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White House Race Enters Final Hours; Clinton Leaves for Last- Day Battleground Blitz; Trump Making 5 Stops in 5 States Today; Soon: Obama Speaks for Clinton in Michigan; CNN Crew Survives 28-Hour Fight with ISIS. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired November 07, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:16]

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. Thank you so much for joining me. We are live from our nation's capital for this one gorgeous day. I'm Carol Costello.

The clock is ticking and the decision finally near. We are now just one day away from Americans choosing their next president. And the campaigns are racing to cover as much ground as possible. Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine, and their star surrogates, fanning out across the battleground states, where the election could be won or lost in these final hours.

Clinton, pulling out all the stops for a star-studded event in Philadelphia tonight, she and her family will host President Obama and the first lady. Bruce Springsteen will perform alongside Jon Bon Jovi. Donald Trump barnstorming five states as well today. His running mate, Mike Pence, hits four. Trump' children will also be on the trail.

-- As time runs short, lines have grown long. Some voters waited for hours to cast early votes this weekend and there's growing evidence of a huge turnout among Latino voters. The Trump campaign balking at some polling stations adding hours to accommodate the overflow crowds.

Let's begin this morning with Jason Carroll. -- He's following the Trump campaign. Good morning Jason.

JASON CARROLL: CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you. Donald Trump calling this a marathon, Carol, and he is running to as many key states as possible in these final hours, including the state of Florida here. Whereas you know, historically it's always close in the recent polling bearing that out. One poll showing Clinton up by one, another showing Trump and Clinton tied at 45-45. This is a must- win state.

So, what do you do going forward if you're the Trump campaign in terms of strategy? You hit this state. You hit this state hard. And in terms of strategy, you keep driving home your message, repealing and replacing Obamacare. Keep talking about the so-called rigged system. The Trump campaign saying that, the FBI director's most recent decision is more evidence of the so-called rigged system. But once again, this is a must-win state for the Trump campaign.

The Clinton campaign encouraged by what you are talking about, the early Latino voter turnout here, they say that's going to favor them. The Trump campaign, saying look, they can still squeak out a win here in the state of Florida. But in terms of going forward they are also going to have to flip a blue state. So, where do you do that? Perhaps in the upper Midwest, perhaps a place like, Michigan. Wisconsin looking more like, a long shot. Maybe in the Rockies as well, maybe a state like, Colorado.

So, make no mistake. And in terms of going forward, the Trump campaign feels as though they have a path, several paths to get to 270 but all those paths involve flipping a blue state and also hitting as many key states as possible. After they're done here in Florida, they're going to be heading to Pennsylvania, then New Hampshire and then finally ending up in the state of Michigan. Carol?

COSTELLO: All right. Jason Carroll, thank you so much. This is Hillary Clinton in White Plains. She's about to take off to continue her campaign. Let's listen in.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm really -- I'm really excited about having a chance to make all these stops today. The event tonight at Independence Hall is really meaningful to me, about where it is and everyone who's there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It seems to me that over time, you have been often ahead of your time. You have been sometimes misunderstood. You have encountered a lot of prejudice. Do you think that today America understands you and is ready to accept you?

CLINTON: Well, I think I have some work to do to bring the country together. As I have been saying in these speeches in the last few days, I really do want to be the president for everybody, people who vote for me, people who vote against me, because I think that these splits, these divides that have been not only exposed but exacerbated by the campaign on the other side, are ones that we really do have to bring the country together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can do you that?

CLINTON: Yes, absolutely, absolutely. I love this country and I believe in our people and we have a big agenda ahead of us but I'm excited. I think we will get a lot done and I do think we will bring the country together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any concerns about tomorrow at all?

CLINTON: We just have to work until the last vote is counted.

(INAUDIBLE)

CLINTON: We are on a good track.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- Please go back on the plane guys. COSTELLO: All right. We are going to break away. Hillary Clinton, about to board her plane to continue campaigning in -- what, four states today. So, let's break this all down. With me now is Dan Pfeiffer, CNN political commentator, and former senior advisor to President Obama. And Matt Schlapp, Donald Trump's surrogate and former George W. Bush political director. Welcome to both of you.

MATT SCHLAPP, DONALD TRUMP SURROGATE AND FORMER GEORGE W. BUSH POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Thank you, Carol.

DAN PFEIFFER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO PRES. OBAMA: Good to be here.

COSTELLO: Do you feel the excitement?

[10:05:16] SCHLAPP: Oh, yes. I feel the fatigue.

COSTELLO: Do you feel the same?

PFEIFFER: Oh, absolutely.

COSTELLO: What do the candidates feel like on this day, one last day to get their message out?

PFEIFFER: I mean, -- they are exhausted, right? They have been going at this for two years. They are basically on auto pilot. But what is keeping them alive and keeping them awake, is the same thing keeping the staff awake, which is the -- they can see the finish line and the enthusiasm they're going to feel from the crowds in every stop they have today.

COSTELLO: Is it possible for them to sleep at night? Because I would just be --

SCHLAPP: Yes. Well, first of all, I worked for President Bush and he liked to be home. We used to see him sleeping on his own bed with his own pillow. It was unusual for him to remain in cities overnight. Donald Trump just seems like a rock band, sleep on the plane and get ready for the next event and the stories you are reading says, he's one of these people like Mitt Romney, who doesn't require that much sleep, and he is very energetic.

And this is what, you know, Bob Dole did this in 1996 where he just campaigned continuously the last 24 hours. And I think what you're seeing from Trump is something similar. And it is unusual to be that aggressive in the final stretch. And it plays into his strength which is this enthusiasm gap between Trump and Clinton. The Trump supporters are very excited about going over there because they lost twice, right? They want to win. We want to win.

And for Hillary Clinton, you know, it's just more methodical. You know, not quite as much love there but you know she's up in a lot of polls. So, I think they feel good about their chances.

COSTELLO: OK. And in early voting, I'm going to talk to you about that in just a second, because those voters are certainly jazzed supposedly about Hillary Clinton, right?

But I want to head back out to White Plains because Brianna Keilar was taking part in that huge press conference that Hillary Clinton threw at the last moment. So, Brianna, what did we glean from that?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, she is certainly very ready for this soon to be over and to be going through this final day. I'll tell you, we are being ushered on to the plane. And you can see Secretary Clinton as she's getting on the plane. I'm actually going to take you on the plane with me, if I can, Carol. We are totally flying by the seat of our pants here as we try to get out of White Plains.

But we have four stops today. We are going to Pittsburgh, and then we're going to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Let's walk this way. And we will head on to the press section of the plane. We will be going on to Philadelphia where Secretary Clinton will be campaigning with President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama. And she's going to end her night in Raleigh tonight, in what has been really just a nasty, fast-moving, unprecedented general election campaign battle.

Now, you talked to officials here, I'm just going to the side as we get everyone on. You talk to campaign officials and it really comes down to their get out the vote efforts and their ground game, and they are feeling very confident about it. They are looking at early vote, turnout. They think it's giving them the advantage but of course, polls have tightened. So there's this anxiety about can anything happen going on. Carol I'm going to toss it back to you because we are here at the end of the press line getting on to the plane.

COSTELLO: OK. Yes and I wouldn't want to make that large secret service man angry, Brianna. We will let you get on board that plane and we'll check back with you - when you arrive at your destination. Brianna Keilar, many thanks.

So, let's talk about early voting, because in states like Florida and North Carolina, there was this huge surge of Hispanic voters turning out. What does that tell you?

PFEIFFER: Well, I think it shows that there's tremendous enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton. I mean, for the Clinton campaign, it's running a top-notch field organization. They have basically won Nevada before Election Day. They put that in the bank. That's a key Trump state, one where -- his name's on the building. It is really a key to -- any path to 270. They have won that. Florida is in great - in a better place now than in 2012. And it shows organization and enthusiasm which are the two elements you need for a successful presidential campaign.

COSTELLO: So, Clinton supporters keep talking about organization, organization, organization. You don't hear that so much from Trump supporters.

SCHLAPP: Actually, as Dan knows, the organization's done by the committees and his victory committees, both for the DNC and the RNC. And the RNC has taken the lead and actually had more people and more offices on the ground in these battleground states than in any previous election. I think our high water mark for a ground game was 2004. And we're going to see how we do this time.

I think the key on the early vote is this more people are voting early. And Democrats tend to do better on the early voting than Republicans. We tend to do better on Election Day. So, people are assuming that just because so many more people are voting early, that those trends will keep up on Election Day.

That's the big question. We don't know if they will. We also don't know what the turnout's going to be. And then, with Donald Trump, there are two things to his advantage. He does have a huge enthusiasm gap, ten points. He also has people, let's face it, who are going to vote for him but they won't talk about it. They are not telling pollsters. --

COSTELLO: The secret Trump voters? --

SCHLAPP: Do you think there are some? Do you know any? Most people I know, knows some. And the question is --

COSTELLO: Most Trump supporters I talked to are way out with it. They're not shy.

SCHLAPP: But this is the question on Election Day. It is a pain. I had to wait in a long line to vote early. If you are enthusiastic about your candidate you will do anything to go vote. If you are less enthusiastic about your candidate, life is complicated,

[10:10:16] sometimes things come up. That's why that matters.

COSTELLO: So Donald Trump has -- he sort of called into question those long lines, right? He called into question that elections officials decided to keep the polls open to accommodate all those people who wanted to vote. Why do you think he's doing that?

PFEIFFER: I have no idea why Donald Trump says the things he says. I think it's deeply irresponsible. In many cases, he's accusing states run by Republican governors are rigging the elections for Hillary Clinton, which seems unlikely. We have a tradition in this country. John Kerry did it in 2004. Al Gore did it in 2000. John McCain and Mitt Romney when they lost the election, they conceded and tried to bring the country together. You know, Al Gore had a case to make. -

SCHLAPP: I'm just going to say, Al Gore -- I wouldn't go with that.

PFEIFFER: No, he made his case.

SCHLAPP: For a long time.

PFEIFFER: For a long time.

SCHLAPP: Yes.

PFEIFFER: He had a state mandate, I was there in Florida. --

SCHLAPP: I was too.

PFEIFFER: State man did a recount.

COSTELLO: But he made his case after the election --

(CROSSTALK)

PFEIFFER: The first thing he did after the Supreme Court made its decision was concede to President Bush, help bring the country together. The question is. Is Donald Trump going to take that responsible position? Everything he's done this campaign suggests no. But hope brings eternal.

COSTELLO: So, if Donald Trump does lose, will he gracefully concede?

SCHLAPP: Absolutely. Absolutely, but I think like we all know, we are going to make sure that the results get the proper -- some of these states, the polls are awfully tight when you look at the battleground states. Some of them show -- many of them, five or six, show a one point difference. Some of those states require a recount. That should happen. 2000 was unbelievable. I think Al Gore went too far in pursuit of this. And I think it actually hurt him. And I actually think the bad thing about that is it hurts the president who comes in as well.

I do think we have to get through this. I also think it is wrong for all of these court cases that are going on at the last minute. Let's simply follow the rules. You know, I was in line on Sunday to vote. And I was surprised how many people were in line. It's a great thing in a democracy. I want everyone to vote. You know what the elections officials said? When the time came, he said everyone who is in line we are going to make sure every one of you votes, no matter how long it takes.

That's a fair interpretation of the rule. I was totally fine with that. Where it gets strange is when you have the ninth circuit coming in and telling Arizona that they have to change their voting laws at the last minute. When they tell people who are trying to have clean voter files that they can't do that that they have to keep people who shouldn't be voting on the rolls. That's where it gets funny. And I think that's where people start to think do we have a really good system. Let's just follow the rules. I'm for everybody voting.

PFEIFFER: Right. Well, I mean, you may be. A lot of your party is not.

SCHLAPP: That's not true.

PFEIFFER: That is absolutely true. Changing the rules in North Carolina, Ohio -- North Carolina, there's documented evidence of getting rid of Sunday, early voting because those are -- of high percentage of African-Americans vote on that day. That has been a tried and true practice of the Republican Party for many years now.

SCHLAPP: You know, I just completely reject this. I think the fact is this. I think we ought to have laws and we got to follow those laws. We shouldn't break those laws just because it's near Election Day. Let's follow them.

By the way, in a lot of these states, elections are controlled at the state and the local level. So, a lot of these places where we are talking about, there's Democratic elected officials as well. -- I think people look at this process and they say they want it to be transparent. And they want it to be fair. That's what I want.

COSTELLO: But the good news is there just has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in any recent election.

SCHLAPP: You know, Carol, he just said he went to Florida for the whole month. I assume I went for the whole month. Why did we all go? We all went because when races are close, it comes down to the subjective opinions of people on the ground. We all know it, which is why we send operatives. That's why both parties do. And if this race turns out to be close it's important that both parties and both campaigns are represented throughout that process. So that people feel like the voting process has integrity.

COSTELLO: And they have been through history, right?

PFEIFFER: Right. There's a difference, though, between state mandated recounts. If the race is so close, that the candidate, either recount is mandated or the losing candidate has the opportunity to call for one, that should absolutely happen from following all the rules. There's a difference between that and suggesting that there is voter fraud or calling things rigged if there is --

SCHLAPP: Or doing what the ninth circuit did was changing Arizona's laws at the very end where the Supreme Court had to intervene and say no, Arizona gets to set its election laws. All of that is wrong.

COSTELLO: All right. I've got to leave it there. But the important thing is go vote. Please go vote.

SCHLAPP: That's right.

PFEIFFER: Right.

COSTELLO: Because that's what makes our country so great, right? Thanks to both of you for stopping by.

Coming up in the "Newsroom," one of the strongest weapons in the Clinton arsenal is being deployed in Michigan. So, why is President Barack Obama going to that traditionally Democratic state? Are the Democrats a little nervous?

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[10:19:12] COSTELLO: All right. I want to bring you right back to White Plains, New York. You see the Clinton campaign plane sitting on the Tarmac there. Our Brianna Keilar is on board that plane, Hillary Clinton's plane, about to take off to Pittsburgh for a big rally there. Brianna, tell us what's going on inside that plane.

KEILAR: Well, Carol, the engines have just fired up. We are all sitting down and we are ready to go for our first stop which is going to be Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You hear they are making the announcements right now just before we depart.

But we were just on the Tarmac a short while ago and we were talking. And Hillary Clinton was talking to reporters. And she said she's excited to be going to battleground states. She also said she understands that there is work to do to bring the country together. But she also seemed to be very happy, of course, that this is over.

We are just starting to move now actually. And it's really all going to be about turnout. That is what Hillary Clinton was stressing. And I will tell you, her campaign is feeling pretty good because they really have a behemoth of a ground game operation and Donald Trump just pretty much has

[10:20:16] a nonexistent one. He's relying very much on the Republican Party apparatus and it's not really quite where the Clinton machine of voter turnout volunteer organization is. So, that's really going to be the test as we move into tomorrow. Carol?

COSTELLO: I was just curious now that Hillary Clinton has been cleared in this latest e-mail investigation, is Huma Abedin on the plane?

KEILAR: I do not believe that she is on the plane. She's been absent for some time. And I will tell you the campaign is I think, happy that they heard this from the FBI yesterday that they are not changing their assessment in July. But at the same time, there's a feeling that damage has been done and certainly the original sin of all of that was how Hillary Clinton set up her e-mail. So, you know, that's something they have had to deal with through the campaign. And they will continue doing.

You know, we are going through the bumps here as we are about to taxi, Carol. I'm going to sign off, so that we can - we're going to head off now.

COSTELLO: OK. I thought the flight attendant was going to yell at you there for a second, Brianna Keilar reporting live from inside -- Hillary Clinton's campaign plane. Thank you so much. We will check back with Brianna once she gets to Pittsburgh.

But let's head to Michigan now because we are minutes away from -- President Obama speaking in Ann Arbor. It's a sign of change in that state. CNN correspondent Jessica Schneider is live in Ann Arbor to tell us more about at. Hi, Jessica.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. You know, a rigorous final week of campaigning for President Obama. He has been hop-scotching around the country. Touching down soon here in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he will speak at the University of Michigan.

You can see behind me the crowd, the all-important vote, Millennials. Of course, this is a president who has preached hope and change and inspiration. His job in the final few hours, inspire people to get out there and vote. Of course, as Brianna said, the numbers are crucial for Hillary Clinton, hence this frenzied activity, especially here in Michigan, where we have seen a flurry of the candidates themselves as well as surrogates. Chelsea Clinton will be introducing President Obama when he speaks here a little bit after noon.

We have also seen Donald Trump in this state. He was here last night. He plans to hold a late night campaign rally in Grand Rapids later today. His children are also stumping throughout the state today. The Trump team has been barreling down hard on Michigan.

And that's all been the result of some tightening poll numbers. We can show you the latest poll that was released late last week, the numbers definitely tightening, Hillary Clinton standing at 42 percent, Donald Trump at 38 percent. She is still leading by four points but what's important in that poll, is that it's down considerably from the 11 point lead that she had about a month ago. Of course, they are vying for those 16 electoral votes. President Obama out here today to galvanize those voters because they understand, at this point, Carol, Michigan counts.

COSTELLO: All right, Jessica Schneider reporting live from Ann Arbor, Michigan. So, let's talk about all of this. With me now is Reid Wilson, he's a national correspondent for "The Hill," David Lauter also joins me, he's the Washington bureau chief for the "Los Angeles Times," and Mark Preston is here, CNN politics executive editor. Welcome to all of you. So Mark, what's going on in Michigan?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Well, clearly the Clinton campaign has decided that they need to shore up any support that they have lost in Michigan. The Trump people will tell you that their internal polling over the past couple of weeks was closing in on that. And clearly, the Clinton campaign must have seen that as well because they wouldn't be spending this very important time, you know, in Detroit over the past couple of days.

Look, I think Michigan is still a reach for Donald Trump to win, but the fact of the matter is when you see the Clinton campaign going in there with surrogates and herself, we saw Bill Clinton there last week, it says something.

COSTELLO: So the Michigan governor, Rick Snyder, who's a Republican, said that he wouldn't say who he's voting for. I don't know. Does that carry any significance?

REID WILSON, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT "THE HILL": No. Rick Snyder is -- has been -- I don't want to say a never Trumper, but he's never been on the Trump train for a while.

What I think we are seeing in this last little bit of travel around the country here, the Clinton team is trying to goose a very specific demographic to turn out to the polls, and it is African-American voters. We have seen a huge spike in Hispanic voters in states like Nevada and Florida. The African-American turnout numbers have lagged, especially in states like North Carolina and Michigan.

President Obama being in Ann Arbor, that's different though. That's aimed at turning out younger voters who generally vote Democratic but who may not have turned out as robustly, as some of those other -

COSTELLO: So something that was interesting this morning. Robby Mook was on the - you know, Clinton's campaign manager, he was on the morning shows and he said that there's this surge in Hispanic voters and also in Asian voters. But he didn't mention African-American voters which I found interesting. All of a sudden it's Asian voters.

DAVID LAUTER, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, they definitely have had a problem with African-American turnout, there's no question about it. You look at North Carolina, now you can argue that that was partly because the state changed the rules to make it harder for African-American voters. But in Michigan, in Ohio,

[10:25:16] you have seen a downturn in African-American vote, in places like Cleveland. So that's a problem for the Clinton campaign. It could be a problem in a state, like Pennsylvania as well. So, they want to shore that up. They think they can and they certainly have the get out the vote operation that's been targeted at doing precisely this. And you know they demonstrated during the primaries that they do know how to execute their game plan. And they consistently turned out the voters that they needed.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about specifically that game plan because they reported -- the Clinton campaign that had some very impressive numbers.

PRESTON: Right. Right, so let's look and again, we have to take them at their word for what they are telling us. But let's take a look at what the Clinton campaign, Carol, has said they did this weekend alone. They said they have knocked on 6.2 million doors this past weekend and they called 8.1 million voters and since September, they have contacted 45 million different voters. Now --

COSTELLO: 45 million voters?

PRESTON: Right. Now, that's significant because we pay a lot of attention to these big rallies in what have you, but it really, elections are won in lost by volunteers and by voter contact by those who are working in key states.

And if we look at the Republican side as well, so Republicans are telling us now, that they've had 600 staff. That have been working this election which is significant given the fact that they say, there was 800 people that they only had in their ground game operation back in 2012. And this is really part and parcel with what happened after their loss in 2012, and they realized the Obama machine was so strong. In addition to that, they said that they knocked on at least 4 million doors this weekend. And that they have had more volunteers now than they've ever had in 44 years.

COSTELLO: Well, Newt Gingrich, Reid, said that Republicans had the best ground game in 44 years.

WILSON: They very well may have built a better ground game than they have ever had but the difference between the Democratic operation and the Republican operation is stunning. Mark just mentioned 600 staffers on the Republican side. Take a look, not only at the Trump campaign, but the Republican National Committee and state parties in these key battleground states. We went through the Federal Election Commission reports. We found about 1400 staffers in the key battleground states. On the Democratic side, in those same states, the Clinton campaign and DNC, we found 5100 employee in all those states.

Take a look at Minnesota, where Donald Trump was yesterday, sort of a Hail Mary throw in a traditionally Democratic state. The Trump campaign or the Republican state party out there had 11 people on payroll in September. The Democratic Party had 225. There are five to one margins in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania and Florida. Almost a ten to one margin in Nevada until some late staff shipped over there for -

COSTELLO: So, some people might be -- hearing those numbers and say, why isn't Hillary Clinton like, you know, just pounding in those battleground states?

LAUTER: Well, you know partisanship matters. And you've got probably 90 percent of voters who have made up their minds long ago, probably three quarters of the voters made up their minds before the campaign even started. But when you get down to the margins, the last few votes, ground game matters.

So you know, you look at a state like Florida, look at Dade County, Miami, more than 88 percent of the 2012 turnout, they have already voted. That doesn't happen by itself, it happens because a campaign is out there dragging people out and by and large, that doesn't seem to be the Trump campaign that's doing that. Now, maybe they can make up the gap with a huge surge on Election Day. That's their hope. That's a really tall order.

COSTELLO: And the interesting things about those Hispanic voters, who turned out in such massive numbers in Florida and also in Nevada. Is what a third of them were people who have never voted before?

PRESTON: Right. So, what's interesting is, were looking at the data last night. And from 2008 to 2016, we saw 105 percent increase in Hispanic early voters. Now, we don't know if they are all going to vote for Hillary Clinton. But, you know, if I'm going to Las Vegas with a dollar, I'm betting on the fact that they voted for Hillary Clinton or by and large.

In Nevada alone, 30 percent of Clark County, which is basically Las Vegas, we don't have demographic data on who actually voted but we do know this. Hispanics make up 30 percent of that area. 57,000 people voted in one day alone on Friday, which goes to the get out the vote operation.

And two things just to note this, we try to put all these numbers out there and the viewers try to understand. The Democratic operation, the get out to vote operation is a credit to what Barack Obama built from 2006 to where we stand right now, having said that, the Republican operation is entirely buoyed by the Republican National Committee and not the Trump campaign. So that's a testament to Reince Priebus and the RNC putting together a ground game operation.

COSTELLO: OK. I got to leave it there. But it's just a fascinating conversation. Thanks to all of you for stopping by this morning.

Ahead in the "Newsroom," a CNN crew gets stuck in the middle of a deadly ISIS attack. The only thing they can do is hunker down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We need to go in this house. Go, go, go, go, go, in there.

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