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Polls Show Race Tightening In Key States; Melania Trump Delivering First Speech Since RNC; Trump Singles Out NBC Reporter Again At Rally; Aide: Voters Appreciate Trump's Rhetoric, Sacrifice; Political Uncertainty Roils Wall Street. Aired 9-9:30 ET
Aired November 03, 2016 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:03] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
It is a fierce showdown. The race is tightening up. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton scrambling to sell themselves, and they only have five days left to do it. That's right. You can count it on one hand.
Both candidates trying to lock in critical votes in places like battleground North Carolina today. And the Clinton campaign rolling out major surrogates again making stops in crucial states like Florida and Ohio.
Donald Trump looking to rev up support with a boost from his own kids, and a rare stump speech from his wife, Melania.
We are covering all the angles with our team of political reporters, but let's begin CNN's Jason Carroll. He is in Jacksonville this morning. Hi, Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. Can you believe it, just five days to go? And with things being so close in the polls and so close to Election Day, the campaign is really feeling somewhat encouraged, encouraged by the polls that show a tightening race. So what they really want going forward is for Donald Trump, their candidate, to stay on message, not to step on his message.
He's been challenged with doing that throughout the campaign, and Donald Trump, in a way, poked fun at himself just yesterday, reminding himself publicly that he has to do just that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've got to be nice and cool. Nice and cool. Right? Stay on point, Donald. Stay on point.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: No side tracks, Donald. Nice and easy. Nice. Because I've been watching Hillary the last few days. She's totally unhinged. We don't want any of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: So that's one of their goals, Carol. Stay on point. Stay on message. And also, still try to make inroads into some of the blue states, Pennsylvania being one of them. Melania Trump will be out campaigning for the first time in a suburb of Philadelphia. Donald Trump tweeting about that. He says, "My wife, Melania, will be speaking in Pennsylvania this afternoon. So exciting. Big crowds. I will be watching from North Carolina."
The campaign also not giving up on states like Wisconsin. Not giving up on Michigan, as well. Mike Pence will be there with Ted Cruz who will be out campaigning for the top of the ticket for the first time there in Michigan. Also in Iowa.
Trump, for his part, when he's done here in Jacksonville, he's going to be heading to North Carolina, making two stops there. Carol.
COSTELLO: all right. Jason Carroll reporting live from Jacksonville, Florida. Thanks so much. While Trump tries to stay on message, Hillary Clinton is warning her supporters what a Trump presidency would look like.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He has shown us who he is. Now, we have to decide who we are. And right now, across the country, people are doing just that. They are rejecting his dark and divisive vision. We know that America is big-hearted, not small- minded. We want to lift people up, not tear each other down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Let's begin with CNN Senior Washington Correspondent Joe Johns. Hi, Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Hillary Clinton's closing argument to get out the vote in the, excuse me, battleground states are sounding much more somber than her campaign would have preferred. Though, they say they are hoping to get back to talking more about the candidate's vision for the country before it's all over.
She's expected to have two stops in North Carolina today, wrapping up tonight with an event featuring Pharrell Williams and her opponent in the primaries, Bernie Sanders. Her top surrogates fanning out around the country, including the surrogate-in-chief, President Obama, who was just in North Carolina on Wednesday and in Miami today.
Here's a sampling of what the surrogates are saying on the trail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All of you are uniquely qualified to make sure this guy who is uniquely unqualified does not become President. You just got to vote.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: You just got to vote.
CHELSEA CLINTON, HILLARY CLINTON'S DAUGHTER: Donald Trump just uses so much oxygen --
(LAUGHTER)
C. CLINTON: -- with what he is saying and in how he is demeaning huge swaths of our country.
BILL CLINTON, HILLARY CLINTON'S HUSBAND: Our future is bright, but we can't get there if we choose anger over answers. And if we choose fantasy over facts.
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ladies and gentlemen, this guy doesn't get it. On his sixth bankruptcy, he stiffed more workers than you can count, and then said on national television debate, maybe I didn't like the quality of the work. Well, Trump, maybe I don't like the quality of what you say.
(APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: Maybe I don't like the quality of who you are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: Today, Hillary Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine, is in Arizona. Bill Clinton is in Las Vegas. Chelsea Clinton is in Wisconsin. So they're all working it, girl.
[09:05:00] COSTELLO: They certainly are. Joe Johns reporting live for us this morning, thank you, which is five days to go. Trump clearly feels the White House is within reach. And in a bid to stay on that path to 270 and also on message, Trump issued this strict warning to himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We've got to be nice and cool. Nice and cool. Right? Stay on point, Donald. Stay on point.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: No side tracks, Donald. Nice and easy. Nice. Because I've been watching Hillary the last few days. She's totally unhinged. We don't want any of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Joining me now to talk about this and more, Julian Zelizer, Princeton historian and professor. He's also the author of "The Fierce Urgency of Now." Also with me, Ron Brownstein who is senior editor for "The Atlantic." Welcome to both of you.
And so, Ron, I'm going to stay on point myself -- RON BROWNSTEIN, SENIOR EDITOR, THE ATLANTIC: Yes. Yes.
COSTELLO: -- and ask you why Mr. Trump said that.
BROWNSTEIN: You know, this just reminds me when George H.W. Bush in '92 read the cue cards, "Message, I care." He's kind of reading the stage instructions to the audience.
Look, the last few points in this election, the voters who have moved to make it a closer race than it was in mid-October are largely voters who have questions about both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, are voters who may think that Hillary -- question her honesty and trustworthiness, also question whether Trump has the temperament, judgment, and experience to succeed as President.
The events of the last weeks, starting with the James Comey letter, maybe a little before that with WikiLeaks, has put many of those voters looking more at their doubts about Clinton. The goal of the Clinton campaign in the last week, clearly, is to get them to focus again on their concerns about Trump. And you see him there almost reminding himself, if I can convince enough people that they can envision me as President, maybe I can get there.
COSTELLO: But, Julian, arguably, Trump went off message when he attacked the NBC reporter Katy Tur yesterday in a rally. And before you comment, let's listen to that --
JULIAN ZELIZER, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: OK.
COSTELLO: -- so viewers know what I'm talking about.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We have massive crowds. There's something happening. They're not reporting it. Katy, you're not reporting it, Katy, but there's something happening, Katy. There's something happening, Katy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: OK. So that attack spawned this Twitter hashtag, #I'mWithTur, right?
ZELIZER: Mm-hmm.
COSTELLO: So was that unwise or did Mr. Trump stick to his particular script?
ZELIZER: I think it's actually on message. The central message, there's two. One is to attack Hillary Clinton and her character. The second is to attack the entire election process and to attack the media and say the whole system is rigged. And so I think when he's pointing out a reporter and he's criticizing her and he's saying, basically, you're not covering what's actually going on, it fits with the theme that he has closed this entire campaign with. BROWNSTEIN: Although I would say one thing. I mean, the defining
divide in this race is the education gap, is the class inversion. The degree to which Hillary Clinton is running so much better among college-educated Whites than blue collar Whites, the biggest gap we've ever seen, 20 points today in both the ABC/Washington Post and New York Times/CBS poll. She's 20 points better among college than non- college Whites.
And for those college Whites, I think, for many of them, the biggest hurdle for Donald Trump is his temperament, is exactly episodes like this. So while he does animate, mobilize his base, I think he reinforces the problems that he has in the suburbs of Charlotte and Raleigh or Philadelphia, where Melania Trump is going today. And that is Heartbreak Hill for him in this election. That's what he has to get over in order to win those big white collar suburban counties where he's at risk of significantly underperforming Romney.
COSTELLO: Well, in fairness, though, both candidates have gone really negative, right?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
ZELIZER: Yes.
COSTELLO: Very negative. Kellyanne Conway was asked about that on "NEW DAY" this morning. She sees it differently, of course. She says her candidate' negativity is more like a man saying what he means. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLYANNE CONWAY, DONALD TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN MANAGER: I mean, I think people will look back at this campaign, particularly after he wins on Tuesday, Chris, and they'll say, we totally missed how much America just appreciate it. And I hear that these rallies, it makes me very emotional, how much America appreciated the fact that he and his family made enormous sacrifices to run for President.
Americans have told pollsters for decades, we want somebody who's not of the political system. We want a true outsider, not just to disrupt the place but to be the voice of the forgotten man and the forgotten woman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELIZER: Well, there's a fine line between someone who speaks their mind and someone who is a bully. And I think the other electoral gap that he faces has been the gender gap. And this comment can also be problematic, even if it fits with his script, in terms of him singling out a female reporter who's been harassed because of what he did to her -- what he said in previous campaigns. And I think he has a problem with suburban married women who are key to a victory for him. So I think that's another way in which this could hurt a bit.
But it still fits his message. This is his message.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
COSTELLO: But the polls are tightening.
ZELIZER: Yes.
BROWNSTEIN: Right. Yes.
COSTELLO: And everybody's saying, oh, it' not going to be a landslide for Hillary Clinton.
BROWNSTEIN: No, it's not. Well --
ZELIZER: Yes.
COSTELLO: She might lose, so --
[09:10:02] BROWNSTEIN: In a race that is much closer and more competitive with more states at risk than Democrats expected, it's pretty that Hillary Clinton believes her trump card, as it were, is the doubts about his temperament. That's the message she's gone back to. She wanted to end on a broader message about what she was going to bring to the country.
And what her real fire wall is, electorally, are the doubts about whether he has the personal qualities that you want to see in a President. That's what they're advertising on. That's what she's doing the message on. And that, I think, is their core asset or weapon in these white collar suburbs which are her last line of defense in many of these states.
COSTELLO: And, of course, Donald Trump's core weapon is painting Hillary Clinton as a criminal because he also --
ZELIZER: Right.
COSTELLO: He brought up the word "impeachment" today.
ZELIZER: Yes.
COSTELLO: You know, if Hillary Clinton gets into office, you know, there might be impeachment hearings started right away and a criminal investigation.
ZELIZER: Yes. This hasn't been subtle. And this is why the Comey letter played into a story that really started with the convention, with the chants, of lock her up. It is to literally criminalize his opponent, setting up an argument for his campaign. But even if he loses, I think that's the issue that you're going to see front and center if you still have a Republican Congress.
But I think it's clear that the Clinton campaign is certainly not calm and confident. And they're campaigning in Michigan, they are going to many places, not giving off the aura that this is locked up anymore.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
COSTELLO: So do you guys care to make predictions?
BROWNSTEIN: No.
ZELIZER: I'm a historian. I don't have to do that.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. I'll tell you, but to --
COSTELLO: He doesn't have to say.
(LAUGHTER)
BROWNSTEIN: But to Julian's point, one gamble they've made -- just think about it -- they have spent in this campaign $180 million in television advertising in Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio, three states they don't have to win in order to win. They spent, by contrast, $16 million in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Colorado. And the time, the personal time of the candidates, is comparable to that.
They put up big bet on states that are, in effect, their insurance states. And the question that Donald Trump is trying to is, whether they have not paid enough attention to kind of their castle keep and whether they've left the door open for him to try to pry away one of these states where she has been leading in the polls pretty much all year.
COSTELLO: Five days from now, we'll see. At least I hope so.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
COSTELLO: Ron Brownstein --
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.
ZELIZER: Thank you.
COSTELLO: -- and Julian Zelizer, thanks so much.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Melania Trump delivering her first speech in months, but can she deliver more votes for her husband?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:16:37] COSTELLO: We are just hours away from rare moment this election season. Melania Trump stumping for her husband. The former model returning to the stage for the first time in more than three months. She's been lying low since her RNC speech was in part taken from First Lady Michelle Obama.
But today, a chance to shore up support for her husband with women, sharing what the campaign calls a Trump administration vision for families.
So, let's talk about that. I'm joined by the co-chair of Women Vote Trump, Amy Kremer, and CNN political commentator and Hillary Clinton supporter, Hilary Rosen.
Welcome to both of you.
AMY KREMER, CO-CHAIR, "WOMEN VOTE TRUMP" SUPER PAC: Good morning.
HILARY ROSEN, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: Hey, Carol. Sorry about those Indians.
COSTELLO: I'm so sad.
KREMER: I guess we're not going to talk about baseball, huh?
COSTELLO: No. But that's a good thing today, Amy, since my team lost.
But, Amy, I want to start with you and ask you what you want to hear from Melania Trump, since she hasn't been stumping for her husband much.
KREMER: Right. I -- you know, I want to hear what she wants to do as first lady. I think she's a great speaker. And she's a very classy lady. I know that it's the convention and any time she's been out there talking, people love her. So I want to hear more about to do.
I -- I applaud her, because she hasn't been out there. She has said that raising their son Baron is her number one priority and there's a lot of pressure on campaigns as we all know.
And so, I'm sure she's felt the pressure to get out there. But she stood firm and said, no, my son is number one. So, that's been her priority and I applaud her for that.
COSTELLO: Hilary, what do you expect to hear from Melania Trump?
ROSEN: Well, I'm sure she's going to be the, you know, the beautiful wife and talk about how much she believes in her husband, which I hope she would since she's married to him. I think that, you know, the fact that she hasn't been out there has been because she wanted to stay home with her son. But also because the campaign kept making promises about her appearances that then they couldn't keep, like she was going to -- they were going to have a press conference about her immigration status. Or that she was going to deal with her issues that had been raised.
So I think that they have tried to not put her in that position of having to defend herself against some of those mysteries. But, look, these are the final days. It's all hands on deck.
KREMER: Right.
COSTELLO: Right, right. I'm just -- because she's going to be speaking in the Philadelphia suburbs so she's going to try to woo those white, suburban college educated women back to the Trump camp.
So, what will Melania Trump say, Amy, that will accomplish that?
KREMER: Well, you know, Carol, I mean, you know, she's a mom. She's no different than any other mom out there. Yes, she is Melania Trump and her husband is running for president of the United States. But she's still a mom.
And just like Michelle Obama and her girls, I mean, I think that that is -- I think that it's good that she portrays that.
The other thing I would say is she's also a very strong woman. Like I said, I think they pressured her to be out there, and from interviews she's done and things she's said she seems to, you know, control her own destiny, and she does what she wants to do, and nobody makes her do that.
And I think that that's e encouraging for women to stand up and be strong and hold your own and not succumb to the pressures around you, because we all face pressures all the time. So, I think it's really encouraging and she'll be able to relate to those mothers, the suburban women in Philadelphia.
[09:20:06] COSTELLO: But I do think, Hilary, that underlying, you know, people will be watching Melania Trump's speech, but underlying all that they'll be thinking what about those things that her husband said about women? What about those women who have accused Donald Trump? I don't think that Melania Trump will bring it up. Probably many analysts would say she should not, but that's there still, right?
ROSEN: This is a very high risk strategy for the Trump campaign because it's inevitable, I think, that when people see Melania Trump, when news reports come out about Melania Trump, it doesn't matter how classy she comes across.
What people are going to be remembering and thinking about is Donald Trump's words on that bus, those twelve women who have accused him of, you know, inappropriate groping. His boorish behavior over the years on Howard Stern. His nasty comments about Megyn Kelly and Rosie O'Donnell and women in general, Alicia Machado. That's what they're going to be thinking about when they look at Melania Trump.
And they may admire her for sticking with a guy who is so obviously misogynist and boorish, but really it's going to reinforce memories and thoughts about him that suburban women are not happy with. And so I think it's a mistake on a campaign part.
COSTELLO: Amy, Amy, and I bring this up because of what happened in New Hampshire with Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte, right. She's running for re-election. She's in a very tight race there and she was on this radio show and she talked about whether she wanted her daughter in the same room as Mr. Trump or Bill Clinton, this is what she said.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
SEN. KELLY AYOTTE (R), NEW HAMPSHIRE: I have a 12-yr-old daughter --
HANSON: Twelve year old daughter. OK. Would you want your -- let's say -- let's pass forward four years and your daughter is 16 years of age, would you have wanted your daughter to hear the conversation that Donald Trump had engaged in with a reporter from "Access Hollywood" on that bus? AYOTTE: I think we all know the answer to that.
HANSON: OK. At any point in time would you want your 16-year-old daughter in a room with bill Clinton?
AYOTTE: I didn't want my daughter in $, the room with any of them. But you know, the point of this is that, you know, why would I want my daughter in the room with them?
(END AUDIO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So, Amy, that, that incident is still out there.
KREMER: Yes, but, Carol, this is the thing. What Donald Trump did, he apologized for. And we're going to see if the American people have forgiven him.
And you know, Kelly Ayotte, I respect her for saying that about her daughter. I mean, quite honestly, I wouldn't want daughter in a room with him or any other guy. I mean, that's something as a mom we don't want our daughters -- we don't ever --
(CROSSTALK)
KREMER: I don't think she's --
COSTELLO: If her daughter is 16.
ROSEN: We're talking about --
KREMER: My point is, she's not talking about like they're going to attack her. I think she's saying she doesn't want them around -- she doesn't want her daughter around that language. And I understand that.
ROSEN: We're talking about the president of the United States.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
ROSEN: What parent would not want their child to be in the Oval Office to meet Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton?
KREMER: Hilary, do I need to remind you of -- do I need to remind you about Bill Clinton?
ROSEN: No.
KREMER: I mean, he was in the Oval Office.
ROSEN: What we need to think about -- I'm sorry this is what we need to think about. Who is going to be our next president? Who will we want our --
KREMER: Right.
ROSEN: -- children to be in the room with. Hillary Clinton is somebody who children will want to be in a room with, following Barack Obama. That's -- so to suggest that somehow for Kelly Ayotte to say oh, well, you know, I wouldn't want my kid to be with any president that's crazy.
KREMER: I disagree with you.
ROSEN: We want our kids to look up to our president. Hillary Clinton will be that kind of president.
(CROSSTALK)
KREMER: No, she wouldn't. If she wins she will go into the White House under federal investigation and never in our history has that happened.
ROSEN: First of all, she is not under federal investigation at this point. We have a staff issue there. But having said that --
KREMER: That's not the case, Hilary.
ROSEN: -- Kelly Ayotte will not be able to put her kid in a room with Donald Trump because she's afraid that what he would grope her or kiss her or whatever?
KREMER: Please.
ROSEN: Let's not even think about that.
KREMER: And she's going to send her child to the White House with Bill Clinton? I don't think so. I think the American people --
ROSEN: Bill Clinton is not running for president.
KREMER: -- look, the fact is, is that we have two candidates that are the most unlike candidates in the history of this nation. And the American people are going to have to decide. And are they going to decide based on comments that Donald Trump made that we don't like or they're going to based it up on decisions, and actions that Hillary Clinton has done putting our national security at risk by having a server, unsecured server in her basement and sending top classified information across it.
COSTELLO: There's no evidence that Hillary Clinton put our nation at risk and that comes from the FBI director. It was careless of her to do that --
ROSEN: But you're right elections are about choices.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Thank you so much both of you. Amy Kremer, Hilary Rosen, thanks to both of you.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, you've heard them. You've seen them. But will you change your because of them? The bad, the good and the ugly of this political ad season. But first, Washington politicians are roiling Wall Street.
[09:25:01] Alison Kosik live at the New York stock exchange with a preview of the markets right before the bell.
Good morning.
ALISON KOSIK, CNNMONEY BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
You think you're uneasy about who is going to win the election, just look at Wall Street. As the polls get tighter between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and since the news came out about the FBI looking into new e-mails as part of its investigation into Clinton's personal e-mail server, we have watched stocks fall.
Look at the S&P 500 yesterday closed at its lowest level until four months, and closing in the red for the seventh day in a row. So, there's definitely, definitely been a mood change here and it isn't a good one.
It is becoming more apparent, Wall Street prefers a Clinton win because it could mean a fatter portfolio. If she wins, macro economic advisers is predicting a 2 percent gape on the S&P 500 because she's a known commodity.
I know it doesn't sound like much, but it is better than the expected market nosedive that's predicted if Trump wins. Those analysts are predicting stocks will tank 8 percent if Trump wins because he's so unpredictable.
Brookings Institution, it puts the losses even bigger predicting 10 percent to 15 percent dive, but no matter who wins I say buckle up for the day after the election because, Carol, history shows it's usually a rocky one with stocks falling 1 percent. Get ready -- Carol.
COSTELLO: OK. I'll try. Alison Kosik, thanks so much.
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