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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Donald Trump Leads in Polls in New Hampshire While Bernie Sanders Leads the Democratic Race; Trump Answers Voter Questions; Trump On How He Makes Deals; Trump: I Give Specifics On My Plans; Trump On How His Brother's Death Affected Him; CNN/WMUR Poll: Trump Leads In N.H; Rubio Now In Second; Barbara Bush Joins Jeb Bush On Campaign Trail. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired February 04, 2016 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:21] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Good evening from Manchester, New Hampshire, the granite state, site of the first presidential primary of the 2016 campaign. That's just five days away.
The candidates had multiple events scheduled as they try to reach out to as many voters as possible. Today that effort brought Donald Trump to Theo's restaurant here in Manchester where he took questions from locals and from me. I asked him about his loss in Iowa after which Trump went on twitter accusing Ted Cruz of fraud and calling for a new vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: You came in second in Iowa to Ted Cruz. Let's talk about Cruz. You have basically accused him of fraud, of stealing the election in Iowa. You talk about wanting a new election there. Have you spoken to Republican Party officials about that?
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, look. I'm into New Hampshire now. It's one of those things. It was sort of a lot of strange things. And you know, I like Ben Carson very much. And he got pretty roughed up, frankly. Although it affected me maybe more than Ben. But I'm so much -- because I have been here now for two days, I'm so much into this, into New Hampshire, that I just don't care about that anymore.
COOPER: One more on Ted Cruz. He did say that you had a Trumpertantrum. Have you ever heard that phrase?
TRUMP: No. I haven't actually. I love that phrase. I think that's great. I love that phrase.
COOPER: You can trademark that phrase.
TRUMP: I actually like that. I may have to. I'm going to trademark it before he can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, as I mentioned tonight, you are going to hear a lot from Donald Trump. He took questions from people in that restaurant on a wide variety of subjects. We are going to play that extensive interview in this hour. First, we want to get some new polling just out for that. We go to Tom Foreman for that -- Tom.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Anderson. Here are the leaders in the latest polling out this evening from here at CNN and WMUR. And let's look on the Republican side first at what's happening with Donald Trump up here. He is still the clear leader as we might expect. He is up there at 29 percent. Now, that is a little different than from before Iowa. If you look before Iowa votes is at 30 percent. So it is a slight decrease. However, we got almost a seven percent margin of error in this poll right now. So that could account for some of that. You will never know.
Rubio benefited from Iowa. Look. He is at 18 percent. Before he was just at 11 percent and Cruz also moved up one tick in all of this. Not enough, though, to keep from being pushed out of the slot by Rubio who is rising rapidly. Kasich, 12 percent. Bush, 10. Christie, Fiorina and Carson and so forth.
Here is another bit of numbers to really look at from our new poll that are important here. People are settling in on whom they absolutely will not vote for. And Donald Trump also wins that category, 37 percent of New Hampshire Republican voters saying will not vote for him under any circumstances. Cruz, 13 percent. Bush, seven percent. Rubio, five percent and on down the line. And an important to note here, Anderson, in our polling, almost 60 percent of the voters in New Hampshire are still not settled exactly on whom they are going to pick.
COOPER: Yes. We saw a lot of that in Theo's restaurant today. A lot of undecided voters asking questions of Trump. As I said we are going to show that to you momentarily. What do the news numbers tell us about the Democratic race?
FOREMAN: Interestingly enough, it's exactly the opposite in that about 60 percent of Democrats say they are settled. They know who they are voting for. That's good news for Bernie Sanders because he is now at 61 percent in terms of his support compare that to where he was before Iowa, 57 percent.
Clinton eked out a tiny, tiny win in Iowa. Hasn't helped her here. Look what happened to her numbers. Before Iowa, she was at 34 percent. She's now down to 30 percent. And same question, who will you not vote for? By the way, the margin of error there about 6.5 percent on that.
Among New Hampshire Democratic voters, who would you not vote for? Nineteen percent say they will not vote for Clinton under any circumstances. That is a slight improvement for her because she was at 20 percent. And Sanders, he has doubled because he was at four percent. Now about eight percent said they will not vote for him - Anderson.
COOPER: All right. Tom, thanks very much for crunching the numbers. We're going to hear what Donald Trump thinks about New Hampshire in
just a moment. First, we want to hear what our experts think about the new polling. Joining me now CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger, senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson and senior political analyst David Gergen.
It's interesting, I mean, these new polls. Certainly good news for Donald Trump who feels pretty confident here based on what he said to me today.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. It seems like he should feel pretty confident. There's a large margin of error in these polls. It's fluid. We saw that Rubio got a bounce, but the important thing for Donald Trump here in New Hampshire is that he didn't tank, right? He still is doing very well. And, you know, I was at a Cruz event today, and there are lots of people at this event who were saying I'm not sure between Cruz and Trump. There seems to be a lot of indecision between those two.
[20:05:05] COOPER: Interesting. David, Trump clearly is holding on to his lead. How worried should he be about Marco Rubio's momentum or even Ted Cruz for that matter?
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: He should be definitely worried about Marco Rubio. Rubio has come up seven points from the last poll here in New Hampshire. And he is still, you know, pretty far behind. But he does have what they are calling Marco momentum. And if he were to catch Trump or even come close, it's going to be a big victory. Trump has to win this. But if Rubio can come close, that's going to be a big, big lift for him. Could be trouble for Trump down the road.
COOPER: Nia, I mean, Jeb Bush campaigning with his mom Barbara Bush tonight in southern New Hampshire. You are outside that event. I know Gloria was just there as well. We are going to hear from Mrs. Bush in our next hour. She made a point of saying her son isn't a bragger. Do people interpret that as a dig at Donald Trump?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: I think probably so. Part of her larger complimenting her son. She called him the nicest, most loyal person she knows. She said that he is everything that we need in a president. Obviously, Jeb Bush has put everything in this race here in New Hampshire. His mom is here. That's how important this race is here. But sure, there's this kind of implicit critique of Donald Trump. And you heard that here at this Jeb Bush event, but also at other events I visited today.
Chris Christie kind of making that same point. This idea being a big talker versus a doer. So those are the kind of critique I think we are seeing in this establishment lane as they try to boost (ph). Jeb Bush, of course, not doing so well in the recent poll but we have out from CNN and ORC. So he has got some ground to make up in the next days.
COOPER: Gloria on the Democratic side, more than 2-1 lead for Bernie Sanders. There really is this battle, kind of an expectations battle, a game being played with the Sanders campaign and Clinton campaign.
BORGER: Right. Right now the expectations are so low for Hillary Clinton that if she were to lose by less than 20 points, they would claim that it was a victory.
COOPER: And they are trying to keep them low.
BORGER: Totally. So she would, you know, she kind of benefits from that. But don't forget in 2008, she won here in New Hampshire.
COOPER: Right. She was down 18 points on Obama.
BORGER: Right. And she won by three points or so. It wasn't a huge victory but it's not as if New Hampshire is inhospitable to Hillary Clinton. It's just that they seem to really like Bernie Sanders.
COOPER: The Clinton campaign is also saying well Bernie Sanders is from neighboring Vermont.
BORGER: Right.
COOPER: Bernie Sanders, I asked him last night, he said he still considers himself an underdog.
BORGER: Right. Well, he will always say that he is the underdog and by the way, he probably is if you look ahead towards South Carolina and the rest. Right now, Hillary Clinton has a fight on her hands here. She eked out a victory in Iowa. If she can come close to Bernie Sanders here, they will consider that a huge win.
COOPER: David, if you were Bernie Sanders, do you try to build up your support in New Hampshire over the next few days to basically secure a blockbuster win or do you try to move some time in resources to South Carolina or Nevada?
GERGEN: Go full blockbuster. Do it big because if he can win by 30 points, that would be astonishing, I think, at political world. She needs to get this below 20. I don't think we have ever seen a person go to the White House who got beat in New Hampshire by 30 points. And I do think it would cause some damage for her. She should be coming up now. She is campaigning hard there. It's a good state for her, you know. So she needs to close this gap. And for Bernie Sanders, if he can pull out 30 points, still, it's hard to believe he could do that, but if he could, that will be a big, big, big victory.
COOPER: And yes, I mean, the Clinton campaign as I said to Gloria, been trying to manage expectations. Saying Bernie Sanders from Vermont, you know. Is that a good enough excuse, though? I mean, it's not like she's some unknown candidate here to Gloria's point. She won here 2008 and certainly her husband has a long history as well.
HENDERSON: That's right. And that's counterprogramming that we are hearing from Bernie Sanders, a campaign. I think, what we know about Hillary Clinton's schedule, she'll go to Flint, Michigan on Sunday. When he leave New Hampshire, go to Flint, Michigan and try to push for that $600 million funding effort the Democrats have put forward in the Senate to address that water crisis there.
So that tells you, I think, she is thinking beyond New Hampshire. She's thinking about a more diverse democratic base, particularly in South Carolina and even in Nevada. She'll return to New Hampshire after making a trip to Flint, Michigan. But I think that tells you she is running on two tracks here trying to keep her eye in New Hampshire and a foot here and not let it get too far away from her but also look ahead to South Carolina and that southern firewall that we have heard so much about.
COOPER: Yes. Nia-Malika Henderson, Gloria Borger, thank you. David Gergen as well.
Just ahead, Donald Trump talking his message to the people in a smaller setting than the big rallies we have seen so often and talking directly to voters. This is actually fascinating conversation we had with Donald Trump and that we had with voters and Donald Trump talking in New Hampshire voters in a restaurant here in Manchester.
Up next, why he says losing in Iowa was actually a win, and his response to a voter who asked specifically what he'll do about health care.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:14:04] COOPER: Hey, welcome back. We are live tonight in New Hampshire. Five days from now, people here are going to vote in the first 2016 presidential primary in the nation. And the candidates are not taking this state for granted at all with 23 Republican delegates at stake. And after his loss to Ted Cruz in Iowa, even Donald Trump is changing his ground game a little. He is still doing the big rallies and arena stump speeches. But he is also adding to his campaign schedule, getting up close and personal with voters.
Today at Theo's restaurant here in Manchester, I sat down with Trump who also took questions from people, some of them supporters. Some of them undecided. All of them eager to hear specifics of what he plans to do if elected president. We began talking about his support in New Hampshire.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: First of all, congratulations. You has a great couple of days since Iowa. How does it feel out there? There is a new CNN poll out shows you are doing well in New Hampshire. How does it feel?
TRUMP: Feels great. The people are great. I've been to New Hampshire so many times and have so many friends up here aside from this. And they are amazing people. It's a great place. I just like it. Feel comfortable.
[20:15:02] COOPER: You're doing more in New Hampshire. You are doing more small events. You are doing more events. I think you have had four or five already today. Events like this with the kind of people up close asking you questions. Is that's a change in strategy? If so, why? TRUMP: I don't think so. I just feel very comfortable up here and
love being here. And you know, I've just been embraced. I have people that have nice houses and they invite me over to dinner and would anyway whether I was doing this or not. But there's a great level of comfort in New Hampshire for me.
COOPER: In this poll, Marco Rubio has also now jumped to second place. Do you think he is more of a threat than Ted Cruz?
TRUMP: I don't know. I mean, it could be somebody out of the pack, you know. I'm watching your stuff every night and I'm saying, who is going to be moving. I have been doing well. I guess in the polls we do pretty well. But I don't know who is second. I really don't. Are you saying that Rubio came in second now?
COOPER: Yes, he did. He came in second in this poll.
TRUMP: It was sort of funny because in Iowa, he was third and I was second and they said he did fantastically well and me they were disappointed. I don't know why they were disappointed because I got actually the most votes in the history of the Iowa caucus, for the Republicans. And we had a huge turnout. It was really a tremendous -- I mean, I must say, I really enjoyed Iowa. But this is -- there's a different feeling here. This is an amazing feeling with the people, the crowds. You probably saw the crowd this morning. It was incredible.
COOPER: How important is it for you to win here?
TRUMP: Well, I would love to win because I like to win. I mean, my life is about winning.
COOPER: I've heard that about you.
TRUMP: You know, your definition of win. When you come in success second out of 11. Actually 17, because we started off 17. Many dropped this. So let's say you are second out of 17. And you know, I mean, we consider that good.
But, no, I would love to be number one in New Hampshire. I think it would send a great signal and, you know, my whole thing is make America great again, Anderson. That's what I want to do. I want to make America great. And there are so many things we can do to take back our country because we're losing our country. I mean, we are doing deals that are so ridiculous. The deal with Iran. We're handing over $150 billion. We get nothing. It's not like we get. We get nothing. So many horrible things are taking place.
If you look at trade with China, we're going to make for them this year $500 billion. We can't do it. We can't afford this. Mexico, Japan, Vietnam, that's another one coming on very strong. They're coming on so strong. Vietnam, you don't believe what's going on there. They're taking our jobs, they are taking our money, they are taking our base, they are taking everything from us, and it's not going to happen if I get elected president. It's not going to happen. COOPER: You came in second in Iowa to Ted Cruz. Let's talk about
Cruz. You have basically accused him of fraud of stealing the election in Iowa. You talked about wanting a new election there. Have you actually spoken to Republican Party officials about that?
TRUMP: I'm into New Hampshire now. It's just one of those things. It was a lot of strange things. And you know, I like Ben Carson very much. And he got pretty roughed up, frankly, although it affected me maybe more than Ben. But I'm so much, because I've been here now for two days, I'm so much into this, into New Hampshire that I just don't care about that.
COOPER: But you think Ted Cruz intentionally was spreading false information?
TRUMP: I don't care. I mean, I won't even say. Let's see what happens. I guess people are looking at it. Who cares? He picked up a lot of delegates, you know. We're second. I picked up one less than he did. So that's not going to be a factor. But this is the place that I'm focused.
TRUMP: Are you going to be focusing on Rubio in speeches?
TRUMP: I may. I may. But I don't think so much. I think the people have to make up their mind. Look. I'm going to do things that nobody else can do because I'm really good at trade. I built an unbelievable company. You saw that. Everybody went down there and looked. They never saw my numbers before. My company that I built very little debt, tremendous cash flow, some of the greatest assets of the world. And I say that not in a braggadocios way. That's the kind of thinking we need in this country. We have $19 trillion in debt. Nobody even knows what trillion means. We have $19 trillion in debt. Now with this horrible deal they just negotiated with, you know, with the budget two weeks ago, that's going to add another $2 trillion in debt. We need somebody that has this kind of thinking I have whether we like that thinking or don't like that thinking. It's really good for what we're talking about.
COOPER: One more on Ted Cruz. He did say that you basically had a Trumpertantrum. Had you ever heard that phrase before?
TRUMP: I haven't actually. I love that phrase. That's great. I love that phrase.
COOPER: You can trademark that phrase.
TRUMP: I like that. I may have to. That's good. I'm going to trademark that before he does. We need a strong tone nowadays. I don't have tantrums. You can't build great businesses and great relationships I have with tantrums. But I will say this. We need somebody with the strong talent. I remember when the same day, Hillary and Jeb Bush, Jeb spent like $100 million and he's nowhere and he likes common core and is weak on immigration. I mean, where is he coming from? And Hillary, the same day, they said Donald Trump's tone. My tone is tough. And I said, you know, they're chopping off heads of Christians in the - Middle East. All over the Middle East, ISIS. They are doing all sorts of things that haven't happened and it doesn't seem like since medieval times. Medieval times they chopped off heads. I haven't seen that. And then you look at what's happening in this world. How mean, how vicious it's become. And I have these people saying Donald Trump's tone is tough. And the problem we have is everybody is so politically correct that our country is going to hell. So we are going to turn it around and hopefully we're going to do a great job. And by the way, I know we're going to do a great job. It's so easy.
We're going to have the greatest business people. Carl Icahn endorsed me the other day. All the great business leaders. We're going to lose a lot of companies. Pfizer is leaving. Corporate inversions. They can't get their money back into the country because of stupidity. Everybody agrees they should get it back. Democrats and Republicans, they can't take it back. They're leaving the country. We're losing some of our greatest companies. They are leaving. You know, Pfizer is going to Ireland. But they're going to Europe, they are going to Asia. I will stop that in two seconds.
[20:21:13] COOPER: I want to have you meet some of the voters.
TRUMP: Great.
COOPER: Some are supporters of you. Some are undecided at this point. I want you to Meet Brian Tilton. He is standing over there. He says he is leaning toward you.
TRUMP: Brian, you have to have dinner with me.
COOPER: He's considering another candidate. Brian, what's your question?
BRIAN TILTON, GROCERY STORE ASSOCIATES: Hi. Since Obamacare passed, I've lost my health insurance three times.
TRUMP: Many people have.
TILTON: My out-of-pocket expenses are sky high. I'm maxed out this year because I had surgery a couple months ago. And I don't have my doctor anymore because of Obamacare. I have heard you say you want to repeal and replace Obamacare. What are you going to replace it with?
TRUMP: OK. First of all, I have been so against Obamacare from the beginning, as you know. Repeal and replace. I was totally opposed to it. They did the $5 billion Web site. $5 billion Web site that didn't work. I have websites all over the place that cost 15 cents if you have the right person doing them, right? We're going to have great health insurance. We're going to bring the private sector in. We are going to get rid of the borders. You know, I am the only self- funder in this whole race on Democrat or Republican. The only self- funder, Anderson. I'm putting up my own money. When I come up here, it's costing me. It is not costing the public, it is not costing -- worse than the public, it's the insurance companies are putting up money for all of these people. The oil companies are putting up money. The drug companies are putting up money. And I'll tell you one quick story about that in a second. We're going to take down the borders because I have a lot of --
COOPER: Specifically for health care.
TRUMP: For health care because what happens is the health care companies, the insurance companies are putting up -- they put up tremendous money for Obama and other people that are running for office. They have total control. When I bid out my insurance, I have big businesses in many different states. In Florida, in New York, all over the place in California. When I bid out my stuff, I don't get any bids. Because if I want somebody from, let's say, New Hampshire bid, a good insurance company bid for my New York business, they can't do it. They just can't do it because we have these artificial, I call them borders. Our borders should be so strong, our southern border should be as strong as our borders for --
What that does is it gives monopolies to these insurance companies inside of various states. When you take that down, you will have so much competition. You'll have phenomenal health care, and the reason they have the borders, because the insurance company would rather have essentially a monopoly in one state than have bidders all over the place, even if they could go into --
COOPER: Would someone like Brian save money on insurance?
TRUMP: He would save money and he would be able to tailor it and you get exactly what you want. I mean, there are things in health care that you're never going to use and they make you buy them. So Obamacare is a disaster. You know, premiums have gone up on Obamacare 25, 35 and 45 percent. Some even over 50 percent. And just like you, people have been forced. They lost everything because of health care.
Obamacare is a disaster. And we're going to repeal it and we are going to replace it with something great. And we have lots of alternatives. The problem that this country has had, until me, is that the presidents and all of the people that are doing this are all taken care of by the insurance companies. Me, I don't care. I'm a free agent. They didn't give me ten cents and they will. By the way, they would. I will say this. I am self-funded. I don't know that it's appreciated.
COOPER: I was going to ask you about that because you said in the past it didn't last two days. You don't think you're getting credit for that.
TRUMP: Only the last couple of days. I put up a tremendous amount of money. I'm spending a lot of money on the campaign and I don't think it's appreciated. People have to understand. The reason Obamacare is so bad is because the insurance companies have taken care of the politicians. These politicians are the worst. All talk, no action. I am self-funding my campaign. I'm putting up my money.
COOPER: You said you'd keep doing that, but it's not worth it. What do you meant?
TRUMP: What I'm saying is I don't think the voters give me any credit for it. I may be wrong. But I don't think when people, even in this room and we have great people in this room, when they go to vote, I don't think they are saying, you know, Trump is the only one out of now -- it started off 21, if you add both together, right. Out of 21 people, I'm the only one that's putting up my own money. And it's a lot of money. Now I'm an efficient person so I've spent a tiny fraction of what --
[20:25:21] COOPER: Getting a lot of free media coverage.
TRUMP: And I got a lot of free. I was supposed to be up to $45 million as of today or tomorrow. That was budget. I've spent a small fraction of that. That's also good management. That's what we need in the country. So I'm number one in the polls. Bush is almost down at the bottom. He spent over $100 million and I have spent peanuts. With that being said I'm going to spend a lot of money. You know why? Number one, I don't want to take a chance so we're taking commercials and good commercials. And number two, I feel guilty not spending a little money. You know, I actually feel a little bit guilty about it, you want to know that truth. But isn't it nice? And it wouldn't it be nice so if I spent just about the least money and I'm number one in the polls whereas other people have spent tremendous amounts of money and they're nowhere. Wouldn't it be nice if we could do that for our country?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Up next, more on my conversation with Donald Trump and a group of New Hampshire voters. He says he's all about winning and great deals. He talks about those things a lot. So I asked Trump whether he thinks compromise is actually a dirty word. His answer when we continue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:30:14] COOPER: And more of my interview with Donald Trump up close and personal. Today he took questions from voters at Theo's Restaurant in Manchester in New Hampshire. Even made a quip about having dinner with one voter who was leaning toward voting for him but not 100 percent sure, it became running joke, it was a casual atmosphere in the restaurant but some of the voters' questions tackled the big issues. Whether Trump answered those questions, you can decide for your self. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: You talk about taking Brian to dinner. Maybe you'll take him to dinner at Timothy's restaurant. This is Timothy Bands, he's a restaurant owner. He says he still undecided. So you could come here as well.
TIMOTHY BAINES, RESTAURANT OWNER: Yes, hi, Mr. Trump.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hi, Tim. Hi, there.
BAINES: I own a small restaurant here in Manchester and interact with young people on a daily basis. Its clear they don't trust Washington.
TRUMP: I don't either, Tim.
BAINES: It's a ...
TRUMP: Less anybody mean it. I've had too much.
BAINES: ... it's a polarized environment. And I feel like a lot of that is because of our most recent two presidents. What tools will you bring to the table to be able to work with people on both sides of the aisle?
TRUMP: It's a great question, you know, in Manhattan, I built a tremendous company. and somebody was mentioning today, I built a job, I built really a city on the west side of Manhattan, you know it very well in and it's Trump place. And it goes from 72 second to 59th street. I had to get zoning, you know this might sound simple. Whose was, Anderson, would understand, people that are in Manhattan.
COOPER: Not an easy thing to do.
TRUMP: I was told that it was impossible, I think I bought the land very inexpensively. People said it was impossible to ever get it done. I got it zoned for 6,000, almost 6,000-unit job with tremendous shopping, with tremendous parking, thousands and thousands of spaces. I get a zone for one of the great job and it's been a tremendous success. They did a great job.
To get that zoned and to get that taken care of, you can negotiate anything. One other thing I say. I just got the old post office recently on Pennsylvania Avenue, I'm building a hotel, every major company in the country wanted that hotel company, and I got that. Who did I get it from? The Obama administration, if you think about it right. I had a great plan, I have a great balance sheet. I got it from Obama. We can solve problems if we have people that know ...
COOPER: Politically, though, you are polarizing but you're saying it once you get to Washington you can actually get things done?
TRUMP: I get along with people. Look, Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neil were very opposite, they get along very great relations.
COOPER: Is compromise a dirty word? For some politicians ...
TRUMP: Compromises it's not a dirty word but we have to get a much better part of the compromise. It's not that dirty. I mean we have people that will never be able to make deals. You know, somebody heard, "Oh, he'll make deals." I'm going to make good deals. That's why I do. I made billions and billions of dollars while I'm making good ...
COOPER: There is some conservatives worry you'll make deals too much, that you compromise too much on conservatives principle.
TRUMP: I'm not a huge compromiser. I have to tell, I make a great deals. I make deals. I own some of the greatest assets of the world. People wanted them everybody ...
COOPER: Turn to you to get a deal or stand on a principle?
TRUMP: You have to. You have to, both. Honestly you have to both, you have to get the deal done but only if it's right is run to you. I would have never started negotiating that deal unless they let our prisoners go first. I would have gone in and said rallies kind of have to let our prisoners go. They would have to said no, or they walk, I would have to doubled up the sanctioned. Within 24 hours they would have let the prisoners go. Then I would have to gone in.
Now I would the gone is second bite. I would to said, "Listen, we're a busted country. We have no money. We owe $19 trillion". Because I would want to take -- my father always said take the lumps out. He used to say, "Son, take the lumps out".
COOPER: OK, what does that mean? Take the lump out?
TRUMP: That means make it a little bit nicer.
COOPER: OK.
TRUMP: Because, normally I go and say, 'We're not giving you the $150 billion." So instead I'd say, "Fellows, we owe $19 trillion, we're a country that has no money, we can't give you the $150 billion." They'll say, "But we want it." I say, "Cant give it, we don't have it. We don't have it." That's called taking the lumps out.
That's supposed to -- OK, they will go crazy. It will break up. Two days later, they'll call back, "Let's make a deal and we keep the $150 billion.
And by the way what have they done with -- he's starting to like me but liking this guy. I think I got him. I think I have them both. But you know what? What have we done with the $150 billion? What have they done? They bought 118 airbus planes, not Boeing planes, they're spending all of their money in Europe. They're giving Russia big chunks of money for missiles. I don't even know they allowed to buy missiles. Why are they allowed to buy missiles? It's so unfair and so incompetent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That was the just the beginning, Donald Trump fielded a lot more question in that restaurant today. Including one from a father who said he's not feeling Mr. Trump would be a good role model for his daughters if he's elected president. See how Trump answered that in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:38:28] COOPER: Back now with part three of my conversation with Donald Trump. I sat down with him in a room full of voters, some of them undecided at the restaurant here in Manchester. It's stretch to say that votes can be won or loss in a dinner or more intimate than a rally that the candidates are up close and personal, close enough to see every reflection, hear every inflection. Some of the people had joined us at Theo's and had tough questions, from Mr. Trump including a man that said he wasn't sure a president Trump would be a good role model for his daughters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: I want you to meet Joseph Manzoli from Hudson, he says he's got a few top contenders still undecided. Joe.
TRUMP: Hello, Joe.
JOE MANZOLI, COO, YMCA OF GREATER NASHUA: Mr. Trump, hi. Thank you.
TRUMP: Are you liking me better at least?
MANZOLI: Sure, kind of like you because I get to stand here.
TRUMP: Thanks, Joe.
MANZOLI: Thank you so much for being here.
TRUMP: OK.
MANZOLI: I have three wonderful daughters all and I want nothing more for them than to look ate their president at role model. And throughout the course of this campaign, you've said some disparaging comments about women, about people from other countries, other religions and about everybody who has disagreed with you. Explain to me how I can look at my daughters and have them look up to a president Trump as a role model.
TRUMP: Well first of all, nobody -- who asked you to give this question? Did Anderson?
COOPER: No.
TRUMP: This is a CNN -- by the way, there's the CNN set-up at this one.
COOPER: No, sir. It's not.
TRUMP: Nobody has more respect ...
COOPER: No.
TRUMP: Nobody has more respect for women.
COOPER: Just for the record, we did not tell anybody any questions.
TRUMP: Nobody has more respect for women than I do. 30 years ago, I had a woman building a major, major construction job in New York City, and that never happens. That just didn't happen. I have so many women executives and your people actually came over and checked and couldn't believe I have so many women executives.
[20:40:00] I've been great to women, and women have been great to me. They've done a great job. I do bring up things that are, things that people don't want to bring up. I talk about immigration stronger than anybody else. I talk about building the wall, if you took at New Hampshire, they have a tremendous heroin problem. It's coming from the border. People are driving trucks right over the border loaded with cocaine, loaded up with heroin. Loaded up for all sorts of drugs and they're taking the money back. So we get the drugs.
And especially in New Hampshire, you know, what's its amazing. This area for some reason has a tremendous drug problem. And one of the first questions I get in New Hampshire is the tremendous drug problem. I'm stopping that. And these politicians can't stop it and they don't know, look it's a different deal. They don't know and by the time their lobbyists and all these people are giving them money get to them then that going to do even if they know what's right, they'll not do it. I'm going to straighten out things.
Now, when I brought up the Muslim, you know, it's very interesting, I brought that problem up and all of a sudden, the world started going wild and now the world is agreeing with me. We have to do something. There is a serious problem. Now we don't have to discuss it, and we can be politically correct. And let's pretend like our president where he refuses to say radical Islamic terrorism.
COOPER: Is that already a Muslim Islam or is it a radical Islamist problem?
TRUMP: Maybe it's a Muslim problem, maybe it's not. I had not -- look I have many Muslim friends. Some of them, not all of them, but some of them call me and said "Donald, you've done us a great service". There's tremendous hatred. At least you are starting a dialogue. We have a president that doesn't want to mention the term.
COOPER: I want to introduce Patricia Cooper, she's a Trump supporter.
TRUMP: Thank you.
PATRICIA COOPER, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Thank you. One of the things I did yesterday was to look at your platform. I'm very excited about a lot of things you say. I love your ideas. We need all these changes, but sometimes when I read them, it's a statement but it's not really saying how are you going to do? There's so many things to do. How are you going to do them? How are you going to get in, you are in this -- your position and all of a sudden, I'm going in the economics. I've got to worry about ISIS, they got to do this.
TRUMP: The president can have a lot of things. We have to be high energy. We cannot be a low energy individual and do this job right. We have to be very high energy. It's a great question, look I have a lot of policy papers out. But in the end, Anderson, you know, your like you have 14 steps the president wants it more than the people. There are 14 steps, let's say taxes, 14 steps for. Step one, we'll going to do this. Step two, we'll do this We got to negotiate ...
A. COOPER: But that's not the -- you're not specifically.
TRUMP: I am specific. Here's what happens, so if 14 step, step one, we'll going to go and see these steps. Step two, OK, now what's going to happen is in step two, three, four, five, the people on the other side in terms of Congress, et cetera, they'll be negotiating with us, right. So now all of the 14 steps are just wasted. And we may make a better deal. In other words, they may take us to a place where the deal ends up being better. That's what I do.
I like to be unpredictable. I hate it when I see these people from the administration going on television, including your shows saying exactly what we're going to do in war to knock out Isis or whoever we're competing against. We have to be unpredictable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: We'll have more of the conversation with Donald Trump ahead. We switched gears and got personal, Mr. Trump opened up about a brother he lost in alcoholism and his wife Melania why he knew he'd met his match the first time he saw her.
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[20:47:11] COOPER: We've shown you how Donald Trump handled the questions from voters from a diner here in New Hampshire today. They asked him about a lot of serious issues health care, the economy and gridlock in Washington. Before we ended the interview, we switch gears and we got more personal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: How do you relax? Because, you know, obviously you play golf. How do you decompress. Because you don't sleep much, I understand.
TRUMP: No. I don't. Not too much. I sort of -- I'm relaxing now. And, you know, isn't it a crazy thing? I feel that I'm a worker. I have to work hard. I love to work. If I were a president, I would be in the White House a lot. I wouldn't be taking trips all over the place to, you know, for whatever reason.
Why would you leave the White House? You know, it's interesting. You're there for a limited period of time, OK? You're not going to be there forever. Why would you have, I would be there so much but I'd be working. I'm a worker. I would be working.
When I go on a vacation, I once went on a vacation where they had no phones. I was out of there in one day. I said I to talk. OK. We've got -- to work. We need a working president.
COOPER: You know I have something in common we both lost our older brothers. And you lost your older brother in 1981, I believe. I did in 1988. What impact did that have on your life?
COOPER: It had a great impact. He was a great guy. He was the most handsome guy. He had the best personality. He was the life of the poor. Her name was Fred, he was a pilot. He is a great pilot actually. He was very talented. Other pilots would use come over to the house and what always tell me he was the most talented. A great -- but he got hooked to an alcohol.
And I told his family. I said, you know, his legacy is great because what I'm doing, so many people talk about it. He got hooked on alcohol. Just hooked. And ultimately it just was devastating. That's why I don't drink. I don't drink. I don't smoke cigarettes, I don't take drugs. Those are the three good things. I won't tell you the bad things. I got that.
But my brother Fred was a great guy. He had everything I mean the most handsome guy. And then he got hooked and there was nothing -- and by the way, nothing you could do about it. And I've seen strong people, really strong people, people that you and I know but really strong, tough people. They can't shake the habit. The way to shake the habit is not to start.
My brother used to say and he knew we have a problem. He used to say to me, no drinking, no drugs, and no alcohol. Actually, he would leave the drugs out. What I do is I say to my kids, I've always said time to time. No alcohol, no cigarettes, no drugs. With my brother it was a long time ago. The drugs weren't the big thing. I don't think I mean the drugs were in big affect. But he always used to say no alcohol, no cigarettes.
Now he said to cigarettes because look it's better if you don't smoke. I have friends who can't quit smoking. I would never want a cigarette. But once you start, I'd probably want a cigarette. I probably wouldn't be here talking to you today if we didn't -- if I didn't have my brother Fred because he kept me off alcohol. And maybe with my kind of a personality I'd be a serious alcoholic, I just don't know.
[20:50:01] But I never had a glass of alcohol in my life only because my brother said don't you dare. He was this tough guy in his own way. Don't you dare ever drink? Because he knew he had a problem. And he passed on to me unbelievable information.
COOPER: Finally, we've seen your wife out on the campaign trail. You talk about strong people. She's a strong woman. When was the moment you knew she was the one for you?
TRUMP: You know, almost when I saw her. She was really amazing. She was a very, very successful model. And she's a very smart woman, as you know. And she also loves your show, but these are minor details. It just, she loves this show. She likes him.
But a very smart, strong person. And I was at a party, and I was a single person at a party, and she was standing, and there were three or four supermodels. Oh, looks whose here its supermodel supermodel and I say, forget about them? I like that one. Who is that?
And it was sort of a weird deal. But I tried to get her number. She wouldn't give it to me. Which of course, that's the smartest thing she ever did. And after that happened I was been and said, well because that's the way life work about someone, you know, that's call smart. But, you know, she is been amazing. And she's as beautiful inside as she is outside and if this ever happens, I know one thing, she'll be an unbelievable representative for our country and a great first lady.
COOPER: Mr. Trump, thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: We're going to get some thoughts from our panel. Back with me is Senior in Chief Political Analyst, Gloria Borger. We also going to bring in CNN Political Commentator, Amada Carpenter, Former Communication Director for Senator Ted Cruz and Mona Charen, a Rubio supporter and a syndicated columnist.
It's interesting to see, Gloria, Trump in this more personal setting with the few voters taking questions directly. Its something we really seen him do much he's doing a lot more of it here in New Hampshire.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, New Hampshire is a different planet from Iowa. It's a different ecosystem. And I think what the voters of New Hampshire demand is what Donald Trump is trying to give them now because he understands that he needs to go retail. That an air war that seemed to be working for him in Iowa to a great degree wouldn't work here in the small towns of New Hampshire, here in Manchester. And so I think he understands that he has to get personal with voters.
And I think just hearing him talk about his brother's alcohol addiction, talk a little bit more about his wife. It takes some of the edge off of Donald Trump. It's not that he doesn't behave with that edge back out on the campaign trail, but I think the voters here in New Hampshire want to hear more of that from all of these candidates.
COOPER: It was interesting. A man I talked to known the people where in that diner before, some of them still undecided. Some of them really like seeing Donald Trump up close like that. A lot of them also said, or a number of them said to you look he didn't give more specifics. I still want to hear more specifics on what's he going to replace ObamaCare with things like that. When candidate do a lot of these Town Halls they have to end up getting into the details.
AMANDA CARPENTER, FORMER COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR FOR SEN. TED CRUZ: Yeah without a doubt this was a kinder, softer Donald Trump. But it seem like the conclusion that he's taken away from Iowa is that the negative campaigning didn't work. I mean the two biggest things, he declined to pursue the allegations against Ted Cruz and declined to attack Marco Rubio, which is remarkable.
But that said, even though he has a kinder, gentler approach in New Hampshire, they expect details. These are the people who take the process very seriously. The CNN poll showed that's nearly one-third of them are undecided. And just unveiling a new personality for however long it last isn't going to be enough to sway over those voters. They want to just hear policy ideas and get down in that and not just here the life story that everyone kind of already knows about it. COOPER: Mona Charen at this point for Trump, considering he does still have the lead here, do you think it's more about not rocking the boat and just trying to get across the finish line Tuesday? Or because up until now he always tends to go for the big headline and that's what a lot of his supporters, you know, traditionally have liked about him.
MONA CHAREN, RUBIO SUPPORTER: Right, so for the last about six hours, he's not been going for the big headline? I wouldn't expect that necessarily to continue but the questions from the people in the diner were really terrific I was quit impressive. I mean, Anderson you did a great job, of course, but that's your job. The actual people who stood up, like for example, the woman who said she was a Trump supporter, but she said I looked at your website and I've looked for specifics about what you would replace ObamaCare with, and I found it was a little vague.
And his answer was quite vague. He gave another one of his sort of ADD answers where he was sort of everywhere all over the map and he brings in ISIS and he brings in immigration and he brings in the border and -- it's all so scatter shot that it was really his answer was as much proof of what that questioner was wondering about as anything else.
[20:55:00] It didn't reassure her, it seemed. Rather, it confirmed what she was suspecting.
COOPER: Well, I think, Gloria and to Mona's point, that's one of the interesting things about these kinds of Town Hall formats.
BORGER: Yeah.
COOPER: I mean look from my perspective it's less aggressive an encounter than a traditional one on one interview because you're really wanting to kind of show a more personal side, trying to get a different side. But it does really reveal just in the answers whether or not the person can get into specifics.
BORGER: You know, that's why people come out of New Hampshire better candidates, better presidential candidates.
COOPER: Because New Hampshire audiences are incredibly well informed and incredibly specific.
BORGER: Yeah. Right and they understand the kind of access they have that nobody else has. And, so they demand a certain amount of accountability. And I think what Mona is talking about is what Donald Trump has to get better at because these questions if he continues to do these kind of formats, and I see he's added an event tomorrow. If he continues to do more of this retail politics, he is going to have to sharpen his answers because they'll go right from a Trump Event to a Cruz Event. And Cruz, for example is very polished, does have detailed answers as does Rubio and most of the rest of these candidates.
COOPER: Yes. A lot ahead, thanks to everyone. We'll get more of your thoughts on that Trump interview in the next hour. There are a lot of other campaign events going on throughout New Hampshire to tell you better including Town Hall with Jeb Bush. He brought a not so secret weapon, his 90-year-old mom, Former first Lady Barbara Bush. That and much more when we continue.
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