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Is Wide Spread Voter Intimidation Happening ?; President Obama in North Carolina Campaigning ; The Race Tightens in the Last Days. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired November 04, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:01:20]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me on this Friday afternoon, four days to go before America decides who will be the next president of the United States.

At any moment now, the current commander in chief is expected to take the stage in North Carolina, a state that's emerging as the possible game-changer this election year. President Obama is making two appearance there today on behalf of Hillary Clinton.

And all of this is coming as CNN's new electoral map shows Clinton dipping below the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. You look at her 268 to Donald Trump's 204. Clearly, she has the advantage, but still not hitting that magic 270.

This is based upon CNN's analysis of the latest polls. And CNN's new national poll of polls shows only four points separate the two rivals as they scramble for votes in its final weekend before the election.

So, let's go straight to our guru here at CNN, our CNN political director David Chalian.

Show me the map. Tell me what's changed.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, this is how it was -- and I should say, it's not just polls we do these changes on. It's based on advertising spending, candidate and surrogate travel schedules reporting with both the campaigns and outside groups to get a lay of the land.

This was our old map and here is the new map. As you said, it drops Hillary Clinton down to 268, Donald Trump at 204. And there are five remaining battleground states, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, and New Hampshire.

What we did here is, we made four moves in Donald Trump's direction. New Hampshire went from leaning blue to battleground. Ohio went from battleground to leaning Trump. Utah went from battleground to leaning Trump, and we also changed the Maine congressional district leaning from battleground to leaning in Donald Trump's way, that singular electoral vote. So, this is the new landscape here, Brooke. And look what happens

now. Look at Donald Trump's path. If he were to win every remaining battleground, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, New Hampshire, plus there's one battleground congressional district in Nebraska here, that would get him to 270.

But he has to sweep the board. Look at what Hillary Clinton has to do. Here's that new map. If Hillary Clinton, who's at 268, wins any battleground state, just one, let's say New Hampshire, the smallest one, she's back over 270.

She still has the much easier path, multiple options of a path. Donald Trump still has to run the whole table, even though this map has become more favorable to him as the race has tightened.

BALDWIN: Do you think this is the kind of thing -- will we know who wins not too in the wee hours of the morning or might this go a while?

CHALIAN: Well, listen, we have got a tightened race, but, as you just owed our national poll of polls, it shows a four-point national race, 46-42. That's a pretty healthy margin in modern presidential campaign history.

The Obama/Romney race in 2012 was much closer at this stage of the game. So I don't know that we are going to be in for days and days. We have to see of course what voters show up and what it looks like. That's still a significant margin heading into the homestretch for Hillary Clinton.

BALDWIN: OK. David Chalian with his battleground yellow tie on, Mr. Chalian, thank you so much.

CHALIAN: Thanks.

BALDWIN: While you are busy casting your ballot, federal and state law enforcement officials will be very busy monitoring concerns about terror threats right around Election Day.

In fact, we have just learned about some chatter intercepted from al Qaeda operatives overseas.

So let's go straight to justice correspondent, Evan Perez, for that.

[15:05:00]

Evan, what do you know?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brooke.

This is something that the FBI, NYPD, and other law enforcement has been working on for some time, at least over a week that they have heard this chatter again from some suspected al Qaeda supporters overseas, talk about possible attacks in New York, in Virginia and in Texas, again, not much to go on beyond that.

It's chatter at this point. From talking to law enforcement officials, we're told that they have not bee verify the credibility of it. It's obviously something they always keep an eye on, Brooke, around this time before Election Day. They keep an eye out for possible threats.

So at this point, it's not clear that they have more to go on. Obviously, this is something they were expecting. Again, this happens every four years. I think Chief O'Neill just now, you spoke to him. He mentioned exactly the same thing, that the NYPD is keeping an eye out for these types of threats.

And, obviously, because of this toxic election year that we're going through, there's also the possibility might not like the results of what happens. And, again, they're worried about those things as well.

We did get a statement from Peter Donald, the spokesman for the NYPD, and he said in part: "In this case, I would point out that the credibility of those reports is still being assessed and that the information lacks specificity" -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. Evan, thank you so much.

Joining me now, A.B. Stoddard, associate editor and columnist for RealClearPolitics, Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker."

Great to see both of you. Happy Friday, as we are days away here.

A.B., let me just ask you. David Chalian was just running through the changes on the CNN electoral map. You now have Maine's 2nd Congressional District, Ohio and Utah all now shifting to lean Republican, which is obviously great news for Donald Trump.

What do you think that is about?

A.B. STODDARD, REALCLEARPOLITICS: Well, I think Hillary Clinton's poll numbers were actually weakening last week before the Comey letter of last Friday.

I think it was because of the terrible news on the spike in Obamacare premium costs, and in addition to that, I think the WikiLeaks revelations were chipping away at people who don't like Trump and were probably ready to support her, but now don't want to, maybe defecting Republican women, perhaps.

And I think she is looking at some turnout issues. The map is easier for her, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see more tightening over the weekend. The good news for Hillary Clinton is, she's seeing a strong early vote in Nevada that favors her. And if she wins Nevada and North Carolina -- I'm not saying that's easy -- and holds Pennsylvania and Virginia, I think he can win everything else and lose.

So she definitely has the easier lock on things, but I just don't know what the picture will look like on Tuesday morning in terms of polls.

BALDWIN: Yes. Let me move off the states for a second, Ryan, and just ask you about how people feel, right, because we saw the jobs report. We saw the additional 161,000 jobs added.

The wage gap is better. And even Citi is reporting that if Trump were to win, the stock market would go down. That said, which would be great for Dems -- that said, are people feeling that, right, which would bode well for Donald Trump.

RYAN LIZZA, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That's a great question.

I mean, one indicator of whether this is truly a change election to the extent that Donald Trump needs it to be, right, because Donald Trump is a very unconventional candidate, he represents not just change, but radical change, and look at President Obama's approval rating.

The incumbent president, who has been around for eight years, eight years on the national stage, most people in America are usually sick of you, right? It's very hard to stay popular in American politics at the national level.

BALDWIN: Not this one.

LIZZA: And Obama is at 54 percent. Historically, the incumbent president's approval rating is a really, really good predictor of which party is going to win.

So that's why I have been arguing this is not quite the change election everyone says it is because people have generally good vibes towards Obama. That doesn't mean Trump can't win. It means that it's a big uphill climb.

Now, on the other hand, what Donald Trump has going for him, of course, is there's exhaustion, despite Obama's high approval rating, of one party in power for eight years. It's very rare in American history actually to pull off a three-peat for any party. So Trump has that going for him, of course.

BALDWIN: Let's talk about another president, a former President Bill Clinton.

A.B., he just had words about Melania Trump and her speech we listened to about 24 hours ago. She was standing in front of a crowd saying, I want to be an advocate for women, for children, saying no to people being so tough and say no to bullying online.

Here's the former president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yesterday, I never felt so bad for anybody in my life as I did for her wife going out and giving a speech saying, oh, cyber-bullying was a terrible thing.

(LAUGHTER)

[15:10:00] CLINTON: And I thought, yes, especially if it's done at 3:00 in the

morning against a former Miss Universe by a guy running for president.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: I mean, but none of this is real. You couldn't make it up.

The problem is, we're laughing, but it isn't funny, because people's lives are going to be changed by this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So my question, A.B., is, does the man have a point or is his spouse-related dig a little dangerous for Bill Clinton?

STODDARD: Yes, I'm with you and Bill Clinton that Melania Trump's message about this culture coarsening and becoming mean was laughed off on Twitter immediately.

She should have stuck to another message about how good her husband has been to women in the workplace, to female friends that they have, to making sure his daughter can have a career, while she's had three kids. Whatever positive message for women would have been good. But I, too, think that it was ironic and it missed the boat.

But I think Bill Clinton with his spouse-related ironies should have probably stayed off that and stuck to I think what is a really potent message. He's a former president and very few of us are. Right? He could have said, I have been there. I served two terms just like President Obama.

I know what it's like when the going gets tough. You make decisions by yourself. You have to stay measured and calm and you can't lash out at people. That's the kind of thing that disqualifies Donald Trump is when ex-presidents or current presidents talk about the toughness of the job that he might be unfit for. I think he could have saved ridiculing Melania Trump's message for Tim Kaine or another surrogate.

BALDWIN: Yes, maybe territory he shouldn't stick his big toe into still.

What about, though, still -- you have the Bill Clintons, you have mega-surrogates for Hillary Clinton out on the trail. You have even celebrities like tonight you have Jay-Z, Pharrell in North Carolina last night, J. Cole, Katy Perry and even most recently today Mark Cuban. Here is what he said about Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CUBAN, CO-FOUNDER, HDNET: We believe in someone who knows what the right thing to do is. We believe in someone who is smart. We believe in someone who understands the balance of power in the world.

We don't believe in someone who has -- this guy the other day is giving a speech from a teleprompter and he has to remind himself, Donald, stay on topic.

(LAUGHTER)

CUBAN: It's like he's Sybil. Donald, stay on topic. No, I don't want to stay on topic.

(LAUGHTER)

CUBAN: Donald, stay on topic. Come on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: OK, so it's funny. It was funny. And I actually -- I thought it was funny even when Donald Trump was maybe telegraphing some of his own -- his inside voice the other day on the trail.

But do you think comments like that and stars like Jay-Z, Ryan Lizza, as badly as maybe you want to go to the show, does that really translate into votes?

LIZZA: You know, usually, they test these things in these campaigns, right? These are billion-dollar campaigns. They don't work with a surrogate or bring in a surrogate unless they know exactly what demographics that person is going to appeal to.

So you can be sure when they have announced someone like Jay-Z, they have done some research and have a good idea about how it's going to work. And let's be honest, there's a huge surrogate gap in this campaign. Right? Hillary Clinton has a lot more, frankly, famous people on her side, both politicians and celebrities.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: I already made my Chachi joke yesterday, so I won't again.

LIZZA: Right? We remember the conventions, right, the conventions.

Look, the Democrats always have that advantage. Hollywood is more liberal.

BALDWIN: Sure.

LIZZA: But it's a huge divide this year. I'm sure Donald Trump wouldn't mind a couple of bold-faced names for him here at the end.

BALDWIN: Well, who he does have out helping him, maybe not with him, a man who actually couldn't say his name when he was voting for him is the most powerful Republican on Capitol Hill, Paul Ryan.

So, A.B., let me ask you about him, because we know the man number two on the Republican ticket, Governor Pence, will be out with Speaker Ryan tomorrow. This is after Governor Pence had a really tough time, finally got there, saying that he would support Speaker Ryan for holding on to his gig on Capitol Hill.

But do you think this is tough for Speaker Ryan to be with Pence tomorrow, given everything the last year for him?

STODDARD: I mean, that Pence moment was so incredibly awkward and so illustrative of the box he's put himself in.

He is a really good friend of Paul Ryan's. And what he did yesterday is really remarkable. They have made up for it by this joint appearance in Wisconsin. Everyone is going to play nice and act like it's fine.

My personal opinion -- and I have no inside intelligence on this -- is that, yes, just talking to Ryan's friends, the best thing for him personally and politically is to quit that job the morning after the election no matter who wins.

[15:15:00]

He is going to be compromised by a Trump presidency, as well as a Clinton presidency. That speaker job is impossible now, and especially if he loses 10 seats or more, and I think that we are going to see him gone in a week or so anyway.

I could be wrong. My predictions often are. But these are uncomfortable days where both Ryan and Pence will wear their too- tight-shoes smile tomorrow and get through it. But we all know it's really uncomfortable.

BALDWIN: Smile, smile, wink, wink, see you later.

A.B. and Ryan, thank you. Thank you both so much.

LIZZA: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: And don't forget, this is all for the Super Bowl, and, politics folks, next Tuesday, leading up to election night in America. We have every race, every result for you. Stay with CNN until the very last vote is cast.

Coming up next: a pickup truck sporting a Donald Trump bumper sticker set on fire. This is just the latest incident raising concerns of voter intimidation on both sides. Those details are ahead.

Also, how about this situation? Let's say the U.S. Supreme Court has to make a ruling about another close election? Reminder, at the moment, there are eight justices on this court, which could mean a nightmare possibility of a 4-4 tie. What happens then?

And moments from now, President Barack Obama stumping for Clinton. He is back in North Carolina. We will take it live coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:10]

BALDWIN: We're back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me. Four days until Election Day, and these random acts of vandalism

targeting campaign supporters on both sides of the political aisle continue to happen. The latest incident, you see this pickup truck, empty pickup truck. This is Sacramento with a Trump bumper sticker firebombed, the owner telling CNN affiliate KTXL that he heard someone yell "F. Trump" as the driver sped away.

Another example, Denver, Colorado, someone painted the words "pervert and thief" on the walls of a Trump campaign office. This follows an arson attack on a black church in Mississippi, the words "Vote Trump" written there on the brick on the side.

The Mississippi secretary of state says he has reason to believe this was not politically motivated, but the investigation is ongoing. And just one more example for you. This last month, local Democratic and Republican offices in North Carolina were vandalized.

So, all of these incidents, all of these examples, and Donald Trump's speculation ongoing about, he says it, that this election is rigged, have led to very real concerns and fears of voter intimidation ahead of Election Day.

The NAACP is suing the state of North Carolina, accusing it of trying to cancel thousands of voter registrations. The chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, who represents North Carolina, is vowing to stop anyone who tries to disrupt a voter's rights.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. G.K. BUTTERFIELD (D), NORTH CAROLINA: The Republicans are saying that they're going to intimidate African-American voters on Election Day to try to nullify their votes. And so we are playing offense and defense. North Carolina is not sleeping. We are wide awake in this election.

Our eyes are wide open and we're watching the Republicans every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's begin there.

I have civil rights attorney and former prosecutor Charles Coleman Jr. with me. Also with us today, Amber McReynolds. She's the director of elections for the city and county of Denver.

So, welcome to both of you.

And, Charles, let me begin with you. You just heard what was going on in North Carolina. Walk me through examples of voter intimidation.

CHARLES COLEMAN JR., CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, we have of course seen this thing in terms of trying to keep people away from the polls pretty much throughout the entire history of America post-slavery, all the way from poll taxes to grandfather clauses to reading and constitutional tests that you have seen at the polls that are all designed to either keep people from voting and flat-out disenfranchise them or intimidate them from actually going to the polls.

We have also seen historically violence struck against those who have decided to go to the polls, whether it's been in the form of lynching. There's a very famous picture that's often shown of someone who is lynched, a black man. And there's a sign that is on him that says, "This N-word voted."

And that's clearly voter intimidation of the worst kind. And we're seeing different versions of that which, unfortunately, have been perpetuated by the rhetoric that's come from some of the campaigns in this election.

BALDWIN: Let me just quickly follow up with you. If someone experiences this, how can someone report it?

COLEMAN: Well, number one, they should absolutely call the police. There are federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI that are on top of it.

But, in addition to that, there are a number of civil rights organizations that are doing outstanding work in terms of ensuring that voter protection remains a thing and election protection.

I can think of off the top of my head the Lawyers Committee for Civil Right, Advancement Project, several other organizations that are out there that you can call that have hot lines that are there and ready to take action when there are incidents of voter intimidation or perceived voter intimidation.

BALDWIN: OK.

Amber, now to you in Denver. We wanted to talk to you because you have added active shooter training for your poll worker volunteers. Take me inside that conversation. Why did you all decide to do that? And then what does that mean about concerns of unrest around Election Day?

AMBER MCREYNOLDS, DIRECTOR OF ELECTIONS, CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER, COLORADO: Well, thanks, Brooke, and thanks for having me.

We did decide about a year ago to add an active shooter training into our election judge program, so all of our election judges that All right, working in the field, as well as the main office, have that module and that training as part of the program.

And it's part of our grander efforts to ensure that our poll workers and our election judges in the field are adequately prepared to handle any emergency situation that might arise. And, similarly, we train them in customer interactions, providing good customer service, and obviously all of the processes associated with the election as well.

BALDWIN: Charles, back to you.

I know some -- we were talking about Donald Trump's talk of rigged elections. And some Democrats are suing him over that. Why would they file before the election, when nothing has actually happened yet? [15:25:04]

COLEMAN: Well, for a number of reasons.

There's actual damage that can be shown in terms of that being a method of intimidation in keeping people away from the polls. It's also resulted -- in many respects, when you have this rhetoric, when Donald Trump is saying, well, you need to have people, we need to go out there and watch them, we need to go out there and be there, there's an actual damage that occurs in terms of the integrity of our democratic system.

And what filing a lawsuit does is that it has the potential to create what's called an injunction. And an injunction basically would enjoin or prohibit that sort of speech, that sort of rhetoric and the resulting behaviors that come as a result of that from taking place.

So, by filing beforehand, what you can do is, you can get an order from the court that will essentially say, number one, you can't say these things. And, number two, if individuals based off of your rhetoric decide that they want to go out and that they want to intimidate some folks at the poll, they will be enjoined from that.

And if they continue to persist, they will be arrested for it. So that's the advantage of filing sooner than later.

BALDWIN: OK.

Charles, as always, thank you.

Amber, good luck in Denver. Hope it's quiet and peaceful and you have zero issues.

Appreciate both of you so much.

COLEMAN: Thanks, Brooke.

MCREYNOLDS: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Right now, President Obama is -- here he is, stumping for Hillary Clinton for the third day in a row in a state that is looking like a game-changer come Tuesday. We will take you to North Carolina live coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)