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Trump Advised to Brace for Losses; Polls Show Democratic Advantage; Accusations of Voter Hacking. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired November 05, 2018 - 13:00   ET

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

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[13:00:09] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Thanks very much for joining us.

We're now just, what, 17 hours from the first polls opening in midterm Election Day. In the past, midterms have brought profound change to the makeup of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and to the states. Tomorrow, we could see it happen potentially again.

Up for grabs, the governorship in 36 states, 35 Senate seats and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives. That's where we could see the biggest upheaval with Democrats hoping to swing the House to their side for the first time in some eight years.

Here's a closer look at the tight races in the Senate right now. All of these potentially could flip either from Democrat to Republican or Republican to Democrat, changing the landscape of the U.S. Senate.

Our White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins is joining us from Cleveland right now, that's where we'll be seeing President Trump fairly soon.

Kaitlan, the president has, what, three stops on this schedule today. How critical are these campaign events?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, to the president, he thinks that these rallies have helped energize the base ahead of the midterm elections, Wolf, and he's been sending one message and one message only at these rallies, and that's one that's really light on the economy. Something that Republicans wish he would talk about more at these rallies and really heavy on immigration, focusing on that caravan, Wolf, and demonizing it in a way, even though it is still hundreds of miles away from the border. But that's a message that he thinks works and he's been telling that to adviser who have encouraged him, Wolf, to focus on the economy in these last few days. But he has said, no, he thinks immigration is going to be the winning message.

Now, Wolf, the president had a phone call with supporters earlier today urging them to get out and vote, saying that he is going to need them to mobilize tomorrow because if the Democrats do win significantly, the president said that his accomplishments are fragile and they could undo them. So he encouraged them to get out and he said that he doesn't see this as a referendum on him, but he believes the media is going to portray it that way tomorrow regardless of what happens, and that is why he wanted them to get out.

Now, Wolf, he's starting here in Cleveland, going to take the stage behind me here soon. But then he is going on to Indiana and Missouri. And in Missouri he's going to be joined by those two conservative firebrands. Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh will also be on stage with the president tonight, we are told by sources inside the Trump campaign.

So, Wolf, essentially what this is, is President Trump's chance to make his closing argument to voters before they go to the polls tomorrow.

BLITZER: Kaitlan, thank you very much.

Kaitlan Collins in Cleveland for us, these final hours before the election.

A new CNN poll shows Democrats have the edge over Republicans in the generic congressional ballot.

Our senior political analyst, Mark Preston, is joining us right now.

So, Mark, what exactly does the polling reveal?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, a couple of things, Wolf.

First of all, you know, every election, every midterm election, is a referendum on the president in office. So as much as Donald Trump would like it not to be, it is in fact.

But if you look at our numbers right here, it shows that Democrats have a 13-point advantage right now heading into tomorrow on the generic ballot. What's that being fueled by? Well, they have a 27 point advantage with women. They have 88 percent of African-Americans are supporting the Democratic candidate. Sixty-six percent of Hispanics. So that gives you an idea of kind of where this enthusiasm's coming from.

But moving on to show you the divide here in America about what's the most important issue, look at this right here. It is more than a 30- point divide here between Democrats and Republicans on the issue of health care. Democrats think it's one of the most important issues, or the most important issue in this election. Republicans, not so much.

But go right down here, look at immigration, something we've seen President Trump spend a lot of time talking about the last week or so. Certainly the last couple years of his presidency. There's a 20-point gap right there, 64 percent of Republicans think that.

But moving on, as we're talking about whether it's a referendum on President Trump or whether it's not, look at what his approval rating is in the new CNN poll. It's 39 percent. It's a little bit higher in the CNN poll of polls. That's an average of multiple polls that have been released recently.

But the bottom line is, is that this is something that is not going to be helpful to House Republicans, specifically the likes of Barbara Comstock here in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. But this, though, does not necessarily translate into what we're seeing in the United States Senate, and that's where we see Donald Trump today.

But the bottom line is, Wolf, when we look at history, heading into tomorrow, this is the lowest number we've ever seen in a presidential approval rating heading into a midterms election dating back to Eisenhower. So if you're Donald Trump and you're Republicans, you kind of wish you were doing a little bit better than you are right now.

Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, the president, I'm sure, doesn't like these kinds of polls. In fact, he's already talking about fake suppression polls, that he's calling them, to underscore his disappointment or his irritation with these numbers.

All right, Mark, thank you very much.

[13:05:00] Let's bring in S.E. Cupp, CNN political commentator, the host of CNN's "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered." Also with us April Ryan, CNN political analyst, the White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, and Dana Bash, our chief political correspondent.

Dana, another number in this new poll, 63 percent say they're voting to send a message to President Trump. Some in support, but many of them in opposition compared to the past two presidents. People are really motivated now by what they're seeing from the president of the United States.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, for and against.

I was just talking to a Republican source who's been very much involved in getting House Republicans elected, who was noting that there have been wild swings in the overall question of whether a Republican or a Democrat should be elected to the House, the co-called generic ballot, over the past months that have been directly related to things happening with the president. And it just is a really interesting indicator and illustration of how much of an effect he has.

Which is why he is going out to so many of these key Senate races because not only is -- does he have, he believes and Republicans on a national level in these key states believe, a positive effect on getting Republicans out to the polls in states like where he's going today, like Missouri, even Ohio, and in other places like North Dakota, West Virginia, where he tends to be more popular than the Republican candidate. That is really the key.

On the flip side, of course, is the House, where Republicans I talked to today are more and more pessimistic about the number of seats that they will lose to Democrats. Again, largely because of the president and his message.

BLITZER: Yes. We'll see what happens in the House. We'll see what happens in the Senate.

April, "Politico" is quoting a House Republican aide who says the president's unending rhetoric on immigration over these past few weeks has really hurt a lot of Republican candidates out there. He's -- they -- this aid says that has hijacked the election for the Republicans. What do you think?

APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, Wolf, this president is leading the conversation. He has actually since he's been here in office, as president of the United States. You know, and his immigration policy, yes, we understand that immigration -- the immigration policies here in the United States are broken. We understand that. But he keeps focusing in on Mexico, the southern border. He keeps focusing in on this expensive wall.

And there are several things that people understand about immigration in the nation. It's not just about the southern border wall. There are people here who have overstayed their visas from other countries as well. People also see the hatefulness about race. People are understanding -- we've had leaders, to include the NAACP, to include Michael Steele, the former head of the RNC, who have said that this is basically about controlling the browning of America. And we are now a nation that's seeing babies born -- the numbers of babies born in this nation are now minority. They are the majority. So it is hate speech that we thought we left behind during George Wallace in the '50s and '60s.

BLITZER: What are you thinking?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Trump is not wrong that immigration is a more powerful motivator in this midterm election. A midterm is about drawing contrasts. I get while he's not out just touting the good economy. That's not going to pour people out to the polls the way immigration will.

And the polling backs that up. We've just put up, immigration is a more important issue to Republicans. And Immigration policy actually favors Republicans. Sanctuary cities are deeply unpopular in this country among lots of different voting groups.

It's the way he's doing it. He doesn't need to be out there talking about -- calling himself a nationalist. That turns off a reliably Republican voting bloc in the past. Suburban women who are well- educated. And the question, the question of this election tomorrow will be, will the nativist nationalist rhetoric come at the expense of a really important voting bloc that will leave this Republican Party for the near maybe long-term future.

BASH: You mean suburban women?

CUPP: Yes. Me. Me.

BLITZER: You're a suburban woman? CUPP: And voters like me.

BLITZER: You're a suburban woman?

CUPP: I am a white, educated, suburban woman who leans Republican. And that is a message that I think a lot of voters like me are not into.

BLITZER: What do you think about the fact that tonight at the political rally in Missouri, the conservative radio host, Rush Limbaugh, the Fox News commentator, Sean Hannity, they'll be there with the president.

CUPP: Yes.

To me, this doesn't strike any differently than Democrats campaigning with Hollywood celebrities. Those are the celebrities of the conservative movement, the Republican Party, you know --

RYAN: Yes, the people giving the president his talking points.

[13:10:00] CUPP: In addition -- in addition, they are -- they are guiding the president's --

RYAN: Yes.

CUPP: The -- you know, the president's message.

RYAN: Media personalities.

CUPP: For sure.

RYAN: They're not. They are not journalists.

BASH: I don't mean to state the obvious, but they don't (INAUDIBLE).

CUPP: They are not journalists. But -- but I don't think they're out there in that capacity.

BLITZER: They're very influential and the president listens to them.

BASH: Incredibly influential. Incredibly influential.

CUPP: Yes.

BASH: But it -- I think, more than anything, it's a reminder of the echo of the -- of the --

RYAN: Yes.

BASH: You know, the symbiotic relationship is when Fox says something, the president acts. And when the president says something, Fox acts.

RYAN: Yes.

BASH: And it's the echo.

CUPP: Yes.

RYAN: But, you know, I -- and in all of this conversation, to me, it looks like -- and over the last two years, two years or so, with this president, to me it looks like it's the president that is on the ballot box. It's the fact that how far he's gone and what he can get away with. That's what's on the ballot box to me. It's about Donald Trump more so. And if people like you don't like the fact that he's talking against women, how he talks about migrants, how he does what he does, and health care, it's how far he has gotten with this. That's what they don't like.

CUPP: Right.

And that's why tomorrow will be so important. And exit polling in particular. Why did people vote the way they did, whether Democrats win the House or not. We're going to have a lot of lessons to learn about the strategy that both Democrats and Republicans have employed over the past two years coming into these elections and then pitching forward to 2020.

RYAN: This Donald Trump experiment will be on the table tomorrow.

BLITZER: Before we learn the lessons, let's see what happens.

BASH: Yes, let's.

BLITZER: Everybody stand by.

On this the eve of voting day, a major allegation in lobbed in Georgia. One of the hottest governor races in the country with no evidence behind it.

Plus, racism and anti-Semitism run amok. Details on a racist robo call that have targeted multiple states with African-American candidates.

And where is the first lady of the United States? As the president crisscrosses the country to push voters to the polls, Melania Trump stays off the grid.

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[13:16:18] BLITZER: One of the hottest races for governor is playing out right now in Georgia. The Republican candidate, Brian Kemp, has ignited a political firestorm after accusing state Democrats of attempted election hacking without providing any evidence. His Democratic rival, Stacey Abrams, is calling his investigation, and I'm quoting her now, a witch hunt.

Our correspondent, Kaylee Hartung, is joining us from Atlanta right now.

Kaylee, Brian Kemp is not only the Republican candidate for governor, he's also Georgia's secretary of state and he oversees the elections. So walk us through how all of this unfolded.

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, Wolf, we've just learned that this investigation has moved beyond the secretary of state's office. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation just announcing that they will be heading up a criminal investigation into these matters of this attempted hacking of the voter registration system here in Georgia.

Now, this entire controversy started brewing yesterday when the secretary of state's office made this announcement that they would specifically be investigating Georgia's Democratic Party for their role in what the office called a failed attempt to hack that system. And yet when the office first made this announcement, they didn't give us any evidence to show that a hack had happened or that there was even an attempted hack.

We have sense come to learn that there was a chain of e-mails that sparked this investigation and this entire discussion. E-mails that the secretary of state's office came to have that initially looked like correspondence between two Democratic Party operatives, two women working with the Voter Protection Hotline, which is run through the state's Democratic Party.

Well, the Democrats very quickly said that any claims that they were a part of any attempted hack were absolutely scurrilous. They said any of these claims were 100 percent false. And they then went on to say that the Democratic Party officials were simply passing on information that they had received from a concerned citizen. This man, Richard Wright, who you see at the top of this flow chart, he was on Georgia's My Voter page looking into his own voter registration status when he came upon what he perceived to be potential vulnerabilities within the system. He handed the information that he had over to a lawyer and also to that Voter Protection Hotline. Both of those entities funneled it up to the secretary of state's office.

Now, Stacey Abrams responded to the news of all of this this morning on "NEW DAY."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STACEY ABRAMS (D), GEORGIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: I think it's wrong to call it an investigation. It's a witch hunt that was created by someone who is abusing his power. Let's not lose the fact that Brian Kemp knew on Friday that this was a problem and because he failed to act, on Sunday, before he could get caught, he decided to cast blame on Democrats because that's an easy ploy to involve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARTUNG: The core question we have to remind ourselves to go back to, are there vulnerabilities within Georgia's voter registration system and how could this affect Tuesday's election? Well, Brian Kemp, in his capacity as secretary of state, says the system is secure. But very different rhetoric coming from his campaign as opposed to his office of secretary of state. The campaign saying this was an act of desperation by the Democrats to try to expose these vulnerabilities.

BLITZER: Kaylee Hartung in Atlanta for us, thanks very much.

Let's discuss this and more. The former president and CEO of the NAACP, currently a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, Cornell Brooks is joining us, and CNN legal analyst Carrie Cordero.

Carrie, let's talk a little bit about this accusation. It's awkward that you have the secretary of state of the state of Georgia, who's also the Republican gubernatorial candidate, dealing with this. There seems to be a conflict right there.

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: There sure is. I mean he should have recused himself because election security is such an important issue right now and we know from the investigations over the last couple of years that there are real problems with state and local administration of elections and there's been a lot of work done in some states to improve that. And the federal government's been working with them. But electoral confidence in the electoral systems requires both the systems be secure and that people have confidence in it. And by him being involved in both being a candidate and being the person who's supposed to be overseeing the security of the election systems, there's an inherent conflict.

[13:20:28] BLITZER: Yes, and a lot of people think he should have recused himself, including the former president of the United States, Georgia resident, Jimmy Carter, thought he should as well.

And you're shaking your head. You agree.

CORNELL BROOKS, FORMER PRESIDENT AND CEO, NAACP: Absolutely. President -- former President Jimmy Carter called on the secretary of state to actually resign because of his involvement in voter suppression. So when we think about the fact that he held essentially 53,000 voter registrations --

BLITZER: This was a separate case.

BROOKS: Separate case. That's right.

BLITZER: Yes.

BROOKS: That's a fact, as opposed to these unsubstantiated claims with respect to election hacking on the eve of this midterm election.

BLITZER: Because there's an exact -- an exact law, a match law as it's called, in Gorgias that if you name isn't exactly the same on various forms of identification, you have to postpone -- you can't necessarily go ahead and vote. Your vote is up in the air. Fifty-three thousand voter applications who were questioned along those lines and a majority were African-American.

BROOKS: That's -- that's precisely it. Courts have basically stopped Brian Kemp from engaging in voter suppression no less than six times. He's engaged in this practice over and over and over again. This is analogous to walking into a bank and seeing a bank robbery in process. One does not elevate the bank robber to becoming president of the bank. Voters in Georgia are faced with that choice in terms of Brian Kemp, rewarding him for voter suppression.

BLITZER: Here's the question, in Georgia, in order to be elected governor, you need to get 50 percent plus one vote. If you don't, there's a run-off. In both of the candidates, for example, get 49, 48, neither gets 50 percent plus one, there's a run-off. And then they have to wait about a month until the election. During that period, would he have to either resign as secretary of state since he's in charge of that run-off election, recuse himself? How does that work?

CORDERO: Well, he really should -- he could do either one and either one would help bring confidence to whether there is going to be a challenge. And even tomorrow he could recuse himself from this particular matter today. Nothing's preventing him from doing that. And we have to be really careful about throwing around the word and he needs to be careful about throwing around allegations of election hacking.

If we're talking about actual intrusions into electoral systems or voter registration systems, attribution, that is who actually is responsible is a complicated technical issue. And so it's -- there's a lot of -- I have a lot of skepticism about the fact that if they just learned of some allegation within the last 24 hours, how in the world would they be launching an investigation into a particular entity today?

BLITZER: Cornell, while I have you on, I want to get your reaction. The other night the president was out on the campaign trail and he mentioned his predecessor, who's also out on the campaign trail. And this is the way he expressed his thought. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's no surprise that Joe Donnelly is holding a rally this weekend with Barack H. Obama. Barack Obama.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: What did you think when you saw that? We know what the "h" stands for, Hussein.

BROOKS: The president is engaged in nothing less than Islamaphobic race baiting. He knows that President Barack Obama is -- I should say Barack Hussein Obama. He is tapping into this apprehension about Muslims. He's tapping into Islamic fears, Islamaphobic fears, in the same way that he invokes the caravan. It's xenophobic. It's the (INAUDIBLE) of Americans. And that he's doing this on the eve of the election demonstrates to what degree he is willing to do anything, anything, including suppressing the votes, stirring fears and the kind of fears, the kind of fears that led to 11 people being assassinated in a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Let's be clear about this, this is about stoking the kinds of fears, apprehensions, race baiting that causes people to die. And that is unconscionable.

BLITZER: Hold on a second. He's speaking now, the president, at Joint Base Andrews. I want to listen.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Every one of them is packed. And there is a great electricity in the air. I don't know if you report it that way, but there's a great electricity in the air, like we haven't seen, in my opinion, since the '16 election. So something's happening. We'll see. But I think we're going to do very well and you're going to have three very exciting stops. We'll be doing three major speeches in front of big crowds. Very big crowds.

[12:25:13] Jennifer (ph), go ahead.

QUESTION: Can you tell us about your meeting with (INAUDIBLE)? What are you expecting from that meeting?

TRUMP: Well, we haven't set anything up yet. We don't know that that's going to be the right place. I'm going to be in Paris for other reasons. But we will be meeting at the G-20 and probably we'll have meetings after that. Probably plenty of meetings. Getting along with Russia, China, and all of them would be a good thing. I've said it for a long time. So we'll have plenty of meetings. But I'm not sure that we'll have a meeting in Paris. Probably not.

QUESTION: Mr. President, several of the networks (INAUDIBLE) immigration ad that you (INAUDIBLE) racist. Do you have a response to that?

TRUMP: I don't know about it. I mean you're telling me something I don't know about. We have a lot of ads and they certainly are effective based on the numbers that we're seeing.

QUESTION: Well, Mr. President, a lot of people have said that ad was offensive. (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Well, a lot of things are offensive.

BLITZER: All right, so we're going to continue to monitor what the president of the United States is saying, but he did make a little news there. He says he's not going to be -- probably not going to meet with Vladimir Putin in Paris. He's supposed to be there around November 11th. There was originally a lot of talk that they would have some sort of side meeting in Paris, but the president said they will have a meeting at the G-2 summit that's coming up at the end of the month in Buenos Aires and then he says there will be more meetings presumably here in Washington. I think he's invited President Putin to come to Washington at some point as well.

But he's going out on a three-stop campaign tour right now. Heading off from Joint Base Andrews. He says there's great electricity in the air.

And, Cornell, I interrupted you. We were talking a little bit about what's going on. I know you're deeply concerned about these racist robo calls that are going around right now. Somebody impersonating Oprah Winfrey containing a lot of racist, anti-Semitic rhetoric out there.

I don't know if these racist kind of robo calls have an impact or don't have an impact, but they are clearly disgusting. BROOKS: These rob calls are in the vein of voter intimidation. They

may not reach that many people, but they send a signal that you're not welcome at the ballot box.

But let's be clear about this, these racist rob calls provide the sound track, if you will, for voter suppression. And so where we have a rob call, where we have someone impersonating Oprah Winfrey, speaking about Stacey Abrams as a negres (ph), a slave term for a black woman, suggesting that Jews are, in fact, control black people, this is very dangerous rhetoric, both with respect to voter suppression and with respect to the moral atmosphere, if you will, in the country.

So in the wake of the living tree -- I should Tree of Life Synagogue massacre, all that's happening in the country, the rise in hate crimes, I would call on Americans to focus on not nearly -- I should say voter suppression, but voter determination. That is to say millions of people turning out to vote despite what's going on, voting for a better America. That's what we need to focus on.

BLITZER: Lots of problems right now. We're staying on top of it. Guys, thank you very much for coming in.

BROOKS: Thank you.

BLITZER: With less than 24 hours to go, are Democrats underestimating the president's power of rallying voters. I'll ask my next guest, the Democratic senator in a very closely watched state.

Plus, the president's call to arms taken literally. Gun-toting civilians are heeding President Trump's warning over the caravan and, guess what, they're heading to the border.

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