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Trump Throws Debate into Chaos with Insults, Interruptions; Trump Again Casts Doubt on Legitimacy of U.S. Election; Biden Kicks Off Train Tour Through Key States Following First Debate. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired September 30, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN NEWSROOM: Top of the hour. Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is set to speak any moment after what can only be described as a chaotic debate last night. We're going to bring you those comments live.

First, let's take stock of comments made and not made by the sitting president of the United States tens of millions of Americans, voters, last night. The president attacked, once again, without basis, the integrity of the election even as voters are already casting their votes and refused, once again, to pledge to accept the results, something Joe Biden did explicitly, win or lose.

And note this, the president refused to condemn white supremacists despite clear and repeated opportunities to do so in no uncertain terms.

HARLOW: Instead, he told one far-right group to, quote, stand by. The Proud Boys are celebrating their debate shout out this morning.

Let's begin with Jessica Dean. She joins us in Cleveland.

Jessica, good morning. It was a debate that really left the American people with no answers about what their next president would do for them, and that that's disgraceful.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. And if you were looking for policy discussions, you weren't going to find that last night, that's for sure. And I want to take us back to that moment you all just mentioned when the president refused to condemn white supremacists. He had that opportunity in front of his opponent, in front of millions of American voters, he would not take it. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS HOST: Are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups --

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Sure.

WALLACE: -- and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities, as we saw in Kenosha and as we've in Portland? Are you prepared to specifically --

TRUMP: Sure, I'm willing to do that.

WALLACE: Go ahead, sir.

TRUMP: But I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not the right wing.

WALLACE: So what are you saying --

TRUMP: I'm willing to do anything. I want to see peace.

WALLACE: Then do it, sir.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Say it. Do it. Say it.

TRUMP: You want to call them -- what do you want to call them? Give me a name.

WALLACE: White supremacists and --

TRUMP: Who do you want me to condemn?

WALLACE: White supremacists and white --

(CROSSTALKS)

TRUMP: Proud boys, stand back and stand by. But I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, somebody has got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem.

BIDEN: His own FBI --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And just for the record, the Southern Poverty Law Center has categorized that group as a hate group, the group, the Proud Boys that was mentioned last night. Also, as you guys mentioned, President Trump refusing to accept the integrity of the election, encouraging his supporters to go be poll monitors and watch over people voting, just a lot happening on that debate stage.

And now, of course, we move forward to what comes next in this general election campaign right behind me. Joe Biden just arrived at the Cleveland Amtrak Station, Poppy and Jim. We are expecting him to give remarks here. In just a few moments, he is going to be taking part in a train tour today of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

And what's notable about the locations, the places that he's going to today, these are rural communities he'll be traveling to, a lot of them won by President Trump back in 2016. And this was part of Biden's pitch to the primary voters, that he was a person who would go into these areas and pitch himself and he thought could connect and win the support of people who voted for Trump in 2016.

We'll be keeping an eye on this. We'll let you guys know when he starts speaking.

SCIUTTO: Yes. The goal there for the Biden team is to get down the margin of victory, in effect, for Trump to give him a better chance of winning the states. Jessica Dean, thanks very much.

We are joined now by Marc Morial, he is the president of the National Urban League. And, Marc, the president's words yesterday were immediately celebrated by the Proud Boys and other white supremacists online, those words, stand by. It's not the first time the president has balked at the opportunity to explicitly call out these groups.

I want to ask your reaction. Tell us what it means to you, tell us what it means to members of your group.

MARC MORIAL, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE: So, thank you for having me this morning. It's not just the failure to condemn white supremacists, white militia, the Ku Klux Klan, it's a failure to condemn domestic terrorism. But it even goes beyond that.

This is an active stoking of violence. When you say, stand by, you are saying you are stoking violence and division and hatred in this country.

[10:05:01]

The president didn't learn from Charlottesville. Last night, he doubled down on the very same type of message.

This is a wink and a nod to the far-right extremists who he is in simpatico with, as well someone, I guess, he believes he can't win without. So it's deeply offensive for these types of groups to be validated and, in effect, endorsed.

There should not have been a moment of hesitation when he was asked, would you condemn? He said I will. I condemn them forcefully. He failed a moral moment on the debate stage last night and he, in effect, embraced groups that have committed violence against blacks, Latinos, Asians, Catholics, Jews in this country, offensive.

And we saw what we need in this country is we need leadership that's going to try to bind and heal and bring us together at this moment of great challenge.

HARLOW: You know, Marc, in the media poll that was done right after the debate, 29 percent of those watching after hearing that still said that the president would handle racial inequality in the United States better. And it's not a total surprise that the president didn't condemn this and the comments he made about Proud Boys, right? I mean, both sides, the Charlottesville comments were two and a half, three years ago. What are your thoughts on that as you look at that number?

MORIAL: So I look at it this way. That means that 70 percent of the American people feel differently. And I believe that at this moment, as we've seen through the 1960s and with many of these moments of morality and American life, the vast majority of Americans, some active, some vocal, some silent do not embrace the notion of coddling, stoking, endorsing, playing footsie with white supremacists groups.

Look, I know David Duke. David Duke is an abject hater and a convicted criminal. The failure to denounce David Duke, the failure to denounce the Ku Klux Klan when your own FBI director says that they are the biggest threat to domestic, if you will, tranquility because they are terrorist groups.

I mean, we've got to put this in context of here is the president disagreeing with law enforcement. How can you be a champion of law enforcement and disagree with the pronouncements of your chief law enforcement officer who is, in fact, the director of the FBI?

SCIUTTO: Yes, it's a fair point. Marc, let me ask you this, because in addition to failing to call out white supremacist groups, the president did call for his supporters to watch, in his words, polling sites during this election. The fact is polling has already begun, voting has already begun and we've already seen these poll watchers turn up.

I want to ask you from your perspective exactly why you believe the president is doing this and whether you fear it will intimidate African-American voters from casting their vote and whether that's the intention.

MORIAL: Let me send my strongest possible message to anyone. We and people in our community and the American people will not be intimidated by these tactics with smack of totalitarianism, that I'm going to watch the polling place, that I'm going to observe what you do. No.

We are not going to allow our communities to be intimidated. We're going to stand up. We're going to walk to the polls. We're going to march to the polls. We are going to, if you will, hold elections officials, the Postal Service, everyone responsible to be fully accountable that every vote that's cast is counted.

We know what this is. This is an effort to distract, to dissuade. These are the acts of desperation from someone -- someone who fears losing. So let me muddle, gum up, create confusion and distract people. We will not allow people to be intimidated. We will not allow people to be threatened. We will protect people's right to vote by every non-violent, reasonable and legal means necessary.

HARLOW: Marc Morial, strong words and, of course, notice the photo behind your shoulder as you speak them. Thank you for being here. MORIAL: Thank you. Thank you very much.

HARLOW: Let's talk more about last night, our Political Analysts Lauren Barron-Lopez and Sabrina Siddiqui are here. Good morning, ladies. Thank you so much for your time.

Laura, I was interested in your piece, the piece you wrote for Politico last night, the headline, undecided voters call Trump unhinged and un-American, but are unswayed by the debate. What do you mean unswayed?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: So, ultimately, out of the 15 undecided voters, only four decided at the end of the debate that they were going to vote for Biden and two decided they were going to vote for Trump. So the majority of that group still left the debate undecided, wanting more answers about coronavirus, wanting more answers about how the two candidates would handle race relations and also about what they would do to unite the country that (INAUDIBLE) across them.

On the issue of Trump's refusal to condemn white supremacy though, that stood out last night to those undecided voters and they say that they, quote, thought it was one of the worst moments for Trump over the night.

SCIUTTO: Sabrina Siddiqui, there was some commentary immediately out of the debate that, well, perhaps there won't be any more presidential debates this cycle although the Biden campaign immediately said, in fact, they're ready and committed to more debates. In the hours since, what is your reporting? All systems go with the debates to come or no?

SABRINA SIDDIQUI, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think as of now, the Biden campaign has maintained that Vice President Biden will show up if there are further debates, but there are very real questions about what is to be gained from being there when it was very difficult for Chris Wallace to rein in the president and his constant interruptions.

I think there will be some questions about what kind of protocol could perhaps be in place if the president is going to continue to flout the rules, as he did. It was hard for Joe Biden throughout most of the debate to even finish a sentence.

And I knew there was going to be a lot of conversation around the moderating and the kind of sparring that we saw on stage, how little voters had to take away from it. But I do think it bears repeating that a lot of what we heard from the president last night will have very real consequences and ramifications on Election Day, including his refusal, once again, to disavow white supremacists, including his repeated efforts to, again, sow chaos and question the integrity of the election and really, you know, encouraging his own supporters to act as poll watchers on Election Day. I think a lot of that shouldn't be lost as we kind of assess not just what happened last night but how the remaining weeks of the (INAUDIBLE) polls.

HARLOW: Ladies, listen to this from former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who, by the way, helped the president prepare for the debate. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ): I think on the Trump side, it was too hot. You know, listen, you come in and decide you want to be aggressive and I think that was the right thing to be aggressive, but that was too hot. And so I think that what happens is, with all that heat, as you said before, you lose the light. That potentially can't be fixed, maybe, maybe not. We'll have to see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Maybe it can't be fixed. What do you make of that, Laura, from the guy who helped prep him?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Look, I mean, this is very much the party of Trump now. So while Republicans, at times, will occasionally try to distance, not necessarily that that's what former Governor Christie was doing, but Republicans will, at times, try to distance themselves from the president. But, ultimately, at the end of the day, they stop short of saying that this is too far, that this is enough and that the country can't handle much more of this. And that, oh, well, you know, this is our Republican Party and we're going to continue along this fashion.

So Christie's comments aren't entirely surprising though, again, to Sabrina's point about what we heard last night and yet Christie says that, well, maybe it will stop or maybe it won't, and yet what we heard last night was the president refused to condemn white supremacy and also attempt to sow doubt about the validity of the election system.

SCIUTTO: Sabrina, the next debate is the vice presidential debate, if it goes forward. No sign that it will not. And, significant, there will be a woman of black and Indian descent on stage in the midst of deliberately incendiary comments from the president on race. Tell us the significance of that as we prepare for the next debate.

SIDDIQUI: Well, its extraordinarily significant to have someone like Senator Kamala Harris at that debate especially at a time when we have been engaged in a months' long reckoning now over systemic racism in America. In fact, that's what was striking about the president's comments last night.

[10:15:01]

It wasn't an isolated incident, his refusal to condemn white supremacists. But it was coming, as we've had protests across the country over police brutality and disproportionately impacts people of color.

So I think Senator Harris is in a unique position to be able to speak to this moment. I also think that she's likely to continue to focus on the administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. That has really been the centerpiece of the Biden campaign. They have indicated that that's not going to change.

But, really, I think that someone like Senator Harris, one of the comments I heard, for example, last night from people who were watching the debate was, what we're looking at is three older white men talking about race in America. And so there is a real, I think, diversity and representation that she will bring to the stage next week.

SCIUTTO: No question. Listen, the other issue, we have got a Supreme Court fight coming up and Biden made clear last night, I imagine, Harris will continue, Democrats are going to make this about health care in particular.

Laura Barron-Lopez, Sabrina Siddiqui, thanks to both of you.

Well, President Trump, once again, attacked the upcoming election's integrity.

HARLOW: Also, few people have had the chance to debate the president, but we've got someone coming up who has. What did you think about last night?

We are also waiting on Joe Biden to speak as he begins his train tour to the critical battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania. You'll see it live here.

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[10:20:00]

HARLOW: President Trump is once again sowing doubt in the complete election process and potentially the election results undermining a core principle of our democracy. He did it last night on the debate stage. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I am urging my people, I hope it's going to be a fair election. If it's a fair election --

WALLACE: You're urging them what?

TRUMP: -- I am 100 percent onboard. But if I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can't go along with that.

BIDEN: No one has established at all that there is fraud related to mail-in ballots, that somehow it's a fraudulent process.

He has no idea what he's talking about. Here is the deal. The fact is I will accept it and he will too. You know why? Because once the winner is declared after all of the ballots are counted, all the votes are counted, that will be the end of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Let's be clear, the director of the FBI, the nation's top law enforcement official, says there is no evidence of widespread fraud in U.S. elections, including mail-in voting -- stand by. We're going to take you now to live comments from the vice president -- former Vice President and Democratic Nominee Joe Biden, this, at the beginning of his train tour. Have a listen.

BIDEN: It's great to see you. Hello, Cleveland. Don't jump.

Folks, I was reminiscing as we drove to the station I spent the bulk of my adult life driving to the Amtrak Station. I commuted every day from Wilmington, Delaware to Washington, D.C., when I got elected as a young senator right after my wife and daughter were killed, and I didn't plan on staying in the Senate, but I agreed I'd stay for six months. It was a long time ago, and I started commuting.

And the fact is they tell me I've logged more than 2,100,000 miles on Amtrak. So it's good to be here. It's not as fast as a helicopter, but I've made a lot of family friends on Amtrak. So I'm looking forward to getting on the train with you guys.

I want to start off by saying that it's great to be in Ohio and so many friend, members of Congress, local elected officials. It's an honor to be here with Tiffany. I know how hard it is for her, and I say, I know. I was in the position of her children.

My dad went through the same thing, Mr. Mayor, back in Scranton, Pennsylvania, he lost his job and I remember him walking up the stairs making what I call the longest walk a parent has to make to tell a child that he's going to have to leave. My dad didn't have an eight- hour ride, he only had a three-hour ride, three-and-a-half-hour ride. He moved to Wilmington, Delaware.

It took a couple of years before he could bring us back down to Delaware, come home every weekend but to make sure we were all together again. It was a hard slog. A lot of people have made that. And, Tiffany, you're a wonderful, wonderful, mother, teacher and the way you talk about your husband, he and I have something in common. We both married way up.

Look, I want to say that, you know, my dad, when he was -- I apologize to Congress and (INAUDIBLE) he's heard me say this a lot, but my dad, when we moved back to Delaware, said to -- moved to Delaware, would say all of the time to his children, my siblings and I, he'd say, you know, Joe, a job's about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity. It's about respect. It's about being able to hold your head up. It's being able to look your child in the eye and say, honey, it's going to be okay.

[10:25:02]

That's what a job is about.

And, Tiffany, when I think about your husband taking that job eight hours away, it's 100 years ago, I think about my dad and I imagine that your husband has the same stamina and you do as my mom and dad did.

The fact is that when he -- last night's debate in this election is supposed to be about you, Tiffany, about you and all of the people I grew up with in Scranton and people in Youngstown and Claymont, Delaware, and all of the people who make a difference.

And does any president, does your president understand at all what you're going through, what so many other people are going through? The question is does he see you where you are and where you want to be? Does he care? Has he tried to walk in your shoes to understand what's going on in your life or does he just ignore you and all the folks all over America who are in a similar situation?

I think it's more than ignoring us. I look at things from the Scranton perspective, he looks at them from Park Avenue. I think he basically looks down on us. He judges us. The fact is I think that when he called our military -- and I see we have got some veterans here too, thank you for your service, man.

But when he called our veterans who lost their lives and served suckers and losers, I thought it was one of the most despicable things that I've ever heard a president say because you are soldiers. You're veterans. You served your country, like you did, like you did, Connor, like my son did.

And you know, what he does, he lies to you. He lies to you about exactly what's happened. Does he lie to you when like this president did to your husband, that all that worked at the G.M. plant in Lordstown are going to be in good shape. Remember what he said. You said it, Tiffany. He said, don't move, don't sell your house because no Ohio factory will shut down in Donald Trump's America.

He doesn't pay his fair share. Don't worry about that. He doesn't pay his fair share in taxes. He says he -- that makes him smart. What does that do? What does that make you, Tiffany, and make me and millions of other hard working Americans, decent people who pay our taxes? Are we the suckers? Are we stupid because we go by the rules?

He's too weak to beat the pandemic, costing more than 200,000 American lives, that's up ended every part of our lives and hit working people particularly hard. Your businesses are closed and the schools aren't back to normal because Donald Trump hasn't done his job.

He hasn't pulled Congress together to provide real relief for working people, moms and dads and business owners. The fact is, Congress has passed a significant recovery bill, but he's too busy being in the bunker or in his golf course to call him into the White House to work out an agreement.

He told FEMA to cut off funding for school PPE, masks and protective gear because it's not a national emergency. His response during the deadly pandemic is to try to take your health care away by asking the Supreme Court to strike the Affordable Care Act in its entirety, wipe it out, taking us back to a time when insurance companies could deny you coverage for pre-existing conditions.

And now, because of COVID, lung scarring and heart problems is a consequence that have survived COVID. That could be the next pre- existing condition affecting millions of people, taking away Medicare benefits for seniors, throw your adult kids off your health care insurance. Think about his plan for your social security. The social security actuary said that if we follow through in his plan for social security, social security will be, quote, bankrupt by 2023. It's clear he only cares about Wall Street and the super wealthy and the Fortune 500. He thinks they built this country.

That's why he wants another $30 billion tax cut for the hundred wealthiest billionaires in the country who have already made $30 billion during this pandemic, so they'll pay a lower tax rate than you do, as a teacher, a factory worker, a firefighter or a nurse.

[10:30:04]

He gave a tax giveaway for corporations and they moved jobs.