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Inside Politics
Donald Trump Denies Allegations That He Sexually Assaulted Women; Clinton and WikiLeaks; 25 Days to the Election. Aired 12-12:30p ET
Aired October 14, 2016 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:00] JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for sharing your time today as we mark 25 days to Election Day and countdown to next week's third and final presidential debate. Here's what's driving the race and driving or conversation.
Donald Trump says the growing list of women who say he touched them inappropriately are all liars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: These vicious claims about me of inappropriate conduct with women are totally and absolutely false. These claims are all fabricated. They're pure fiction, and they're outright lies.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: But fresh national polling shows a big Hillary Clinton lead, and women are the driving force in Trump's troubles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: A candidate for president of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women. And I have to tell you that I - I can't stop thinking about this. It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn't have predicted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: And with the clock now ticking, we map out the state-by-state race and Trump's urgent challenge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Our campaign represents a true existential threat, like they haven't seen before. This is not simply another four-year election. This is a crossroads in the history of our civilization that will determine whether or not we, the people, reclaim control over our government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: With us to share their reporting and their insights, Lisa Lerer of the Associated Press, Jonathan Martin of "The New York Times," Olivier Knox of Yahoo! News, and CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson.
In a moment, this, President Obama scathing critique of the GOP, as Democrats look to turn Trump's troubles not just into a White House win but also big gains in the Senate and House races.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Why did it take you this long? You said you were - you're the party of family values. What, you weren't appalled earlier when he was saying degrading things about women? When he was judging them based on a score of are they a two or a 10? That wasn't enough for you? You're walking away from him now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: But first, the central issue in the campaign for the White House now, to the women who say this -
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESSICA LEEDS, ACCUSES DONALD TRUMP OF FONDLING HER ON AIRPLANE: He wasn't flirting, and I don't think I was flirting. We were just talking. And it was like - suddenly he's like encroaching on my side of - of the - of the seat. And he's - his hands were everywhere.
ANDERSON COOPER, ANCHOR, CNN'S "AC 360" Did he actually kiss you?
LEEDS: Yes. Yes.
COOPER: On the face or on the lips?
LEEDS: All - wherever he could find a landing spot, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: And to women who speak like that, Donald Trump responds with this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The establishment and their media enablers will control over this nation through means that are very well known. Anyone who challenges their control is deemed a sexist, a racist, a xenophobe, and morally deformed. They will attack you. They will slander you. They will seek to destroy your career and your family. They will seek to destroy everything about you, including your reputation. They will lie, lie, lie.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That's where we are, 25 days out. And just before we start the conversation, I want to put up a brand new Fox News national poll here, race for president, Clinton, 45, Trump, 38, Johnson, seven, plus seven in this national poll. One week ago, in the very same Fox News poll, it was plus two for Hillary Clinton. So, clearly, we see what's happening to the race. And then, Lisa Lerer, jump in here, women will be a majority in the electorate. They were 53 percent in 2008 on Election Day. We expect they'll be 53 percent again in 2012. We expect they'll be at least that. And look at this, among female likely voters, Clinton, 51, Trump, 32. A 19 point difference. If it's anywhere close to that on Election Day, Hillary Clinton is the next president of the United States.
LISA LERER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Look, we always knew that gender would be part of this race if Hillary Clinton won the nomination. She would be the first female president. That was always going to be in the mix. The fact that this race has essentially become a war of the sexes is remarkable. Like, we are having a national referendum on women's role and a sense from men that perhaps they feel that fears of being displaced, and, frankly, Trump is hemorrhaging women.
And he's particularly hemorrhaging white, college educated women. That's a problem for him. Romney won white women. If he loses them, it's hard to see how he wins this race, particularly in those crucial suburban pockets. You know, those suburbs of Columbus, the suburbs of Denver, the suburbs of Philly. This is a really big problem for him. It's not clear how you stop the bleeding at this point.
[12:05:09] NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, it -
KING: Well, it - I'm sorry, jump in.
HENDERSON: Yes, and it's not clear that he wants to. I mean he has embraced this idea of being the alpha male. He's had these problems come out with all these women. Five or six or seven or ten of them come out and accuse him. And he - it's not clear that he's able to deal with it at this point. It seems like he goes to these rallies and he sees these crowds and some women are in those crowds, too, but there is this kind of alpha male posing that he's doing that is resonating with a lot of these voters, particularly working-class white men.
KING: Ten women in the last 72 hours or so have come forward to different publications. They have put their names on these allegations. These are not anonymous women saying Donald Trump did this to me. Who didn't - they've had the courage to put their names in the public domain and say this. Donald Trump says they're all lying. And Donald Trump says he will prove this, although we're waiting.
In the meantime, Jonathan, his argument is, this is a media and Hillary Clinton conspiracy. If you threaten them, this is what they do to you. I don't remember us, if there is such a conspiracy, which if you go to Breitbart you'll find it. In the real world, I don't think so. I don't remember us doing this to John McCain, if that's the case. I don't remember any - anyone saying Mitt Romney was a predator.
JONATHAN MARTIN, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Not just that, but I will say this about the timing of this. These women have come out because Trump just said in a - a highly watched national debate that he had never done the things to women that he talked about in that videotape with Billy Bush that came out last week. Well, they were responding to that and they were outraged because he had done those things to them, they said.
And also, let's just keep in mind, our friend Matt Viser at "The Boston Globe," in April of this year, reported about how Trump conducted himself with women. My colleagues at "The Times" in May, the next month, also wrote in-depth about Trump's treatment of women. This is well before the final weeks of this election. It - put our stories aside. Look at Trump's own words on Howard Stern over the years. The Republican Party nominated a Howard Stern character for president of the United States. They knew what they were doing. They went in with eyes wide open. They can't be surprised at this.
KING: Well, I know you mentioned Howard Stern. Our team, the (INAUDIBLE) team that's going through all this, just found a new Howard Stern audio where he talks about Lindsay Lohan during all her troubles and he says on this tape, "disturbed women are better in bed." So -
MARTIN: His words, right.
KING: His words.
Olivier, to this point, one of the women who has come forward is a correspondent who wrote a profile about Donald Trump for "People" magazine some time ago, back in 2005. It was the one-year anniversary with Melania. She was pregnant with Barron at the time. This reporter says Donald Trump took her into a different room and said, we're going to have an affair. You know that, don't you, and tried to kiss her and the like. Here's how Donald Trump responded to her on the campaign trail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And she said I made inappropriate advances. And, by the way, the area was a public area. People all over the place. Take a look. You take a look. Look at her. Look at her words. You tell me what you think. I don't think so. I don't think so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: I suspect the ladies will have an even stronger take than you and I might have. But if you're trying to put this away, I don't think that's the way to do it.
OLIVIER KNOX, YAHOO! NEWS: It's not. It really - it really - it really isn't. And that - that's also a sub story of this whole campaign, that he manages to keep things into the headlines. He pours fuel on the fire at least as often as he attempts to douse it.
He, of course, got - the result of this was that the "People" editor- in-chief wrote a second piece basically saying, this is why we ran it. We stand by it. She was brave to do this. So we've got a whole other cycle of this.
We were talking about polls earlier. One of the really interesting poll that came out, I think it was earlier this week, was asking Trump voters, asking couples, married couples and husbands, say overestimated the - the degree to which their wives were also supporting Donald Trump. You had a gap. You had husbands saying like 45 percent were confident that their wives would vote for Donald Trump and only about 33 percent of the wives said the same. So we're going to - that might also - that might be a November surprise in some households.
MARTIN: Yes.
HENDERSON: Yes.
KING: Thanksgiving falls after the election. There will be a lot of interesting Thanksgiving dinners this year, aren't there going to be.
LERER: But part of the problem here is that the Trump campaign had made the argument that Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton were discrediting Bill Clinton's accusers. And now they're essentially discrediting Donald Trump's accusers.
KING: Right.
LERER: So it's very - it's - it's political whiplash. It doesn't comport with what they said before, which was that accusers were to believe - be believed.
HENDERSON: Yes.
LERER: And the other problem is that, sadly, and I'm sure I suspect Nia would agree with me, on this groping, it's like a pretty common female experience. So this is something that people can relate to, women can relate to. A lot of women have had these experiences -
HENDERSON: Yes.
LERER: On public transit or in the workplace or wherever.
HENDERSON: Right.
LERER: So that's in our (INAUDIBLE) sadly (INAUDIBLE).
KING: That was the power - we're going to get to more of it in a bit, but that was the power of the first lady yesterday.
HENDERSON: Right.
KING: That that - I don't care whether you're a Democrat, Republican -
LERER: Right.
KING: A Martian, you know, from another galaxy, the power of the first lady just speaking as a women about these experiences -
LERER: Right.
KING: Which, you know, forgive me, men, I don't care who you're voting for, we should listen. We should listen and learn during this conversation.
HENDERSON: No, I think that's right. And I guess, at this point, Pence, as well as Donald Trump, they had said there's going to be more evidence to come out to - that exculpates Donald Trump. I don't understand why, if there was evidence, he didn't talk to "The Times" about it and reveal it then. But we're been told that any minute now there'll be information on this.
[12:10:17] KING: He needed that time to say the reporter was the most disgusting person on earth.
But we do have Mike Pence talking about this this morning. Look, Mike Pence is Donald Trump's running mate. Mike Pence is putting his own reputation and his dignity on the line backing up Donald Trump, including this this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT LAUER, "TODAY" SHOW: If there's a time to come up with that evidence and show us that evidence, this is the time. Has he shown you that evidence?
GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Right. Well, Matt, I think it's coming. And it's coming in - in, frankly, probably in a matter of hours.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That was early this morning.
MARTIN: What time is it now?
HENDERSON: Yes. Yes.
KING: It's 12:10 and 46 seconds here in the east. I don't know what this evidence would be. But if the there is such evidence, again, and forgive me, forgive me, but the facts back me up on this one, I get a tad skeptic's because when he's - back in 2011 he said, if the president released his birth certificate, I'll release my taxes. There have been a number of times where Donald Trump has told us, you do something, I'll do something, or I'm about to give you something and we're still waiting.
LERER: I mean it would also have to be a lot of evidence, but what are we up to, what did you say, 10 accusers?
KING: Right.
LERER: So you would have to have evidence in each one of these case that date back decades. I'm just - it's not clear what this evidence would be, and you would need an awful lot of it, so (INAUDIBLE). MARTIN: But in the - it's obviously important to have these women come
out now and hear their stories. But look at his own words about what he has done himself years ago.
HENDERSON: Right. Yes, right. MARTIN: In one of the books that he wrote, he boasted about his - his sexual exploits. And, you know, using a word in parentheses, I won't repeat here on the air, that sort of got to the heart of the matter.
HENDERSON: Yes.
MARTIN: This is not like some new evidence for the party. They knew what they were getting. And it's a testament to the grip that he has on a good chunk of the base of the conservative movement that the party cannot move away from him. His voters are basically telling Republicans there's going to be hell to pay if you move away from me. And I think that's what you've got a lot of these senators who know that this is a gamble. Who are basically now in hiding because they - they can't disavow him because they fear the wrath of his own people.
And the gets to the bigger story, which is, the party depending upon the Trump base of voters to win general elections.
KING: Right. And we'll get to that a bit later.
But next up here, jitters about her e-mail server inside the Clinton campaign, trying to get her to say "I'm sorry." Clinton campaign worries, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:16:51] KING: Welcome back.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton do have one thing in common, they both need to be pushed to say "sorry." The hacked e-mails being released by WikiLeaks show Clinton campaign chairman asking a close friend for help when she wrote to him about Secretary Clinton refusing to apologize for setting up that private e-mail server. This from John Podesta. Quote, "you should e-mail her. Tell her to say it and move on. Why get hung up on this?" Here's Neera Tanden, the person he was corresponding with, here's her take to Podesta after a Clinton interview on the e-mail issue. Quote, "apologies are like her Achilles' heel. But she didn't seem like a" - word rhymes with witch - "in the interview and she said the word sorry. She will get to a full apology in a few interviews."
MARTIN: Can I (INAUDIBLE) here.
KING: Yes.
MARTIN: As reporters here, there is something that's validating about seeing these e-mails and this batch, but also the Colin Powell batch a few weeks ago.
HENDERSON: Yes. Yes.
MARTIN: Because it reflects what all of us have been writing about. And it's real, right? It's like, OK, so Condi and Colin Powell didn't like Rumsfeld and - got it. OK. Hillary Clinton hates to apologize.
LERER: Right. MARTIN: Is very press weary. OK. I mean it's sort of like - it's all the stuff coming out that is fascinating for us to look at, but it also reflects our reporting. So, kudos to the press board (ph).
LERER: Someone told me that it's like reading one of the post-campaign books while the campaign is still going on in real time.
MARTIN: In real time. Yes.
LERER: Yes. I mean -
HENDERSON: It's all - yes, it's a behind the scenes kind of sausage making, which maybe the average voter isn't fascinated by this, but it certainly is fascinating to see all these e-mails going back and forth where they're pursing what she should do. Should she talk to the press. Should she not? What phrase she -
KING: Should she make a joke? I think there were like 12 people on e- mails -
HENDERSON: Should she make a joke. Yes, should she used the phrase "everyday Americans." Yes, and then -
MARTIN: It's incredible.
KNOX: That was great.
(CROSS TALK)
LERER: But the only -
MARTIN: But she is - I mean this is -
HENDERSON: Yes. Right.
MARTIN: She is somebody who is a cautious, careful, at times plotting politician who is definitely afraid of saying the wrong thing. Even tweeting the wrong joke.
HENDERSON: Right.
MARTIN: And it's reflected in these e-mails. What she is not is some kind of, you know, radical liberal. She's, you know, seen as being more of a pragmatic person who's trying to sort of balance various constituencies to get elected.
HENDERSON: Yes.
MARTIN: I mean that's the reveal, right?
KING: We should - we should -
LERER: There hasn't been any real bombshells. The speech transcripts were interesting. I think the question is, what's coming, right?
KING: Right. LERER: Because there also haven't been a lot of e-mails from Hillary Clinton herself. So you do have to wonder, I mean, I don't know how savvy WikiLeaks is about the American political system -
KING: Right.
LERER: But if they are savvy, maybe that's a batch they hold off until towards the end.
KING: Right.
MARTIN: But - but, guys, it exposes her as more of a centrist than a lefty, right?
HENDERSON: Right. Yes.
LERER: Right.
MARTIN: I mean she's like sympathetic to Simpson-Bowles. She actually is more of a free trader at heart. I mean that's the reveal. And - and -
HENDERSON: And that would have been helpful in the primaries, right?
MARTIN: Exactly.
KING: On the - on the - on the honesty question, you see this going back and forth in the campaign. She does have an honesty and trust issue and, at the moment, Donald Trump is taking up most of the oxygen in the campaign with his own problems. And they are very real and legitimate problems.
But to the honesty, here's one from Brian Fallon, her chief spokesman, going to John Podesta during the whole e-mail - what's in the e-mails, were there classified material in the e-mails. "We should not think it is fine to find something that 'should have been classified at the time.' Our position is that no such material exists else it could be said that she mishandled classified information."
Now, you can read that knowing that there was some - A, there was some information marked with a "c." There's a big debate about whether she understood that or not. And they knew there was some information that was retroactively classified. You could read that as saying, I don't care what the truth is. Until we're through this tunnel, we're just saying, you know, she did not mishandle classified information. There was nothing marked classified.
[12:20:06] KNOX: Yes, that's a plausible reading of it. I mean one of the problems with these e-mails is, beyond the fact that they're hard to authenticate, because the Clinton campaign has decided that they're not going to - they're not going to confirm or deny.
One of the problems is, we don't know - some of these threads are clearly cut short.
KING: Right. KNOX: You have some of these back and forth where you'd like to see two more before and maybe two after because it's not really clear what they're saying.
KING: Context, it would help.
KNOX: And so - right. So it is a - there is a major context problem. We also know one of the great things about the apology, one of our colleagues at MPR dug out the fact that they actually went so far as to drafted a script for what would have been a short, maybe less than ten-minute video in which she would try to address all these issues in one place. I mean it never happened. And obviously the e-mail that I'd like to see is the one where - where they clearly decide not to do it and why.
KING: Never mind.
Donald Trump has tried to use these issues to his advantage. And to the point you said that nothing jumps out - enormous, oh, my God, but she did give a speech to Brazilian banks where she talked about open borders.
MARTIN: Yes.
HENDERSON: Yes.
KING: Now, they say she meant trade. First they say, we're not -
MARTIN: And free trade, yes.
KING: We're not promising - we're not authenticating that this was her. But if that is her, she means trade, not immigrants. That's how they spin this. And then they blame the Russians. She did give a speech to bankers where she said, where else would you go for advice on who should regulate the industry but to the people who know it best. Donald Trump takes those e-mails and believes this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The Clinton machine is at the center of this power structure. We've seen this firsthand in the WikiLeaks documents in which Hillary Clinton meets in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers, her special interest friends and her donors.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: President Obama was just joking about this at his event in Cleveland. We're going to show you more of that a little bit later.
But Hillary Clinton meets in secret with international blanks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty. You could find that for years at breitbart.com.
HENDERSON: Right. Yes.
KING: Now you find it center stage in the U.S. presidential campaign.
MARTIN: And four years after Wall Street gave the vast majority of its money to the Republican nominee, this iteration is now railing against international bankers. I mean what a turn from four years ago. The financial power is -
KING: What is the power of it? It's the power is what, to his base and his base only?
HENDERSON: Yes, pretty much.
MARTIN: Yes. He is basically running as a - as a more of a nationalist than a conservative. Two days ago he was railing against Hillary saying that she wanted to cut entitlements. He's against free trade. He's for a limited role in America - of America's role abroad. This is basically the polar opposite of the kind of "Wall Street Journal" editorial page branded - berating (ph) of conservativism.
LERER: And (INAUDIBLE) - and (INAUDIBLE) -
KING: There are - there are some - but there are some things in these e-mails you could use as smart, tactical weapons against Hillary Clinton.
HENDERSON: Right. Yes.
MARTIN: Of course. Yes.
KING: But he's going with this thermonuclear of -
HENDERSON: He's going with the -
LERER: And also -
KNOX: Hold on. These leaks has betrayed you has bipartisan appeal.
HENDERSON: Right.
KNOX: Just to be completely clear.
KING: Right.
KNOX: This iteration, though, is - there's a plot against you. There's a different kind of message.
LERER: And it's coded message.
KNOX: You know, the rigged - the idea of a rigged system, we've been hearing this in American politics for a really long time.
HENDERSON: And it's - and it's - yes, and it's - yes.
KNOX: It's not specific to either - either camp.
HENDERSON: And it's also Donald Trump as this kind of messy antic (ph) figure, right? The only one standing between the end of western civilization is voting - is Donald Trump. And you have to vote for him on November 8th, otherwise western civilization comes to an end. I mean that - I mean he essentially said in that speech that people thought his campaign was about going to hell, but through his speech we will go to heaven and he -
KING: So Election Day is back to Y2K. We're going to see if we wake up the next day, is that the idea?
HENDERSON: Yes.
LERER: And a lot of people are pointing to that language, of course, as coded anti-Semitic language that is really reminiscent of other sort of anti-Semitic troupes that we've heard in the past.
HENDERSON: Yes.
LERER: And that's another feature of his campaign.
KING: Right.
LERER: You know, sort of the other and protecting the country from the other. And that's part of how he flubbed this attack, right? You're right, there are really good ways for him to go after her in those e- mails. He's just not executing them.
KING: All right, everybody, sit tight.
Up next, we map out Donald Trump's troubles and show how women right now are blocking his path to 270 electoral votes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:27:57] KING: Twenty-five days out from when we fill in this red and blue and this map looking bleak at the moment for Donald Trump. First let's look at the national numbers. This is a brand new Fox News poll. We talked about it a bit at the top of the show. Forty-five to 38, 10 points for the third party candidates, but a seven point lead now nationally for Hillary Clinton. That was two points just a week ago. Hillary Clinton moving there.
You look at the battleground state polls. Here's just a few of them. North Carolina, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Clinton leading. Trump, in the latest poll in Ohio, is plus one. Other polls show that race a tie or Clinton up one. That's Donald Trump best state of the battlegrounds, the state of Ohio.
What is driving this? Let's take a closer look at the - let me move that out of the way - take a closer look at this Fox News data here. All this controversy about pushing - forcing himself on women is driving this. Among women, 45 and older, Donald Trump now down 12 points. Among - changes since last week, down 12 points since last week. Among suburban women, down 10 points since last week. White women with college degrees, down seven points this last week. With Republican women, down six points since last week.
If these numbers hold up, that means you can't win Colorado because you lose the Denver suburbs. Ohio gets tougher because of the Cleveland and the Columbus suburbs. Virginia, take it off the map. And in Pennsylvania, a state some in the Trump campaign think is critical to his chances, if you can't win the Philadelphia suburbs, you can't win statewide.
CNN's Dana Bash was there just the other day taking a peek at Trump's troubles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think she's a fraud. I think she covers up a lot of things.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): But the other of his yoga studio in Westchester, PA, says her female clients are now more likely to vote Hillary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm hearing a lot of women that are really starting to dig their heels in and feel empowered about themselves based upon what's happening in the campaign.
BASH: Even some who say she is hardly their first choice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it were any other Republican candidate, maybe I would like try to write Bernie in, but it's just not the time for a protest vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The last part there, if it were any other Republican candidate.
Trump's own words, and I think also the Democrats being out on the campaign trail essentially saying, you know, you can't afford to have a protest vote. you can't afford to walk away. If he's doing poorly in the Philadelphia suburbs, especially when you look at now his much more narrower path to 270, game over.
[12:30:06] HENDERSON: Yes, and apparently they're pulling out of Virginia. I mean this - he was already flailing even before these tapes released.
