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Trump and Clinton to Face Off in Final Presidential Debate Tonight on CNN. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired October 19, 2016 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: You know what though? Tough, tough being in this game for the spouses. You know?
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Of course.
CUOMO: She didn't ask for this.
CAMEROTA: There you go.
CUOMO: Now she's got it.
CAMEROTA: All right. Time for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello on that note. Hi, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I know I needed to laugh. Thanks for that.
Good morning from Las Vegas. NEWSROOM starts now.
And good morning and thanks for joining me from the campus of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, the site of tonight's final presidential debate. I'm Carol Costello.
All right. Round three. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will trade their punches face-to-face. They'll battle each other and try to sell themselves. Many will tune in to see the blood, right? Trump desperate to rescue his campaign. He may be more unpredictable than ever. Will he continue his scorched earth tactics?
And Clinton is scrambling to contain damage of her own. She has faced a constant barrage of embarrassing e-mails supposedly stolen from the hacked account of her campaign chair.
We're following all the angles this morning. CNN's Manu Raju looks at the increasing volatility heading into the night's showdown. Brian Stelter looks at how this debate is likely to unfold.
But, Manu, let's kick things off with you. Good morning.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Now Donald Trump entering this debate perhaps at the lowest point of his campaign right now. Poll after poll shows him losing in battleground states including one in Arizona today where Clinton is actually up five points.
This of course after the allegations of sexual misconduct, Donald Trump's own battle with his party and his own two rocky debate performances. The question tonight in this hall, can he turn it around?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAJU (voice-over): Ahead of tonight's final debate, Donald Trump throwing a hail Mary. Going after Washington and intensifying his unfounded claim that the election is rigged.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They even want to try and rig the election at the polling booths.
RAJU: Even calling on his supporters to monitor polling places.
TRUMP: People are going to be watching on November 8th.
RAJU: And doubling down on his media conspiracy theories.
TRUMP: There's a voter fraud also with the media because they so poison the minds of people by writing false stories.
RAJU: The GOP nominee pledging to shake up Washington.
TRUMP: It is time to drain the damn swamp.
RAJU: Now promising if elected he will push for term limits for members of Congress, a populous proposal that has yet to succeed.
TRUMP: Decades of political failure and special interest collusion must and will finally come to an end.
RAJU: Trump opting not to respond to President Obama, who ridiculed the billionaire's voter fraud accusations.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You start whining before the game's even over? If whenever things are going badly for you and you lose you start blaming somebody else? Then you don't have what it takes to be in this job.
RAJU: Instead announcing that he's bringing Obama's Kenyan-born half- brother, Malik, a Trump supporter, to tonight's debate.
Trump and Hillary Clinton head into tonight's final debate with looming controversies. Undercover videos released Tuesday produced by discredited conservative activists James O' Keefe suggest it was Democratic operatives working for the Clinton campaign instigating violence at some Trump rallies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, honestly, it is not hard to get some of these assholes to pop off.
RAJU: Both the DNC and the Clinton campaign deny any involvement. And those on the tape deny any of the proposed schemes ever took place.
Meanwhile, Trump is facing accusations from at least nine women who say he made unwanted advances without their consent.
SEN. HARRY REID (D), NEVADA: These are people who are trapped. Put his hands under somebody's skirt in an airplane.
RAJU: Trump rejects those claims but Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid blasting Trump's behavior.
REID: It is kind of a sickness.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RAJU: Now, Carol, we have not seen Hillary Clinton in the last several days as she's hunkered down and engaged in intensive debate prep. The question is how does she change her message at all as she tries to reach out to conservatives, middle-of-the-road voters, to try to flip a lot of those red states blue next month. Also how does she deal with the WikiLeaks revelations of a number of internal e-mails shining not so good light on the Clinton campaign.
We have not heard much from Hillary Clinton on that issue. How will she address that tonight, Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Manu Raju reporting live for us tonight. Thank you so much.
Well, today it's seems like it's the night because it's still dark here in Nevada. There will be six different topics addressed in tonight's debate. A lot of ground to cover in what's sure to be an action packed 90 minutes.
Let's take a closer look at how tonight's debate is laid out. Our CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter is here with me this morning. So take us through it.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: It's going to be a lot like the first debate but somehow with even higher stakes.
[09:05:02] You know, the format is similar. Like you said, 15 minutes per topic area. Lots of time for Clinton and Trump to talk back and forth. Chris Wallace, the FOX News moderator, says he wants to step back, let these two candidates debate. There is a tremendous amount of pressure on Wallace. You know it's the first time a FOX News host has been a moderator for presidential debates.
There are some liberals who are concerned about that. A little nervous. And the Clinton campaign is trying to keep those nerves off to the side believing that Wallace will be fair and tough on both sides.
COSTELLO: OK. There's a few things that will be sort of different as far as how the candidates' families interact with each other at this debate. STELTER: That's right. "The New York Times" reporting overnight that
they will not have that handshake. Remember in the last debate, Bill Clinton and Ivanka Trump came out, they shook hands -- excuse me, Melania Trump shook hands beforehand. This time they'll be avoiding that. The Clinton campaign reportedly does not want to have that family interaction because they're concerned about who the Trump campaign might be bringing to the debate.
And I think they have reason to be concerned about that. We spoke with Steve Bannon overnight, the Trump campaign chair. Brooke Baldwin and I happened to be on the same flight as him so we were able to ask him questions on the way off the plane. He said to us that Obama's half-brother Malik Obama, who's coming in the debate, is just an appetizer. He says they have other surprise guests in store.
COSTELLO: Well, they have the Benghazi mom, right?
STELTER: That's right.
COSTELLO: Mrs. Smith.
STELTER: One of the mothers of one of the Benghazi victims will be there. We also know on the Clinton side Mark Cuban and Meg Whitman will be in the audience. But Bannon said they have other people who will expose Bill and Hillary Clinton's sordid past. We'll find out what that mean I suppose later today.
COSTELLO: OK, so --
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: I just want to talk about this for a little bit more. So this is tradition.
STELTER: Right.
COSTELLO: Like the families of each candidate shake hands before the debate.
STELTER: Right.
COSTELLO: Because you know we're a civil society and we do that thing in America except in this election. So what is Hillary Clinton so afraid of as far as Bill Clinton is concerned in shaking the Trump family's hands?
STELTER: Well, during the town hall debate there was an attempt by the Trump campaign to have Bill Clinton's accusers seated in the family box. The Trump campaign tried to create a scenario where Juanita Broaddrick and the other women would have walked with Bill Clinton and interacted with him before the debate. It would have created a television moment the Clinton campaign would have dreaded.
So they were able to avoid that. The debate commission shut it down last time. The Clinton campaign is concerned about a do-over or a sequel of that this time. And so they don't want to have that interaction before the debate.
COSTELLO: So --
(LAUGHTER)
STELTER: But yes --
COSTELLO: So I would assume that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will not be shaking hands either, either before the debate or after?
STELTER: I would like to see them shake hands at least at the end of the debate. Maybe we can have a moment of unity?
COSTELLO: You're so nice, Brian.
STELTER: We'll see.
COSTELLO: You are. Brian Stelter, I know you will be back. Thanks so much.
STELTER: Thanks.
COSTELLO: All right. Let's talk about all of this. With me now, CNN's Sunlen Serfaty, Dan Lee, he's an assistant professor of political science at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.
Welcome to all of you. Wow. OK. So should we talk a little bit about the handshake?
Sunlen, I'm going to get to you in just a second because I want to pose to you what the candidates need to do tonight. But this, this lack of -- this total lack of civility.
Dan, this is your state. This total lack of civility on that debate stage, does it -- I was going to say, does it shock you. But no it --
DAN LEE, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA-LAS VEGAS: No, it doesn't. It's kind of -- for this year, you had the last debate here in Sin City, Las Vegas, it's kind of fitting. But this has been going on as far as negative since in the last -- end of last summer so it's really not surprising that it wouldn't change, you know, at this late in the game.
COSTELLO: It's just so -- it's so depressing.
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, people are betting on the handshake all over town. You can get odds on whether they will shake hands at the outset, at the end, also you can bet what color ties there going to wear, what kind of suit Hillary Clinton will, you know, have on. On and on and on and on, that's what's different about Las Vegas. Everybody bets an all the other stuff.
COSTELLO: Brian Stelter just helped the bookies because we know that they'll probably not shake hands.
BRINKLEY: Yes, well, he said -- the odds have just changed because of Brian.
COSTELLO: Exactly, exactly. OK, time to get serious.
So, Sunlen, this is the last chance for these candidates to present their case to the American people. This is important stuff. I've talked to so many people who don't want to hear dirt. They just want to hear what these candidates are going to do to make their lives better. Will we see that tonight?
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, Carol, that certainly is a challenge for both of the candidates tonight. You know, this is their last definitive chance, their last big chance in front of such a large, national audience to make the case for each of their candidacies, for each of their potential time in the White House, and it's an important moment because, you know, after tonight the last 19 days starting tomorrow are going to be so essential going forward about momentum.
And also, you know, as you noted many voters think that much of this election has been defined by, you know, the name calling back and forth, and not really a thorough discussion of the issues, what each of these candidates stand for.
[09:10:04] So this is a chance for both of them to really grab reins of the narrative in this perhaps final big national stage and define themselves and their candidacy going forward. And that's going to be really important for the closing stretch for each of them.
COSTELLO: All right. So, Dan, I'll pose this question to you. This is why it's so important that Mr. Trump at least convinces as much of the country that he's fit to be president. Because Ed Rollins, Ed Rollins that chaired a pro-Donald Trump super PAC, on Tuesday he said it would take a miracle for Trump to win, and here's why. A new poll shows Clinton is up five points in Arizona. Five points in Arizona. That's a solidly Republican state.
Texas is too close to call. It's now become a swing state. Somebody just told me that for the first time somebody in Texas saw a campaign ad on television in Texas and it was for Donald Trump. So what does Trump need to do tonight --
LEE: I think people --
COSTELLO: -- to save his candidacy.
LEE: He needs a miracle. Part of the miracle is he needs to change his tactic. Right? So the firebomb throwing, you know, all these insults and focusing on such a negative campaign hasn't really worked to this point. And it's almost like he's speaking to the debate audience a lot like how he speaks to his rallies, to his core supporters. And we've been talking for months how he needs to pivot from his primary core supporters, to a general electorate, and I mean he hasn't done it by this point, so that's part of the miracle. He needs to change something, but --
COSTELLO: But he's -- he's bringing all of these people, these guests to the debate that will --
LEE: Right.
COSTELLO: Try to not --
LEE: But --
COSTELLO: -- knock Clinton off her game.
LEE: That's the thing. So he needs to shake things up. And for him, that's how he's going to shake things up. But the problem is that, it's going to -- he really has no options because that's going to help bring out his core supporters but that's not going to broaden his base. He's kind of cornered himself in, you know, into that corner.
COSTELLO: OK. So Hillary Clinton, she needs I think to do the vision thing, right? She needs to -- to quell the fears of people who are afraid of a Clinton presidency. They want to know what Hillary Clinton is going to do for the country. What is her vision for the country? How does she move the country forward? Will she do that tonight?
BRINKLEY: Well, she needs to. That's the only thing she needs to do. You don't want to get into the reality TV show side of Donald Trump, but you're -- but he has never shown himself to be presidential as we've been saying all year. She has an opportunity to let people imagine what a Hillary Clinton administration would look like. So I think she has to touch on all the key points that any Democrat does about her continued concern about health care. Being tough on the war on terror. Having it being open hearted.
But she also has to show some -- a little bit of humor, and I think she's done that well when he seemed to get off scripted, not to seem rattled at all. That second debate I thought she won it. But she did seem a little bit off her game when Donald Trump was kind of stalking her on the stage, and many comedians have been making jokes of that. I think she just says I'm -- cling in her mind that Hillary Clinton, you take the low road, I'm taking the high road, I'm bringing America there with me and offer her policy prescriptions in a number of ways.
COSTELLO: OK. So back to Sunlen, inside that debate hall there will be an audience and I know the moderator Chris Wallace will urge the audience not to clap or boo or laugh but that proved to be an impossibility so far. So what will things be like tonight audience wise there?
SERFATY: Well, certainly the audience is a dynamic within the room, as you mentioned in past debates we've seen them at times kind of break with the rules laid out by the moderator and have applauded at times for each of their candidates. But, you know, the audience is always an element in the room. You know, you have these guests that are sitting, you know, in essence just feet away from each of the candidates. And both candidates this year really trying to taunt the other side with their invited guests.
Of course, Donald Trump inviting President Obama's half brother who is a Trump supporter and also bringing the mother of a Benghazi victim. Hillary Clinton's campaign bringing Mark Cuban, who's been very outspoken about Donald Trump, and certainly there is some element that that sets the tone going into tonight that they're both trying to in essence get under each other's skin. So we'll see how the audience participates in tonight. Of course the moderators try their best to keep that level down.
COSTELLO: All right. Sunlen, Dan, and Doug, stick around.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM tonight the candidates face each other over a string of controversies. Dogging both their campaigns. How they tackle these issues will be key to winning over that crucial undecided voter.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:19:00] COSTELLO: A new headache for Clinton. Just hours before the final presidential debate, an undercover video purporting to show Democratic operatives, hired by the DNC, talking about how to incite violence among Trump supporters.
it.
CAMEROTA: All right. Time for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello on that note. Hi, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I know I needed to laugh. Thanks for that.
Good morning from Las Vegas. NEWSROOM starts now.
And good morning and thanks for joining me from the campus of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, the site of tonight's final presidential debate. I'm Carol Costello.
All right. Round three. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will trade their punches face-to-face. They'll battle each other and try to sell themselves. Many will tune in to see the blood, right? Trump desperate to rescue his campaign. He may be more unpredictable than ever. Will he continue his scorched earth tactics?
And Clinton is scrambling to contain damage of her own. She has faced a constant barrage of embarrassing e-mails supposedly stolen from the hacked account of her campaign chair.
We're following all the angles this morning. CNN's Manu Raju looks at the increasing volatility heading into the night's showdown. Brian Stelter looks at how this debate is likely to unfold.
But, Manu, let's kick things off with you. Good morning.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Now Donald Trump entering this debate perhaps at the lowest point of his campaign right now. Poll after poll shows him losing in battleground states including one in Arizona today where Clinton is actually up five points. This of course after the allegations of sexual misconduct, Donald
Trump's own battle with his party and his own two rocky debate performances. The question tonight in this hall, can he turn it around?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAJU (voice-over): Ahead of tonight's final debate, Donald Trump throwing a hail Mary. Going after Washington and intensifying his unfounded claim that the election is rigged.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They even want to try and rig the election at the polling booths.
RAJU: Even calling on his supporters to monitor polling places.
TRUMP: People are going to be watching on November 8th.
RAJU: And doubling down on his media conspiracy theories.
TRUMP: There's a voter fraud also with the media because they so poison the minds of people by writing false stories.
RAJU: The GOP nominee pledging to shake up Washington.
TRUMP: It is time to drain the damn swamp.
RAJU: Now promising if elected he will push for term limits for members of Congress, a populous proposal that has yet to to run with this because at all costs, he wants to throw this kind of video at Hillary Clinton. He wants to keep her, as we just heard, in a defensive crouch.
He wants to be Mr. Offense just throwing the kitchen sink at her, and this is part and parcel of a corruption. He needs to say the Democratic Party's corrupt.
The other big thing that's going to occur is a new idea of a swamp of Washington, D.C., this video's part of the swamp of how ugly politics -- r
COSTELLO: He wants to drain the swamp.
BRINKLEY: Drain the swamp.
COSTELLO: And he has an idea that appeals to many voters which I think is term limits, which I think many people will want him to talk about in detail.
BRINKLEY: I think it's a good turn for him tonight to ask Hillary Clinton, are you for term limits? And he could draw a line there because that's tricky for her. And he could say there you are. I'm the real outsider, you're classic insider.
So, I think it's smart strategy to Donald Trump's gone that direction. If he can exploit it tonight, we'll have to wait and see. COSTELLO: WikiLeaks I'm sure that that will come up on stage, too.
Marco Rubio, the Republican senator from Florida, said something interesting about WikiLeaks and you know WikiLeaks has been hacking in illegally to Democratic -- the DNC, to Hillary Clinton's campaign chair's e-mails been hacking into that and, of course, there's the suspicion that Russia is really behind it.
This is what Marco Rubio said. He said that he would not discuss the WikiLeaks documents. This is what he said in a statement to CNN. Quote, "These leaks are an effort by a foreign government to interfere with our electoral process and I will not indulge it. Further, I want to warn my fellow Republicans who may want to capitalize politically on these leaks, today it's the Democrats. Tomorrow, it could be us."
DAN LEE, UNLV PROFESSOR: Right. I think that it shows the divide in strategy between Trump and establishment Republicans. I think he is probably is going to bring it up. Even probably bring up the whole discussion about the election being rigged.
I think that's part of the miracle we talked about earlier. I don't think by this point Trump is going to change his strategy. If anything he's going to double down.
After a lot of Republicans dropped their endorsement support for him, then he said I'm unshackled now, right? So even compared to the second debate we might even see a more aggressive Trump at this debate, and for sure, you know, if he goes that route he would bring up those e-mails.
COSTELLO: So, I want to go back to the guests for just a second that each candidate is bringing because Hillary Clinton is bringing a guest named Ryan Moore. He has a disability. He has dwarfism. And I just want to remind people who Ryan Moore is.
Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN MOORE, CLINTON SUPPORTER: She's compassionate. Every time I see Hillary, she remembers meaningful details about my life, sometimes from years earlier. When I first met her, I was 7 years old, and wearing a back brace. Two years later, when I saw her again, she patted my back and said, "You don't have a back brace anymore." I could not believe that she remembered that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: All right. So, Sunlen, the reason, you know, it's a cynical reason, right, bought we're in that kind of campaign, the reason that Ryan Moore will be in the audience as Hillary Clinton's guest is because Donald Trump made fun of a "New York Times" reporter with a disability. So --
SERFATY: Yes.
COSTELLO: -- how might that go over with Mr. Trump? [09:25:00] SERFATY: Yes, I think certainly the strategy of the
Clinton campaign is very clear here. They are trying to paint a contrast with how Hillary Clinton views and treats people with disabilities in our country and how Donald Trump has, including likely to bring up some of the more inflammatory rhetoric that he's had out there on the campaign trail, mocking a reporter who is disabled. And this is a strategy that we've seen her used many times in the past, most notably at the Democratic National Convention where there was a big speech by a woman who talked about how Hillary Clinton had really taken an active role in her life for years.
So, certainly, the Clinton campaign trying to put a spotlight tonight on the differences, on the contrasts in these two candidates up there and how they reach out to the disabled community in America.
COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Dan Lee, Douglas Brinkley, Sunlen Serfaty, thanks to all of you.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, you've heard Donald Trump's immigration plan build that wall.
AUDIENCE: Build that wall!
COSTELLO: I got a lot of Trump supporters. They like that.
But will he really build a wall and how will he make Mexico pay? We'll talk about that, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR:>
