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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Cubs Win the World Series After 108 Years; World Series Celebration Chicago Style; Clinton Loses Her Edge in Colorado; Clinton Campaign Trying to Flip Arizona; Trump Working Hard to Stay on Message; Aired 3:30-4a ET

Aired November 03, 2016 - 03:30   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[03:30:57] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Cubs win the World Series. Bryant makes the play. It's over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Hell has frozen over. Pigs are flying and the Cubs won the World Series. The curse is gone. A century long drought is over. The Chicago Cubs are World Series champions.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You can tell they're happy about something.

ROMANS: They are so happy. And -- this just happened. It's literally just over an hour ago.

BERMAN: All right. Also overnight, a new poll in the race for president. This one from Colorado shows a tight, tight race.

Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It's 31 minutes past the hour.

How can we not start with this? The Chicago Cubs are World Series champions, which is something your grandparents could never say, probably something your great grandparents could never say in 1908. 2016. What's 108 years among friends?

The Cubs making history the hard way, coming back after being down three games to one to beat the Cleveland Indians in an insane seventh game, we're talking rain delay, we're talking extra innings.

Andy Scholes has more from Cleveland.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: What a game. What a series. This is what a 108-year drought celebration looks like. And for the first time in a lifetime, the Cubs can call themselves champions.

THEO EPSTEIN, CHICAGO CUBS PRESIDENT OF BASEBALL OPERATION: 108 years. Everyone who played for the Cubs, everyone watching the Cubs, they've been waiting for a team like you, boys. (CHEERS)

KRIS BRYANT, CHICAGO CUBS THIRD BASEMAN: The story of this 2016 Chicago Cubs. I mean, we never gave up. We fight back. We don't care if we're playing on the road or any of that. I mean, it was an unbelievable game.

SCHOLES: How awesome is this moment right here celebrating with your teammates?

BRYANT: This is the best. I can't even move but I don't care. This is unbelievable. This is what you dream for as a kid. And I'm 24 years old, and I'm the luckiest guy on the planet, man.

DEXTER FOWLER, CHICAGO CUBS OUTFIELDER: It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Hey go, Cubbies. Go Cubbies. Let's go.

SCHOLES: What do you say about this team, the way you all came back from 3-1 to win this?

FOWLER: We never quit. We always said that we never quit. It's never over until it's over. But it's over now. We're on top.

SCHOLES: Theo, you did it again. What's the secret?

EPSTEIN: No, we did it. The organization did it. The fans did it, the players did it. Joe did it. The Rickets family did it. I mean, total team effort. Epic, epic game and performance. 114 wins now. So good. I like baseball.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: That's Theo Epstein who has been enjoying himself over the last few hours apparently. And the Yale grad may be not as lucid as he was at the beginning of the game of -- but look.

ROMANS: I like baseball.

BERMAN: He deserves to celebrate. Theo Epstein, of course, you know, won the World Series twice with the Red Sox as a GM and now he just did this amazing thing.

ROMANS: You had to bring the Red Sox in.

BERMAN: No, no. I mean -- I'm not. It's all about Chicago. But I'm explaining how Theo Epstein is probably the best executive baseball has ever seen. He has reversed two unbelievable curses and brought joy now to the city of Chicago like we have not seen. They've been up all night, and CNN's Brynn Gingras is there.

Brynn, what are you seeing?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm cracking up because just a minute ago we had a bunch of Cubs fans behind me chanting CNN, I'm like, wait, don't you want to cheer Cubs? But OK. Yes, it's been -- it's been a crazy night tonight. But, Christine, I want to zoom in on this for you. There you go.

There's the sign. World Series Champions, Wrigley Field, right there. For you, Christine.

ROMANS: I love it. I love it.

GINGRAS: You sounded melting. I can hear it over the air. No, it's been an incredible night, you guys. Yes, John said it. People are awake. They're not going home any time soon even though police are really trying to get people to go home, but the excitement is just continuing to build throughout the night and probably into the morning and probably even into the next day and for a long, long time.

I was talking to one guy. And this really painted the perfect picture of how people feel. He's like this is generational. You know, you have fathers who watched the baseball games with their sons, you have mothers who watched them with their daughters and kids, and you know, you remember those moments of watching these games and hoping and wishing that the Cubs would win and finally that day is here.

[03:35:05] One guy told me that his father passed away a year and a half ago, and he just started crying tonight. A grown man crying because of this win. So there's just so much excitement in the city, not only just around Wrigley Field where again the police are trying to push people back toward their homes, but the excitement just really stretches into downtown Chicago, and again it is not going to be stopping any time soon.

BERMAN: Clothing optional, apparently, as part of these celebrations.

ROMANS: Taking your shirt off is exactly what you do, I guess, when the Cubs win. Because the Cubs win --

GINGRAS: What?

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: Dying over here. Brynn, I got to ask you, I think that, you know, we don't know what kind of celebrations they have planned quite yet, the team has got to come home from Cleveland.

GINGRAS: Right.

ROMANS: You know, Wrigley just must be -- I mean, Wrigley, well, I'm sure will be -- will be ground zero for people. I mean, that will be the touch stone, you want look close to Wrigley today, and the bars of course. Murphy's and all the -- whoa.

BERMAN: That was the moment when it happened last night.

ROMANS: Yes.

GINGRAS: Yes. And I got to say right now, even though the police are trying to get people to go home, they are allowing everyone to sort of come in and stand at a point where they could take that picture of that sign, Christine, because that is such a capture -- a moment that needs to be captured where it says "World Series Champions at Wrigley Field." So they are allowing that and that is ground zero, as you said, right now for Cubs fans to get that moment and take it in and continue pretty much celebrating. And yes, celebration really isn't stopping. We're seeing people everywhere from downtown Chicago to here

ROMANS: Everybody -- you have to be very patient tomorrow.

BERMAN: Brynn, say hello to your new best friend.

GINGRAS: Yes, exactly.

BERMAN: Who are singing and dancing all around you right now. We will see you again in just a little bit. They deserve to celebrate.

ROMANS: They do. They really do.

BERMAN: It is a wonderful thing.

ROMANS: That series is not the only contest that was -- is down to the wire. There is this, you know, running for president thing, and that's a big contest at the moment.

Overnight a new poll just out puts Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump neck-and-neck in Colorado. This after some decent-looking polls for Clinton in the afternoon. Overnight Hillary Clinton had a new campaign message that sounded a lot like a negative ad version of John Lennon, and today for the first time Ted Cruz will campaign for the Trump ticket in person. Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz who's had a rocky history with Donald Trump.

BERMAN: Donald Trump, he was born in Canada. Donald Trump suggested his father may have been involved in the Kennedy assassination. But today Ted Cruz will be out for the Trump ticket.

All right. We have a brand new poll overnight from battle ground Colorado. It shows the race there tied. This is from the University of Denver. It shows them both at 39 percent, although, again, this is a very high undecided here with just five days to go before the race. But I am sure this is not a number that will make the Clinton team happy.

We're joined right now by CNN Politics reporter, Eugene Scott.

Eugene, Colorado is one of those states where the Clinton campaign has barely gone.

EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Right.

BERMAN: And for a long time wasn't advertising at all, and now they're back up again with ads and maybe we can see why.

SCOTT: Yes. Not only were the barely there, Donald Trump was very much there when they were absent, and a lot of millennials in that state were on board the Gary Johnson campaign.

ROMANS: Right.

SCOTT: And so they're seeing now, especially in light of this recent situations, these allegations from the FBI, that interest in the Clinton campaign isn't what they want it to be.

ROMANS: Let's talk about Florida. That race, a virtual tie there as well. What -- who has the momentum there, I guess, in Florida?

SCOTT: Clinton actually does. She has the momentum in Florida and in Pennsylvania. What she's banking on is the Obama coalition to take her to the next level. She's been very aggressive in trying to reach out to women voters and Latino voters and talking about what Donald Trump presidency from him could be if they don't vote for her.

BERMAN: You know, it is interesting. The difference between Florida and Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania polls show Clinton with a four- point lead, Florida it's like, yes, one or two points, or tied, is that Florida has early voting, Pennsylvania doesn't. I think that's what makes the Clinton team nervous. They can do something about Florida right now. They can turn out people in early voting. They can't do anything about Pennsylvania because the voters there don't show up until Tuesday.

Another state where there is early voting, where the Clinton team is all in, is North Carolina.

SCOTT: Sure.

BERMAN: You got the president there tomorrow and I think again on Friday.

SCOTT: Yes.

BERMAN: And it's like a Hillary Clinton donut because she's there today.

SCOTT: Yes. North Carolina is very interesting. We had Congresswoman Renee Ellmers earlier who said historically everyone thought North Carolina was a red state, but it's actually a bit more purple and that's because of Raleigh and Charlotte, these urban cores that have more Democratic candidates or -- I'm sorry, voters in there and lots of college students there. And so we'll see what's going to happen there.

ROMANS: All right. Five days to go.

SCOTT: Yes.

ROMANS: Watching the polls like a hawk. Thank you so much for that, Eugene.

SCOTT: Yes.

ROMANS: We'll see you in a few minutes.

Hillary Clinton goes to North Carolina today. Again today her army of big named players including President Obama will be on the trail. Wednesday Clinton was in Arizona, a red state that Democrats had or have hopes of turning blue.

CNN's Brianna Keilar has the latest for us.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Hillary Clinton in Arizona trying to turn this red state blue would be the first time since Bill Clinton won Arizona back in 1996.

[03:40:05] So it is a tall order. But she has a lot of surrogates that she is relying on. Big names, including her running mate, Tim Kaine, who today will give a speech entirely in Spanish here in Arizona.

Also President Obama has been campaigning for her, arguing that his legacy is tied to Hillary Clinton, that he needs to pass the baton to her.

And for Hillary Clinton, she's been hitting Donald Trump very hard, going negative, as she tries to appeal to those voters in the middle, those ones who are repealed by Donald Trump, but maybe they're not so certain about voting for Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: On January 20th, either I or Donald Trump will be sworn in as the next president of the United States. A lot of people are still considering who to vote for. I think people who are considering voting for him say to themselves, you know, I don't like everything he says and I don't like a lot of things he's done in his life, but maybe he'll become different when he becomes president.

And then I think some people are saying, well, maybe I'll just sit this one out. You know, I don't -- I can't really make up my mind. Nothing will change if he's elected because we know who he is. As Michelle Obama says, the presidency doesn't change who you are, it reveals who you are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: It's not the positive message that Hillary Clinton was hoping to end this campaign on. But she just doesn't have that breathing room in the polls that she had before Friday when her e-mail controversy erupted again. And that's why you're seeing this shift, John and Christine.

BERMAN: All right. Brianna Keilar for us in Arizona.

Overnight Donald Trump introduced a new line into his stump speech praising and sort of warning himself to stay on message. Like Clinton, Donald Trump is now also getting help from a whole bunch of surrogates, a lot of them named Trump, his wife Melania, his adult children, all out in the campaign trail. And Ted Cruz is going to be out there on the trail today for Donald Trump. Campaigning with Mike Pence in both Iowa and Michigan.

Let's get latest on the Trump campaign from CNN's Sunlen Serfaty.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine.

Well, Donald Trump in his closing message seems to be trying to show some late-in-the-game message discipline. He is staying on script. He is reading off teleprompter for most of his campaign rallies, really trying to keep the attack lines focused on Hillary Clinton.

Clearly the calculation from within the Trump campaign is that Trump should not do anything to deviate from that message. Not try to say anything controversial as he has in the past that would step on that message.

And Donald Trump at his rally in Pensacola, Florida, talked about that newfound restraint, almost repeating what potentially his campaign advisers are telling him behind the scenes, don't do anything to rock the boat in these final days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've got to be nice and cool. Nice and cool. All right? Stay on point, Donald. Stay on point. No side tracks, Donald. Nice and easy. Nice. Because I've been watching Hillary the last few days, she's totally unhinged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And Donald Trump will continue to focus on battleground states today. He has a midday rally in Jacksonville, Florida, then he's off to North Carolina. And Melania Trump will be hitting the campaign trail solo. She'll have a big speech in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Campaign aides say that she'll be delivering a warm speech. She'll talk about her time growing up abroad and potentially what she would do as first lady -- John and Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Sunlen. Thank you.

The TV ad race spending -- the TV ad spending race is on. The Clinton campaign more than doubles its total unloading an additional $18 million in the final few days. The campaign has now burned through $32.4 million in TV ad spending. Clinton is spending the most in key battleground states but she's also trying to shut the door on Trump in some blue states that voted for President Obama. Close to $1 million spent in Colorado, nearly $700,000 in Wisconsin. Six-figure ad buys now in Michigan and even Maine.

The Trump campaign is vowing to spend $25 million on ads in this final week. Well, we haven't seen any evidence of any new spending to reach that total quite yet. The Republican National Committee is putting up $2.7 million in its first ad buy for Trump. It will target Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Iowa.

Both campaigns bought four spots in last night's World Series game. BERMAN: If you want to watch the election returns next Tuesday, you

know where you can do it? You know right here. CNN is going to be all over this until every last vote is counted. All day coverage Tuesday. All night coverage Tuesday night. This is going to go into the morning on Wednesday no matter what. So you're going to want to stick around for this.

ROMANS: And who will be here in the morning on Wednesday?

BERMAN: We're always here in the morning.

ROMANS: Yes. All right Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton hitting the ground in four key battleground states, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Pennsylvania. Four states, critical to deciding the presidency.

[03:45:03] More next on EARLY START.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: A lot going on in the race for president right now. The Cubs won the World Series. That's going on and the race for president, first of all.

ROMANS: That race is decided.

BERMAN: That race is decided. The other one not so much. Neck-and- neck right now in a lot of polls. Both campaigns have something to crawl about a little bit overnight.

Let's bring in our analysts, Brian Stelter, CNN media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES," and political analyst and bestselling author Ellis Henican.

ROMANS: Hey, guys.

BERMAN: Gentlemen, very nice to see you.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Hello.

ELLIS HENICAN, POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

BERMAN: Thanks for being with us and this morning where the Cubs have all of a sudden won the World Series and the world is, like, spinning on that.

HENICAN: Who are the Cubs of the campaign, though? That's the question.

BERMAN: Well, it's a very good question. Look, Hillary Clinton is a Cubs fan.

HENICAN: Born in Chicago. Edgewater Hospital.

BERMAN: And a Cubs fan. However --

[03:50:01] HENICAN: Trump has a building there. BERMAN: However, you could say that the Cubs winning is sort of, you

know, like hell freezing over and which candidate winning would be like hell freezing over. So --

STELTER: It's something no one expected a week ago suddenly pointed out in the last minute.

HENICAN: It's perfect.

BERMAN: You can make both arguments. Let's look at what happened overnight, right? So Donald Trump was in Pensacola, Florida. His third stop in Florida in one day. A state, by the way, that CNN now shows Hillary Clinton with a very slight lead, although essentially tied over the last week or so. And Donald Trump warning himself almost to stay on message. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It's feeling like it already, isn't it? Just --

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

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. And we don't want any of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: It's a little bit like John Berman during the commercial breaks. I got this covered. I can do it.

(LAUGHTER)

HENICAN: We all do the same thing.

STELTER: And this is what his fans love about him. You know, that he doesn't have a filter. That he doesn't hold it back. Clearly his advisers had been coaching him throughout the day and he wanted us all to know about it.

BERMAN: No. You see he's read the stage directions out loud for us there. I mean, that was very interesting to see.

ROMANS: Staying on message five days out, I mean, this is something that reporters and pundits and observers have been saying for months. You know, if Donald --

STELTER: And didn't think it was possible. We didn't think it was possible.

ROMANS: If Donald Trump could just stay on message. HENICAN: It reminds us how low the bar we've set here is. Right? If

you can just actually say something linear, Brian, you're going a great job.

STELTER: Well, even earlier in the day he had attacked -- he had taunted an NBC reporter, Katy Tur.

BERMAN: Oh, I'm so glad you brought that up. We haven't talked about that yet.

STELTER: It was a strange thing.

BERMAN: We don't have that sound. Let's find that sound, for coming up.

STELTER: Yes.

BERMAN: Bur he called out Katy Tur who was sitting back on the media platform, standing on it, and basically called her out by name.

STELTER: Yes.

BERMAN: And this is at a rally where people taunt journalists there. I mean, this was a strange moment, Brian.

STELTER: It was. He was saying that NBC wasn't going to show the crowds, wasn't going to show the real story. Obviously all the networks, all the broadcasters do show what's happening at Trump's rallies, the good and the bad. He's called out Katy Tur many times over the many months of this campaign in a way that does seem downright strange. But I wonder if later in the day his advisers pulled him aside and said let's avoid that, let's not be doing that, and then later in the day he said, he tried to take it nice and easy, playing it cool.

HENICAN: Well, we should say, too. I mean, she's a good reporter. I mean, she's a pro.

STELTER: Yes.

HENICAN: It is an undeserved hit.

BERMAN: Doing her job.

STELTER: In some ways this campaign --

HENICAN: Doing her job, absolutely.

STELTER: -- is ending the way it began, with attacks on the media, and yet Trump has been trying to stay more on message. He's been complaining lots about the coverage. He also hasn't been talking about a rigged election quite as much as he used to a few weeks ago. Maybe that's because he's feeling more confident about the polls.

ROMANS: Let's talk about the other side. You have the president yesterday in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and he's talking about voter suppression, concerns about voter -- suppression.

BERMAN: Suppression.

HENICAN: Suppression.

ROMANS: In North Carolina. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A few years ago in North Carolina Republicans passed a law to make it harder for African- Americans to vote. That is not my opinion. Earlier this year a federal judge said that based on the evidence those who voted for these laws targeted black voters with, and I'm quoting, "surgical precision." It was one of the worst voter suppression laws in the country. Here. In North Carolina. Not back in the 1960s. Now.

Already right now Donald Trump is calling on his supporters to monitor certain areas. Where are those certain areas he's talking about?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENICAN: Right.

ROMANS: And he asked, certain areas, in certain parts of the state, in certain area, and we're just talking about Pennsylvania, in particular. How effective do you think the president is on this point?

HENICAN: I think he's great on the point and he picked a good place to do it. Remember, by the way, we have a whole lot more data now that gives us indications about where those things are problems, where the enthusiasm is, and you can twin that together with good surrogates and actually affect turnout.

BERMAN: You know, the president and Michelle Obama clearly now going out, trying to generate enthusiasm among African-Americans for this election. The president yesterday on Tom Joyner flat-out saying it's not where it needs to be right now for Hillary Clinton. So they're doing what they can.

Brian Stelter, Ellis Henican, great to have you with us this morning.

ROMANS: All right. Facebook set a record for quarterly revenue but the stocks take a cool rush in pre-market trading. If you own FB, I'm sorry today. We'll tell you why investors are not happy with the social network when we get a check on CNN Money Stream, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:58:40] ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN Money Stream. Dow futures just slightly lower this morning. Investors grappling with a tight election in an almost certain rate hike from the Fed in December. Stock markets in Asia are mixed. European markets opening in just a few minutes. Futures there are lower, oil is up after a big drop yesterday. The Fed, holding interest rates steady after that meeting on

Wednesday. That move was widely expected. We didn't think the Fed was going to move this week. But it seems the Fed is preparing for a rate hike in December. Investors putting the chance of that at about 71 percent chance following that meeting in December. The wild card in the stock market turmoil following the presidential election.

Facebook, stock is set to plunge this morning. It had a record- setting quarter, but shares are down 7 percent in pre-market trading. Strong performance this year for the stocks. So what's going on here? Facebook's CFO says ad revenue growth will drop meaningfully next year. That's a big word to use with investors. It's running out of places to put ads in front of users. As for the record quarterly results, sales jumping 56 percent to $7 billion. Profit nearly tripled to $2.3 billion. Facebook now has 1.79 billion active users monthly. That is more than half of all the people in the world that are believed to have Internet access.

For months, you've been hearing about who is trustworthy and who has the temperament to be president. Here is the story parents and teachers and humans care about. Some Toys 'R' Us locations across the U.S. are hosting special hours for children with autism or disabilities to enjoy a unique holiday shopping experience with their --

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