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Pulse Of The People: Independent Voters On The Trump Presidency; Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Expecting First Baby; CNN Reality Check: Voting Rights Under The Microscope Ahead Of Midterms; Sears Files For Bankruptcy. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 15, 2018 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The pulse of the people, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: We are now just 22 days away from the midterm elections, so we thought it would be a good time to get the pulse of the people.

I recently sat down with the all-important Independent voters -- the ones you are about to meet. Five of whom voted for Donald Trump, say they are now very disappointed in him and very motivated to vote against Republicans for all the issues they think President Trump is getting wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: You all are the all-important Independent voters that so many people are watching for the midterms.

Anthony, how are you feeling?

ANTHONY MILES, INDEPENDENT VOTER, REGRETS VOTING FOR TRUMP: Afraid.

CAMEROTA: Of what?

MILES: A dictator in the White House.

CAMEROTA: And what --

MILES: He has no empathy for anything. He will never admit when he makes a mistake.

CAMEROTA: What were you imagining when you voted for President Trump?

MILES: He said the system is rigged and he said he was going to be a new sheriff in town, and all he's done is surrounded himself with crooks. How many people have been indicted that were in close cahoots with him?

And there, in front of the world stage, he looks at Putin and puts his arm around him and says this is my buddy.

SYDNEY COHAN, INDEPENDENT VOTER, CHANGING PARTY AFFILIATION TO DEMOCRATIC, REGRETS VOTING FOR TRUMP: The divisiveness in this country right now and the rhetoric coming from the president is a daily exhausting thing.

I worry that the dictator -- the wannabe dictator in the White House will make it where we don't even have any more elections.

I mean, he will -- he is like siding with Vladimir Putin. He -- Kim Jong Un is now having love letters written to Donald Trump.

[07:35:09] RAHUL BLOKHRA, INDEPENDENT VOTER, REGRETS VOTING FOR TRUMP: When I voted for Trump, I was looking for change. I was looking for maybe the non-political person coming in and the businessman bringing his -- you know, his expertise, his skills into leadership.

He's not very focused. He's not very sincere to whatever he decides to do.

Things changed fast. For example, there's with Putin and with Russia, right? There's a comment that we're hearing from Trump and then we are seeing all these sanctions being imposed as well.

So I'm not so sure who's running the country right now and I'm not so sure -- also very sure as to which direction we are going.

CAMEROTA: Stephanie, why are you feeling energized as you approach the midterms?

STEPHANIE MARTIN, CONSIDERING CHANGING PARTY AFFILIATION TO INDEPENDENT, REGRETS VOTING FOR TRUMP: I think I'm more feeling embarrassed as a lifelong Republican. I guess I would consider myself, you know, part of the religious right and now, the values that I see coming from the White House just don't mesh up with what I believe.

CAMEROTA: Can you pinpoint a moment that you changed from being a President Trump supporter to feeling embarrassed?

MARTIN: Boy --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which one?

MILES: Which card do you want -- which card?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which one, yes.

MARTIN: You know, even listening to his -- the inauguration speech just kind of --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very dark.

MARTIN: -- was dark and antagonistic. And there has not seemed to be any effort to unite the country. It's always us against someone or these people against someone else.

CAMEROTA: You know what's so interesting is that we always hear "it's the economy, stupid." None of you are mentioning that and the economy is going well. The unemployment rate is at a historic low. The stock market is at a historic high.

But that's not what any of you are focused on. Why not?

DALE MUNHOLLAND, CHANGED PARTY AFFILIATION FROM REPUBLICAN TO INDEPENDENT: The economy reacts slowly to anything that happens, so I would say a lot of what is taking place now is a result of Barack Obama.

NANCY CELENTANO, REGRETS VOTING FOR TRUMP: I'm not even thinking about that. I'm thinking about what he's done to our country. Our country was supposed to be a country for the people and -- you know, by the people for the people, and I don't see that it's that way anymore.

And we're supposed to let people come in, like the immigrants. And what really broke my heart was when I saw those children being torn away from their parents.

MILES: Is this the America that I grew up in? I don't think so.

COHAN: It's not.

CELENTANO: No, it isn't.

CAMEROTA: So, character issues -- is it fair to say for all of you -- has superseded the -- even the issues that you voted on? Is that what you're saying?

COHAN: Of course.

BLOKHRA: Fair enough.

COHAN: I'm mortified every day. What happened with Christine Ford, the accusers that accused Donald Trump, the way that they say they're all lying -- every day, I'm just speechless. I really am just speechless.

CAMEROTA: How many of you are affected by the Brett Kavanaugh hearings? How many of you have really been affected by what you've heard? Go ahead.

BLOKHRA: Really, just the fact that he had to go through this, I think it's wrong.

CAMEROTA: So you believe the women?

BLOKHRA: I do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.

MUNHOLLAND: The hypocrisy is astounding to me. If they were -- a lot of these people are the same people who were railing against Clinton and wanted Clinton to be impeached for what he did. And now, they are supporting Donald Trump and Brett Kavanaugh for essentially the same thing.

COHAN: Exactly.

CAMEROTA: And so, now the president calls the women who have come forward a hoax -- a Democratic hoax. What do you make of that language?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not surprising.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's shameful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shameful.

COHAN: He's a hoax if you ask me.

I'm a victim of rape and to hear this woman sit in front and under oath swear and tell her story about what happened to her, only to have grown men laugh at her, mock her, I just -- I just don't know where the bottom is anymore.

MUNHOLLAND: I've been a lifelong Republican since the day I turned 18.

I think these midterms are really important because the Republicans, I'm very sad to say, have become very, very spineless, they've become cowardly, and they're just extraordinarily unwilling to stand up to Donald Trump and his bizarreness. I mean, it's a circus of bizarreness that takes place daily in the -- in the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: So, it was just fascinating for me to listen to them because they all want to send a message with their vote in the midterms.

They all -- five of them voted for President Trump. One of them was a lifelong Republican, as you heard, and all of them feel very motivated to go to the polls to send a message because they're not happy with what they're seeing.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's really interesting to me that five of the six -- and we can't say that enough -- five of the six of them did vote for President Trump when a lot of these character things, it's not as if they were not mentioned in the campaign.

CAMEROTA: I asked them about that and they said that they thought that that was during the campaign, they thought he was going to change, they thought he was going to rise to the occasion, they thought he would be more presidential. They thought he would put all of that aside.

You know, they made their choices and -- I mean, I think you hear how honest they are on national T.V. with what their regrets are.

[07:40:01] BERMAN: In terms of how Democratic strategists will target these people, it doesn't seem to me that they will focus on those character issues that many of those people found so offensive.

What they will focus on is something one of the gentlemen said at the beginning, which is corruption. That is a word that historically has mattered to Independents as much, if not more, than anything. And both parties know that if you hit that "c" word -- the corruption word -- that you can sometimes sway those Independent voters.

So if they're sensitive to that and then they see that, that could be a problem not just now but going forward for the president.

CAMEROTA: Tomorrow, we have them back and they talk about why they feel so motivated to change their party affiliation. You've heard some of them have been Republicans their whole lives and because of President Trump, they are changing their party affiliation. So they'll talk about what drove them to do that.

BERMAN: Looking forward to that.

There's also other big news that you're very excited about.

CAMEROTA: There's a royal baby on the way, OK? How exciting is that? I want all of the details from conception to due date and I'm going to get them, OK? Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Breaking baby news. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are expecting a royal baby.

CNN's Max Foster is live at Buckingham Palace with the big announcement. Max, I need to set my clock right now. What is the due date?

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT, ANCHOR, "CNN TALK WITH MAX FOSTER": The due date is spring. We're guessing around April. We believe the baby was conceived sometime over the summer after the wedding.

[07:45:06] We won't know the sex of the baby until it's born in the spring. It will be seventh in line to the throne. We don't even know if it's one baby. It could be twins, triplets, who knows?

But there's much excitement here. Even the prime minister tweeted -- has been tweeting her excitement today. The president of the European Commission, too.

So this is a -- you know, a moment of happiness in a lot of doom and gloom here in Europe over all the political woes currently, so there's much excitement.

You can see how the couple arrived in Australia for the beginning of a very long tour, actually, across Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Tonga, and the duchess was carrying a pile of files in front of her.

But I think they've got the sense that it's much better weather in Australia at the moment than it is here in the U.K.

The royal photographers are out in force. They're looking for a baby bump.

So they decided to make the announcement and we understand that they told the royal family at Friday's royal wedding. Harry's cousin, Eugenie, got married. So we think the announcement was made there.

We know that Doria Ragland, Meghan's mother, has been told as well and she's very excited, Alisyn, about her first grandchild.

CAMEROTA: Max, I'm very excited also but I don't know that she should have been upstaging the bride at the royal wedding.

BERMAN: You can't have it all ways. Now you're -- now you're upset over it?

CAMEROTA: Well, just about the timing of the announcement.

FOSTER: There is some talk about that. I mean, all we've been told by the palace is that the royal family were able to congratulate the couple at the wedding on Friday and we're reading into that that the announcement was made there.

And yes, you're right. There is some debate about whether or not that was appropriate. But they're not giving us the exact details about the announcement and how it was made.

CAMEROTA: All right, but Max Foster, I do really appreciate you introducing the concept of royal triplets, so thank you. Let's us know when you have any more details about all of that.

BERMAN: You speak clear --

FOSTER: It could be my scoop.

CAMEROTA: I know.

BERMAN: He's on it. He's on it.

CAMEROTA: Yes, that's right.

BERMAN: Conceived sometime in the summer --

CAMEROTA: I know.

BERMAN: -- after the wedding --

CAMEROTA: I know.

BERMAN: -- Max says.

CAMEROTA: So, Max has some details about this and we'll get it out of him.

BERMAN: Apparently so.

All right.

It has been called the new civil rights issue of our age -- the right to vote -- and it's now under siege in several states.

Our senior political analyst John Avlon here for the reality check -- sir.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, a non-royal baby-free reality check.

Now, this weekend, Georgia Sen. David Perdue smashed a student's cell phone as he was beginning to ask a question about voter suppression.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGIA TECH STUDENT: How can you endorse a candidate --

SEN. DAVID PERDUE (R), GEORGIA: No, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that.

(Grabs phone from student)

GEORGIA TECH STUDENT: You stole my property. You stole my property.

PERDUE: No, you wanted a picture?

GEORGIA TECH STUDENT: Give my phone back, Senator.

PERDUE: You wanted a picture, I'm going to give it to you.

GEORGIA TECH STUDENT: Give me my -- give me -- give me my phone back, Senator.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: Now you can see why a senator might lose his cool. After all, the facts are hard to defend here.

Under the guise of protecting election integrity -- and who wouldn't want that -- Republicans in several states are knocking hundreds of thousands of people off the voter rolls.

In Georgia, nearly 600,000 people purged during one weekend in July, with an additional 53,000 applications left in limbo.

In Indiana, nearly 500,000 threatened with being knocked off voter rolls.

In Ohio, a use it or lose it law for failure to vote in two consecutive elections may cause you to lose your voter registration.

And swing states North Carolina and Florida attempts to roll back early voting. And in nine deep-red states, thousands of polling places shuttered over the last five years, disproportionately affecting poor and minority communities.

And, in North Dakota, voter I.D. laws that could disenfranchise thousands of Native Americans ahead of a race that could determine control of the Senate. Now, we all remember where President Trump falls on this issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Voter I.D., like everything else. You know, if you go out and you want to buy groceries you need a picture on a card. You need I.D.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: Of course, that's not how you buy groceries but that hasn't stopped high-placed Republicans across the country from following suit.

Now, critics say this isn't about integrity, it's about winning elections by any means necessary.

So let's start in Georgia where the man running for governor, Brian Kemp, is also the Secretary of State and therefore, in charge of elections. Now, by performing voterless maintenance, Kemp already cut 600,000 voters from the rolls.

Now his state has put into place an exact match system, which is the voter's information doesn't exactly match across several lists in the state -- things like skipped middle names, hyphens, typos -- that person's name is put into a pending list. Fifty-three thousand people and counting are now on that list and the "Associated Press" says that nearly 70 percent of them are African-American in a state that is 32 percent black.

Now, Kemp's opponent, Stacey Abrams, just happens to be the first black woman to be a major party's nominee for governor in American history.

There's another Secretary of State running for governor, Kris Kobach. You know, the Harvard, Yale, and Oxford-educated populist who Trump put in charge of his voter fraud commission.

Now, one Democratic member of that commission said its real purpose was to back up Trump's lie that millions voted illegally and then to, quote, "pave the way for policy changes designed to undermine the right to vote."

Look, we should be lowering obstacles for voter registration, not raising them. This should not be a partisan issue. Just ask a conservative who Republicans usually listen to.

[07:50:00] Quote, "For this nation to remain true to its principles, we cannot allow any Americans' vote to be denied, diluted, or defiled." That was Ronald Reagan.

And that's your "Reality Check."

CAMEROTA: John, that is so helpful because, as you know, Republicans so often talk about voter fraud but when you show us the numbers then we see that voter disenfranchisement -- the numbers are so much higher. That's a bigger threat.

AVLON: It's a big deal.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

All right, another American icon is filing bankruptcy. What happened to Sears?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:55:15] BERMAN: It's time for "CNN Business Now."

A dramatic fall for what used to be one of the United States' largest retailers. Sears filing for bankruptcy.

Our chief business correspondent Christine Romans in the Business Center with more -- Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT, ANCHOR, "EARLY START": John, this is a retail chain that changed how Americans shopped. It's bankrupt.

Sears, the original everything store, right? Remember, it started as a mail-order business with that famous catalog -- clothing, buggy whips, auto parts, even mail-order homes.

But at midnight, the 132-year-old company filed for bankruptcy. Sears has been struggling for years, losing nearly $12 billion since 2010. Since then, sales have plunged 60 percent. It has shut more than 2,600 stores.

But the final straw, a $134 million debt payment due today it could not make.

Sears is one of many prominent retailers to declare bankruptcy thanks to the rise of online shopping and big-box stores, but Sears also failed to invest and modernize.

Now, it will stay in business, keeping profitable stores and the Web site open, but Sears will close nearly 200 stores this year.

Eddie Lampert, the chairman of Sears holdings, will give up his title as CEO. He says the bankruptcy process will allow Sears to become profitable.

But many retailers have gone out of business after filing for bankruptcy. Think Toys R Us, Radio Shack, and Sports Authority -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Amazing, Christine. Times are changing.

ROMANS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much.

OK, so "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" taking on the bizarre meeting between President Trump and Kanye West.

Here are you "Late Night Laughs."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS REDD, CAST MEMBER, NBC "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": Why would you build a trap door where you could end up with the Unabomber?

ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR, PORTRAYING PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, NBC "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": Ooh, this guy might be cuckoo. And I've been in the room with Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong Un and they made a lot more sense than him.

REDD: And then, in Chicago, some people call it (INAUDIBLE) but the murder rate is going down 20 percent every year. And pretty soon it's going to be a negative murder rate. We're going to be digging bodies out of the ground.

BALDWIN: Well, I'll just let him talk (ph). He doesn't stop. He doesn't listen to anyone but himself. Who does he remind me of?

REDD: And I don't want to brag, bro -- I don't want to brag but I have -- really have a high I.Q. I'm a stable genius. I've got a big brain and I got the best words.

BALDWIN: Oh my God, he's black me. It's like I've been visited by the ghost of Christmas black. Quick, look at Jim Brown instead.

KENAN THOMPSON, CAST MEMBER, PORTRAYING JIM BROWN, NBC "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": Oh my lord, what have I gotten myself into? I played football with a leather helmet and my brain is still working better than his.

SETH MEYERS, GUEST HOST, NBC "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": So, Trump met Kanye in the Oval Office. Really? Don't you have better things to do? And by the way, when I say that I'm really not sure which of you I'm talking to.

COLIN JOST, CAST MEMBER, NBC "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": Kanye wants to be Trump's famous friend because Obama called Kanye a jackass. And if the President of the United States called you a jackass you'd go -- you know who I like? The next president.

So in a way, Obama is to blame for all this, the same way Seth is to blame for making fun of Trump so much that he decided to become president.

MEYERS: Wait, really?

JOST: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Seth is to blame.

BERMAN: Mostly. That is mostly true.

CAMEROTA: I mean, that -- I think that that -- history will prove that it wasn't at that correspondent's dinner.

BERMAN: All right.

We are following a lot of breaking news, including someone who wants to be the next president. Elizabeth Warren making a huge move overnight. So let's get to it.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Monday, October 15th, 8:00 in the east.

A lot of breaking news this morning starting with Sen. Elizabeth Warren. She is going public with the results of a DNA test to prove her Native American ancestry. She also released a video just today raising even more questions about her intentions to seek the Democratic nomination in 2020.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Now, the president likes to call my mom a liar. What do the facts say?

CARLOS BUSTAMANTE, PROFESSOR OF GENETICS, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: The facts suggest that you absolutely have Native American ancestry in your pedigree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right.

Also breaking this morning, a diplomatic source tells CNN that Saudi Arabia has given permission to Turkish authorities to search their consulate in Istanbul today. There is growing international pressure for the Saudis to explain what happened to missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi. President Trump is vowing to severely punish the Saudis if they killed the "Washington Post" columnist.

But, all of this comes on the heels of the president's revealing interview with "60 MINUTES." Overnight, he laid out what is really now a Trump doctrine.

The president acknowledged that the Russian leader Vladimir Putin probably assassinates and poisons his rivals, but the president downplayed it because it doesn't happen on U.S. soil.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESLEY STAHL, CBS NEWS REPORTER, "60 MINUTES": Do you agree that Vladimir Putin is involved in assassinations, in poisonings?

TRUMP: Probably, he is, yes -- probably. I mean, I don't know, probably.

STAHL: Probably?

TRUMP: But I rely on them. It's not in our country.

STAHL: OK, why -- but why not -- they shouldn't do it. This is a terrible thing. Instead --

TRUMP: Of course, they shouldn't do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right.

We have so much to talk about so let's bring in CNN senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward.