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Report: USA Today Researched Sexual Harassment Cases Against the Trump Organization. Warren Buffett in Response to Trump Says Has Paid Always Paid Taxes. Trump Tries to Seat Alleged Bill Clinton Rape Victims in VIP Box of Televised Debate. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired October 10, 2016 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Which version of Donald Trump should you believe? The one who's heard talking about grabbing women's private parts or this one --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Anyone who knows me, knows these words don't reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize.
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BALDWIN: Now comes this, a new "USA Today" investigation looked at more than 4,000 lawsuits Trump and his various companies have faced over the years. Buried in all these lawsuits, at least 20 where Trump or one of his companies accused of mistreating women. Steve Riley is an investigative reporter with "USA Today" one of the journalists digging deep into these myriad Trump lawsuits. Nice to have you on. You know, reading the piece, you know, the lawsuits range in severity, not are all against Trump directly. Can you just tick tough a couple examples where you found he was involved?
STEVE RILEY, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, "USA TODAY": Exactly. These are cases where there's allegations Mr. Trump or someone at one of his companies discriminates against a female employee or ignores a sexual harassment complaint or participates in the harassment themselves. Just a couple cases, there are allegations of female employees who alleged they were sexually harassed and reported that harassment to managers.
And those complaints were totally ignored. There's an employee of a Florida golf resort who complained of persistent unwelcome sexual advances to a manager. The allegation is she was fired weeks later due to that complaint. Another case a female worker was alleging that she was fired as a result of her pregnancy and some accommodations that had to be made for that.
BALDWIN: What about, you wrote about the beauty pageant deal called the American Dream. Tell me about that one.
RILEY: Right. There are allegations, the case of Jill Hart, who alleged that Mr. Trump harassed her and her partner at the time, and that case has gone for years and was eventually settled recently.
BALDWIN: A lot of these are -- I should say a number of these cases have been settled, I believe. Did you all get a response from the Trump organization or the general counsel? What did she say?
RILEY: We did. We reached out to the Trump organization. They say the number of lawsuits on this topic are less than you'd see at another organization of this size. It's hard to weigh that either way. There isn't exactly another organization quite like the Trump organization out there. So what they say in defense of the number of cases that involve sexual harassment.
BALDWIN: OK. That it is less than, that's an important perspective. Steve Riley, investigative reporter with "USA Today". Thank you.
Trump admits he avoided paying federal income taxes for years. Called out Warren Buffett in the process of that that debate. Just into CNN, the response from billionaire Warren Buffett. We have it all for you next.
[15:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Warren Buffett versus Donald Trump. The billionaires clash over tax breaks for the wealthy. Trump invoked the wealthy Clinton supporter during the debate last night as he defended his use of the tax code to avoid paying federal income taxes for 18 years. Here's what Trump said.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You have not answered, though, a simple question. Did you use that $916 million loss to avoid paying personal federal income taxes?
TRUMP: Of course I do. Of course I do. And so do all of her donors, most of her donors. I know many of her donors. Her donors took massive tax write-offs. Number one, I pay tremendous number of taxes. I absolutely used it. So did Warren Buffett, so did George Soros, so did many of the other people that Hillary is getting money from.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Buffett wasted no time responding issuing this statement, I'm quoting him, "Mr. Trump say he knows more about taxes than any other human. He has not seen my income tax returns, but I am happy to give him the facts. I have paid federal income tax every year since 1944 when I was 13. Though being a slow starter, I owed only $7 in tax that year. I have copies of all 72 of my returns and none uses a carry forward. Paula La Monica is here with me, CNN money digital correspondent. So if both of these men are billionaires, one consistently pays federal taxes. How does that work?
PAUL LA MONICA, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Warren Buffett obviously -- worth significantly more than Donald Trump --
BALDWIN: How many million? LA MONICA: $65 billion is the most recent estimate.
Despite what Trump may claim, he's definitely not going to say that. The issue here is Warren Buffett, like many billionaires, has been able to take deductions for charitable giving and for other reasons, but Buffett is fighting back and saying, here is what my income taxes were last year. Here are the deductions I've taken.
I'm not carrying forward any of these losses. The issue is there is the report that Donald Trump had this more than $900 million write- down, this loss, he's been carrying forward for years. Trump could clear all this up if he just showed everyone the returns. Buffett has said he's been under audit as well in the past,
BALDWIN: Let me get to that actually in just a second, but they just got in my ear, and told me Hillary Clinton, she is speaking right now, she actually just addressed Warren Buffet. I imagine what we're talking about. Here's Hillary Clinton.
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HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you're going to call out Warren Buffett, you better be prepared for him telling some good old-fashioned Nebraska, honest facts about what the truth really is. And the other thing about Warren Buffett is he agrees with me. Rich people ought to be paying income taxes to pay their fair share for our country.
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[15:40:00] BALDWIN: So, the truth being what we reported, that he has paid all 72 years' worth of federal income tax. To your point, though, on auditing, being audited, that's Trump's whole excuse on being audited, therefore, I can't release my tax returns. The IRS has come out and said, slow your roll, Mr. Trump, you actually can.
LA MONICA: Exactly.
BALDWIN: Your point on Warren Buffett says he's been audited in the past.
LA MONICA: He's been audited in the past. That hasn't stopped him talking about his own tax returns. To be fair, he hasn't gone out and given us a copy of his tax returns either. We have to take him at his word, but that is still more than we've gotten from Donald Trump. Buffet added, when you look at all the charitable contributions he's made, nearly $3 billion, that is also something at a certain point he can't keep claiming all of that as a deduction or would never owe anything.
BALDWIN: Significant now in the midst of all this last night that Trump did acknowledge that he hadn't been paying federal income taxes. Paul La Monica, thank you so much.
BALDWIN: Coming up, the drama you did not get to see at the presidential debate. What happened behind the scenes when Trump's campaign tried to seat these three ladies, Bill Clinton's accusers, tried to put them in the VIP box.
You saw that 90-minute battle on stage last night in St. Louis, but behind the scenes, there was a bit of a struggle between Donald Trump and the presidential debate commission. You saw Trump invited these women who have accused bill Clinton of sexual assault. He held his press conference earlier in the day with four of them, and here is what one of them shared with the press.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We did recently, and Mr. Trump retweeted it, that actions speak louder than words. Mr. Trump may have said some bad words, but Bill Clinton raped me and Hillary Clinton threatened me. I don't think there's any comparison.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The women were in the first row directly behind his family, but Trump actually wanted them closer. Jeff Zeleny was in St. Louis last night. He joins me live with a little bit of the behind-the- scenes machinations, Jeff. $ what do you know?
JEFF ZELENY, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: I heard it was an electric moment in the minutes leading up to the debate. The Trump campaign did want these women in the VIP box, the family box, and was trying to make that happen. The commission on presidential debates who is in charge of this, it's a bipartisan group, they said, no, this simply isn't going to happen.
So security was brought in and they did keep them from sitting there. That was agreed upon long before last evening. It was stopped by the commission. It was all, of course, designed to shake things up and perhaps, I guess, rattle, if you will, the Clinton campaign. But this is what Jennifer Palmeri, the Clinton campaign director, said a short time ago about if secretary Clinton was rattled.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JENNIFER PALMIERI, CLINTON CAMPAIGN DIRECTOR: He threatened to do this. This was a threat. He followed through on his threat. It was all designed to intimidate her. Everything about the staging made that clear. And it failed. So this was his big threat, he followed through, it had no effect, so I don't know what he is going to do for an encore, but she is just going to continue to run a race.
[15:45:00] She doesn't get rattle very easily.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: It was clearly one of the earliest signs, Brooke, that it was going to be a different kind of debate, different than other presidential debates, and that it was. We'll see if these women play a role in the campaign in the next 29 days or so. Secretary Clinton will be in Ohio later today where I am right now. Some Republicans last night and today were not pleased by that at all they think that's not helpful. One of the reasons Paul Ryan is not going to be campaigning any more for Donald Trump as well. But certainly an interesting bit of drama and intrigue right moments before that debate started last night.
BALDWIN: Let me just follow up with you quickly. Team Trump's way of trying to change the national discourse after the 2005 tape and onto these Bill Clinton accusers. We just saw, Jeff, Hillary Clinton for the first time holding that rally, and one of the lines I took note of is when she said Donald Trump should be apologizing instead of attacking. What are these, lines and messages you think we'll hear from team Clinton in these final 29 days?
ZELENY: It's clear the Clinton campaign and Hillary Clinton herself is trying to seize on what they believe is an opening among some Republicans. Among some Republican women as well as men who are turned off by Donald Trump.
There is an interesting series of ads that are out today from Clinton campaign, they are really just being released this afternoon. And it features Republicans. A father, a mother, and another mother, and they are trying to say we can't support Donald Trump and this is why. So Hillary Clinton suddenly will be of course not only after Democrats but Republicans now as well, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much. Any moment from now, Donald Trump is expected to speak. Rudy Giuliani speaking before Donald Trump. We're keeping an eye on Pennsylvania and team Trump. Stay with me.
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MIKE PENCE, REPUBLICAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, it takes a big man to know when he's wrong and to admit it. And to have the humility to apologize and be transparent with people. And Donald Trump last night showed that he's a big man. I believe in forgiveness, and we're called to forgive as we have been forgiven, and last night my running mate, he showed the American people what was in his heart. He showed humility to the American people, and then he fought back and turned the focus to the choice that we face, and I'm proud to stand with Donald Trump!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[15:50:00] BALDWIN: That was Donald Trump's running mate today, Mike Pence, confirming he will stand by Trump despite the 2005 video showing Trump making vulgar comments about women. But just 24 hours ago, the relationship did appear to be tense, and "Saturday Night Live" for one took advantage.
I found myself sort of in the news rather than covering it. In case you missed it, roll it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: The only person I need is my running mate mike pence. I Love Mike Pence. I respect Pence. I'll always have Pence.
CECILY STRONG, ACTOR, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: Well, actually, today he said he can't condone your remarks and then he canceled his campaign events.
BALDWIN: Mike Pence is a loser. I hate his guts. I call him puny Pence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Cecily Strong, I adore you. Thank you. Jost, thanks for the tickets. "Saturday Night Live," we'll be watching next weekend.
[15:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
