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Trump & Clinton Face Off in Final Debate Tonight. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired October 19, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

CUOMO: Clinton widening her lead, according to the polls. Trump needs to do something to increase his reach. Now, can he do that, given his repeated claims of a rigged election and the flood of accusations by women that he calls liars?

[07:00:17] CAMEROTA: Clinton, of course, has her own challenges from the revelation and the hacked e-mails to new undercover video suggesting the Democratic operative may have incited violence at Trump rallies.

There's just 20 days until election day. Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Manu Raju. He is live in Las Vegas.

How's the scene there, Manu?

MANU RAJU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Alisyn.

Now, Donald Trump had one of the worst months of any presidential candidate in recent memory. There's, of course, those allegations of sexual misconduct, his rocky debate performances, and his bitter fights with his own party. So, the question is tonight whether he can reverse that downward slide here in this debate hall.

(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 NOMINEE: 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 8.

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 populist 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.

OBAMA: He started 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 activist James O'Keefe, suggest it was Democratic operatives working for the Clinton campaign instigating violence at some Trump rallies.

SCOTT ROYAL, NATIONAL FIELD DIRECTOR, AMERICANS UNITED FOR CHANGE: 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-NV), MINORITY LEADER: These are people who are trapped. Puts his hands under somebody's skirt on 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, Clinton has been off the campaign trail for several days, as she tries to fine-tune a message aimed at courting those moderate independent voters and also to turn those red states blue come November.

But, also, Alisyn, Hillary Clinton tonight may have to address all those damaging revelations that came out in the e-mails obtained by WikiLeaks, something that her campaign has yet to do in any sort of meaningful way.

CAMEROTA: OK. We're going to talk about that, Manu. Thanks so much for the reporting.

Joining me now is CNN political commentator and Trump supporter Scottie Nell Hughes and CNN political commentator and former New York City council speaker Christine Quinn. Ladies, great to have you. CHRISTINE QUINN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Question, here is the rule. You may not other your opponent's name. This is my first, just for the first question.

QUINN: OK.

CAMEROTA: What, Christine, does your candidate, Hillary Clinton, basically in a couple of sentences need to do tonight?

QUINN: Secretary Clinton needs to continue to send the message she sent that she is strong, the most fit to be president of the United States, has a vision that really is going to help all Americans.

CAMEROTA: Does she need to spell out that vision? That's been a big question, that she hasn't articulated her vision, other than in contrast to her opponent.

QUINN: Well, I think she has, if you look at all the position papers out there, if you look at her tax plan, which unlike another person in the race actually helped middle class Americans, doesn't reduce taxes on billionaires. I think she has.

Now, look, this has been a hard race for both candidates for issues to rise above the din, if you will. And I think tonight is a perfect opportunity for Hillary to kind of put a punctuation Mark on the end of this campaign and really make it clear, she is the person who's going to lead this country, particularly working class and middle- class Americans to a place of tax relief, job creation and a really strong future.

CAMEROTA: Scottie, what does Donald Trump need to do tonight?

[07:05:03] SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Donald Trump needs to continue to separate himself from the establishment. The political establishment, as well as to show about what is so corrupt about Washington, D.C., which is a feeling the majority of Americans on both sides of the aisle feel like. He needs to show it, why he is an outsider and that he is a voice of the people.

I think that's why you saw him yesterday release his plan, talking about how he was going to do reforms, including term limits. A suggestion that resonates with Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians. Reduce the size of government, show the corruption something that his opponent represents which is her background, all of her experience is all Washington, D.C., political experience. And how that system is...

CAMEROTA: You're breaking the rule.

HUGHES: ... broken and why he's opposite.

CAMEROTA: This is so hard for you guys not to talk about your opponent.

QUINN: I won! I won! CAMEROTA: OK. Let's talk about one of the things that may come up, and this is a controversy that would affect Hillary Clinton. These new videos that had been released by James O'Keefe's outfit that purport to show Democratic operatives trying to incite violence at Donald Trump rallies.

Let me play -- if people hadn't seen them, let me play a portion of Scott Foval revealing Trump rally tactics for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT FOVAL, AMERICANS UNITED FOR CHANGE: And, honestly, it is not hard to get some of these assholes to pop off.

It's a matter of showing up to want to get into the rally in a Planned Parenthood T-shirt or, you know, Trump is a Nazi, you know. You can -- you can message to draw them out and draw them to punch here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, Christine. If you can believe what this man is saying here, this Democratic operative. He is sending people to Trump rallies to try to get them to, quote, "pop off and punch them" to show the violence. I mean, how does -- how is Hillary Clinton going to address this one tonight?

QUINN: I don't grant any validity to this video at all.

CAMEROTA: Even though you hear him in his own words saying this? I mean, how could they be fudging this?

QUINN: You now, we've seen many different tapes recently in history over the past few years or so be put together, really focused on attacking progressive groups like Planned Parenthood. And then we found out afterwards that those tapes were cut and spliced and put together in a way that they show something totally different than what happened.

I have no doubt in my mind that no one associated with the Democratic Party or with Hillary Clinton's campaign would ever do something like that. It is absurd and, look, I...

CAMEROTA: Wait. You don't think that the DNC worked with this outside Robert Kramer group to try to stage counter protests?

QUINN: Counter protests outside?

CAMEROTA: Yes, counter protests. That's what he says he was tasked with doing.

QUINN: That's -- I'm sure that happened, and I'm sure the RNC or the Trump Organization set up counter-protests outside Hillary events.

CAMEROTA: You're saying nobody tried to provoke Trump supporters to violence?

QUINN: No. Absolutely it would never happen in Hillary Clinton's campaign.

CAMEROTA: Scottie, what's interesting, of course, is you hear Christine saying, "I don't believe that tape. I don't believe the words on that tape."

And we've heard other people say, even if he did say those things, it never translated to action. These are the same words Trump campaign used about hearing Donald Trump's own words on tape about the alleged sexual assault of women. So how big of a role does this tape play?

QUINN: He never denied those were his words. Let's be perfectly clear.

CAMEROTA: He didn't deny it. But this guy can't deny that these are his words. He can't deny that they are the words. Did it translate to action?

QUINN: Donald Trump never raised that the Billy Bush tape was cut or spliced.

CAMEROTA: What I said was locker-room talk, and it never translated to action.

QUINN: OK. But I'm going further. I'm not even buying that this video is legit.

CAMEROTA: OK. Go ahead. Scottie, how do you see it?

HUGHES: See, and that's -- I don't know how you can do that, because Robert Kramer is a very well-known Democrat. Most people in the Democrat circles know him. He visited the White House over 100 times. He's got strong ties. He's married to a congresswoman, for goodness sakes. So he is someone that definitely is involved and had a lot of credibility up until these videos were released.

CAMEROTA: But that's not who you hear in the video. The person that we just heard in the video, just to be correct, just so everybody knows, that is Scott Foval, who's a subcontractor, saying what he plans to do. Robert Kramer is only saying that he's staging these counter-protests. Go ahead, Scottie.

HUGHES: Obviously, at this point they've severed all ties and both have had to basically resign or be fired. So, you know, if there was no wrongdoing, then they should be standing up for themselves.

But the point about all this -- and this is the difference, is there was action that were taken. We did see people in the rally in Chicago shut down. People were not able to go in. We saw assault on Trump supporters. There are so many specifics that are laid out here, that there are actions that match up with these men's words. And this is very sad. I think this is one of the darkest, deepest skeletons within the Democratic Party that have come out, just like the WikiLeaks might not like how we got the -- how we found out the secrets. We found them out, but that doesn't mean that they're not legit. And people have lost their jobs and had to resign because of it. The same thing right here. So I don't know how you -- just say, "You know what? It's wrong. I'm sorry. We shouldn't have done it" and move on. You know, take accountability for it.

QUINN: Let me just say something. Let's be clear here. Scottie is talking on behalf of the Trump campaign and Mr. Trump, the candidate. Let's not forget, this is a man who at his rallies, we saw people sucker punch senior citizens. We saw Donald Trump say he would...

HUGHES: No, no, no, no.

CAMEROTA: That's not fair. Donald Trump did say, hey, you should punch that guy. Anybody who's protesting, you should punch them in the mouth. They should be taken out on a stretcher.

QUINN: And I'll pay for their lawyers.

HUGHES: Because we -- now it backs up that we knew this was planned attack.

CAMEROTA: Still, the rhetoric doesn't -- doesn't follow.

HUGHES: That was their goal, to fool (ph) the American people.

QUINN: But based on what you're now saying, connecting two and two and making six, which doesn't make any sense. You then were correct and needed to sucker punch a senior citizen? That does not add up. And I have been involved in a lot of Democratic campaigns.

HUGHES: The Democrat was a plant. The COPD person was a plant.

CAMEROTA: Why wouldn't you just say...

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Why would the presidential candidate say punch the plant in the face. I mean, that still does take it to a different level.

QUINN: Because he's a bully. Because he's a bully.

HUGHES: We now find out they were trained, they were encouraged -- in fact, they were encouraged to do everything they can to instigate. The very first sign of violence that we saw was the fact that the man was cursing, was spitting on people and using racial slurs.

QUINN: But Scottie, that's why we have -- that's why we have security guards who take people out. That's the response to that and that Donald Trump said, punch him, shows exactly why he can't be president of the United States. What is he going to say when an international leader makes him annoyed?

CAMEROTA: Christine, Scottie, chances are this will come up tonight, and we are going to leave it for the debate. Ladies, thank you very much for this debate here.

Stay with CNN for live coverage of tonight's debate. It begins at 4 p.m. Eastern. You can be sure to watch the debate at 9 p.m. right here on CNN -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Tonight's debate is going to be a big character test for both candidates. Who's going to emerge the winner in this final show down?

Also, Trump is calling for congressional term limits. What do two sitting lawmakers think about that? We'll ask them, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:16:48] CUOMO: All right. The idea that the debate might get ugly tonight is an easy one to have, right? Everything else has. But what is really the bar for what needs to get done by Clinton and by Trump to move the needle tonight? Character will probably come up, no matter what the topics are. There are some forceful arguments on each side.

So let's get a little taste of what might happen tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: So, yes, this is who Donald Trump is. But it's not only women and it's not only this video that raises questions about his fitness to be our president. He has also targeted immigrants, African-Americans, Latinos, people with disabilities, POWs, Muslims.

TRUMP: Bill Clinton was abusive to women. Hillary Clinton attacked those same women, and attacked them viciously.

I think it's disgraceful, and I think she should be ashamed of herself, if you want to know the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right. So what will it take for someone to come out on top tonight? Let's discuss with two congressmen from New York. We have Republican Chris Collins. He's co-chair of the Trump campaign's House Leadership Committee. And Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, he supports Hillary Clinton.

Gentlemen, actually, let talk about you guys first. One of the things that just came up in the campaign is Trump calling a plan to have term limits. I say plan. I'll direct it to you, first, Congressman Collins. It's a deceptive word, because he can't get this done. As we all know and maybe Trump knows, too, Congress is going to have to make term limits happen. You'd have to have a constitutional amendment. We know what that means. A super majority among you guys and then three-fourths the state. Very hard to do.

Do you think there's any chance of term limits for Congress?

REP. CHRIS COLLINS (R), NEW YORK: Well, I think the public would say we certainly need term limits. Most of us would support term limits.

What Donald Trump is doing is addressing the nation as the change agent. Someone who says it's broken in Washington. He also talked about his ethics reform package. He's talking about the problems that the public knows are in Congress.

Many folks call them the career politicians who never held a job in the private sector, never signed the front of a paycheck. So he's speaking as the change agent. Of course, there's a process that we'd have to go through. The Republicans I believe, I know I would support it. So we'll have to see, because I think it is a good message for him to be on, because right now congressional approval ratings are in the single digits, 8, 9, 10 percent. So I think it's a good message point for Donald Trump, and he can leave the details for later.

CUOMO: See, it's interesting how Congressman Collins explains it: it's good for Trump to play on this. People are angry at Congress, and changing it sounds good. But isn't it a realistic -- is it a realistic proposal for him to say "I'll get a constitutional amendment passed to make term limits"?

SEN. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D), NEW YORK: Unrealistic proposal for the reasons that you set forth. You're not going to get a two-thirds majority in Congress, No. 1. And No. 2, you're not going to get three-fourths of the states to ratify it for good reason. Because it's a cosmetic change. It's not a substantive change.

Washington is broken. But we need meaningful campaign finance reform. We can't have unlimited outside money from billionaires and millionaires being poured into the system on behalf of special interests. We need redistricting reform, because you've got a situation right now where the politicians are choosing the voters, as opposed to the voters choosing the politicians.

These are actual, real things that Hillary Clinton supports that will be good for our democracy. Donald Trump is desperate right now. He's flailing. He's throwing anything out there. And term limits is not a solution to the problem.

CUOMO: To the extent that character comes up tonight, Congressman Collins, what do you think Donald Trump needs to do to come out on top?

COLLINS: Well, on the character issue, the public -- you know, two- thirds or more of the public knows that Hillary Clinton is a liar. She can't be trusted. And now the two faces of Hillary Clinton are coming out. The fact, through WikiLeaks, that she says one thing...

(AUDIO/VIDEO GAP)

CUOMO: Oh, no. All right. Let's see if we can get Congressman Collins back. Obviously, we just lost the satellite feed. That sucks.

He's making a point of advantage, which I will now make and not as gently as the congressman was just doing it. We've never seen a Democratic nominee be disliked or untrusted the way Hillary Clinton is. Why are those not disqualifying flaws for the electorate? JEFFRIES: Because she's been beaten up for more than 30 years as a

first lady of the United States of America, United States senator, secretary of state, two-time presidential candidate. She's been subjected to attack after attack from the right wing.

CUOMO: But with cause or without cause?

JEFFRIES: Totally without cause.

CUOMO: Totally without cause?

JEFFRIES: Well, Chris, she made a mistake and has acknowledged it.

CUOMO: That's the cause, Congressman.

JEFFRIES: Well, right.

CUOMO: The e-mail server, her choice. Wrong, arguably illegal. Her choice, cause. Not without cause.

JEFFRIES: She made a mistake. She's acknowledged it. It certainly wasn't illegal. We've had the FBI under the leadership of James Comey, who is a Republican, acknowledged that she did nothing wrong in terms of criminality.

CUOMO: Comey started off as a Republican, maybe. I don't know what his politics are. But he was put there at the FBI by a Democratic administration. And a mistake is when I hit my cup, and I knock it over; and Alisyn says, "Not again, you're an idiot."

When you choose to have a server in your basement, not a mistake. When you say you got approval for it and did not. Not a mistake. When you're told to cull e-mails, and you do it in a way that is self- serving, not a mistake.

JEFFRIES: Well, I think it's a mistake that she's acknowledged, and that's the test of character strength. Because we're all imperfect as human beings, but as leaders you need to acknowledge when you make a mistake and then move forward.

And from a policy perspective, I think what she needs to do tonight is continue to demonstrate that she's prepared, poised, presidential; and let Donald Trump be Donald Trump. Because at the end of the day, you know, he's running around the country like a Tasmanian devil, the cartoon, totally out of control, harming everything that's in his path. Just waiting for the American people to pull the plug on November 8 and hopefully relieve us of our long national nightmare. And if she continues to maintain the high ground and speak to the importance of the American people on the economy and beyond, she'll prevail in this debate, as she did in the two previous ones.

CUOMO: Full disclosure: Tasmanian devil, one of my favorite Looney Toons, so I don't like seeing him being used negatively.

Congressman Collins, you are back. I have been doing a better job than I've ever heard you do, going after Hakeem Jeffries about how the e-mails are not a mistake. They were an intentional choice and series of choices by Clinton, but, please, play to advantage and make the case that you think Trump has to make tonight.

COLLINS: Well, again, he's the change agent and that Hillary Clinton is the status quo.

Two-thirds of America know the country is headed in the wrong direction. Our borders are porous. They know their wages haven't gone up, that our jobs are being lost.

Donald Trump needs to be calm, cool collected and presidential, with a demeanor that simply indicates he is the change agent that's going to be able to bring our jobs back, secure our borders, defeat ISIS and stand up and make America great again.

And contrast that to Hillary Clinton effectively representing a third term of Barack Obama, who has failed this nation with stagnant wages, all the divisiveness that we have in this nation, the unrest in the cities and so forth.

So, as the change agent, he needs to speak to many of the folks concerned about the future of their children and grandchildren to live the American dream in the land of opportunity.

And if he can do that in a calm, cool, collected demeanor, I think he will bring some folks in under his tent where they know they've decided they're not going to vote for Hillary Clinton. You can't trust a thing she says. She's self-serving, lining her own pockets; stands up first -- Clinton family first. So, if he can differentiate himself as the change agent, versus the status quo, I think that's going to carry the day, because two-thirds of the country say we're going in the wrong direction.

CUOMO: All right. So both of you got a chance to lay out why you think your candidate is better. I feel better now myself.

Chris Collins, thank you very much. Thanks for sticking around.

COLLINS: Thanks, Chris.

Hakeem, it was nice to meet you.

CUOMO: Hakeem Jeffries.

Absolutely. Good to have you with us, as always. Both of you. Congressmen, thank you very much.

Alisyn.

[07:25:09] CAMEROTA: There's been a lot of role playing on this show so far this morning, and I think we're going to continue that.

For months we've heard accusations that Democrats were baiting Trump supporters into violence at rallies, and now there's this undercover video that appears to back up some of those claims. So, up next, CNN examines whether this group hired by the DNC was behind some of these provocations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: All right. Online there's a lot of discussion, certainly among you guys on the right about this new undercover video that appears to show Democratic operatives hired by the DNC explaining how they can easily provoke Trump supporters into violence at rallies.

Now, the video comes from a controversial source, a conservative activist who has a checkered history of his own. It's called the Veritas Project. CNN investigative correspondent Drew Griffin joins us now with more.

What do you see, Drew, in terms of what this video may have to offer and what should be the qualifications for people who do see it?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, if you look at the video, which we did, we didn't look at the produced parts. We looked that sound bites of the people who were involved in this undercover.

And what you're seeing is these Democratic operatives hired by the DNC to work with the Clinton campaign. They were paid to bring protests to press conferences and counter-events everywhere that Mike Pence and Donald Trump took place.

And in the video, we have this person here, Scott Foval, who is a subcontractor, explaining how his role was to actually train people to incite violence, and he tells us just how he says he did it.