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Clinton, Trump Debate Tomorrow Night; Amy Schumer Fans Walk Out of Show over Trump Comments; Many Trump Voters Concerned over Supreme Court. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired October 18, 2016 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[14:33:46] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We are one day away from the final presidential debate in Las Vegas. I'm talking 90 minutes, commercial-free discussion -- is one word you could use -- on why Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump think they deserve your vote to become president of the United States. Swirling here, this new controversy surrounding Clinton's e-mails and accusations against Donald Trump.
So Todd Graham, back with us, debate director at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He has coached five national championship teams.
So, Todd, the question pre-debate, when they say hellos and do the walkout, will they shake hands?
TODD GRAHAM, DEBATE DIRECTOR, SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY, CARBONDALE: My running bet is no. My running bet is they'll do it like they did the last debate. They'll keep their distance and shake hands at the end. End of the debate is the more traditional, at least for the debates I coach so not at the beginning but, yes, at the end.
BALDWIN: Is it so wrong that all I do "SNL" and they walked out and did this and that? That was hysterical.
GRAHAM: It was a good bit.
BALDWIN: It was a good bit. What about -- it's different, we're away from the town hall, back to the podiums and split screen, perhaps more of the back and forth. How do you think Donald Trump will be you want him to be, what, less fighter and more substantive?
GRAHAM: I do. I want him to fix what ails him and right now he has too much hyperbole and falsehoods in debates so when everything is the greatest disaster in the history of free trade or the biggest Trojan horse of all time, combine that with the falsehoods once he gets fact checked --
(CROSSTALK))
[14:35:23] BALDWIN: Who's doing the fact checking? Because Chris Wallace --
GRAHAM: Everyone.
BALDWIN: We've heard Chris Wallace will not be fact checking --
GRAHAM: Oh, yeah, yeah.
This is online afterwards. This is a problem with the debates is right afterwards when people are asked, "who do you think won the debate," they often times say a candidate won, but later if you ask them, they would change their mind because they found out some of the things the candidate said were false. So I don't think Chris Wallace will be checking. But two hours later when sites come up and you see fact checks, people might want to change their minds. It's one of the problems with your convincing at the time but once we find out it's a lie we don't trust you anymore.
BALDWIN: Chris Wallace is the final moderator. Do you think -- he's a FOX News host, they had a back and forth that made news when she talked to him after her convention on e-mails. How do you think he will approach her?
GRAHAM: I think he'll be fine with Hillary Clinton. I think he'll try to do his best to be a journalist and be fair for both. My tip to him, if you don't want to them beforehand, in other words remember when he had slides in the one debate when he put up slides of Ted Cruz saying something or Donald Trump saying something? If you show those before the question, you don't need to fact check so you can show a slide of Hillary Clinton saying something then you can say, Secretary Clinton, since you've said that, what's your position now? You can do the same thing with Donald Trump. Donald Trump is very good at saying "I never said that, I don't believe that." But it looks bad to fact check him afterwards, perhaps Chris Wallace is thinking. But if you simply put up his quotation before the question or put up the slide before the question then it puts anymore the corner where he has to defend the words or say yes I said that but I've changed my mind.
BALDWIN: Finally in this era of debates, we're not only watching who's on the stage but who's in the audience. We're hearing the Hillary Clinton camp is bringing in Meg Whitman, a Republican who said "I'm with her." And Mark Cuban is being brought back. Is this an attempt at psych out?
GRAHAM: Yeah it is an attempt at psych out but I don't think it will have much effect.
BALDWIN: You don't?
GRAHAM: No, there's been no real improvements in the debating from either one. I don't think the audience that's there in front of them is making any difference at all. They have their set ways of debating, Donald Trump has terrible non-verbal communication during the debate and I don't think the audience -- it would be different if, for example Trump was a smooth smoothie and he's performing great, and you brought those, or Hillary Clinton was doing great, and then suddenly someone in the audience startled her. But, no, these are two pros at talking to cameras. I don't think there will be any difference about the audience. BALDWIN: A smooth smoothie.
Todd Graham --
Smooth smoothie.
BALDWIN: -- thank you. Thanks for the laugh.
GRAHAM: You are welcome.
BALDWIN: We need laughter. Thank you.
Next, Amy Schumer. Full discloser, I'm a fan of hers. But it's what she said about Donald Trump on stage in this mega arena that had nearly 200 people get up and walk out of her show in Florida. We'll talk with someone who was there. His take on what happened. And also comedian, Judy Gold, she knows Amy. She can join me live on what's up with comedy next.
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[14:43:14] BALDWIN: All right, we're back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
I can't wait to talk to you.
I'm sorry.
JUDY GOLD, PRODUCER, WRITER & ACTRESS: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Comedy and politics colliding. About 200 Amy Schumer fans up and out of her arena show down in Tampa a couple days ago here. I want you to watch what exactly excited a Trump supporter by the name of Dave on stage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, it's security for the country is probably the biggest thing. And he's going protect us.
(CHEERING)
AMY SCHUMER, COMEDIAN: With all of his experience with ceasefires?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not voting for Trump. I'm voting against Clinton.
SCHUMER: OK, you can go sit down.
(CHEERING)
SCHUMER: Thank you. Appreciate that.
That was just cool to hear what one guy, who doesn't seem like a psychopath --
(LAUGHTER)
-- might want to vote for that orange --
(LAUGHTER)
-- sexually assaulting fake college starting monster.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Ouch! She didn't stop there. Amy Schumer told folks in the audience "If you don't like it, leave."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHUMER: So everybody point to the people booing.
(LAUGHTER)
Just point -- OK so good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So "Vanity Fair" followed up with her. She released a statement and in part said this, quote, "I want to thank the 8,400 people who stayed. We have always depended on comedians to make us laugh and tell the truth. I am proud to continue that tradition."
So let's bring in Jay Cridlin, pop music and culture critic for the "Tampa Bay Times," who was there; and Judy Gold, producer, writer, actress. You can hear her on her podcast "Kill Me Now."
Great to have both of you on.
Full disclosure, I just read Amy Schumer's book like in a day. I think she's hysterical.
GOLD: She is.
BALDWIN: That said, Jay, you were there, you were at the show, you saw the bit with Dave. Tell me more about what happened.
[14:45:20] JAY CRIDLIN, POP MUSIC & CULTURE CRITIC, TAMPA BAY TIMES: Well for the first half of the show it was about like you would expect. There was a lot of talk about sex, her body, her self-image, celebrity. The comedy she is more traditionally known for. Last couple years, she's gotten more issue-oriented but then she segued from sex and relationship to politics using Donald Trump in the past week and a half of accusations as a segue and then the mood changed a bit. It wasn't necessarily rehearsed material. Wasn't it wasn't entirely fully baked. I know I wrote "tense" in my notebook in all caps and it got uncomfortable in the arena.
BALDWIN: Listen, I'm not Amy Schumer and I don't know what was rehearsed and what wasn't. But when you see 200 people, Jay, getting up and leaving, what are they saying? What's the issue?
CRIDLIN: Well, when she started -- when she brought up Donald Trump, you could hear amidst all the 8,400 people cheering, a lot of boos. It was a divisive reaction. Tampa has a conservative side. It's a military town and a lot of people might have been there who didn't necessarily know or love Amy Schumer for her issue-oriented comedy and maybe they came to see a comedy show. At the beginning of the show Amy said, "There's a lot going on out in the world, I hope we can come together and have a good show." Maybe they weren't expecting to get a piece that was -- that doesn't feel like comedy. It just felt like she was stump speech ago little bit. Nothing wrong with that. If you go to a comedy show, part of the bargain is you should listen to what the comedian has to say but people didn't want to stick around until she veered back to more traditional bits. They wanted to get up and get out.
BALDWIN: Judy, full disclosure, you're buddies with Amy. I know it's great fodder, whether it's making fun of Hillary or Donald. But the issue with Amy Schumer, folks said, "I to a comedy show, I want escapism, I don't want to hear about politics. There she went." If you were on the stage, what would you have done?
GOLD: First of all, I want to say, I just watched the bit and it was hilarious. She brought someone up, asked him a question, and it was funny. She gave that person --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: So Trump supporters would obviously say it wasn't funny.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: First of all, is there a line in comedy?
GOLD: There's a line of not taking yourself too seriously and Trump is not funny. He's not funny. He's dangerous, he says the most horrible things about so many different kinds of people and he has no sense of humor about himself. You see him on "Saturday Night Live," the biggest honor is to be made fun of on "Saturday Night Live." That means you made it. When someone decides to write a stretch about you on "Saturday Night Live," you've arrived and yet he can not laugh at himself. He does not see the humor. My mother used to say if I wasn't laughing I'd be crying and the things that come out of his mouth. You know Amy and every other comic is -- we are social commentators. This is the zeitgeist right now. This Donald Trump/Hillary Clinton and the constant sound bytes that we hear from him are -- that is what every -- I go to a restaurant and that's all people are talking about. You cannot ignore it. If you watch the tape and I know -- because I know someone who was there -- there were about two dozen people who left. There weren't 200 so there you have over 8,000 people laughing. I see comics who say anti-gay things or -- you know, misogynist things. Sometimes they're funny and I can laugh at it and know it's a joke.
BALDWIN: I guess my question would be, Jay, pivoting back to you, since you were there, if you are an Amy Schumer fan and if you it's clear there she is on how she supports Hillary Clinton and it's funny I'm going to Donald Trump saying "We're all to politically correct." And maybe he's right.
Jay, do you think that's snare it's to Judy's point, why are people taking themselves so seriously? How would you take that on?
[14:49:49] CRIDLIN: Well, you know, to be fair after the Donald Trump bit in her act, Amy kind of launched back into more self- deprecating material. She segued out of the no-so-planned interaction with the audience member into a story about performing at Hillary Clinton's birthday party and there -- a lot of the punch line was I don't belong here, I should not be doing this and there was more of that for the rest of the set I don't think she takes herself too seriously she just wanted to take five minutes to talk about something serious. She said this is too important a time, I want to let you know where I stand and some people didn't have it but I think if they'd stuck around they would have seen she definitely does have a self-deprecating side and they should know that if they bought the ticket going in and she wasn't afraid to use that part of her comedy later on. She did that very well.
BALDWIN: Well, Amy, if you're watching, call me. We could do an interview.
Judy Gold, Jay Cridlin, thank you so much.
GOLD: Thanks, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Coming up, did you watch the president at the White House, telling Trump to stop whining? Just moments from now, we'll watch Donald Trump take the stage. Will he respond to the president?
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[14:54:18] BALDWIN: For so many voters, the upcoming presidential election is all about the Supreme Court justice. This is a huge deal because three of the current justices are all over the age of 75. And court appointments are the prime reason given by conservatives for supporting Donald Trump. And Donald Trump is saying he will undo what President Obama achieved over the last eight years.
Let's talk with this with CNN legal analyst, Supreme Court biographer, Joan Biskupic.
Nice to have you on.
JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN LEGAL ANALYST & SUPREME COURT BIOGRAPHER: Hi, Brooke.
BALDWIN: I really wanted to do this segment. As much as we talk about the tickets and they're the ones who nominate, it's also the down ballot races and how the Supreme Court is compromised. Work through three of the most recent Supreme Court cases over Obama's last eight years that could change if the court were to lean conservative. [14:55:] BISKUPIC: Well, what it would take, Brooke, for the court
to lean conservative not just with the seats open with Antonin Scalia but another one. Since you mentioned President Obama, let's take his signature health care plan, the Affordable Care Act. In 2012 and 2015 -- 2014, rather, the court upheld it but this is something that Donald Trump has complained about and that if he were b chance to become president and put new justice on the court it could tip the balance but it would take more than a single justice because Antonin Scalia himself protested both of those rulings so it would take more than one and let's take another case that conservatives lost, same-sex marriage, of last year. Again, Justice Scalia was in dissent, with Anthony Kennedy tipping the balance with liberals, so it would take two justices.
So to get to your point it's not just conservatives who might try to reverse liberal rulings but maybe enshrine cases that went in the conservative direction to broaden them. Example, guns rights of Citizens United. Maybe to strengthen opposition to campaign finance rulings or to broaden individual gun rights in the "Heller" case that Scalia wrote.
BALDWIN: So with those cases that could be broadened over overturned in time, I want you to hammer home for people why it's not just important who's at the top of the ticket, Joan, but down-ballot. These are the folks who could have control.
BISKUPIC: In the Senate.
BALDWIN: Yes. Right.
BISKUPIC: Yes, exactly right. Here it is, Brooke, right now, any kind of nomination that comes from the president for the Supreme Court requires not just a simple majority but 60 votes to stop a filibuster so if -- so the Senate really matters because under the Constitution the Senate has the power to advise and consent and that's what we've seen in march since President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to succeed Justice Antonin Scalia, the Senate has stalled. So whoever controls the Senate starting after January 20th will control who gets on the Supreme Court. It won't just be a nomination by Donald Trump or a nomination by Hillary Clinton. It will be who ends up in the Senate. And to go to your point about the down-ballot there, if the Republicans lose the Senate, it will be easier for Hillary Clinton to get somebody through if she's elected. Or if the Republicans keep the Senate, it could mean more stalling into 2017.
BALDWIN: This is all at play, go vote. I sound like a broken record.
Joan Biskupic, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
BISKUPIC: Thank you, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Than you.
We are getting breaking news here involving the former "People" magazine writer who has come forward and accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her. The magazine now rolling out people supporting her story. What they are saying, what they saw, next.
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