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Presidential Candidates to Campaign in Florida; New Polling Shows Donald Trump Trailing Hillary Clinton; Over 5 Million Votes Cast So Far In 2016 Race; Bus Driver Among 13 Killed In Tour Bus Crash. Aired 8-8:30a ET
Aired October 24, 2016 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00] JEFF ZELENY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hillary Clinton striking an optimistic note.
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to be the president for every American, Democrats, Republicans, independents, people who vote for me, people who vote against me, because we've got to bring this country together.
ZELENY: Donald Trump, less so.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are we glad that I started? Are we having --
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I'll let you know on the evening of November 8th whether I'm glad.
ZELENY: With 15 days to go, Trump no longer talking about when he wins but if.
TRUMP: If we win on November 8th, we are going to fix our rigged system. It's a rigged, broken, corrupt system.
CLINTON: Some people are sore losers and, you know, we just, we just have to keep going.
ZELENY: A wild weekend with Trump visiting Gettysburg for an unusual Gettysburg address, overshadowing the plan for his first 100 days in office by pledging to sue the women accusing him of inappropriate behavior.
TRUMP: Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. Total fabrication. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.
ZELENY: Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway bluntly acknowledging the uphill climb.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: We are behind. We're behind one, three, four points in some of these swing states that Mitt Romney lost to President Obama, Chuck. Our advantage is that Donald Trump is just going to continue to take the case directly to the people.
ZELENY: Trump undermining that acknowledgment.
TRUMP: "Investors' Business Daily," the most accurate poll from the last election and the two elections before that, just announced that we are leading nationally by two points.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Numbers are looking phenomenal in Florida. Don't believe the media.
ZELENY: But a new ABC News national poll shows Trump trailing Clinton by 12 points. Meantime, CNN has learned Clinton is increasingly moving beyond Trump and turning her attention towards her transition to the presidency. A Democrat close to Clinton saying she's not being arrogant, she's being diligent. Clinton is sizing up candidates for White House chief of staff. One top contender, Ron Klain, who led her debate team. All this as President Obama is tying GOP Senate candidates to Trump, visiting Nevada, one of the hottest Senate battlegrounds.
BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You're for him, but you're not for him. But you're kind of for him. What the heck?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZELENY: Now, it's not just president Obama making that case. Michelle Obama also returning to the campaign trail this week, appearing together with Hillary Clinton for the first time in North Carolina. Now, Trump is all-in in Florida. He's spending three straight days in the state. He virtually has no path to the White House without those 29 electoral votes. Hillary Clinton heading there tomorrow as well, hoping to block that path as in-person early voting starts there today. Chris?
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Jeff, appreciate it.
Let's discuss with our CNN political commentators. Christine Quinn, Hillary Clinton supporter, vice chair of the New York state Democratic Party, and Corey Lewandowski, former Trump campaign manager.
Now, I had Congress people on from both parties to make the case for. With you guys, let's flip it, and we'll do the critiques of the other side. So Christine, we'll start with you. Interestingly, Marsha Blackburn made a good case for why cyclically you guys are supposed to lose. It's very rare that you have a third term in a row, and she said change, change, change, change. Then I asked her your weaknesses, Donald Trump and the negatives on him, she didn't address them, went right to Hillary Clinton. Is that why you guys keep staying on it's about the messenger, not just the message?
CHRISTINE QUINN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think, I understand the argument, right, that you don't have three times in a row. But look at President Obama, he's going to leave office probably one of the highest popularity ratings of any president in history. CUOMO: Certainly over 50 percent right now.
QUINN: And I think that speaks to Americans, yes, having things they want to change, yes, having things they want to be better, but grateful for what the Democrats have been able to do in the White House. And I think that's one important thing we have going for us.
But look at the opponent, right, because races are always about both candidates. In the case of the opponent here you have a man who from day one seems to be committed to showing how unqualified temperamentally he is to be president of the United States. And beyond that, throughout the course of his campaign his message changes, he's attacking Mexican-Americans, he's attacking women, he's attacking women who accused him of sexual assault. His name calling and his bullying never stops. And what you're seeing now is just a bully whining.
CUOMO: All right, so I heard something interesting from one of your supporters this week. And he said, I'm for Trump. I said, all right, so tell me why. How do you deal with the personal stuff? He said I know guys like Trump and I know how to understand what I don't like about him. I don't know anybody like Hillary Clinton, and I can't understand how she's done what she's done. This is in this guy's opinion. That seems to be a big part of the case that Trump is making her down the stretch. What's the effectiveness?
[08:05:00] COREY LEWANDOWSKI, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Look, I think again what Chris, has said is right, this election is about change. And you have two candidates who are fundamentally different -- with a different approach to the way that they will govern in Washington, D.C. That's the most basic philosophy. And when it comes down to it, you have to ask yourself, are the American people, do they think that the country's moving in the right direction or the wrong direction? When you look at that track in the polling, it's a plus-30 in the wrong direction. The country is going the wrong way --
CUOMO: And 70 percent around or more say wrong direction.
LEWANDOWSKI: Going in the wrong direction. So what we need is fundamental and wholesale change. Donald Trump brings that.
"The New York Times" actually yesterday, and I can't believe I'm saying this, had an op-ed in "The New York Times," hardly the bastion of conservative outlets, right, that said the case about Hillary Clinton is actually more detrimental because when you have a candidate like Hillary Clinton, who knows all the players in D.C., it's groupthink. And this is what happened with George H. W. Bush, and it's what happened with the Iraq War, it's what happened with the housing crisis and the bubble that took place there. They don't blame it just on Republicans or Democrats, but it's the same people who've been doing the same thing for the last 30 years, and you get the same result which has been bad for the country.
CUOMO: Don't worry about embracing "The New York Times." You guys always go with what's convenient.
(LAUGHTER)
CUOMO: When it works you embrace the media --
QUINN: I'll be a columnist in "The Washington Post."
CUOMO: Let's put up some numbers that are instructive of the state of play. OK, treatment of women is a cross tab in one of most recent sets of polling, 69-24 obviously in terms of disapproving. This has been a big thing for Hillary Clinton. You're seeing it reflected in the poll numbers recently with women. She's up 20. Trump wanted to break in. He hasn't. How important?
QUINN: I think it's hugely important. Look at that -- those numbers. It speaks to America seeing clearly how Donald Trump treats and thinks about 51-plus percent of the population. You're not going to get elected president, nor should you, if America sees you for what you are. A man who's always spoken of women poorly, to be kind, who's now accused repeatedly of sexual assault and is threatening to sue those who are attacking him, a man who's called women horrible, horrible names, and a man who notwithstanding what the Trump supporters will say, he's hired lots of women. There's real questions about what that workplace is like for women and whether it's a hostile environment. So I'm proud of Americans for seeing the truth about Donald Trump notwithstanding his efforts to cloud the reality.
LEWANDOWSKI: Well, it's just a snap shot. We don't know what's going to happen with turnout and frankly I don't get a lot of the optimism about this boost of turnout from 2012, but that's another discussion.
We don't know yet what the effect of respect for gender will be on this race. But the respect for race within campaigns is proven cycle by cycle. The white vote, you have to have it to win if you're Donald Trump. The most recent number, 47-43. He has it, but Romney won by 20. I mean, this has to be a big chunk. Why isn't it working for him right now?
LEWANDOWSKI: Look, I think there's a couple factors here. When you have white women who are married, Donald Trump is winning that particular demographic. You look at the latest poll the CNN poll in Nevada where Hillary Clinton is not doing as well with women as Barack Obama did there. She's not doing as well with Hispanics as Barack Obama did there four years ago. Donald Trump is exceeding the numbers where Mitt Romney was four years ago. And I've got a bet with David Axelrod, it's very public, that Donald Trump is going to do better with the African-American community than Mitt Romney did. Don't forget as a percentage --
CUOMO: He has to get --
LEWANDOWSKI: Five percent more.
CUOMO: He'd have to get six percent.
LEWANDOWSKI: That's right. But don't forget the overall makeup of the race, and you look at the percentage of the totality of the African-American population that's going to come out, is it going to be the same or higher than it did four years ago? In other words, are more African-Americans going to come out as a percentage of the electorate as they did four years ago? I don't think so because I think what they saw in Barack Obama was someone who was going to help them, and I don't think that happened. I don't think they have that same level of intensity for Hillary Clinton.
CUOMO: It's also identity politics. There's nothing wrong with saying that --
QUINN: That was a great spin --
LEWANDOWSKI: I would be brutalized if I said that. You can say it.
QUINN: That is a great spin when you compare the women numbers, right, where Hillary, in the treatment of women, Hillary is up double digits, and the African-American or race numbers, where basically Donald Trump is up margin of error. Those are bad numbers for Donald Trump, as they should be given how he has treated people of color throughout this entire race and his history.
CUOMO: What about enthusiasm? Because you have to make the numbers reality. And I'm record many times saying yes, he has huge crowds, yes I see signs all over my neighborhood for Trump. But those are very micro-assessments of what's going to be 100 million and then many more votes. So it's not the best metric for looking at it. But enthusiasm is on the side of Trump when it comes to the energy of his base. You dispute that why?
QUINN: Well, the -- what you see at a rally, right, is on his side.
CUOMO: The enthusiasm numbers in polls ado were higher for him.
QUINN: You know, if you take a look at social media, if you take a look at the number of prime voters that Hillary campaign is out there identifying, and remember, the Trump campaign is totally behind as it relates to field, whether it's field on the ground, or field on social media --
[08:10:04] CUOMO: When they switched campaign managers the whole thing tanked, everybody knows that.
QUINN: That's a whole show --
LEWANDOWSKI: From the first to the second. Not the second to the third.
(LAUGHTER)
LEWANDOWSKI: There was a great --
CUOMO: That was great.
QUINN: And I've actually seen both in social media and just in general conversation the more Americans have heard about Donald Trump, the more their commitment and enthusiasm for Hillary is growing and growing. So am I worried about turnout? Of course I am. I'm a campaign person. I'm worried until you know the final vote is cast. But I'm very confident that the energy has always been there, it's getting seen now, and the campaign has a killer operation. And that's really critical at this point, and the Trump campaign has never had --
CUOMO: Christine Quinn arguing the unseen energy.
QUINN: Exactly.
CUOMO: We'll see. We'll see if it comes out. Corey Lewandowski, thank you very much for a compelling case, as always. Alisyn?
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, millions of Americans already casting their ballots. So what can we learn from early voting? We get the bottom line with CNN's politics executive editor Mark Preston next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: Have you cast your vote yet?
CUOMO: Four times.
(LAUGHTER)
CAMEROTA: That's what Trump is talking about. Stop doing that.
(LAUGHTER)
CUOMO: And I'm laughing, because it's a joke, like the overall threat is.
CAMEROTA: According to Catalyst, more than 5.1 million voters have already cast their votes just one time. This has been in 35 different. The majority of those votes are in battleground states.
[08:15:01] So let's see what all this means, let's bring in Mark Preston, executive editor of CNN Politics. Mark, great to you here. So, what can we glean from what we little we know about this early voting?
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Well, one thing Chris and I talked about was the idea that Democrats have a better turnout machine and better operation and that's really, really important. Donald Trump's candidacy was based upon his personality, as, as, as a one person.
I'm the one who can change things. He didn't invest in turnout operations and what we've seen in early voting numbers so far is that the Democratic investment is actually working well for them.
CAMEROTA: OK, so let's look at that for one second, Chris, just so that everybody sees. There have been 35 states reporting, 5.1 votes cast, but market's talking about basically 1.4 ballots by registered Democrats and 1.1 ballots by registered Republicans. We don't know of course what they say on those ballots. Maybe they've cross parties. PRESTON: No, but a couple things we can glean is that for instance at this point right now in 2012 Republicans had a higher advantage in the state of Nevada than they do right now. If you look at the state of Utah, Democrats are slightly ahead in the state of Arizona.
Let me say that again. Slightly ahead in the state of Arizona. If you look at Iowa right now, you know, Democrats are not as much of a deficit as they were in 2012 meaning that there's not as many Republican ballots.
And look at this in the state of Utah, four years ago, Republicans had a 22,000 vote advantage. Right now that is 35 --
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Florida has been about 1 million early ballots. Does that mean anything? How does that number size up?
PRESTON: Well, I mean, again, let's talk about where we are in the polls and talk about turnout operation. The fact of the matter is we think that Democrats are going to do much better in early voting right now, which is no surprise that we see Donald Trump there yesterday, and he's going to be here in Florida today.
CUOMO: We're joking about the rigged thing and I frankly, I believe we should be joking it. It should be mocked because it underlies the integrity of the system and he has no basis for what he's saying.
No matter what pockets you identify, but there is an argument to be made that by saying it's rigged, it's rigged, he pushed the Democrat turnout machine to drive early voting in a way that they weren't anticipating even a month and a half ago. That could have wound up blowing back on him a little bit.
PRESTON: Right. Basic the idea of early voting is very simple. If I can get Alisyn to the polls today, that means I don't have to worry about Alisyn anymore. That means I can focus on getting you to the polls in the coming weeks, if not on Election Day. That's why early voting is really, really important right now for both parties.
CAMEROTA: So CNN's Case File, one of our investigative arms, has found unearthed this clip from of Donald Trump from 2012. When he was talking about undocumented workers, and he had -- this was on CNBC, and he had a very, very different take on them and what should be done with them. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): Well, you know, my views on it. And I'm, you know, not necessarily -- I think I'm probably down the middle on that also because I also understand how -- as an example, you have people in this country for 20 years. They've done a great job. They've done wonderfully. They've gone to school. They've gotten good marks. They're productive.
Now we're supposed to send them out of the country? I don't believe in that, Michelle, and you understand that. I don't believe in a lot of things that are being said. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Undocumented workers have done a great job. Who is that guy?
PRESTON: That's the guy running for president right now apparently. Look this is again another example of Donald Trump saying one thing you know a few years ago and absolutely going 180 degrees in the opposite direction of where he is right now. And look politicians often flip-flop, OK --
CUOMO: He's not supposed to be a politician. It's a big part of the sell.
PRESTON: Right. Although he acknowledged last week that he is finally a politician. But the fact of the matter is you got to wonder what does he believe? Does he believe they should be gone or does he believe that they should be here?
CAMEROTA: I mean, was that -- I just want to dive into this a little bit more because it is so counter to what he has been saying. Is it because of the influence of the people who are around him who are more extreme? Is the new position Steve Bannon and --
CUOMO: He had this way before --
PRESTON: Right, I mean, I think -- it might have been hardened even more under Bannon or whatever, but he had this during the Republican primary, build the wall, Mexico's --
CUOMO: He's got a great year. The man has a great year. Donald Trump has a unique ability to market, to figure out what you want, and how he can make himself that thing as it applies. He did that brilliantly here early on he blew away the field. But there is a problem, the election is long consistency over time and carry-through of message is hard and he's proving that every day.
PRESTON: Well, no doubt and of course, when we see that right now in this clip because the more time that we continue to look at where his positions are the more time we're going to see what he said one thing here and another thing here. Quite frankly, Hillary Clinton has had a couple of those --
CUOMO: All of them do it. He's supposed to be different.
PRESTON: -- no doubt.
CAMEROTA: Mark, thank you very much. What's your take on all of this? You can tweet us @newday or you can post your comment on facebook.com/newday.
So investigators are heading to this California desert to determine what led to a horrible deadly bus crash and we'll take you live there next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:24:04]
CAMEROTA: The NTSB and the California Highway Patrol are investigating why a tour bus slammed into a big rig killing 13 people and injuring dozens more.
CNN's Paul Vercammen is live in Palm Springs, California, with more. Paul, what have you learned?
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, the most severely injured were brought here to the desert center here hospital, and we know now that four of them are still in critical condition, one in serious.
Also the Riverside County coroner saying that ten of the victims were female, three male, including the bus driver in this crash. The highway patrol says most of the victims were Latino. And that they had fallen asleep at the time of the crash when this bus plowed into that big Rigby some 15 feet.
Also, today, we're learning that there were no seat belts, and the NTSB will no doubt be checking into whether driver fatigue had played a role in this.
[08:25:05]This was supposedly a turnaround trip in which they make, if you will, a midnight run to a casino. Investigators will be on scene today trying to determine just exactly what happened -- Chris.
CUOMO: All right, Paul, thank you very much.
It's being described as a blockbuster merger. AT&T ready to shell out $85 billion in cash and stock for CNN's parent company, Time Warner. Will it actually happen? If it does, is it good for you? The CEOs tell us what it means, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUOMO: Big news. AT&T and Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, have agreed to an $85 billion deal, stock and cash. The move announced Saturday evening is now going to be subject to a serious review by government regulators, could take more than a year, maybe even longer to complete.
CAMEROTA: Earlier this morning, CNN chief business correspondent and "EARLY START" anchor, Christine Romans, took many questions to the heads of both companies, Jeff Bewkes, the chairman and CEO of Time Warner, and Randall Stephenson, the chairman and CEO of AT&T. Here's what they said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Let's talk, Randall, why buy Time Warner?
RANDALL STEPHENSON, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, AT&T: It seems to us like a very natural extension of what we do. We're in an environment where our --
