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Donald Trump Will Be Responding to 2016's First Democratic Presidential Debate on Twitter. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 13, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:34:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: I'm Brooke Baldwin, you're watching CNN's special live coverage here ahead of our Democratic presidential debate, the very first one here in the Las Vegas. We are hours away from seeing those candidates take to the stage, get the feel of the podium and the arena in the Wynn hotel behind me. And as any debater really can tell you here, a big part of debate prep is knowing your opponent. And his or her style.

Front-runners Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders certainly are veteran debaters, so we combed through our archives here at CNN just to get a sense of what to expect from each of them and what we found both are tough, both don't hold back, take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have made progress. You can look at this stage and see an African-American, a Latino, a woman.

People are not attacking me because I'm a woman. They are attacking me because I'm ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sign it right now.

CLINTON: We'll shake on this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I want your signature. Everybody wants to see you signing something that you said you were for.

[14:35:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you're an attractive woman and have a very nice family. I'm sure you're a good mother as well.

CLINTON: He's very likely. I agree with that. I don't think I'm not that bad.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You're likable enough.

CLINTON: I want to clarify the record. Wait a minute.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are six debates scheduled. This is not a debate. It's an embarrassment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president thinks the economy is doing great. I don't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You made it clear you will vote for Newt Gingrich for speaker, which means that that type of ideology would be the prevalent ideology in the United States Congress. Why would you support this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because it's people like you. You should really know better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No matter what which of us wins, there will be another millionaire in the Senate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is not the case.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: From the archives here at CNN. Let me bring in Vermont John McGovern. He knows all about going head to head with Senator Sanders, a governor ran against him in the 2012 Senate race. He joins me from Windsor, Vermont.

John McGovern, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it, sir.

JOHN MCGOVERN, DEBATED SANDERS IN 2012 VERMONT SENATE RACE: Thank you. Good to be here.

BALDWIN: All right. So let's get right into it. I know, you have described Sanders as relaxed, can get aggressive. You say when he speaks he speaks in a rat-tat-tat drum beat, what do you mean by that? What was it like to debate him?

MCGOVERN: Well, he's been doing this for about 40 years. He first started running in the 1970s. And he's pretty much been saying the same thing ever since then. And so, he's very familiar with it. And it rolls off his tongue. And if you're in the way, you either have to stand up to him or get out of the way.

BALDWIN: So knowing that and having gone toe to toe, what's your advice to the other four on the stage tonight?

MCGOVERN: Well, I think it will depend on how Bernie behaves. But I think my guess is it will be differential to Senator Clinton and be aware that he has to be careful there. But one thing about him, he's been saying these same tired lies for the last 40 years. So my advice to them is see what he has been saying and he will be saying the same thing. And he can prepare for what he's going to say.

BALDWIN: Why do you think he needs to be careful of Clinton? What do you mean by that?

MCGOVERN: Well, I think people don't like it when, you know, a man is in any way aggressive with a female whether Hillary wants to be seen as female or not, she wants to be seen as a woman of accomplishment on her record.

BALDWIN: I think she wants to be seen as a candidate from what I read what she told "Time" magazine on the last 24 hours.

MCGOVERN: That's right. So she won't want to be treated -- she'll want to be treated like everyone else, but the public won't. So I think Bernie will be very careful and historically he's let other people do the attacking. He will stand back and let others carry his water for him. If he can get away with it. That his modus operandi. And he has done this all the time. If at the very end they are very close and he has to go negative, he will, but he tries not to. And particularly in this case, when, you know, the FBI may be creating problems for Hillary. He will stand back and let that run its course.

BALDWIN: What about the fact, John, that he is a self-proclaimed socialist? If you look at polls from the last couple months, you know, 50 percent of Americans do not want a socialist to run this country. How does he explain what that means without getting too wonky into the scanned government? Or I suppose as a Republican, you want to try to do that because in the end if he wins the nomination, he would lose the election.

MCGOVERN: Yes. That's right. Bernie Sanders has been scrupulous in staying out of the Democratic bouts. I mean, he could have been nominated on both ballots, you know, the socialist ballot, independent ballot, but he stayed off of it all through his political career. And it's quite ironic now that he's running as a Democrat. And the Democratic Party even not only count announces him, but in some states he's ahead of the establishment democrat in this race. So that's a question the Democratic Party has to face.

But Bernie Sanders is, I said to him in one of the debates, you're a member of the socialist workers party and he never corrected me. He has been a member of the socialist party, some form of it or other. So now he runs as a Democrat. The Democrats are going to have to sort that out, but he could be the nominee.

[14:40:36] BALDWIN: Final question, you know, Senator Sanders says he will not attack unless he's attacked directly. Did you all have a plan to go negative prior to your debate in 2012?

MCGOVERN: Well, I mean, Bernie Sanders has a long record and he and I were so politically on opposite ends of the spectrum. He being a socialist, I'm for free markets. So clearly, I pointed out that his model has failed all over the world, it's failing in the United States. So in that sense it was negative. But in a funny way he says that's negative. I'm just comparing people's records. So I don't know what he means. He's saying he's not going to go negative, but my guess is he will point out where Hillary has flip-flopped. But he will say that's just the issues.

BALDWIN: All right. We will see, five hours and 48 minutes away from the big debate tonight.

John McGovern, thank you so much for your time in Vermont this afternoon. I appreciate it.

MCGOVERN: Thank you.

BALDWIN: You got it.

Coming up next, one man will not be on the stage here in Las Vegas tonight. But Donald Trump certainly not one to miss an opportunity. We will play a role in this evening's debate. How he plans to make his voice heard.

Plus just how important is it for candidates tonight to create a viral moment?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You're watching CNN's special live coverage from Las Vegas.

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[14:47:00] BALDWIN: Back here live in Las Vegas. Listen, today is the day. Tonight is the night for the Democrats to shine, tackle the tough issue, debate one another on the stage behind me here at the Wynn hotel. Donald Trump has found a way to make sure his voice is heard again here.

The Republican front-runner plans to live tweet during tonight's first Democratic debate here on CNN. In fact, he has already sent out this tweet. Quote "at the request of many and even though I expect it to be a very boring two hours," he tweets, "I will be covering the Democrat debate live on twitter." So there you have it.

And Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is hitting right back. She tweeted this. Quote "@realdonaldtrump, glad you'll be watching. It's going to be huge."

CNN's senior media and politics correspondent Dylan Byers is with me now.

I want to get back to the live tweeting in just a second, but I want to go to something that is broken really in the last hour or so. The fact that "Saturday night live" has now said that Donald Trump himself will be hosting "SNL."

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR MEDIA AND POLITICS REPORTER: Which will be huge.

BALDWIN: Which will be huge. How is that going to work?

BYERS: It's going to be very interesting. It's the first time a presidential candidate has ever hosted the entire show.

BALDWIN: Ever? Ever? Ever? This is not to showing off. This isn't playing a cameo. This is Donald Trump in wigs and makeup. BYERS: Right. And it's a lot of work for any presidential candidate,

whether that's Hillary Clinton a few weeks ago or John McCain in 2008 to even do one segment, right? I mean, that takes a lot of work and it's a potential risk for the candidates.

For Donald Trump, of course, who has been doing television for as long as he has, he might be more comfortable with it. But you know, which characters is he going to play other than Donald Trump, right? I mean, like who can he play besides himself?

BALDWIN: I can only imagine the writers over there are salivating over the opportunity to write for him. But at the same time, you know, we were chatting in commercial break and you brought up this great point. Does this put NBC now in this position of, OK, we are giving Donald Trump, what is that like an hour and a half. We're giving him this platform. Does that mean they need to reach out to all these other candidates to play and square?

BYERS: Right. So, this is the question because obviously, there's NBC entertainment, but there's also NBC News. And if you're giving Donald Trump this platform that is "Saturday Night Live," which is a great platform, is it incumbent upon you to invite Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush to have that same opportunity? And you know, at the end of the day, they might put out the invitation of the candidates. And, of course, all of them are going to say no and most will do a sketch.

BALDWIN: Can you imagine?

BYERS: I know. It is the last thing --

BALDWIN: Donald Trump, sitting in his, we are told, the caller is that he will be sitting in his apartment tonight in New York tweeting himself during this debate.

BYERS: Yes. The debate is going to be so boring that he feels compelled to tune in and tweet about it throughout the entire debate. You know, look. I think Donald Trump is very media savvy. He love it is when the story is about him as evidence as --.

BALDWIN: And for these two hours tonight, it's not.

BYERS: Right. And so for the entire debate, we have been talking primarily about the Republicans. And now, you know, all of our attention is shifting to the Democrats. He obviously can't be on stage for that debate, although that would be interesting. And so, he is like so how do I inject myself into this story? How do I make news? Well, the cameras are turned on Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and everyone else and he's going to do it by tweeting about it. And he will probably tweet, you know, a lot of criticisms that will get some media attention and once again inject himself into the debate. And if anything, it might boost ratings a little bit for the Democrats.

[14:50:16] BALDWIN: How about that? Trump tweets making news tonight. BYERS: Headlines every day from Trump tweets.

BALDWIN: Dylan Byers, thank you so much my friend. I appreciate it.

BYERS: Thanks for having me.

BALDWIN: And very soon, the candidates, we should give you the heads up here at the Wynn hotel. They will begin arriving. They will get the lay of the land at the debate site. And behind the scenes, the moderators like this guy, Don Lemon, will be making last-minute tweaks. He's actually going to give us the tour of the Facebook lounge. So we will talk to Don.

Also ahead, have you heard about this today? This famous rapper under fire for saying women are too emotional to be president. Let's discuss with some very powerful ladies.

This is CNN's special live coverage. We are in Vegas. We'll be right back.

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[14:55:20] BALDWIN: While it is not just the candidates who are coming under close scrutiny during tonight's CNN debate here in Las Vegas, moderators as well must prepare for their time in front of millions and millions of people here. It might surprise you to learn most moderators have a ritual on debate day. We talked to Dana Bash and Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper and John King. What do they do to get ready?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, THE SITUATION ROOM: I want make sure I get a good night's sleep the night before.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Prepare in the morning. Take a break in the middle of the day.

BLITZER: I eat well.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I just go in and wing it. Just kidding.

BLITZER: I always run in the morning.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, AC 360: Wolf goes for runs, is that right?

BLITZER: I just want to make sure I have the energy and stamina and health to do it in a proper way.

COOPER: I actually have been working so hard over the last week and a half that I have had had to stop running so I'm falling apart.

KING: Reach out to people who are not in the business, people who are not 24/7, 365 days a year thinking about politics.

COOPER: I try to read everything the candidates have said in interviews over the last several months.

KING: And then right before you have to go back out there, go through the checklist one last time.

BASH: Hydrate. That's the most important thing. We were on the stage for about five hours.

KING: Once you're up there, you're not on your own, but you're almost on your own.

BLITZER: That's basically it. It's not that complicated.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: CNN and Facebook are teaming up for the debate. And my colleague Don Lemon joins me from the debate site. Don Lemon kicking it in the Facebook lounge.

Hello Don Lemon. Can --?

DON LEMON, CNN HOST, CNN TONIGHT: This is how I prepare, Brooke. This is Joseph from Facebook. So this is Joseph from Facebook. He came over. He wanted a selfie. I just hang out in the old Facebook lounge here getting ready. Isn't this beautiful?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

LEMON: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much.

LEMON: Nice to meet you. He said he promised me a Facebook t-shirt.

So we're hanging out in the Facebook lounge. Exactly what you'd think, Brooke. Have you been in here?

BALDWIN: No, what's the secret password to get in there, Done Lemon?

LEMON: It's just like when you go to Facebook USA. It's a bunch of young people sitting around in skinny jeans. The guys have beard, you know, little glasses or what have you. But it's really cool because people get to hang out here. We will get to discuss exactly what people are talking about around the country. You know, many times, you know, the pundits or the people in politics, they get to decide like hey, what's important. Here's what we should talk about.

But as you know, Brooke, there's a debate going on Facebook at every single moment. Hundreds if not thousands of debates, if not millions of people talking about different things that they find are important. So I think that is why it's important that we have Facebook here so that we can hear what's on the minds of actual real people around the country.

BALDWIN: It is awesome. So you will be taking questions, just quickly, you will be getting questions from Facebook and that will be your role this evening, right? Making sure the people are heard. LEMON: Absolutely, we'll be taking questions and you can go on, just

go on CNN's Facebook page and there's a prompt where you can go on. And then we are -- we have a whole team of people who are looking at them and then we decide. And then at the debate time right in the middle of it with Anderson and everyone, and Dana and Juan Carlos, I'll get to ask some of those questions.

Brooke, can I show you this? Because this is I think this is fascinating. Let's take a look. You can tell the different candidates. All of them are up here, Democrat and Republicans. Also if you look at this, different issues are up here. Every single issue that most issues that people are talking about.

And if you go back, you can also do this which is really easy. If you want to know the top five issues, check this out. These are the top five issues people are talking about on Facebook for the past month up until pretty much now. These are the top five candidates that people are talking about pretty much for the past month.

So just real quickly, I'm going to look at some of the people. You know, Bernie Sanders who is the insurgent, right? Check this out. So Bernie Sanders, just about a 50/50 split, right, with women and men. You can see younger people. He ranks very high with younger people.

But if you want to see like around the country, how many people are talking about it, this is it. The darker you get, the more people are talking about it.

Let's do Hillary Clinton, same sort of thing. Look at Hillary Clinton. It lights up orange. More people around the country are talking about Hillary Clinton. But check this out. Guess who that is? Donald Trump, orange lights up like a wildfire throughout the entire country. Everyone talking about Donald Trump. And the same thing you can do with different issues that people are talking about abortion on and on. It give you an idea around the country how many people are talking about it and where they are talking about it over the last month. Fascinating information coming from Facebook.

After the debate, we are going to find out who won the debate, who people on Facebook though won the debate and what issues they were talking about. What issue they found important after the debate. We'll do that post debate, Brooke.

BALDWIN: That's awesome. I love the partnership with Facebook. Selfies and skinny jeans, not a prerequisite. Let's make that clear.

Don Lemon, thank you so much my friend. I appreciate it. Will see you tonight.

LEMON: All right, thanks.