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Trump's Closing Argument: False Promises & Divisive Rhetoric; More Funerals Today for Victims of Synagogue Attack; Officials Shun Timing of Trump's Solemn Pittsburgh Visit. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired October 31, 2018 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A person comes in, has a baby and the baby is essentially a citizen.

[05:59:12] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a complete stunt. The 14th Amendment is clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to acknowledge there's a problem at our southern border.

JOE BIDEN (D), FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's our leaders. We need to dial down the temperature. America is so much better than this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were no Republican leaders who wanted to come with this toxic president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's there to express the condolences of the nation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The focus should be on the lives that they lived and the indelible marks that they left.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, October 31, 6 a.m. here in New York.

Happy Halloween, everyone, I'm Dana Bash.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jake Tapper.

CAMEROTA: I love your costume.

BERMAN: Yes, your costume's great.

CAMEROTA: It's uncanny.

BERMAN: How'd we do? There we are. CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. You look so much like Jake Tapper. How did you impersonate him so much?

BERMAN: Well, I thought I would have an ironic look as much as I can. If I feel like everything is filled with irony. And also, I put some gray in my hair, not quite enough, because Jake is substantially more gray, substantially more gray than I am.

CAMEROTA: OK.

BERMAN: I couldn't quite nail that.

CAMEROTA: Luckily, Jake is sleeping off a hangover, as usual at this hour, so he's not hearing this.

BERMAN: But ironically.

CAMEROTA: Totally.

When Dana Bash us on TV, I sometimes freak out, because I think I'm live on TV when I'm watching it. That's how similar I find Dana and me. It's just me.

BERMAN: And then you think about how insightful she is. It's only because she's so insightful. Like, wait a second. Did I just say that?

CAMEROTA: Did I just say something that brilliant?

Anyway, I think -- are you going to do this around your neighborhood?

BERMAN: Totally. Totally.

CAMEROTA: Me, too.

All right. Let's get to the news, shall we? President Trump begins an ambitious campaign blitz today, traveling to eight states in the final stretch to election day that is now just six days away.

The president heads to Florida tonight, where he hopes he can stave off a loss in a state that he travels to a lot, and closing argument to voters seems to be still filled with some divisive rhetoric. In the last week, the president has touted a non-existent tax cut for the middle class. He's ordered thousands of troops to the U.S. border to stop what he calls an invasion of asylum-seeking migrants. And he has falsely claimed the U.S. -- that he can defy the U.S. Constitution to end birthright citizenship.

BERMAN: So what's new isn't the fear here. It's that it has apparently reached or exceeded its limits even within the Republican Party. House Speaker Paul Ryan says the president has it wrong. George Conway, a conservative lawyer married to the president's counselor Kellyanne Conway, says he has it wrong. The editorial board of "The Wall Street Journal," owned by Rupert Murdoch, not for nothing, is flat-out trolling the president, saying, quote, "It puts Mr. Trump on the wrong side of immigration law and politics. Did Michael Cohen give him his legal advice?"

So there's something going on here. This as the president and first lady visited Pittsburgh to pay tribute to the 11 Jews murdered in a synagogue. They lay candles, they placed stones on memorials. They met the wife of the victim, and they visited a hospital to see some of the wounded, including first responders. While some, including the rabbi of the Tree of Life Synagogue, welcomed the president, others did oppose it. No government officials greeted him. There were protests criticizing the president's divisive language.

We have a lot to cover this morning. Let's begin with CNN's Abby Phillip, live for us at the White House -- Abby.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

We are in the home stretch before the midterm elections, and President Trump is heading out on the campaign trail once again this afternoon, heading to a state that he considers, basically, a second home for him. He's going to be campaigning for Ron DeSantis, a key supporter of his, in that gubernatorial race against Andrew Gillum.

Now President Trump has, in recent days, really fixated on this race, calling Andrew Gillum a thief, a moniker that a lot of people have said has racist undertones. Andrew Gillum is African-American, running for that -- governor in that state.

But this is all part of what we have been seeing over the last few days, the White House and the president ramping up the attacks in these last few days, ramping up concern about immigration and fears about migrants coming up from Central America to the southern border.

The president has already said they're preparing to send 5,000 troops to the border, and he's also raised this idea of ending birthright citizenship.

But of course, not everybody in his party, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, is onboard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN (via phone): Well, you obviously cannot do that. You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order. We didn't like it when Obama tried changing immigration laws via executive action, and obviously, as conservatives, you know, believe in the Constitution. You know, as a conservative, I'm a believer in following the plain text of the Constitution, and I think in this case, the 14th Amendment is pretty clear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: So a clear test of whether or not this was a political trial balloon will be whether or not President Trump raises it at his campaign rally tonight.

But he's also going to be out on the trail so much the next few days. Just take a look at this map. He's crisscrossing the country campaigning for candidates for Senate, for governor. Places like Missouri, West Virginia, Indiana, more Florida again, Georgia, Tennessee, Indiana and more again.

So John and Alisyn, there's going to be plenty of opportunities to hear President Trump. But this message of fear, immigration, it's not going away. This is the closing argument for President Trump, John and Alisyn.

BERMAN: All right. Abby Phillip for us at the White House.

Joining us now, senior political analyst John Avlon; Chris Cillizza, author of CNN's "The Point"; and White House reporter for "The Washington Post," Seung Min Kim, a CNN political analyst, we are lucky and proud to say.

Cillizza, I want to start with you here, because truly, what's interesting to me is that President Trump's rhetoric, and we talked about what he's been trying to do with the fear of the attacks on the media and scaremongering on immigration. It has hit a red wall, a red Republican wall, where Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, are saying, "No, huh-uh." And I think that's significant.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, AUTHOR, CNN'S "THE POINT": It may be significant in the long-term relationship of sort of what we consider establishment leaders with Donald Trump, but two things.

One, Paul Ryan is going to be gone from Congress in a month, so that's No. 1. A little more bravery as he walks out the door than he sometimes showed while he was still in that job.

No. 2, it doesn't really -- what Trump was trying to do, I think, John, is motivate his base, which is to say, "Look, you need to be afraid. These people are marauding. They're coming to this country. I'm going to end it, but if you go do something like vote against Republicans then this nightmare scenario could be yours.

I don't know that Paul Ryan saying, "No, we can't do this," or George Conway, who has been a frequent critic, fascinatingly, of the president saying it impacts that push in any meaningful way.

I think what people will hear, as Abby reported, a lot of times from Donald Trump next week, is fear, is the other is coming. This is going to change your way of life. It's going to disrupt your values. And the only way to stop that from happening is to elect people like me. It worked in 2016. Can it work again? I don't know.

But I'll tell you. There were lots of Republicans jumping off the Trump bandwagon in 2016, and it didn't seem to affect voters.

CAMEROTA: So Seung Min, these two pillars that the president has fastened upon, which is the media and calling the media names and going after the media again, and migrants, you know, call me naive, but these -- these sound sort of niche to me. Because I just yesterday interviewed another voter panel. I'll be bringing it to everybody later this week. They did not mention those.

BERMAN: It's a good tease.

CAMEROTA: Yes, and those were not issues that they brought up as to why they're voting this year or what drives them to the polls. They were much more interested. And again, these cover the political spectrum, these voters, health care and, actually, the opioid crisis is what they brought up.

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "WASHINGTON POST": That's exactly right. The Democrats' closing argument and, actually, their opening argument in this midterm cycle has been health care, health care and health care.

And I found it interesting, to that point, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, who could be the speaker if Democrats win back the House, look at her statement on her reaction to the president's wanting to end birthright citizenship.

She basically said that was flat-out wrong and pivoted immediately to health care, because that's what Democrats want to be talking about. They see this as the issue that excites their base the most and that could -- and that could hand them the majority.

And, you know, Chris was talking about the Republicans who were resistant earlier -- he was earlier talking about the Republicans who were resistant to this idea.

I mean, look at the Republicans who are in trouble in these suburban, more diverse House swing districts. I mean, you look at the comments from Carlos Curbelo in southern Florida; Mike Kaufman in a suburban Denver district, who are -- who have vehemently criticized the president over this proposal.

And again, while this may excite the president's base, this is going to be maybe a line that we're going to be hearing a lot at his 11 rallies over the next several days. I mean, this -- these comments are a problem for these vulnerable Republicans, who are critical for Republicans to maintain their majority.

BERMAN: And John Avlon, I get to ask you this, because you're the last remaining independent fetishist in the world --

AVLON: Wow, that's so harsh.

BERMAN: No, I mean that admiringly. I mean it admiringly.

Glenn Bulger, who is a Republican strategist and a pollster, you know, who has won plenty of elections and lost plenty of elections, he wrote this yesterday. "It's clear in most places, Republicans have solved our September enthusiasm problem. What's not clear is whether we've solved our problem with independent voters. And that will be the difference between winning and losing in close races."

And he's talking about this. He's talking about what he has seen from the president the last few days. And you can tell he's not sure that this is the closing message that will help Republicans with independents. AVLON: It won't. It's not designed to. This is a play to the base

message. This is what the president is all about, and because he narrowly got across the finish line, defying all expectations in '16 by playing to the base. He thinks he can do it again.

Look, independent voters, remember, are a plurality of Americans. Forty-four percent identifies as independent.

BERMAN: This is why I called you a fetishist. You had it, you know, on the tip of your tongue.

AVLON: See, I took a different implication. But I appreciate that. I'm married to a Republican, for what it's worth.

But -- but you know, this message is not intended to appeal to swing voters. As Swung Win just pointed out, this is not a message that resonates among suburban voters, who may be on the fence between the two parties.

In fact it's the opposite, because it's that harsh hyper-partisan fear and anger base tone that alienates them. They'd rather be talking, as Ally said, about the issues, about health care, about bread and butter issues. The president is not doing that. The president is not even trying to do that, which is why you've got Republicans all of a sudden saying, "Hey, there is such a thing as too extreme." Enough.

[06:10:05] CAMEROTA: So Chris Cillizza, you disagree with John Berman that it's a red wall that's the --

BERMAN: He agrees with me. he just doesn't know he agrees with me.

CAMEROTA: It sounds like to me he thinks it's a red --

CILLIZZA: He's a Red Sox fan, so I try to disagree with him most of the time.

CAMEROTA: Understood. But I think they're winning. Won is what I meant.

Anyway, here's George Conway, OK? Let's just read it to everybody, because he felt so compelled that he wrote an op-ed written about the president floating this idea of ending birthright citizenship. And I do think it is interesting that Kellyanne Conway is the president's chief counselor. I mean, I just think that -- that you can't get around that.

George Conway has an investment in what goes on in the White House. Here it is. "Birthright citizenship sprang from the ashes of the worst Supreme Court decision in U.S. history, Dred Scott v. Sanford, the 1857 decision that says that slaves and the children of slaves could not be citizens of the United States. The blood of hundreds of thousands of Americans was shed to repudiate that idea."

That's how strongly he feels about the president floating this idea.

CILLIZZA: Yes, I mean, look, I continue to think -- we talk about it, but I continue to think one of the most underplayed story lines in this White House, is the fact that the -- one of the chief advocates of the president of the United States and one of his chief Republican critics are married to one another.

I mean, in and of itself, fascinating story. Look, I think George Conway is speaking for a lot of Republicans, not just -- not just Republican strategists who, Seung Min is right, but this is a ploy that will not play well in a lot of the districts in California, in Minnesota, in Florida, that they need to win to have a chance of holding the House.

But Republicans who view sort of the use of executive power as potentially problematic as it relates to the separation of powers, that's what Paul Ryan talked about on the radio, which is, "Look, we didn't like it when Obama used executive power on immigration. We're going to be consistent and not like it when Donald Trump did."

My only thing that I'll say is, if past is prologue, there's a fair amount of, "Oh, this is bad. I wish -- I wish he wasn't doing this," and then they -- they kind of capitulate.

Now, I don't think Donald Trump's going to go forward with this. I think this is a political ploy. But it's not as though, in the past, Republicans have stood up to him and stayed standing up to him.

BERMAN: I want to bring up one last thing while we can, still, on the subject. I do think it's related. Which is that Steve Stivers, who's in charge of the National Republican Campaign Committee, basically cut off Steve King, congressman from Iowa who has -- how shall I say this delicately -- flirted with? Full-on hooked up with white nationalists around the world. I mean, this is someone who has dabbled in the language of supremacy over the years, Steve King has. And Steve Stivers --

CAMEROTA: He just tweeted recently.

BERMAN: Recently, yes.

CAMEROTA: Like in the past couple of months.

AVLON: This is -- this is a core part of his political identity.

BERMAN: So Steve Stivers, who's in charge of getting Republicans elected, said yesterday, "Congressman Steve King's recent comments, actions and retweets are completely inappropriate. We must stand up against white supremacy and hate in all forms. I strongly condemn his behavior."

And Seung Min, what I find so fascinating there was that, again, the guy whose job it is to get Republicans elected is drawing a line and saying we as Republicans cannot go this far.

KIM: And that is remarkable. I mean, clearly, they see Steve King, who is -- who has been an outlier in the party, but it is a fact that, in the past oftentimes when he said these things he hasn't gotten the major rebuke that you would expect from leadership of the party, and there are -- there are some internal poll -- or there's some recent poll that his race, which has been very -- with his district, which has been very conservative in the past, that he could actually be in trouble. So it really is notable that Steve Stivers is stepping in here.

AVLON: And let's define Steve King's latest sin in this regard that caused this extraordinary pushback.

He went on a trip and visited with a Nazi-linked Austrian party and said that, if they were in America, they'd be Republicans. This is not on message. And Republicans said that's too much.

He has had a record of comments like this. He and the president have been very tied at the hip, and he often is more naked than the president about some of these appeals. But this was too far, because it really just gave away the ghost.

BERMAN: Can I ask Chris one more question?

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BERMAN: Because you accused him of disagreeing with me?

CAMEROTA: I said he thought it was a speed bump, and you thought it was a wall.

BERMAN: I just -- just Chris, very quickly --

CILLIZZA: Yes, John.

BERMAN: -- which party do you think feels more comfortable today with how they're positioned heading into next Tuesday?

CILLIZZA: Oh, I mean, I think Democrats overwhelmingly, and they should. I still continue to think that you're seeing a split electorate. I think you will see, because of where the Senate races are, Republicans have marginal gains in there.

But I think the Democratic ceiling in the House, if you look at all those suburban districts that were narrowly for Trump or for Clinton, I mean, I think the ceiling is way higher than a lot of us are talking about. Not that they'll get there, but this message is not designed to keep the House in Republican hands.

[06:15:05] BERMAN: That's all I was saying.

CAMEROTA: OK. And all I'm asking, Chris, is do you think that John looks more like Jake Tapper or I look more like Dana Bash? Because that's what we're going as.

BERMAN: Let's give them the look. I'm giving him the look.

CILLIZZA: Jake has sort of more of a classically handsome look with higher cheek bones.

CAMEROTA: He knows where his bread is buttered. CILLIZZA: Correct.

CAMEROTA: They work in the same bureau.

BERMAN: No, he was -- he was scheduled to be on the next segment, Chris.

CILLIZZA: I'm going as George Clooney. So --

CAMEROTA: You're right, uncanny.

CILLIZZA: I know. You're not the first person to say that.

BERMAN: All right, guys. Stick around for a moment. A lot more to discuss.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much.

OK. Now to our other top story. People in Pittsburgh divided over Trump's visit but united, of course, in their grief as they pay respects to the 11 Jews who were murdered at the Tree of Life Synagogue. Three more victims will be laid to rest today.

CNN's Jean Casarez is live in Pittsburgh for us this morning with more. Hi, Jean.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

And the funerals to begin at 10 a.m. this morning. You know, these were unique individuals that had a passion for this community; and this community adored them.

Joyce Fienberg, 75 years old, she was a former researcher at the University of Pittsburgh. She was a mother, a grandmother. Her husband actually passed away several years ago. And what they say about Mrs. Fienberg is that she would light up a room when she would come in, and everyone would just know her, that she was there.

Next, Melvin Wax, 87 years old. He was a former accountant, so he did your taxes of many in this community. He was a father. He was a brother. The three most important things to him: his grandchildren, his Judaism and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

And last but not least, and this funeral begins at 1 p.m., Irving Younger, 69 years old. He is a former businessman, real estate agent. He was a former youth coach for basketball. He most recently was a greeter at a local restaurant.

So you can just see how important all of these people were. Now, yesterday there were also funerals. Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, also Cecil and David Rosenthal. The streets were lined for those brothers during their visitation, and during the funeral, there were members of the Pittsburgh Steelers that actually came to the funeral, because the sister of the brothers used to work for them.

And the day didn't end before the Pittsburgh Penguins had a salute, a standing ovation, to two of the officers that were injured but had been released from the hospital already. They were in attendance, and this community stood up for them -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Jean Casarez for us in Pittsburgh. Jean, thanks so much.

And Alisyn, I know you've had a chance to speak to some of the people who knew those who were lost, and I was listening to some of those conversations this morning, and it's crushing.

CAMEROTA: The funeral for those brothers sat 1,400. The temple filled 1,400, and it was standing room only.

BERMAN: I should say inspiring and crushing at the same time. Because they sound like incredible, incredible people, and that everyone there was lucky to know them. I just wish they were still here.

CAMEROTA: You'll hear more about them coming up.

BERMAN: All right. President Trump, he did visit Pittsburgh. There was a great deal of division over this visit. We're going to talk about what he did, the tone it set and what he does next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:22:18] CAMEROTA: The president and his family visited Pittsburgh to pay their respects to the 11 Jews who were murdered inside their synagogue. They visited the Tree of Life, and they laid stones on Jewish stars and lit candles for the victims.

They met with the widow of one of the victims as well as first responders who are still recovering in the hospital, but critics questioned the timing of President Trump's visit because the first funerals were just getting under way. Protesters demonstrated, calling out the president's divisive language.

We're back with Chris Cillizza, John Avlon and Seung Min Kim.

So Seung Min, let's talk about the reporting from this and whether or not this ended up being a good message for the president and for the community. Because the optics of it were fine. I mean, the president was with Rabbi Myers, who we've come to know on this program; and they did all sorts of respectful things. They had, obviously, a very somber expression. There wasn't any sound, really.

But then you could see that there were many demonstrators who were calling for the president to talk about unity and not division. So what's the upshot?

KIM: So in terms of the optics, you're exactly right. The president and his wife, Melania, went and quietly paid their respects to the victims, met with one of the widows -- with one of the victims and did what they could to pay tribute in the best way that they know how. But it is -- you can't deny how this kind of tore open these political divisions over the president in this town in the city that is still very much grieving.

Our reporters on the ground told us at essentially the same time that the president had touched down in Pittsburgh and was headed over to the synagogue, about 2,000 people had gathered in protest, just not long -- not far from the location where -- where some of the funerals had happened earlier in the day. And we talked to a lot of people there who were just really upset. The feelings were raw. It was too soon after the attack.

Pittsburgh's own mayor said to the president, you know, "Please don't come until at least after we've buried all the victims from this." And one of the members -- one of the local officials we talked to, Congressman Mike Doyle, who actually represents the Squirrel Hill neighborhood where the synagogue is located, first of all, he was not contacted by the White House, which I think is notable. But he told us that he -- you know, many members of his community, his constituents feel that this was not the time for, quote, "a political photo shoot."

BERMAN: There were no elected officials there, Republicans or Democrats, despite some invites that went out, which is very unusual.

Seung Min, just very quickly, you were with the president on Saturday when this happened, the morning, or the day after it happened, the attack happened. He was -- you know how he was trying to calibrate, the difficulty he had calibrating his tone and his message all day.

[06:25:09] KIM: Yes, it was actually -- yes, I was traveling with the president, I mean, as -- soon after the shootings had occurred and through had stops in Indiana and Illinois throughout the day, he wanted to get his message out. He -- he took this tone of -- that these were horrible acts, that he was horrified by them, that anti- Semitism is despicable.

But it was sometimes jarring just, you know, standing several feet from him and traveling with him, to go from that message and then go, you know, and to watch him pivot to this campaign tone that we've seen so much from him and that we'll see from him for the next several days.

We -- he told us, traveling on Air Force One, that at one point earlier in the day, that he was considering canceling the political rally that he had planned for in Illinois. But it wasn't long after he made that declaration that he announced to a crowd in Indiana -- he was speaking to a Future Farmers of America convention -- that "Look, I'm not going to cancel. We're going to go ahead with the schedule that we had planned, because if we had canceled everything, that allows the terror to win out." And that was his message. It did seem to resonate with the supporters who had -- who had gathered -- who had gathered to see him that day. But it was jarring at times to see him go from this very, you know, solemn Trump to, you know, campaign Trump. CAMEROTA: Yes. I mean, jarring is obviously one good word, and

hypocritical is another good word; because it's not just going to the events. It's the words that he speaks at the event, John, and whether or not those are unifying or divisive.

AVLON: Right. Well, the president has made the perfunctory unifying remarks, but he reverts to the mean, himself at rallies and on Twitter. That's the authentic president.

And one of the reasons they chose, you know, yesterday to do this visit, and I think it -- it was a sincere and solemn visit and it was -- you know, he walked with his Jewish daughter and son-in-law. That speaks to a connection in the community that is sincere and personal, is that rallies begin today, and they'd want to avoid those optics again, because he's going to double down on the message he's chosen, which is not being a uniter. He is a divider. That is his brand. That is his approach to politics.

It is not fitting the role of comforter in chief. It is smaller than in many of the times we're seeing. And Democrats will respond with "Bridges, not walls."

But this is -- you know, this rally he's going to be on, this is going to be back to the greatest hits arena rock tour, and he's appropriately ending, by the way, in Cape Girardeau, Rush Limbaugh's hometown.

BERMAN: He did take a day off. I mean, yesterday he was not on Twitter --

AVLON: That's right.

BERMAN: -- attack, after the early morning, pretty much anybody. And he did do this, and this was not a political -- overtly political visit, Chris. But I guess the question is, you know, is that "Brigadoon"? Is that one day and then we won't see it again for 100 years?

CILLIZZA: I actually think, look, the -- first of all, to answer your question directly, yes. John is right. You are who you are, and we know who Donald Trump is; and he's not the uniter in chief. He is not empathetic in any meaningful way.

That said, any -- this is a difficult moment in terms of the balancing the political -- the role of empathizer in chief and sort of -- you're the head of your party, because we are so close to an election.

So most presidents would go, at some point, to Pittsburgh. The -- but with the election this close, Donald Trump wants to get out there on the campaign trail. So you have these at loggerheads; it's difficult to figure that out.

But it makes it much more difficult because of who he is, and John touched on this. He's just not that guy. You -- when he's giving a talk, you know, making remarks in the immediate aftermath of Pittsburgh, you can see him reading from the teleprompter, he generally says the right things.

The problem is that that's not it. There's Twitter. There's comments he makes to reporters off-hand. There's the campaign rallies. And there is that jarring nature there. But remember, the campaign rally Trump is Trump. The last two years, three years have proven that out beyond a shadow of a doubt.

BERMAN: Chris Cillizza, Seung Min Kim and John Avlon, thank you all very much. Great to have you all here this morning.

If you want to help the families of the victims, go to CNN.com/impact.

CAMEROTA: Notorious mob boss Whitey Bulger has been killed in his prison cell. What investigators say happened there, next.

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