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Last-Minute Scramble for Votes as Polls Tighten; Unemployment Dips To 4.9% Days Before Election; Wages Grow in Final Jobs Report Before Election; 4 Days To Go: Trump, Clinton Make Final Push. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 04, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news, the final look at the health of the economy before America heads to the polls. 161,000 jobs were added last month, slightly below Wall Street estimates. The unemployment rate ticked down a notch to 4.9 percent. Christine Romans is here to break down the numbers. Good morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN MONEY CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Another solid report here, the 73rd month in a row of job creation. If we hadn't had Hurricane Matthew shutting down several states for a few days, you might have seen hiring a little bit more brisk than this.

You saw those head line numbers. Now, you've got 4.9 percent unemployment. And, Carol, look on the right of you screen, wage growth, 2.8 percent. That's the best I've seen in several years. That number right there means your pay check is getting a little bit bigger. Boy, I'd like to see 3.5 percent to be honest. Personally, I'd like to see even more than that. But 2.8 percent is better than we've seen for some time.

When we look at the unemployment rate, how it's been cut in half almost since that really bad 10 percent a few years ago, this is a trend that has been persistent, and this is something that I think will play out on the campaign trail today.

I'll tell you what I think the campaigns are going to do with these numbers in just a few minutes.

COSTELLO: It's funny you should say that because I do want you to stick around --

ROMANS: Right.

COSTELLO: -- because we're going to talk much more about that and how the economy might affect the election. Christine Romans, thank you.

Four days, and it's not just about swaying voters. It's the frantic push to get them to show up. A new CNN poll of polls shows Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump locked in a four-point race. Clinton's lead even smaller in the new ABC/"Washington Post" poll. And as the race gets tighter, the attacks get nastier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We know Hillary can't be trusted -- we've learned that -- with America's security. You take a look at her e-mail situation. Can we trust her with our security? She is disqualified.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He has spent his entire campaign offering a dog whistle to his most hateful supporters. He retweets White supremacists and spreads racially-tinged conspiracy theories.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Get ready for more as Clinton surrogates zone in on North Carolina and Colorado, and Donald Trump tries to scoop up undecided voters in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.

Let's begin, though, with CNN's Jason Carroll who is on the campaign trail in New Hampshire. Good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Carol. Very tight race here in New Hampshire. A new poll out just this morning showing just how tight it is, Clinton at 43 percent, Trump at 41 percent. That is within the margin of error.

Tight race here in New Hampshire where we are today. A tight race where we were yesterday, Carol, in Florida. So what do you do if you're the Trump camp going forward? A couple of things. First of all, you got to stay on message and, two, you have to keep hitting these battleground states. Try to put a blue state if you can.

You've got the Trump surrogates out in full force today. Both of Trump's sons are going to be hitting the campaign trail for him today.

Trump for his part, let's take a look at the map, so you can see exactly what he is going to be doing. It's going to be a full-press force going forward hitting seven states. And this is just part of his official schedule. He's probably going to be adding even more stops to this but let's just look at today. Obviously, here in New Hampshire. He's also going to be in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Tomorrow, take a look, Florida and North Carolina. And Nevada on Sunday and Iowa, back in North Carolina. And on Monday, back here in New Hampshire.

Again, that's just his official schedule. Expected to add more stops to that as well.

The second part of this equation, Carol, once again, stay on message. That's exactly what he's been doing yesterday at a rally in North Carolina, stepping up his criticism of Hillary Clinton, saying she's unfit to be Commander-in-Chief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know, when I look at these great admirals and these great generals and these great Medal of Honor recipients behind me, to think of her being their boss, I don't think so. They're so much more brave than me. I wouldn't have done what they

did. I'm brave in other ways. I'm brave -- I'm financially brave. Big deal, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Not quite sure if he was on message with that last comment there, Carol. But for the most part, the Trump campaign is saying Trump has been staying on message going forward, again, in these final days before the election. It's the push for the battleground states. The Trump campaign knows, though, at the end of the day, they've got to flip one of these blue states. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jason Carroll reporting live from New Hampshire this morning. Now, let's head to White Plains, New York. That's where CNN Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny is standing by. Good morning.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Hillary Clinton is hitting the road again today, but she's not going after those traditional battleground states like yesterday in North Carolina, which really is a classic one. She's really defending more Democratic territory, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

[09:05:06] Carol, those states have voted, in the presidential campaign at least, for the Democrat for the last six presidential races. But she is trying to shore up the Democratic support.

Now, one of the differences here is a lot of states have early voting. Some 30 million people have already voted in this country, 15 million of those are in battleground states. Well, in Pennsylvania and Michigan, those are states without much early voting, so she is going to both of those to try and rally the faithful here. And now, this is not a moment for trying to win over undecided voters. It is simply a matter of trying to get out their own supporters that have already been identified here.

But Democrats across the country are going out or are fanning out. We see President Obama, of course. He is in North Carolina. Former President Bill Clinton in Colorado. And you can see the rest of the Democratic surrogates there campaigning across the country.

So, Carol, with four days to go, the Clinton campaign regaining some of their footing from that bombshell a week ago but still not confident of some of these battleground states.

COSTELLO: Obama was on the trail again yesterday. He is back out on the trail again today. Is he effective for Hillary Clinton?

ZELENY: Well, Carol, that is going to be one of the key defining questions of this campaign, how effective President Obama actually is. We saw in the midterm elections of 2010 and 2014, he wasn't really effective at all in terms of helping Democrats. Of course, this is a different kind of campaign. Virtually everyone is paying attention to it. Of course, midterms are not as much of a focus. But take a listen to this yesterday from a rally in Florida.

Something I remember President Obama doing back in 2008, he was up to it again yesterday. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This election is critical. And the good news is, once you get past all the noise and all the distractions and all the okie-doke, the choice could not be clearer because Donald Trump --

(AUDIENCE BOOING)

OBAMA: Don't boo.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: Don't boo.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: Don't boo.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: He can't hear you boo but he hear you vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So that is a rallying cry there -- don't boo, vote. Carol, he said that so many times in 2008 and 2012. It worked for him but we will see if it translates to who he hopes will be his successor here. Of course, his name is not on the ballot but it almost seems like it is. He's campaigning much more aggressively than he ever initially planned. His legacy, though, of course, Carol, is indeed on the ballot as well. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jeff Zeleny reporting live from White Plains, New York, where Hillary Clinton will board that plane and take off soon to campaign.

For many Americans, it all comes down to the economy, so will today's jobs report sway any voters? With me now to talk about that is CNN Money's Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans; CNN political commentator and political anchor for New York 1, Errol Louis; and CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief of "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich. Welcome to all of you.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE DAILY BEAST: Hi.

COSTELLO: So, Christine, should this jobs report make people feel confident about the economy?

ROMANS: I think people are already starting to feel better about the economy. I think you're seeing that in the President's approval rating. And we asked people recently, how things are going in this country? Fifty-four percent said well or very well. So I think you're already seeing the reality of these numbers filtering through.

I see computer systems design, management and technical consulting, health care. These are all the areas were jobs are growing. Those are good paying jobs quite frankly. Now, they need skills and education that match, so that's the part of the policy discussion, I think, that's missing on the campaign trail, making sure that people can fit into these jobs where they're growing and that we're doing all of the right things.

But for 73 months in a row, jobs have been added into this country. The unemployment rate of 4.9 percent. There's work to do on wages, but wage is ticking up here. Today, 2.8 percent. That's better than many people had been hoping for.

You want to see more, Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes.

ROMANS: No question. But the trend has been consistent. I would call this solid jobs growth.

COSTELLO: OK. So solid jobs growth, Errol, but in that same poll that Christine cited, a lot of people don't feel the country is going in the right direction even though they feel confident about the economy.

ERROL LOUIS, POLITICAL ANCHOR, NEW YORK 1 NEWS: Well, that's right. I mean, look, in the past, you saw an overall post-war average economic growth, something like 4 percent. It's been ticking down. You know, this is a generational problem. So it's 3.5 percent growth under President Clinton, 2.7 percent growth under President Bush, 2 percent under Obama. It's a slow steady recovery without the boom and bust. I'm old enough to remember when they'd be five years of growth followed by a two-year contraction.

It's been sort of smoothed out, but it's a very tough case to make to people that, well, look, the trend is in the right direction. But voter behavior shows that it looks like things are going in the right direction. People will be patient. People will hang on. Donald Trump has to make the same case that Mitt Romney tried, unsuccessfully, to make just for years ago, which is that we can do better. I can get us back to 4 percent growth.

ROMANS: Right.

[09:10:08] COSTELLO: Interesting. So, Jackie, Hillary Clinton is going to go on the campaign trail. She's going to be speaking in Pittsburgh today. She's going to be talking about women's issues as far as they pertain to the economy, with things like child care. What more will she say?

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE DAILY BEAST: I mean, if Hillary Clinton keeps on with this positive message which she had hoped to turn and pivot to probably earlier than now, you know, that could be good for her. But there is this disconnect right now with voters because, despite

the fact that the economy is growing, voters don't feel that way, which is why you see Donald Trump as someone who's they trust more with the economy in recent polls. Despite the fact that, you know, Hillary Clinton would be carrying on the President's legacy in theory. I mean, all you can say is that she hasn't made that case yet so that those numbers flip.

COSTELLO: So --

KUCINICH: So we'll see if she does in these closing days.

COSTELLO: So one of the things that Donald Trump hones down on, of course, are these trade deals, right? And he's going to be campaigning in North Carolina, very crucial swing state.

ROMANS: Yes.

COSTELLO: And he's going to be talking about TPP and NAFTA.

ROMANS: Yes.

COSTELLO: And I'll just give you an example of what that might sound like. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: At the core of my contract is my plan to bring back your jobs that have been taken away.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: They've been taken away. North Carolina has lost nearly half of its manufacturing jobs since NAFTA.

CLINTON: Put people to work doing work that has a really productive purpose. We're going to invest in more clean renewable energy jobs. These are jobs that cannot be exported. They have to be done right here in eastern North Carolina.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So when people who work in the manufacturing industry here like clean energy, they go, hmm, yes, I don't think so.

ROMANS: Right. Right. That's why Donald Trump has resonated so well with manufacturing workers and people who used to work in manufacturing or people who work in manufacturing and they feel like they're not getting the wages that they once did. That has been so consistent for him on the campaign trail, his bashing of these trade deals.

What you'll hear from the Clinton team and the Clinton camp and from the business world is that, actually, you know, factories were moving anyway, you know. And you need trade deals to, you know, cut down the damage and the hurt from that, and we need to figure out a better way to do it.

I think that TPP may very well be dead for the foreseeable future, right? And, Donald Trump, you know, are you going to bring jobs back? Or as Hillary Clinton wants to, are you going to take the jobs we have here and raise the minimum wage, put more help for families, you know, especially working women? You know, four out of 10 households, I think, are the woman is the primary breadwinner or the only breadwinner. What are you going to do to try to help families that way?

COSTELLO: But still, that resonates especially among blue collar voters that --

ROMANS: Oh, yes.

COSTELLO: -- Mr. Trump is incredibly popular amongst. So but still, even they realize that the steel industry in places like Ohio, for example, has been dying for a very long time. The coal industry has been dying. Ohio is actually putting its money on shale oil, not coal and not steel any longer.

LOUIS: That's right.

COSTELLO: So why is Mr. Trump's message still resonating?

LOUIS: Well, it resonates for the same reason. I think that if you think back a generation, there was all this talk about, let's bring back the family farm. And everybody who thought about it for even five minutes realized that family farms were not going to be a big source of employment. But there's this nostalgia --

COSTELLO: Well, the family farms have oil wells on them now.

LOUIS: Well, exactly right. I mean, and we have this nostalgic image. We have this romantic attachment to it. And that's a good thing. It helps to hold the culture together and so forth, but think about this. There's 64,000 steel worker jobs in 2015 in the whole United States, 828,000 health care worker jobs, you know. And so where are you supposed to go for real job growth and, frankly, for votes?

ROMANS: It's skills and education now.

COSTELLO: Yes.

ROMANS: It's skills and education that make people ready for tomorrow, not yesterday.

COSTELLO: But, Jackie, nobody's having a conversation like this on the campaign trail, right?

KUCINICH: Well, yes. I mean, they're not talking about lots of things on the campaign trail. You haven't heard them really talk about climate change. I mean, that's why you're not seeing millennials, you know, get out to vote as much because we're mired in this negative campaign. And no matter how hard they try, they end up, you know, sliding back into beating each other up.

So, you know, we'll see if Hillary Clinton manages or Donald Trump manages to, you know, keep talking about what they're actually going to do rather than why the other is bad.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Christine Romans, Errol Louis, Jackie Kucinich, thanks to all of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM. No pressure, North Carolina. President Obama telling residents, the fate of the republic rests on your shoulders. Why the state and its 15 electoral votes are so crucial to both candidates on November 8th.

And it's all been leading up to this, Election Day in America. We'll have every race, every result. Stay with CNN until the very last vote is cast.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:19:58] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: With me again, Errol Lewis and Jackie Kucinich.

Welcome back. Glad you stuck around.

Errol, Trump came down hard on Clinton's leadership skills when it comes to military during his speech at a big rally last night. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know when I look at these great admirals, and these great generals, and these great Medal of Honor recipients behind me, to think of her being their boss, I don't think so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So, "A," what do you think that Trump meant by that? And "B," was it effective?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But, look, to me it sounds like pure sexism. Sorry. It always -- it always gets a response from people and they say oh, you know this, that and the other. But that's how I heard that.

Oh, I don't think so. You know, no further explanation need, right? A bunch of older generals and admirals would simply disrespect her, no explanation need. Well. an explanation is need. This is somebody who visited over 100 countries, was in charge of foreign policy for the United States of America, has considerably more international experience frankly than any of those generals or admirals he was pointing to.

So I don't know if that's effective with anybody who wasn't already going to accept the Trump view of the world --

COSTELLO: But, Jackie, knowing that educated white women are sort of Hillary Clinton's firewall, why say that?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, Donald Trump, I mean, because Donald Trump hasn't been trying to expand his base for real, for quite awhile in this campaign. If he was, you know, maybe he wouldn't -- I don't know, say things like that.

I just don't think he either cares or knows how those things sound. Let's not forget it wasn't too long ago he was saying he was going to sue the women that were accusing him of sexual assault. It blows my mind, he's not -- in some states the gender gap is narrowing.

By and large, it isn't. Comments like that is why. It is 2016 for heaven's sakes.

COSTELLO: OK. So, Errol, the director of the North Carolina Republican Party, his name is Dallas Woodhouse. He was on MSNBC, and he had some fashion advice for Mrs. Clinton. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DALLAS WOODHOUSE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NC REPUBLICAN PARTY: We don't have a suppression vote problem in North Carolina. The Democrats have a depression problem. And you know why? It's very simple. Their candidate, if elected, could have these on --

TV ANCHOR: You're bringing promise for our show, Dallas?

WOODHOUSE: Absolutely. Absolutely.

(CROSSTALK)

TV ANCHOR: Five days out from an election?

WOODHOUSE: Yes, she is -- misdeeds with her e-mail. She is accused of problems with the Clinton foundation. People in America don't trust her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Again this is the director of the North Carolina Republican party. And um, you know, it goes along I guess with Trumpling Hillary Clinton a crook and the false reports that are out there right now that Clinton is near indictment and those reports are completely false.

LOUIS: Yes.

COSTELLO: But I suppose it works with some group of voters.

LOUIS: Dallas Woodhouse having some fun, will probably talk radio invitations, maybe be a big hero at the party when they have their Christmas Party and so forth. Whether it will get them a single new vote, in some ways it almost doesn't even matter at this point. We're in the last 100 hours before this is all over and at that point persuasion is not the name of the game. At this point, it's just mobilization. So this is intended clearly to

mobilize all of the people who think with or without any facts, mostly without facts in this case, that Hillary Clinton is a criminal, Hillary Clinton deserves handcuffs and that you no all these kind of silly antics and that will sort rile people up and get them to the polls.

COSTELLO: I'm sure, Jackie, that Trump supporters would say this constant calling of Mr. Trump a misogynist and a racist and a bigot is tit for tat.

KUCINICH: Sure. But I don't know, they're not bringing handcuffs on -- on television. But I mean, but to Errol's point this is about getting out your base, making sure they get to the polls, rallying them up and you know, that is why the Clinton campaign put up several negative ads against Donald Trump in this final week.

You're seeing them going back to said, that you know, he's sexist, he's racist, you're -- you're -- you're seeing that and you're hearing his words used against him again it's a play that the Clinton campaign has used in the past. And it's worked for the most part. And it reminded -- it's reminding people, you know, why they don't necessarily like Donald Trump, and that is good

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave there. Errol Louis, Jackie Kucinich, thanks to you both.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: The battle for the African-American vote. Can Jay-z deliver for Hillary Clinton in the key state of Ohio?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:29:02] COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Hillary Clinton's camp launching a full-court press for black voters to the polls. Cue, Jay-z.

OK. Battleground Ohio tonight where the rap mogul is head ling a get out the vote concert.

President Obama pushing to get out the vote in North Carolina too today and if you're not seeing him on the trail you may hear the Obamas in these new radio ads targeting African-Americans.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have the opportunity to build on all the progress we've made. To fight for the issues you and I believe in. I'm doing everything I can to the country have what they need to win. And that's why I need you, I need you to vote, I need you to make sure your friends, family and neighbors vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: With me now to talk about this is Brunell Donald Kyei, vice chair of diversity outreach for the national diversity coalition for Donald Trump, and Symone Sanders, CNN political commentator, Democratic strategist and Hillary Clinton supporter.

Welcome to both of you.