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Report: Trump Says I Love the "Blacks for Trump" Sign at His Rally, But White Woman Holds the Sign; Trump on Audio Tape Talks of Fears about Losing Status and Celebrity. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired October 26, 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] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: "Blacks for Trump." I like those signs. Blacks for Trump. You watch. You watch. Those signs are great, thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We're back with Angela Rye and Betsy McCaughey. Question, lieutenant governor, and twitter went crazy over the fact that behind Mr. Trump you had a white woman holding a sign that said "Blacks for Trump." Why is a white woman holding that sign?
BETSY MCCAUGHEY, FORMER LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, NEW YORK: I have no idea but I certainly understand why many African Americans would be for Trump because African Americans have really taken it on the chin under Barack Obama's two terms. There are more African Americans in poverty than when Barack Obama took office and they have had larger unemployment rates, especially among teens than other groups in our society. They have the most to gain from Donald Trump's economic growth plan and the most to lose from Hillary's recession plan.
BALDWIN: So just back to the question why a white woman would be holding a "Blacks for Trump" sign?
MCCAUGHEY: Who knows? Maybe she was holding it for somebody else or maybe her brother -- not her brother but her husband is black. She may have family members who are black. Why shouldn't people have commonality despite having different races? That's kind of silly. I think Donald Trump is going to take Florida and the polls suggest he's now ahead in the IBD poll, the Rasmussen poll, the Los Angeles Times poll, he is doing very well even though the media would like people to think he's behind.
BALDWIN: No, he is doing well, we've pointed out already during the show that he is ahead in the Florida poll and he needs to win Florida.
MCCAUGHEY: And nationally.
BALDWIN: On the question about the "Blacks for Trump" sign, thoughts? Ruminations?
ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He might have to use a throwback term to the 2012 election, he might have a binder full but not much more than that. Donald Trump's policies are damning for black America. To be very clear, under Barack Obama black unemployment went down.
There's been a substantial decrease, black middle-class income earners wages have gone up that is despite facing the worst recession of our time. I can name so many other things, 20 million covered under Obamacare despite its flaws, many of those are black and brown people. Minimum wage has gone up, the fact that Barack Obama instituted something where federal contractors have to pay a higher minimum wage, all of those policies are things that impact black people.
I said this earlier today, Donald Trump could do so much better and as a real estate developer could simply say instead of saying I'll get shot for walking down the street for going to buy a loaf of bread and saying that in Sanford, Florida where Trayvon Martin was shot and killed, he could do better if he said "I know inner cities are struggling, I know many of you have lost your homes due to gentrification." Something he knows a lot about. And he hasn't even done that.
MCCAUGHEY: Well, I think you're picking on little things.
RYE: Those are big things.
MCCAUGHEY: Donald Trump is offering a very important message for black people, for Asian people, for Hispanic people, it is a message of economic growth.
RYE: What is it?
BALDWIN: We're pointing out a major sign behind the nominee.
MCCAUGHEY: He has an extremely good plan.
RYE: And I say what the hell do you have to lose, that's what your candidate said.
MCCAUGHEY: And I think he's absolutely right.
RYE: He's wrong.
MCCAUGHEY: I would say the same thing to Americans, after Barack Obama's eight years of economic failure, what do you have to lose?
RYE: Lies.
MCCAUGHEY: In addition to economic growth, Donald Trump is also offering inner city people of all races school choice, something that Hillary Clinton and her strong alliance with the teacher's union is preventing. So, he has a lot to offer people of all races and he's moving ahead in the polls.
BALDWIN: You've heard both sides, you get to choose. Thirteen days from now. Betsy McCaughey, Angela Rye, thank you very much.
Next, a Trump biographer releases some audio today from his interviews with the Republican nominee reported a couple years ago. About five- hours worth. He'll join us live with insight into what the tapes indicate about the man himself and this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't admire a lot of people. For the most part you can't respect people, because, you know, most people aren't worthy of respect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[15:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: You see the countdown on the screen, 13 days to go until election day. Donald Trump is ahead in the crucial battleground state of Florida. This is a Bloomberg poll, Trump at 45, Clinton at 43, that is within the margin of error. Early voting is under way now in Florida.
Hillary Clinton is holding a rally in Tampa. She added another event Saturday in Florida as well. A senior Clinton advisor telling CNN the campaign is comfortable with her standing in Florida but they acknowledge they need to keep pushing. So one of our favorite Englishmen is covering the American presidential race, he is Richard Quest from "Quest Means Business" who is there in Miami, and Richard Quest I understand you had dinner with some folks in a retirement community. With you?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Well, not surprisingly in this part of Florida, the retirees we met for dessert -- and it was quite late when we met them last night, going on 10:00, they were all for Hillary Clinton but, Brooke, when you listen to their reasons they are absolutely adamant as far as they are concerned this is the most important election they can remember and they were determined to vote early for the secretary. Hands up for Hillary.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[15:40:00] QUEST: Hands up for Hillary. Everybody.
Hands up for Donald Trump.
Did you never even think for a moment that you might like to flirt with Trump?
IRENE SCHERER, FLORIDA VOTER: Absolutely not. Never, never. In his mind, I wouldn't have been pretty enough.
QUEST: Good answer! Could the Republicans have ever put up any candidate against Hillary that you would have found acceptable?
SUE SULTAN-DONNER, FLORIDA VOTER: No, no, because she so clearly reflects exactly what I want.
QUEST: Which is what?
SULTAN-DONNER: Social safety net. I want health care. I not only want to protect the nation; I want to protect the people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE VOTER: I am very lucky to have great granddaughters and I want women to be respected forever and always so it's all about the supreme court.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOTER: I firmly believe that the election is not going to be close I think that the Republicans will be in such disarray that in order to maintain themselves as the number-two major party that they're going to have to rethink their arguments, their collaborations.
SULTAN-DONNER: I wish that I could be optimistic. I'm grateful that she's going to have the opportunity. I think the Republicans will be recalcitrant. I don't think they're going to want in any way to make life easy for her.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Great conversation, the Bundt cake looked good but Richard Quest you have been outside of Miami as well, you've been talking to Trump supporters. What did they tell you?
QUEST: From one end of the age spectrum to the other. A guy who's just about to start college in northern Florida where, of course, they see things a lot more pro-Trump and his view was it's all about national security.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE VOTER: Donald Trump is much better than Hillary so we don't have much choice.
QUEST: Why? So is it a pro-Trump vote or an anti-Hillary vote?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOTER: Get Hillary out of here.
QUEST: Sorry?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: VOTER: Get Hillary out of here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE VOTER: We don't like Hillary.
QUEST: Why not?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOTER: She ripped us off once, why give her another chance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE VOTER: She's a liar and a murderer.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: My apologies that was the people in the pub we met earlier in the week. But as you can see in northern Florida you get much more of a view for Donald Trump. Down here in the south you get much more of a Hillary Clinton perspective, the two do not meet anywhere in the middle in their views, Brooke, they are implacably opposed to each other's point of view.
And this is the magnificent vehicle upon which we are traveling Florida. It's a Mustang and it has to be, yes, a throaty roar racing red.
BALDWIN: I'm in Tampa on Friday for my show so if you want to swing the old Mustang my way I'll go for a spin with you. Richard Quest, I'm sure they had to twist your arm to be in Florida all week. Richard Quest, thank you. He's speechless. He's speechless over the car and my offer. Let's move on.
Never-before heard tapes of Donald Trump talking about life, what motivates him, his fears, plus what this campaign means for his brand.
[15:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A revealing new look inside the hopes and fears of Donald Trump. Five hours of audio tapes released from an extensive 2014 interview with his biographer, Michael D'Antonio. Who joins me live momentarily. When Trump ran for president, D'Antonio disapproved and tried to give the tapes to Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Actually, he had a conversation with Hillary Clinton's campaign and said, if you would like to hear the audio, you can. They didn't follow up with him. So he gave the tapes to the "New York Times" who released the content. Here is part of what Trump said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Happened from the time I was fairly young. It just happened.
MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, BIOGRAPHER OF DONALD TRUMP: Did it unnerve you at first?
TRUMP: No.
D'ANTONIO: Make you feel unsafe?
TRUMP: No. I think what would unnerve me. If it didn't happen. You can be tough and ruthless and all that stuff. If you lose a lot, nobody is going to follow you because you're looked at as a loser. Winning is a very important thing. And the most important aspect of leadership is winning. If you have a record of winning, people are going to follow you. I love to fight, I always loved to fight.
D'ANTONIO: Physical fights?
TRUMP: Yes. All kinds of fights, physical --
D'ANTONIO: Arguments
TRUMP: All types of fights. Any kind of fight, I loved it. Including physical.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: The other man you hear talking in those interviews, Michael D'Antonio joins us now. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of the biography here we are talking about the "Truth About Trump".
Also with me, Dan McGinn. Brand and reputation strategist and CEO of TMG Strategies. So nice to have you both on as Michael, to you first. Some of the takeaways in reading about this, he talks about winning. He doesn't like defeat. He likes to fight, which I think a lot of Americans actually appreciate in him.
D'ANTONIO: Sure.
BALDWIN: And he loves to see his name in lights.
D'ANTONIO: Well, right. I mean, he is like an addict who still remembers his first hit. He got publicity as a high-schooler for winning a baseball game. He got two hits and a home run. And ever since then he has been addicted to this feedback. So he almost doesn't exist if the media is not telling him that he does.
[15:50:00] BALDWIN: But he slams the media every chance he gets.
D'ANTIONIO: Well, right. Every addict hates his dealer. This is the -- the controller. You have the substance and the supply, and he wants it. He is desperate to get it. If he gets it, he is happy. If he gets it and it's unsatisfactory, he is rage-ful. You know, he is constantly dependent on a new supply.
BALDWIN: That's interesting. You also talked to his ex-wife Ivanna Trump. She tells a story about going skiing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IVANNA TRUMP, EX-WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: And the ski instructor, I told him, don't tell Donald that I can ski. OK? Because his ego, it's so big, he's not able to ski. I went up. Two flips up into the air. Two flips in the air in front of him. I disappeared.
Donald was so angry. He took off his skis, his ski boots, and walked up to the restaurant. He could not take it. That I could do something better than he could.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: We should mention she was a former Olympic skier. But he did not like that she was good.
D'ANTONIO: No. He got beat by a girl. But you know, the other thing, though, is that he did admire her feistiness. Once he had calmed down, I think this is what drew him to her. He actually respected her.
And I think she was a strong person. He was a strong person. Ivanna also told me about this conflict she had with Donald's father where they went out to eat, he tells everyone what to order. She says no. I don't want steak. I'll have the fish. She wanted to stand up to him.
BALDWIN: Right.
D'ANTONIO: I think the Trump men respect that.
BALDWIN: That's a piece of this conversation. The other piece. Dan McGinn, this is why I wanted you on the Trump brand. We saw him at the ribbon cutting of his new hotel in D.C. today 13 days before this election.
You guys have been brand consultants for Coca-Cola. Johnson and Johnson, General Motors. You know how to deal with mega-companies in crisis and crisis management. So listen it is tough to know exactly what kind of impact this campaign could have positively or negatively on Donald Trump. If it has some difficulty, if he does not win, how would you advise him?
DAN MCGINN, BRAND AND REPUTATION STRATEGIST: You have set it up right, because it's early. You have to try to separate the politics from the brand, which will happen post-election if Trump doesn't win. What I would say to you is, there is no question there has been an impact, a significant impact.
He's alienated a lot of people. I also believe Donald Trump is surprised. He didn't expect this kind of impact on his brand. Michael knows Trump and interviewed him extensively, would know best. What he's going to have to do, I think, is be willing to take advice. That's not a Trump strength either.
If you wanted to do something to save the brand or strengthen the brand, again, depending on what you think the damage is, you would put Ivanka out front and have Trump take a back seat, obviously not something Trump would be comfortable with based on his history. But that is what you would do.
BALDWIN: You're right to bring up Ivanka. This brand is not just the man Donald Trump. This is about his children as well. Following up with you, he talked about being part of a movement and you have a lot of working class, middle class, non-college-educated white people, for example, that's really a huge part of his base. If he doesn't win, could he somehow take that energy and you know, use that to help his brand? I mean, his brand is sort of pretty fancy, but could he change it?
MCGINN: Well, look, I was on this program a number of years ago and talked about BP and people were saying BP had no chance. Brands are very complicated things. It is very early. But there is no question, what Trump has done has crossed a line here. The "Access Hollywood" tape, obviously, the whole history of this campaign, he has left an people with an impression that will be very difficult to change.
So there is a percentage of people, a large percentage, who never want anything to do with the Trump brand. But, that doesn't mean that the brand is over. Could he have a television network? That's a possibility. If you're going to be selling products to consumers, that's a different kind of thing. And you know, what I would say is, would he take advice?
He didn't in the campaign, on his brand. Would he -- are there any new surprises left, a second issue. And would he rethink that brand with Ivanka out front. If she is out front, people will give her the benefit of the doubt. It was her dad, they're going to judge her in a different way than they would him. Would Trump follow that course? Unlikely.
BALDWIN: Thank you, gentlemen. By the way, Donald Trump is expected to speak shortly in North Carolina. That's next.
[15:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
