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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Housing Market Heats Up; Campaign Attacks Examined; A Look at Who is Campaigning Where; Trump Speaks to Military. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired November 04, 2016 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, "EARLY START" ANCHOR: -- GoPro has struggled to expand beyond its niche market. Made new version of its camera even sells a drone now. And neither of those moves are boosting sales.

OK. Here's a story we can all get our heads around up. Housing Market Heat. Check this out this Friday morning. A new sales report shows prices are hottest in the west. The median home value in San Jose, California, $1 million for the second straight quarter.

JOHN BERMAN, "EARLY START" CO-ANCHOR: Oh, man.

ROMANS: San Francisco is second at $835,000. Urban Honolulu has a median price up nearly $750,000. Prices at Anaheim are close to that as well.

And nationwide, the median sales price is $249,900. That beat last quarter's record high. It's a record high prices here. Tight inventory pushing up these values. But we haven't see -- but we've seen some encouraging signs in housing of first time buyers, are now interested and they have the money to buy. So that's the new part of this thing. First time home buyers starting to get a piece of the action. Unless you live in those cities out west and then you're just sent crying because it's really hard to pay for that.

BERMAN: All right. "Early Start" continues right now.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He re tweets white supremacists and spreads racially tinged conspiracy theory.

ROMANS: Hillary Clinton attacking Donald Trump and focusing on African-American voters.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And these great Medal of Honor recipients behind me to think of her being their boss?

BERMAN: Her being their boss. What did you hear when Donald Trump said that. A lot of questions this morning and quite a discussion.

ROMANS: All of this as two new battleground polls shows the race is too close to call with just one weekend left in this race.

Good morning everybody. Welcome to "Early Start". I'm Christine Romans. BERMAN: I'm John Berman. It is Friday, November 4th. It's 4:00 a.m. in the east. No more Fridays after this one in this campaign. Let's give you the headlines. The developments overnight in this race.

Donald Trump as you just heard, he took a little bit of a swipe at Hillary Clinton asking a collection of veterans and military leaders if they can imagine Hillary Clinton being their boss. Can you imagine her being their boss? It caused quite a discussion.

Hillary Clinton, she went after Donald Trump accusing him of dog whistle politics blaming him for support that he by the way has denounced. This as both candidates find themselves in some pretty important states today. Both going to Pennsylvania and Ohio.

ROMANS: This morning, counting to 270 is hard not just because it is such a big number and you don't have enough fingers. But because adding up the states of the electoral math to get to 270 is getting more complicated for each candidate.

For those of you unfamiliar with the ways of our republic, you need 270 electoral votes to win the election. Hillary Clinton really wants New Hampshire to be part of her equation. Now suddenly polls show it tied there. And in Georgia, a new poll from NBC news, Marist and the Wall Street Journal has Donald Trump ahead by just one point. And he has no chance without Georgia.

Joining this morning is CNN Politics Reporter Eugene Scott. OK. Start for me with New Hampshire. Four little electoral votes that are so incredibly important. You can count those on your fingers not just ...

BERMAN: I guess I can count.

EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes. So we've said in the past that whoever is grabbing the headlines, there's usually some negative news happening about them. And that the last time, New Hampshire poll was taken, Donald Trump was getting a lot of criticism for alleged sexual misconduct interactions with women. And we saw a lot of law makers including those in New Hampshire backing away from Donald Trump. And I think we saw that with voters as well. Bu as you said before, New Hampshire could swing any way on any given day.

ROMANS: Why is New Hampshire so susceptible to news?

BERMAN: I don't know the why, but the is, is that people always say that New Hampshire, you know, moves -- tracks more closely with the nation and tracks more closely with the news than any other state. It's just the most responsive. And part of it is it's a very informed electorate.

ROMANS: Right.

BERMAN: You know, starting the primaries to their, you know, it's also largely an educated electorate. A lot of suburban Boston ...

ROMANS: Right. BERMAN: ... basically is what New Hampshire is. And these people just paying attention. And Hillary Clinton, by the way, you know, New Hampshire is part of almost all her maps to 270 unless she wins Nevada. It's a whole other thing.

All right. So let's talk about Georgia. All of Donald Trump's path to 270 ...

SCOTT: Right.

BERMAN: ... includes Georgia. Because Georgia is pretty much a red state but there is this new Wall Street Journal poll which has him up just by one point.

SCOTT: It is a red state. Historically but one of the new cause where divide is urban versus rural. So it's many people in out in Georgia who are voting for Donald Trump. Atlanta has black voters, brown voters, women voters, millennial voters and a lot of them are concerned about the issues that they're seeing Hillary Clinton speak about most vocally. And so they're getting on board with her.

ROMANS: Why were they were all the campaigns are gone the next couple of days. So I don't see Georgia on their itinerary though.

BERMAN: So no less of an authority to talk open and we're going to speak to in the next half hour.

[04:05:03]It tells me that Rosalynn Carter is going to campaign ...

ROMANS: OK.

BERMAN: ... in Georgia for Hillary. But what's interesting because you don't see her ...

SCOTT: Right.

BERMAN: ... much on the trial just like John Lewis, the Congressman has been out there a little bit. So there are people out there and Tal suggests that in some ways the Clinton campaign is so big, that you often don't necessarily see everything they're doing.

ROMANS: Interesting.

BERMAN: But their top line surrogates is not going there.

ROMANS: Well, they have so many top line surrogates.

SCOTT: Right.

BERMAN: Right.

ROMANS: Eugene Scott. All right.

BERMAN: Good to have you.

SCOTT: Thank you. (CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: Eugene, thank you.

BERMAN: ... a little bit.

All right. Hillary Clinton, she has three stops in less than eight hours today. Pittsburgh, Detroit and then Cleveland.

Cleveland with Jay-z. They're trying to get out the early vote in Ohio. They're actually heading out tickets near a place where you can early vote for that event. It shows here some of the creative ways both campaigns are trying to rack up the votes when they can.

This is all a day after Hillary Clinton was in North Carolina alongside Bernie Sanders targeting Donald Trump and courting African- American voters. CNN's Brianna Keilar with the latest from the rally.

BRIANNA KEILAR, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine. Donald Trump's deputy campaign manager says his path to victory goes through Florida through here, North Carolina, Ohio and Iowa. And that's why the Clinton campaign wants to cut him off here in the Tar Heel state. And the key to a Democratic victory here on Election Day is the African-American vote.

Hillary Clinton is out performing Donald Trump by a wide margin but she's not doing quite as well as President Obama did in 2012 and in 2008. That's why he's been here making a pitch for her and why Hillary Clinton made this pitch to North Carolinians today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: He has spent this entire campaign offering a dog whistle to his most hateful supporters. He re tweets white supremacists and spreads racially tinged conspiracy theory. And you better believe he's being heard loudly and clearly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And it's a mad dash for Hillary Clinton towards Election Day. She will be in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio today. Ohio with some help. Some star power from Jay-z and then a focus for her on Philadelphia over the weekend and into Election Day.

She will be in Philadelphia with Katy Perry on Saturday and then she'll be accompanied by her husband, her daughter Chelsea as well as President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama in Philadelphia on Monday, the night before Election Day. John and Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that, Brianna.

Donald Trump starts today in New Hampshire then onto Ohio and Pennsylvania. In North Carolina, Thursday, Trump had this moment, this off-script moment that's getting a lot of attention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: You know when I look at these great admirals and these great generals and these great Medal of Honor recipients behind me, to think of her being their boss? I don't think so. And you know they're incredible patriots. They would never say a thing, but I know what they're thinking. It's not for them, believe me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Trump also praised the veterans' bravery and his own particular kind of courage. Let's bring in CNN Jim Acosta for the latest.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Donald Trump continued to try to make a comeback in this last week of the campaign at a rally in North Carolina. He once again attacked Hillary Clinton for the e-mail controversy. He also saluted military veterans at one point, talking about his own bravery. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They're so much more brave than me. I wouldn't have done what they did. I'm brave in other ways. I'm brave. I'm financially brave. Big deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: But if there's one subject Trump is hesitant to touch it is President Obama. After days of attacks from the president on the GOP nominee, Trump only responded by saying that the president should be back at the White House doing his job. A far cry from the more personal attacks from Trump on the president in the past. John and Christine.

BERMAN: All right, Jim Acosta thank you so much.

In Pennsylvania this morning, there is still the whiff of irony wafting through the air after one of the more surprising speech on the campaign, there was a Trump who said they we're all too cruel on social media. What did Donald Trump said. He was with his wife Melania.

This is her first public speech since the Republican convention in Cleveland. She says social media has become too mean and too filled with insults based on looks and intelligence. Now, Dana Bash, if you're watching TV yesterday after that event said wait a second. Has she ever met Donald Trump? Let's get more on that from CNN Sara Murray.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, John and Christine. Melania Trump made a rare appearance yesterday on the campaign trail traveling to the Philadelphia suburb to deliver a speech, her first since she gave those remarks at the GOP convention where she plagiarized First Lady Michelle Obama.

Now, Melania Trump had a different agenda today. She wanted to talk about what she would do as first lady and said one of her top priorities would be battling cyber bullying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S WIFE: Children and teenagers can be fragile. They are hurt and they are made fun of or made to feel less in looks or intelligence.

[04:10:06]Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough. Especially to children and teenagers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now one thing Melania Trump did not mention was her husband's own politic use of twitter. Donald Trump of course regularly uses it to hurl insults at people in the political arena or people in media who he simply doesn't like.

Well, Melania Trump did made clear that she feels like adults are better able to handle this criticism or she wants to do more to protect children. So it's certainly a speech that was heavy on what she wants to do as first lady. Not so much heavy. I'm talking about the personal details on details of her husband and his quest for the presidency. She's been a rare asset for Donald Trump on the campaign trail in part because she's made it clear publicly and privately. She would rather be home taking care of their 10-year-old son Barron. Back to you guys.

ROMANS: All right, Sara, thank you for that. The final date of this economic news before the election is due this morning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. It's the big October jobs report. This is what we're expecting in to show.

A 177,000 new jobs. Better than the 156,000 jobs that is in September. The jobless rate forecast take down to 4.9 percent. It was 5 percent in September. About half of the rate it was. The height of the recession. Wages expected to hold steady, up 2.6 percent over the past year. You like to see stronger wage growth but it has been always slowly improving.

Democrats want a strong number feeling it will help Hillary Clinton's closing arguments on the economy. She's firmly tied herself to President Obama's economic legacy. In his two terms, the economy has added nearly 11 million new jobs. Hiring is in positive for 72 months in a row.

But Donald Trump has blasted every jobs report since he started running. He called September anemic. He has called these numbers phony. He had said the unemployment rate is higher than the government is reporting. Various times in the campaigns, he said rate unemployment rate is anywhere, from 20 to 25 to 40 percent.

BERMAN: All right. This just did. The election is soon. It is Tuesday. For complete coverage of that day -- and we basically we're on nonstop between now and until the thing is all over. But Tuesday is the big day. We're on 24 straight hours and then so make sure to tune in. ROMANS: In every minute, every campaign that matters here. The end is in sight for the candidates. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, they are targeting key battleground states. With the race tightening here, what can we expect in the next four days? "Early Start" continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:16:35] ROMANS: It's four more days of grueling suspense. Agita. So what can we expect from the two campaigns between now and Tuesday? Joining us Senior Media Correspondent Brian Stelter. Washington CNN Politics reporter Tal Kopan. It is a final Friday.

BERMAN: They are both smiling, by the way.

ROMANS: I know. They are ...

BERMAN: But both of them made it just fine.

ROMANS: It's Friday morning and early ...

BRIAN STELTER, SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Well, 600 hours till Election Day.

ROMANS: Now you're counting in hours.

STELTER: Does that smile you.

ROMANS: Oh ,no. Listen, I want to listen to this little piece of sound from Donald Trump yesterday. He was talking in front of a bunch of veterans. And I really think this sound bite is sort of -- it's in the ear of the beholder. And people really hear different things when they hear Donald Trump talk about Hillary Clinton as the boss of people in the military. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know, when I look at these great admirals and these generals and these great Medal of Honor recipients behind me, to think of her being their boss? I don't think so. And you know, they're incredible patriots. They would never say a thing, but I know what they're thinking. It's not for them. Believe me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: So Brian Stelter, some women right away and men were like, oh, please. A woman can't be theirs boss. Are you kidding me? Others are like come on, you're bunch of politically correct cry babies. You know it's really interesting how this particular sound but sort of inspired both sides.

STELTER: It is true. That it happens from time to time with Donald Trump. He always straddles that line. So it is in the era of the beholder. I'm sure at least some liberals will bring this up today. And then maybe Clinton herself will go at this. But it is entirely as in the ear of the beholder. BERMAN: Tal.

TAL KOPAN, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yeah, absolutely. You know, sort of a war shock test for folks listen. I mean, look, first and foremost, she is a woman. So if he's going to refer to her by a pronoun, that pronoun is going to be her.

But Donald Trump has done this a number of times throughout the campaign. Where he's intentionally is very vague. He uses a lot of innuendo and insinuation. You know, he loves to say things like, something is going on there. I know what they're thinking.

STELTER: Right.

KOPAN: He could have intentionally leave a lot of things open to interpretation. So while you could absolutely reasonably interpret this to be an attack about say Benghazi or e-mails or any number of sort of other attacks. He left it open to be interpreted as the first female commander in chief. And that's why it's so sort of eye of the beholder kind of a statement.

BERMAN: All right. There's more of the separate of political war shock test. Melania Trump suggesting that we're all too mean on social media. Is it A, either political malpractice having a Trump raise the issue that people are too mean on social media or B, act of pure genius that we just don't understand? Tal.

KOPAN: Those are only two options?

BERMAN: You can go to C or D.

KOPAN: Political malpractice or genius. You know, I mean, it doesn't make a lot of sense in terms of an optics perspective. And you know, Brian has made the point that she could be speaking to an audience that is not the beltway, that is not reporters and that is absolutely true. But at the same time, at this point in the race where a lot of people are getting their news, local media, you know, national media.

STELTER: Yeah.

KOPAN: There is no way that any report about this isn't going to include probably high up in the story in the first few paragraphs.

[04:20:04] The irony of the fact her husband is known for attacking people on social media. So, while the point she is making is absolutely valid and bullying on social media is a problem especially directed at young people. She's calling attention of a flaw with her husband simply by touching on the subject which is a bit of a questionable move from a campaign.

STETLER: I think it might be a subtle jab or message to her husband. I mean, I don't know about you guys. This is the way my wife sometimes tells me to shape up, right? She just ...

ROMANS: She gives national speeches? STETLER: Well, local speeches. But, yeah. I mean there is something to be said for the better half in a marriage. Suggesting to the husband how to adapt and how to change his ways. And by the way, Trump has not been tweeting insults lately. He's not been on the attack on twitter and Facebook so maybe he's been getting the message at all.

ROMANS: I want to know what he has to shape up about. That's what I want to know.

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: Brian's long list of flaws. I love that quote.

BERMAN: All right guys, thanks you so much. We'll see you again in a little bit.

So a parade more than a century in the making. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:25:32] BERMAN: President Obama back in North Carolina today making stops at early voting rallies in Fayetteville and Charlotte. One of his goals is to turn out the minority vote. This is what he told supporters at a rally in Miami.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: The choice could not be clearer because Donald Trump -- don't boo. Don't boo. Don't boo. Come on you guys know that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: All right. Even for a south sider like President Obama, the Cubs winning the World Series and breaking a 108-year curse is a big deal. The president calling Cubs manager Joe Maddon from on board Air Force One to congratulate him on the team's historic World Series victory and invites them to visit the White House before he leaves office.

Also on the call is Deputy Chief of Staff and big Cubs fan did Decker and Breckenridge and today is championship Friday in Chicago. The city honoring the Cubs with a victory parade held followed by a mass celebration rally in Grant Park.

There are a lot of people in the Obama administration who spent a lot of years in Chicago. The Chicago, you know, I think -- when you think about Penny Pritzker, you think about all the other folks in the administration who must be really that are here.

BERMAN: I bet everyday in Chicago is going to be, you know, victory celebration day for a long, long time.

ROMANS: I know. Everybody is like next year is finally here. It's finally next year, you know. That's because we have been saying that for 100 years.

BERMAN: All right. We do have this Election Day to get in the way of our baseball parade.

ROMANS: Oh, that's right.

BERMAN: Just a few days from now. What do the candidates hoping to achieve? We've got new developments overnight. Come on back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)