experience as a job creator and his ability as a boss.

On top of that, he also went after Obama and Hillary Clinton when it comes to Obamacare, on the heels of the news that premiums next year are set to spike. Aside from that, he's also focusing on areas that are traditionally Republican, especially here in the central part and northern part of the state.

Here in Sanford, in Seminole County, Mitt Romney won by six percent back in 2012. So, Trump is hoping to build on that support. Though keep in mind, Romney eventually lost Florida by about 70,000 votes -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And we know the Trump people concede, if he doesn't carry Florida, it's, for all practical purposes, it looks like it would be over. That's why he's spending so much time there right now.

Boris Sanchez, thanks very much.

Hillary Clinton is rallying her supporters at a campaign event in Florida next hour. We'll, of course, have live coverage. A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed Clinton leading Trump 48 percent to 44 percent among likely Florida voters. But Trump says he's optimistic about winning the state.

Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the former chair of the Democratic National Committee, a Hillary Clinton supporter. She's joining us live now from Coconut Creek, Florida where Clinton will be holding her event. Congresswoman, thanks very much for joining us.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D), FLORIDA: My pleasure. Great to you with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. So, Donald Trump, as we noted, he's campaigning all over Florida these days. It's critically important for his race for the White House. Listen to what he said today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Florida numbers, as you know, the polls are packed and nobody knows how they're voting but they all seem to have Trump stickers and Trump hats and Trump pins and Trump shirts.

At the polling booths, they said they'd never seen polling booths so active in Florida. People are coming in. There are hundreds of people where there used to be just a small number of people. You know, I feel tremendously confident we're going to win Florida. Very important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, he's tremendously confident about Florida. What do you think? You know your state. Can he win Florida?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: You know, Florida is always close and we run elections here as Democrats like where 10 points behind. Donald Trump clearly continues to live in his own alternate universe. If you look at the numbers, in terms of voter registration and adding voters to the rolls, Democrats have eclipsed Republicans in new registrants consistently all the way up to the extended deadline on October 18th.

And, Wolf, typically in Florida, Republicans, in vote by mail, in the absentee balloting, they usually out-vote us pretty consistently. In fact, at the same point in 2012 where we're at right now, Republicans had returned five percent more absentee ballots than Democrats. We've actually closed that gap to 1.7 percent and we have equaled them in absentee ballot requests.

Today, with the second day of early voting, we are likely to actually have surpassed them in the number of votes banked and cast. And we've also been able to increase the registrants who are most likely to go to the polls and vote for Democratic candidates.

So, you know, --

BLITZER: All right.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Donald Trump can have rallies all over the state. We're out-organizing and out-mobilizing them consistently.

[13:05:05] BLITZER: He was out campaigning in Florida all day yesterday. He didn't once mention the name Marco Rubio who's in a tough Senate race himself. Here is the question. Does that help or hurt Marco Rubio?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: You know, Marco Rubio doesn't appear to know what to do with himself in this election. He, at the same time, is criticizing Donald Trump but yet still supporting him.

Marco Rubio, from what I've seen, has been trying to have his cake and eat it, too, all the way through this election. For quite some time, he didn't even show up for work. And I'm confident that voters are going to go to the polls, as they should, and vote for our candidate, Patrick Murphy.

BLITZER: So, does that help Rubio or hurt Rubio? The fact that Trump never talks about him?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, you know, I think even Marco Rubio can't figure out whether it would help or hurt him. You know, he wants -- he's got a problem where he doesn't want to alienate his base.

And so, Donald Trump talking about him could help with the base. But then, because Donald Trump is really radioactive in the state of Florida and has clearly done worse than any recent Republican nominee here leading up to Election Day, it would be harmful for Marco Rubio, for the voters that are actually going to decide this election. Those important swing voters that Patrick Murphy has far more appeal to because he's right on the issues and actually wants the job.

BLITZER: All right, we'll see what happens in that Senate race, obviously very important as well. Donald Trump, at his campaign today, they pounced on the news about the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, that premiums are expected next year to shoot up by an average across the country of 22 percent.

How could that impact the race in Florida over the next two weeks? How worried are you about those numbers? Because it's pretty significant that the increase in cost to Americans is going to go up.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: You know, I think that voters, when they go to the polls and make a decision about who they want to vote for for president, are going to vote for Hillary Clinton. Because they know that she has been focused on making sure that we can continue to add more people who have health care insurance. We have 20 million people who now have health insurance that didn't before.

And when it comes to the rate increases, we actually have the slowest rate of health insurance costs in 50 years, since the passage of Obamacare. Look, it's also important to note, Wolf, that insurance premiums went up double digits every year before Obamacare.

But now, because of the tax credits that are available to 91 percent of Floridians and 84 percent of uninsured and previously uninsured Americans nationwide, most of these folks are able to pay $100 or less run in their monthly premium. And so, while there are costs that have continued to go up, it's the slowest rate increase in 50 years.

And for the kinks that need to be ironed out, we need to sit down together, like Hillary Clinton has said over and over, with Republicans across the table and iron out those kinks.

And that's what we're committed to do so we can make sure that we can continue to improve upon a plan that has given 20 million people insurance and giving people, like me, as a breast cancer survivor, who has a pre-existing condition, the chance not to worry about being dropped or denied coverage like we've had to worry about before.

BLITZER: But the number -- the numbers released -- the numbers released yesterday by the Department of Health and Human Services says, for those five to seven million Americans right now who rely on the Affordable Care Act for some sort of level of -- some sort of premium.

On the average, 22 percent premium increases. In some states like Arizona, it's going to go up more than 100 percent. That's not the way it was supposed to be, was it?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, we're in a transition year. And as I said, you have 91 percent of Americans in -- of previously uninsured American in Florida who are eligible for a tax credit which brings those costs down. So, those numbers, they are really an anomaly. It's four or five states where the number of insurance options have narrowed and so premiums have increased.

But we're going to be able to make sure that if we just sit down together and iron out the kinks that have occurred with Obamacare, it was -- this was significant reform that brought more health care insurance, for example, to young adults who can now stay on their parents' insurance until they're 26 years old.

If we go Donald Trump's way and the Republicans' way, they've forced us in Congress to vote more than 50 times to fully repeal it, to just get rid of it and leave people with no health insurance. Thirty-seven million people, Wolf, didn't have health insurance before Obamacare and now they do.

My constituents here in Florida who are seniors had to ask their pharmacists to score their pills so they could break them in half and double the length of time that their prescription would last. Now, the donut hole, that prescription drug coverage gap is closing.

So, Obamacare has saved millions of Americans money and now millions more have coverage. We don't need to do what Donald Trump is suggesting and pull it up by its root and branch. We need to sit down together and iron out some of the kinks and help make sure we can improve upon what is already working for millions of Americans.

[13:10:13] BLITZER: All right, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, thanks so much. Former DNC chair, Congresswoman up for re-election in Florida. Appreciate it.

Coming up, new CNN polls reveal what Clinton and Trump supporters think about the fairness of this presidential election. Do they think votes will be counted accurately? We'll show you the results of our new poll.

Plus, premium hikes, once again, for Obamacare. The Health and Human Services secretary standing by to join us live to explain. We'll be right back.

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BLITZER: All across the country, Republicans are saying I told you so about the latest Obamacare price hike. Premiums are expected to soar by an average of 22 percent next year, but most consumers will be shielded from the increases because of federal subsidies.

The Republican National Committee put out a statement saying, and I'm quoting now, "The news of skyrocketing Obamacare premiums yet to come makes it clear this law is a full-fledged train wreck which has worsened our healthcare system."

Let's bring in our panel, "The Washington Post" David Nakamura, CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger, our Political Director David Chalian and our Senior Political Reporter Manu Raju.

[13:15:00] BLITZER: Bring in our panel. "Washington Post" political reporter David Nakamura, CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger, our political director, David Chalian, and our senior political reporter, Manu Raju.

Gloria, how much of a problem is this now, two weeks to go, the increase in premiums for those who were on Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, how much of a political problem is it for Hillary Clinton?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: It is a political problem. It is a gift to Donald Trump, and to every Republican candidate running down ballot. Republicans have done nothing other than talk about repeal and replace Obamacare. Particularly in Congress, I think they've had over 50 votes on it and on Capitol Hill. So this plays right into the narrative about Obamacare. Your premiums are going up. It's a disaster.

The question is, is it too late? And lots of -- millions of people are early voting. Can Donald Trump capitalize on it? He sure is trying to. Even Bill Clinton, earlier this month, called Obamacare the craziest thing in the world. You've got a Democratic governor, Mark Dayton, of Minnesota, saying the reality is the Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable to increasing numbers of people.

So it's right there in a gift basket for Donald Trump and Republicans. And we'll see how much advantage they can take of it. Hillary Clinton has been on the record saying that it needs to be fixed. She's going to have to get a lot more specific about that, as are Republicans in terms of talking about what they would do to change it because you don't want to take away some of the provisions people love, which is -- it -- no pre-existing conditions, keeping your children on your medical plan until they're 26 years old. Things like that.

BLITZER: Yes, David, it's clear Donald Trump sees this as a political gift. Already twice today he's railed against these increases in the premium for the Affordable Care Act. Listen to what he said this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: But Obamacare is just blowing up and even the White House, our president, announced a 25 or 26 percent. That number is so wrong. That is such a phony number. You're talking about 60, 70, 80 percent in increases, not 25 percent. Obamacare has to be repealed and replaced and it has to be replaced with something much less expensive for the people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, so, David, can this help Donald Trump in these final two weeks?

DAVID NAKAMURA, POLITICAL REPORTER, "WASHINGTON POST": I'm sure it can help fire up his base and maybe even reach some voters who were still making up their minds. Gloria make as good point, is this too late? It really wasn't a major issue in any of these debates and these were these huge platforms for people to, you know, to hear directly about this. And President Obama's gone around the country talking about the need to, you know, fix the program once Hillary Clinton takes office, in his mind, but he's also trying to reach out still to young people. He had Bill Murray at the White House to film an ad about Obamacare. That's a little -- maybe a little bit too late as well.

I think for Donald Trump, though, it's something he's going to keep hammering. Obama keeps challenging Republicans, show me another plan. You know, give me an -- I don't think the details are what's going to drive people right now. It's going to be this emotional argument at this point.

BLITZER: You make a good point.

Manu, Arizona, that's a key state right now. Usually a Republican state, but it's close. There's a new poll out in Arizona showing 46 percent Trump, Hillary Clinton, 45 percent. But in Arizona, premiums for the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, going up 116 percent. One hundred and sixteen percent. More than double the premiums. Presumably that's going to have an impact. MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Absolutely. And, actually, it's interesting that the issue of Obamacare has been one that John McCain himself has seized on in his own Senate race, going after his Democratic opponent Ann Kirkpatrick, well before this -- the premium increase because of United Health Care Group pulling out of the exchanges in that state. He's used this as a wedge issue. It could have an impact.

And the reason why is this. Republicans have not had any galvanizing issue to bring their party together around for weeks. They've been at war with their party's nominee. They've gone in this terrible news cycle. Finally they have something to talk about on the campaign trail. It may not help Donald Trump. Maybe it will help him on the margins, but it will help those down ticket Republicans who need something to campaign on. Finally a gift for them.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICS DIRECTOR: Yes, we saw Kelly Ayotte immediately today went back on air with an Obamacare ad just to seize the news environment. It has been a largely issue-free presidential election in many respects. So I think Manu is totally right, Wolf, that the down ballot impact here, down ballot Republicans who right now are just fighting against this Trump stream can now actually talk about something that they can own that is irrespective of Donald Trump.

BLITZER: By the way, speaking of Trump, we're monitoring an event. He's at the Bay of Pigs Museum down in Florida right now. We'll keep our eye on it and I'll let you know what he's saying, speaking about Cuba, obviously, right now. The new U.S. relationship with Cuba. Stand by. We'll have some information on that.

We have a new poll that just came out in the last hour, David, talks about the reaction of the American public to Trump's claim that this election is rigged. What are the American people saying?

CHALIAN: Well, we -- we asked and sort of compared to previous years, do you have faith in the way your ballot will be counted and cast? Take a look at the results in our new CNN/ORC poll. It showed that more people today think that they have -- they are confident that their votes are counted accurately. Sixty-six percent say that today. That's compared to 58 percent back in 2008. So people are actually more confident today than they were eight years ago about their ballot.

[13:20:23] BLITZER: Is that -- what are you hearing about that? You know that Trump -- in almost every speech, it's ripping, rigged, rigged. He used to say that during the Republican primaries too, by the way, which he won.

BORGER: You know, if we broke that down, I think you'd find that Trump supporters were more likely to believe that the election is going to be rigged than Trump opponents and Democratic voters who would --

CHALIAN: But 66 percent is more than just Clinton supporters.

BORGER: Is -- exactly. Exactly. CHALIAN: Yes.

BORGER: And so I -- I think by and large people believe that the elections are fair in this country. Everybody goes back to the year 2000. And we understand that that was almost a tie election. And you're talking about a close election in the state of Florida. So my head, as everybody else on this panel, goes back to the question of Florida, Florida, Florida, and counting votes, and how we have to be careful about that. And I think what this means is that everybody needs to get out and vote. It's very --

BLITZER: If it's really close in Florida --

BORGER: If it's -- yes.

BLITZER: If it's really close in Florida this time, as it was in 2000, the third party candidates potentially could make a little bit of a difference.

BORGER: Right.

BLITZER: Right, David?

NAKAMURA: Right. Absolutely.

But I think on the question of this poll, one of the interesting things about the poll also showed that people expect, I think, the winner to concede.

BORGER: Concede.

NAKAMURA: And that's an important finding. I think 70 percent or more, if I saw the poll correctly, expected that and they don't expect Donald Trump to necessarily do that.

And the other thing is Trump talks about rigged in a broader way as well. We talk about the election is rigged, the coverage is rigged against me. You know, part of his outsider appeal and sort of bashing the establishment that this whole thing is rigged, not just the final day in the voting.

BLITZER: You know, Manu, I want to play for you a clip. This is Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican majority leader. He admits that Donald Trump could hurt some Republicans down ballot. He was blunt in this interview on Fox this morning. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R), MAJORITY LEADER: We know wind is in our face, that supporting Donald Trump, supporting our members of Congress, we're in a fight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you don't believe stand with Trump and lose the House?

MCCARTHY: No. I believe we have to change this country. We are going to keep this House. We need to elect Donald Trump president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Yes, he says the wind is in our face. He's pretty blunt about it.

RAJU: He is pretty blunt and he's accurate, too. I mean the bottom line is that the Republicans in the House are scrambling to prevent losing 30 seats that would turn the House Democratic. Now, right now most political professionals do not view a likely chance of Democrats taking back the House majority. They think perhaps 15, maybe 20 seats. But, still, if this environment continues to get worse for Trump, it's going to be a lot harder for those ticket -- those down ticket Republicans. It's interesting that House Democrats, a super PAC, has launched and ad in Montana, House Democratic race. It just shows how they believe the map is expanding. And Paul Ryan heading there this weekend to help his House Republican candidate there. Just shows the Democrats right now believe that there's a target-rich environment here.

BORGER: You know --

BLITZER: The environment, though, might have gotten a little bit better for Trump with the Obamacare premium increases right now. And it's only 5 points in our poll that we released yesterday.

CHALIAN: The national horse race, yes.

BLITZER: Yes.

CHALIAN: Although, you know, underneath that we do see some significant advantages for Hillary Clinton among certain voting blocs that are really critical when you look at the electoral map. That's why her strength is there. Five points, by the way, remember, that's a pretty big margin, Wolf. We never had, in the entirety of the Obama/Romney race in 2012, we never had a five-point margin. It was always closer than that. and that was still a pretty big re-elect for -- for Barack Obama. So, yes, I think as the Trump campaign has conceded they are behind, there is no doubt they have a headline today that they're going to try to drive all the way through.

BLITZER: They certainly will. And we'll see what happens in the next two weeks and counting.

All right, guy, stand by.

Up next, we're going to take you behind the scenes. We'll take a closer look at the woman who's steering Donald Trump's campaign right now, Kellyanne Conway.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:39] BLITZER: Welcome back. A beautiful day here in Washington. A little chilly, but sunny, nice. You see the White House right behind us. The Washington Monument. It's a fabulous, fabulous shot that we have right here. Look at the White House right behind me. Some might call it one of the hardest jobs in politics, managing a

presidential campaign. Well, Kellyanne Conway is not only doing that job for Donald Trump, she's also the first woman ever to run a Republican presidential campaign. So what's it like to be the guiding force behind the Republican nominee? Our chief political correspondent Dana Bash sat down with Conway at her New Jersey home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Morning on the Conway's.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, DONALD TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, sweetheart, how's this. And then which jacket?

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Where 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 imaging her day off.

BASH (on camera): This is so weird. This is exactly the way the "SNL" house looked.

CONWAY: Do you have the same pajamas?

BASH: Where's "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's only been on the job since August, Trump's third campaign manager, but the first woman ever to run a GOP presidential race.

[13:30:10] CONWAY: I wasn't hired because of my gender. But it's a special responsibility.