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Trump Stokes Fears about Immigration "Crisis" ahead of Election; Trump Uses White House Podium to Hype Fear of Migrants; Trump Demonizes Immigrants from White House Podium; Oprah Appeals to Women Voters in Georgia Gov. Race; Washington Post: Trump has Made 6,420 False or Misleading Claims; "WikiLeaks" Messenger?. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired November 02, 2018 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: -- until the midterm elections. And President Trump is ratcheting up, his anti-immigration rhetoric and using the White House podium to stoke fears and rally Republican voters. At a campaign rally last night, the president suggested the U.S. troops deployed to the Mexican border could shoot any migrant who throws rocks at them. And one - on the facts, I should say, boy, do we have our work cut out for us this morning. President Trump's statements have been filled falsehoods. There's a new tally this morning from the "Washington Post" Fact Checker that says the president is lying more in the final stretch of this election. A whopping 6,420 false and misleading statements since he became president. We only have three hours but we will fact check as many as we can this morning.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So for all the Roosevelt Room rollouts and hype from the White House, there's no bombshell new immigration policy here. This is all just theater, some of it dishonest theater, some of it racist theater and some of it both. The president himself contradicted his own claims where he once told us there were middle easterners among the migrants overnight. He says we have no idea who they are. So we're keeping score on that dishonest racist theater. The president even told us some of why he is staging this theater at the last minute of the campaign, because the bombs that were sent to Trump critics and the murder of 11 Jews in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, they're a campaign problem for Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We did have two maniacs stop the momentum that was incredible because for seven days nobody talked about the elections. It stopped the tremendous momentum.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That's just stunning. The terrorizing a political opponents, a mass murder, it slowed momentum.

Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Abby Phillip live at the White House. Abby. ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. President Trump has made the fact that he's going to use fears about immigration as a central campaign tactic in these final days before the midterms. But now he's even using the White House and the backdrop of the federal government in order to push mistruths and distort reality about what's happening at the border.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIP (voice-over): President Trump ratcheting up the incendiary anti-immigrant rhetoric that has become the centerpiece of his midterm pitch. Seeking to rally white voters by stoking racial and cultural fears.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If you don't want America to be overrun by masses of illegal aliens and giant caravans you better vote Republican.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: President Trump criticizing the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, guaranteeing birthright citizenship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This crazy, lunatic policy that we can end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: And again, suggesting without evidence, the Democrats are funding the groups of migrants heading to the border.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Somebody was involved. That's it. Not on our side of the ledger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Democrats and a few Republicans condemning the administration's manufactured crisis at the border.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: The words of our leaders matter.

This is not politics as usual. This is about hate.

JOHN KASICH (R), GOVERNOR, OHIO: What is happening is wrong. It's repelling people.

I think that this kind of heated rhetoric is not going to win elections.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIP: Earlier today the president using the backdrop of the White House to deliver a speech that was riddled with falsehoods about immigrants.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Some people call it an invasion. It's like an invasion. They violently overrun the Mexican border.

You saw that three days ago, really hurting the military.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Mexican government officials tell CNN's Leyla Santiago that two police officers were struck by rocks during a recent confrontation at the border, but the officers injuries were not serious or life threatening, still the president going so far to suggest that migrants can be shot if they throw rocks at one of the up to 15,000 active duty troops he is sending to the southern border.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If they throw rocks like they did at the Mexico military police. I say consider it a rifle because there's not much difference when you get hit in the face with a rock.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Retired Army General Mark Hertling noting that shooting someone throwing a rock is a violation of the rules of engagement, a message echoed by former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK HAGEL, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: That's a wanton incitement of unnecessary violence. It's a distraction. It's a distortion. It is a rank political purpose to use our military like this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: President Trump also vowing to erect massive tent cities to hold migrants and promising an executive order next week to prevent anyone caught crossing the border illegally from claiming asylum.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't want them in our country and women don't want them in our country, women want security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Democrats rejecting the president's fear mongering and bringing in their power players to help drive turnout and tight races.

[06:05:05] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OPRAH WINFREY, CAMPAIGNING FOR STACEY ABRAMS: For anybody here who has an ancestor who did not have the right to vote and you are choosing not to vote, wherever you are in this state, in this country, you are dishonoring your family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIP (on camera): And the midterm marched goes on today. It's really heating up in these final moments. President Obama hitting the campaign trail in Florida for the Democratic candidate in that gubernatorial race, and President Trump is making two stops, one to West Virginia and to Indiana. John and Alisyn?

BERMAN: All right, Abby, stick around. I want to bring in CNN political analysts David Gregory and John Avlon. The fear that he is trying to stoke, the president, is undeniable, the lies he is telling now, undeniable, "The Washington Post" says up six fold per day during the election season. We will talk about them. We'll fact check them. We'll talk about immigration, but before we do I just want to set the stage for how the president is explaining why he's doing this, days before the election. It's because the political momentum was slowed down by the sending of bombs to people who are critics of the president and the murder of 11 Jews in Pittsburgh. So I want to play the sound one more time, David, just to frame this discussion. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We did have two maniacs stop the momentum that was incredible because for seven days nobody talked about the elections. It stopped the tremendous momentum.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The murder of 11 Jews stopped the political momentum, David. So before we talk about immigration, yes or no, borders or not borders, I just want people to listen to that.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. I mean -- it's just hard to believe you can be surprised by anything, and I am not. I think we have to be over the surprise. I mean, this is a president with no filter, who says exactly what is on his mind. The previous clip that was shown about, you know, women want security especially when he is talking about the caravan of immigrants seeking asylum.

It's so clear the president is rattled for one thing. There was some momentum that was built-up after the Kavanaugh hearings and he felt that there was momentum that he also feels dissipated and that's why he's had to really have such a narrow pitch on immigration as an immigration hard liner to try and shore up Senate seats, to try to shore up those voters who would be influenced by a message like this. And you look at a state like Missouri where there's a tough Senate race, and Claire McCaskill, the Democrat, is quoted as saying that she appreciates what the president is doing to try to keep people from overrunning the border, and she supports it. That's how much pressure he's putting on some of these races. It's a narrow pitch. It's certainly not going to work with a lot of the suburban districts in the House where Republicans are losing so much ground, but it shows I think the level of how much he is rattled at this point.

CAMEROTA: John, I wonder if the family members of the 11 people murdered are most upset about breaking the president's momentum.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: You know I am going to go with no on that. This is stunning because for any other president this would be a statement that would be hung around their head because it really gives away the ghost at how callous and how cruel some politicians can be, viewing the deadliest act of any symmetric murder in American history. And the targeting of the president's critics with pipe bombs as a political inconvenience, as a momentum breaker. That is a breathtaking degree as cynicism. And yet, we sort of -- there's a danger of taking it in stride with this president. The "Washington Post" new report out today, 1,100 lies and mistruths in October alone, an average of 30 a day, that's a land speed record of lying, people. There's no one you know in your life that lies that much, and yet this is from the bully pulpit of the presidency. That's disfiguring to our national debate.

BERMAN: Let me read what the "Washington Post" says about that. In the first nine months of the presidency, the president lied an average of five times per day but in the seven weeks leading up to the midterms it's an average of 30 lies a day.

CAMEROTA: Well, here's Exhibit A. So, Abby, they put out what they call a Department of Homeland Security fact sheet about the migrants who are probably roughly a thousand miles away and coming to the border. They say it's just hard to know what is true in here, OK. So, one of the things they say is over 270 individuals along the caravan route have criminal histories including known gang membership. But Abby, they give no source for how they know this. That's an awfully specific number but they don't say where they have come up with this, who is telling them this, and the reason that they've lost the authority, I think, for us to believe them is because Kirsten Nielsen, the head of Homeland Security, said something like this on June 17th.

[06:10:04] "We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period." That's what she tweeted out on June 17th. So, you know, millions of people in their own lying eyes were told that they were wrong, so when they put out the so-called fact sheet it doesn't ring necessarily true to people.

PHILLIP: That's absolutely right. When there are so many lies happening all at once, it's impossible to tell the truth from the lies. That's the biggest problem with this whole environment that we are in right now is that there should be some level of trust in the federal government and what it says, when the federal government provides data or information to the public, they ought to be able to say, well, this is probably true. That's not necessarily the case anymore. I mean even in the case you just mentioned, the DHS saying repeatedly there's no policy of separating children from their families. Well the Office of the Inspector General said that that was not true, that those statements were not true, did not reflect what was happening in the department.

It's a long-term problem for this administration you know beyond immigration, beyond this border issue, but in the immediate present, I think what we're seeing is the whole federal government and there's been a lot written about this recently, the whole federal government moving to validate things that the president says whether they are true or not. That is an extraordinary thing to see, especially given how political it is. I think when we heard President Trump say well the women want safety, women want safety at the border, that was President Trump talking about in very political terms from the White House about something that ought to be a matter of nonpartisan, you know, information, but it is really all about politics. The entire federal government is engaged in this effort to bolster his political statements from the White House. And I think that is also risking an erosion of trust in the government that we have that ought to be able to function without people assuming that everything coming out of it has an R or a D next to it.

GREGORY: But let's also look - I mean the president is trying to narrow the focus of conversation for this, you know, final push in the midterms just to immigration. That is going to have -- that is an action and it's going to have a reaction among his most ardent supporters. It may have the reaction he wants but there's a bigger reaction to that, members of his own party and certainly, opponents of his were calling this out for what it is. And journalist calling it out for what it is, which among other things it's complete failed policy. I mean this is a Republican who's led a Republican Congress who has not been able to solve the immigration problem, and so this is what you get is empty rhetoric.

There's a lot more going on. As important an issue as immigration is to Republican voters, almost 40 percent, so it's significant. There's health care that is certainly a big issue in a lot of these races, particularly in these House races. There's a fact that the stock market which the president likes to brag about has been so volatile. He's taking on his fed chief. So there's a lot here that again I think is rattling the president that has him realizing the only impact he can have is perhaps on Senate races which were important because so much else appears to be lost for him in his party.

BERMAN: I actually had a Republican strategist tell me yesterday that if he were running the Democrats campaigns, he put the stock numbers up. The wild swings, graph up over the last two weeks because that's what is causing some fear in some of the suburban districts.

I just want to pick up on one thing David said there and how there had been Republicans aghast at what the president has done here. John Kasich aghast yesterday at that racist and turns out lying video that was sent around by the president. Chuck Hagel who was a Republican senator from the state of Nebraska was shocked and appalled by what the president said. And by the way, Defense Secretary shocked and appalled by what the president said the U.S. troops -

CAMEROTA: Jeff Flake said sickening.

BERMAN: Yes, sickening but Hagel was talking about the idea that U.S. troops would shoot migrants coming over the border throwing stones, and we've had Michael Hayden, we've had Mark Hertling, generals saying, oh my God, you are asking U.S. troops to do that?

AVLON: And look, that is a moral horror at what the president is saying. And remember, the questions he has historically been primarily in place of moral leadership. There's also a political problem that the president may be backing into which some Republicans have pointed out. By not campaigning on his objective strengths on the economy, on jobs, by doubling down on fear and anger to rally the base, he puts a lot of suburban districts in real risk where that kind of talk doesn't benefit Republicans.

Now, the Democrats shouldn't be too sanguine about this. You know the far left of their party is not where America is on immigration. That said, the president rescoring a real backlash by doubling down not just on the lies and the nationalist and the divisive rhetoric, but on these extreme positions on immigration and language that has made even Republicans senators and secretary of defenses say that's way too far Mr. President.

[06:15:05] BERMAN: Abby, could I ask you one last question on the subject because the White House knows and Republican strategist knows this will be the reaction. They know. They will get called out for the lies. They know they will get called out for the racism. But to me, they've made a bet that it doesn't matter. They don't care. Maybe in some cases they want it. They are inviting this debate.

PHILLIP: Yes. I think the point here is to have the conversations, to have the argument and to really have the fight. That's the one thing I think the White House, the president aides, and the president himself thinks that his supporters want the most from him, they want fight. They don't want boring rallies. They don't want him talking about policy. They don't want him talking about the economy. They want him fighting with his adversaries, fighting with Democrats, fighting against what he's calling an invasion. That's not a mistake. That's the Trump allure in this moment and immigration happens to be the most potent way for him to stoke that but the idea here is that he has got to be a fighter in these last few days. And I think that's why the Kavanaugh debate was so great for Republicans, because it showed Trump to be that. It showed the entire party to be a fighter. So it's not about policy and it's not about lies. There's not enough time for any of that really I think to sink in.

CAMEROTA: Honestly, do they only turn the leaf blower on when Abby is speaking.

GREGORY: I'm setting my watch to it right now.

PHILLIP: He's right in front of me.

AVLON: We are going to get you a leaf blower for Christmas.

GREGORY: Abby, it has been that way for 20, 25 years. I mean every time this morning.

PHILLIP: The White House grounds the cleanest place I have ever been. CAMEROTA: It must be.

AVLON: Never better.

CAMEROTA: I really hope so.

BERMAN: There are a lot of trees at the White House. Not that many. Not that many.

CAMEROTA: Abby, David, John, thank you very much.

Now to this, Roger Stone is admitting he spoke to the Trump campaign about "WikiLeaks" before the e-mails were released from Hillary Clinton's campaign that were hacked. What does all of that mean for the Russia investigation?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:21:03] CAMEROTA: OK. Now to more on the Russia investigation, Roger Stone, he of course a political operative with ties to President Trump, is revealing that talked to the Trump campaign and in 2016 about "WikiLeaks" before the release of e-mails from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman that were hacked and stolen. Stone published an e- mail exchange with Steve Bannon, then, the chief executive of the Trump campaign as Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigates whether Stone had inside tracks with "WikiLeaks" and whether he shared any of that information with then-candidate Trump or Trump's team. This goes to the heart of collusion.

David Gregory and John Avlon are still with us. Also joining us this morning is CNN legal analyst Carrie Cordero, she is former counsel to the U.S. assistant general, great to have all of you. Let's just start first with the tweets that Roger Stone deleted because they -- it appears he knew something or is a really good guesser. So, here we go.

On October 2nd before the e-mails, the hacked e-mails are released, Roger Stone tweets, Wednesday, "Hillary Clinton is done." On October 3rd he tweets, "I have total confidence that "WikiLeaks" and my hero," Julian Assange, "will educate the American people soon." He has a hash tag about Hillary Clinton. Next, two days later, "Liberals thinking Assange will stand down are wishful thinking. Payload coming." He says. The next day, he says "Julian Assange will deliver a devastating expose on Hillary at a time of his choosing. I stand by my prediction."

John Avlon, he should play the lottery because he is a good predictor or he was being braggadocious somehow that knew something.

AVLON: Braggadocious --

CAMEROTA: Or he - put than in your - or he was in cahoots with them somehow.

AVLON: I'm going to go with the cahoots. But obviously, the details are still to come out. He also says in another tweet that John Podesta's time in the barrel is coming, and it's not when John Podesta is really in the upper Asha-lounge (ph) of people's conversations. Look, the problem is that Roger Stone is a - I want to say Flim-Flam man because you just said braggadocious. But he is dirty trickster proudly so. So he could incredibly say, look, I was just playing my role. But this all does really indicate a degree of communication with Assange.

And remember, "WikiLeaks" communications with the Trump campaign were not insignificant, we know that. We also know that Russia has been very involved with "WikiLeaks." And so this becomes a real problem for the presidential campaign. The e-mails they released do not have a smoking gun, but it indicates in private e-mails that Stone thought he had information and was eager to share it with Steve Bannon.

BERMAN: Again, to be clear, what is new here is this direct communication between Roger Stone and Steve Bannon, communication which Roger Stone denied, vehemently denied. Like Tuesday, Carrie, Tuesday, he told the "Washington Post" there are no such communications and if Bannon says there are, he would be dissembling. So as a journalist, you know, Carl Bernstein tells us to follow the lies. There's one big giant fat lie there. Legally speaking, what's Roger Stone on the hook for here, Carrie?

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well the special counsel's theory of the entire case is conspiracy to defraud the United States and they have shown that by the indictments against the Russian intelligence officers who were trying to defraud the United States out of a fair election. So that's the big umbrella. There's a whole other, you know, subset of things whether or not Roger Stone had some kind of advance knowledge or facilitated any of the hacking that seems a little bit less likely, but if he would fall under the broad conspiracy of the efforts to defraud the United States that would be a charge in of itself.

What's interesting is this is now the connection to the campaign and there's no way that the Trump campaign can somehow disavow Steve Bannon. He was an integral part of the campaign. But I would also note, this particular communications seem to be being released by Stone himself.

[06:25:00] And so, these are probably the communications that perhaps put him in the most favorable light. It's most likely that the investigators have a whole lot of other communications that Roger Stone does not want to become public but that also exist and those might tend to reveal one way or the other whether he really had advanced knowledge or he was just popping up.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: So, David, before I let you answer. Let me just read for everybody - thank you Carrie.

Let me just read for everybody what these new e-mails are. OK? So the new e-mails that have come to light after Roger Stone said he never had any sort of exchange with the Trump campaign here are a couple.

On October 4th, OK, Steve Bannon writes to Roger Stone. What was that? "What was that this morning?"

And apparently "WikiLeaks" was going to have some sort of reveal that I guess was -- did not come to fruition. And then Roger Stone responds to Steve Bannon.

"Fear. Serious security concern. He thinks they are going to kill him," meaning Julian Assange, "and the London police are standing down.

However -a load every week going forward."

He means of the e-mails, the hacked e-mails and that's from Roger Stone. So, these are, again, that suggests Roger Stone knew something and was communicating with Steve Bannon about it.

GREGORY: But that he is releasing this communication, as Carrie suggests because what he argues is that this was from public sourced information. This was just based on what Julian Assange was bragging about. So you know, so often the case when we talk about the investigation by the special prosecutor. Imagine a football field that he's operating on and we're down like inside the one your line trying to analyze the - what the grass looks like down there because we don't know what we don't know and what else he has.

I see this cutting both ways. This gets to a central question, was there illegal coordination with Assange and "WikiLeaks" especially because the president was talking about it and encouraging these kinds of leaks and this kind of hacking, or is this the work of a guy known as a dirty trickster and essentially, you say, well, is this all they have in terms of coordination? I think it can play both ways.

AVLON: Well, to quote the president twice. First, we'll see. And second of all, Russia, if you are listening -- look, the president had some familiarity going on national television back in July saying Russia, maybe you can help with this. We know that "WikiLeaks" is communicating with people on the Trump campaign as well as the - as Roger Stone. And so the fact pattern is bad and we will get all the information as it comes out, but this does not look good for the Trump campaign or Roger Stone.

BERMAN: And just a reminder, Robert Mueller is on a lot of stuff right now that we're not seeing -

AVLON: That's right.

BERMAN: And after this election is over on Tuesday, we might start seeing.

AVLON: We might, very well.

BERMAN: All right. Thank you all very much. Last victim of the synagogue massacre will be laid to rest today. We have a live report from Pittsburgh, next.

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