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Two U.S. Swimmers Prevented from Leaving Rio; Will Trump Shake- up Help or Hurt Trump Campaign? Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 18, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Why Lochte and three teammates say that they were robbed at gunpoint.

[07:05:06] NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Police believe they're missing evidence or information.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. First up, we do have breaking news. Two Team USA swimmers pulled from their flight, prevented from leaving Rio. Why? Brazilian police want to talk to them and star swimmer Ryan Lochte about the night they claim to have been robbed.

CAMEROTA: There are inconsistencies emerging in their accounts. Lochte is already back in the U.S. and changing some of his story.

So let's get right to CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh. He's live in Rio with the latest. What have you learned, Nick?

WALSH: Alisyn, it is just staggering how this international incident, frankly, with people being pulled off planes as they try and head back to the United States, really focuses itself around the small hours of Sunday morning and the fairly normal seen of people leaving a nightclub here and, sadly here in Rio running into street crime that's so common here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH (voice-over): American swimmers Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz pulled off their plane and ordered not to leave Rio. The Olympic duo detained after a Brazilian judge ordered them to give official statements because of discrepancies in their claims that they were robbed at gunpoint on Sunday night, along with teammates James Feigen and 12-time medalist Ryan Lochte.

Just hours after the alleged incident, Lochte told NBC News...

RYAN LOCHTE, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: They told the other swimmers to get down on the ground. They got down on the ground. I refused. I was like, "We didn't do anything wrong. So I'm not getting down on the ground." And then the guy pulled out his gun. He cocked it, put it to my forehead, and he said get down, and I was, like, put my hands on my head and I was like "Whatever." He took our money. He took my wallet.

WALSH: Lochte is now back in the U.S., unlike his teammates, now conceding to NBC last night that his initial statement was a traumatic mischaracterization of what happened.

This surveillance video obtained by "The Daily Mail" shows the swimmers returning to the Olympic village just before 7 a.m. on Sunday morning. The judge says it shows them seemingly unshaken and joking around after the alleged robbery. Lochte's lawyer tells CNN, "That video shows me nothing. I t shows guys coming home at 6 or 7: in the morning and shows me they're happy that they're alive."

Among the inconsistencies, the judge says Lochte told police there was one robber while Feigen says there were more. Brazilian police are now asking their taxi driver to come forward to verify their claims.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: Brazilian authorities, it now seems, pouring in minute detail over the accounts of exactly when they left that nightclub, exactly when they got back to the Olympic village.

We've sadly heard another claim of a British athlete coming forward, saying they were robbed. It's not clear if that was also at gunpoint. Street crime is common here. What is strange is to see this, let's say, international incident.

Now Brazil very keen to protect its image. Doesn't like the idea of people dressing up as policemen and robbing people at gunpoint around here. And at the same time, too, some strange inconsistencies from these four very high-profile athletes. Remember, this is the team at the top of the medals table, and some of them have been prevented simply from leaving the country -- Chris.

CUOMO: Extraordinary move, as you point out. The question becomes whether or not this is about embarrassment on behalf of the government, or do you have a flawed account. We're going to stay on this. We have more reporting. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much.

Let's get to the 2016 race. Donald Trump hitting the reset button again, making sweeping changes to his campaign's top staff. But one thing is clear: Trump says he's going to be doing things his way.

CNN's Sara Murray joins us now with more.

Well, Chris, Donald Trump definitely felt like it was time for a change, and that is why we saw him reshuffling his top aides this week. But not everyone is convinced that this is the kind of change he needs to dramatically turn around his standing in the polls.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: The advice I would give him is to be authentic, because that's what Americans appreciate.

MURRAY (voice-over): Donald Trump's new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, suggesting Trump is going back to basics.

CONWAY: People do want change. They are tired of the very corrupt system.

MURRAY: And playing up the outsider persona and bombastic style that catapulted him to the nomination, instead of sticking to the script to appease the Republican establishment.

Sources tell CNN that Trump has grown frustrated with the direction of his campaign, that he believes he still has a chance to win, but if he loses, he wants it to be on his terms.

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You have with Donald Trump a person who wants to be true to himself. That got him through the primary process, by being true to himself.

MURRAY: But some establishment Republicans are wary that the appointment of combative Breitbart executive Steve Bannon as the campaign's chief executive could drive Trump further from the establishment fold. Bannon so divisive that he's been characterized by Bloomberg Politics as the most dangerous political operative in America, something Trump's own campaign is now touting.

Bannon even nudged Trump not to bow to the political establishment on his radio show in May.

[07:05:10] STEVE BANNON, RADIO HOST: The Trump people want to know: for unity, are you not prepared to give up what they backed you on from the beginning? Because when they hear Paul Ryan talking unity, what they feel is going to be a collapse of what you ran on and a collapse of what they backed you on.

TRUMP (via phone): My folks have absolutely nothing to worry about. That's the way it is. I mean, I won in landslides based on what I was saying and based on my ideas and themes and my statements, and my policies. So I'm not going to go into a room and go right back to the old stuff that's not working.

MURRAY: As some GOP officials urge the RNC to abandon Trump and shift resources to down-ticket races, others warn that the party needs to continue supporting Trump in order to hang on to vulnerable Republican seats in congress.

All as Hillary Clinton appears to relish her rival's latest reset, insisting it won't change his fortunes in November.

CLINTON: He can hire and fire anybody he wants from his campaign, but he is still the same man who insults Gold-Star families, demeans women, mocks people with disabilities, and thinks he knows more about ISIS than our generals.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: Now some sources say this change will mean Donald Trump is unleashed. We will see even more of his bombastic personality.

But Kellyanne Conway added a note of caution to that yesterday, saying she still wants to see her candidate focused on the issues, whether it's Obamacare or how to battle is. So this may not be the end of Donald Trump using that teleprompter -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Sara, guess who we have here with us right now: Donald Trump's new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway.

Kellyanne, thanks so much for being here.

CONWAY: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: What's new? You 've had quite a 24 hours.

CONWAY: We have, but it's been great. I mean, Mr. Trump is finding joy in the campaign trail, which is very important. You want a candidate who is having fun, because the people in the thousands and thousands, overflow crowds, show up at his rallies or his speeches.

They're there to connect. They're there because I think typical politicians like Hillary Clinton erect campaigns, but Donald Trump has built a movement. And people feel included in that movement. And people who have traveled with him recently for the first time, including elected officials, are really struck by the energy, by the crowds, by the enthusiasm.

CAMEROTA: But has he not been having fun for the past three weeks? Is that why you were called in?

CONWAY: No, no. I'm certainly not the fun adviser. I can be the skunk at the garden party plenty. Ask Mike Pence. I've been his pollster for many years. I give it to them straight.

No, I think the campaigns are very grueling. These schedules, as you know, for all candidates of all parties are really very taxing. But what we would like to do is get him to continue to give speeches like the two we heard this week and that you're going to hear again very soon. Monday, fighting radical Islam, very specific, very solution centric.

CAMEROTA: Teleprompter based.

CONWAY: Teleprompter based.

CAMEROTA: So meaning stick to -- what you would like him to do is to stick to the message?

CONWAY: What I would like him to do is let everyone get the benefit of his leadership. He scores very well in strong leader. That's what so many Americans are starving for. And when he delivers a speech in his own words, in his own delivery system, then people can actually focus on the content. I think that's what's so important.

If we're going to cover campaigns as comedy shows or who zinged who that day or no content, no substance, I think we're doing a disservice to the voters.

So when people talk about a pivot, Alisyn...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CONWAY: ... most of the advice that he receives, whether it's on TV or in person, is pivoting stylistically. But substantively, the issues that benefits Donald Trump -- look at the polls on Obamacare. You have 210 polls taken, 202 that people are against it. You've got about three that are for it. I think Hillary Clinton should be asked about -- she wants to -- she wants to ridicule her opponent...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CONWAY: ... on the stump. I find that very unbecoming. But she -- but she can actually be talking about why Aetna just lost $430 million.

CAMEROTA: Sure, and look, if we want -- if we're going to talk about polls, the polls on Donald Trump have not been going in the right direction either.

But was the feeling that under Paul Manafort's leadership that Donald Trump was being too handled? Too -- not being -- not being -- sort of not letting Trump be Trump?

CONWAY: I've not had that conversation with Mr. Trump. And Paul Manafort remains as our chairman. We -- Paul and I and Steve Bannon were with each other yesterday when we had a briefing with -- we had a round table with national security and foreign policy experts. We were together reviewing the last cuts of our ads, which will start this week. We're very excited. To go up in five states. Two different ads in rotation.

So it will no longer be $102 million for Hillary Clinton and her super PACs versus zero for us. And there we are in the room yesterday.

CAMEROTA: And there you are in the red. It's easy, actually, to spot you.

But Kellyanne, listen, when the news broke that you had been promoted to campaign manager, and in fact last night in preparing for this segment, I couldn't find a single pundit that wasn't applauding the choice of you being promoted. They were using words like "masterful," "experienced."

[07:10:07] Here's how "The Wall Street Journal" editorial board phrased it: "One new hire, pollster Kellyanne Conway, as campaign manager is encouraging. Ms. Conway is one of the best people in politics, a sincere conservative with a talent for finding the language to connect with voters who aren't policy wonks or political addicts."

People are applauding and encouraged by you.

CONWAY: That's very kind. I'm very humbled. And I hadn't seen any of it. You know, I have four small children.

CAMEROTA: I know you do. You are a busy woman.

CONWAY: I hadn't seen that, but it's very humbling.

And I just would note something that I think has been lost. I'm not a huge identity politics fan, Alisyn. But it was pointed out to me -- I didn't know this -- that I'm the first female Republican presidential campaign manager.

CAMEROTA: Indeed you are.

CONWAY: I didn't know that. Nor did Donald Trump ever mention it to me. No one at Trump Tower said it to me, and you know why? Because it's not why I was promoted.

But I will say that there are many people who -- folks who are on the conservative side, but Donald Trump -- berate me as a woman, frankly, as a conservative woman. Donald Trump promoted me. And I think that speaks very well of him. He's got women in the Trump corporation for many years, promoting them.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CONWAY: And I feel like advancing in their careers. And I feel like I'm the latest example of that for Donald Trump.

CAMEROTA: So Kellyanne, what will you do differently with the campaign than we've seen in the past few weeks or couple months?

CONWAY: So I think we're going to sharpen the message. And we're going to make sure Donald Trump is comfortable about being in his own skin, that he doesn't lose that authenticity that you simply can't buy and a pollster can't give you. Voters know if you're comfortable in your own skin.

And let him be him in this sense. He wants to deliver a speech, if he wants to go to a rally, if he wants to connect with the crowd in a way that's very spontaneous, that's wonderful. And that's how he got here. That's how he became the nominee in large part, Alisyn.

But at the same time, we have some really serious, pressing problems in this country that I'm hoping will start to be addressed more by the media. He's going to give these policy speeches, and I'm thrilled that we've gotten so much coverage this week just on the first two speeches. You'll see more of those. Next week is immigration week followed by education week, and we're really excited about that.

CAMEROTA: Pundits are not as thrilled with the choice of Steve Bannon as the new CEO of the campaign. He is known as a street fighter. He has been the head of Breitbart, that right-wing news outlet. Are you comfortable with Steve Bannon's style?

CONWAY: I'm extremely comfortable with Steve Bannon in the campaign. I thought it was a masterful choice, to quote other people. You know, Donald Trump in the press release and in his comments to the

press described us as people who want to win. And I think we're going to leave everything on the field. You deserve nothing else.

There are millions of people who are relying upon a true choice, a true change election. They need to see the contrast. We want to take the message, Alisyn, directly to the voters.

I'm a huge proponent in the ground game, in building a campaign from the bottom up, in the retail politics and in the data operation. And Steve also, you know, he's a big strategic thinker. And I think folks are going to cherry-pick anything somebody said or anything somebody did, but he is a very -- he's a brilliant tactical mind.

And look, the bottom line is the candidate has to trust his advisers. And we feel like we have the trust of the - of the leader here.

CAMEROTA: In terms of Steve Bannon's messaging, because obviously that's very important, as well, in a campaign, I just want to read some of the recent Breitbart headlines. He's obviously a provocateur, but some things cut pretty close to the bone and can be seen as insulting, offensive. Here are some of the recent Breitbart headlines.

Here's one. "There's no hiring bias against women in tech. They just suck at interviews." Next, "Sympathy for the devils, the plot against Roger Ailes and America." That one is about, basically, how the sexual harassment allegations against Roger Ailes, he's the victim of what Breitbart calls this sort of Democratic establishment of the Clintons.

Next, "Big trans hate machine targets pitching great Curt Schilling." That's referring to transgender people. And "Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy."

What do you think of headlines like this?

CONWAY: I've not read those stories, but I have to say, not unlike the reason that most of the media cover Donald Trump and not Hillary Clinton, people -- people like to click on headlines and see what they're about. So I haven't read those stories, but I can tell you the man is a brilliant tactician. And he has a long history of, I think, girding for combat and being unafraid.

I'll tell you what -- I'll tell you what Donald Trump needs. He needs people who are like him in this sense. You have to be unapologetically, unflinchingly unafraid of Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton and all this -- all that Clinton campaign means. Because we feel like we're up against a major machine here. And we -- you know, you need people girded for battle, who are at least willing to, as we like to say, leave it all on the field. Give it our best shot.

CAMEROTA: But look, you have been, I think, a proponent of the big tent idea of Republicans need to attract more women. They need to attract more Hispanics. You've said this. I mean, you've been on the record. Did -- do -- does the attitude of "birth control makes women unattractive and crazy," is that helpful?

[07:15:06] CONWAY: I didn't particularly like Hillary Clinton referring to pro-life Republicans as terrorists myself, that I didn't see get covered much. CNN covered it a little bit, actually.

I don't like a lot of what comes out of Elizabeth Warren's mouth about my candidate and our vice-presidential candidate. I don't like a lot of the rhetoric, frankly. Because partly, yes, it is the mother in me, but partly because I am tough in politics, Alisyn. Partly it's because it does a disservice to the voters.

The idea that we have millions more in poverty, millions more out of work, the idea that people feel unsafe, that they feel less prosperous and less safe now, those are the issues that we need to address. And I think when we go down all these different rabbit holes about who said what at what given time in what year of their lives, I'm not sure that it creates -- I know it doesn't create one job. It doesn't -- it doesn't force Hillary Clinton to own Obamacare. I'd love to know -- I mean, if she ever does a press conference, if she ever stops disrespecting the press long enough...

CAMEROTA: Sure. But I mean...

CONWAY: ... ask her, what would you do about Obamacare?

CAMEROTA: And I hear that you're pointing out the things on the other side that don't make you comfortable, but isn't it fair to ask about the attitudes and the feelings about people on the Trump campaign?

CONWAY: Oh, sure. You're welcome to ask whatever you want. It's your show. Absolutely. And I'm answering this question.

CAMEROTA: And to ask if you're comfortable with where Steve Bannon is coming from in terms of those philosophies.

CONWAY: I've worked with him on other efforts. And I find him to be a highly effective, brilliant tactician who gets things done. He executes.

You know, in politics, you get some people who, particularly in government, you don't necessarily have to execute at that moment. "We're going to have a meeting. We're going to hold a commission."

We're going to get it done. We have 82 days left. So I think he's someone who's going to be at headquarters basically executing on many different instances.

He and I have calls today with our field staff, with our different teams, our coalition folks, our coms folks. It's very exciting. And I -- I actually am going to -- I want to go and meet all the interns and figure out, you know, what is their best and highest use? What would they like to do? Why are they there? Why are they so inspired, these people born in the 1990s? You know, why are they so inspired to be here working for Donald Trump? And I want everybody included. That's my big tent over at the campaign.

But that allows Donald Trump to focus on being the candidate. He'll be in North Carolina today. Very busy day.

CAMEROTA: All right. We have a lot more questions for you, Kellyanne Conway. So thank you for sticking around and being here. We do want to talk about Donald Trump's poll numbers, because he is trailing Hillary Clinton in most of the key swing states. So Kellyanne Conway is a pollster. So she'll have a lot to say about that, and we'll be right back with Kellyanne, who's the new campaign manager.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: You say it's not a shake-up. But you guys are down.

COHEN: Says who?

KEILAR: Polls.

COHEN: Says who?

KEILAR: Most of them, all of them.

COHEN: Says who?

KEILAR: Polls. I just told you. I answered your question.

COHEN: OK. Which polls?

KEILAR: All of them.

COHEN: OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That's Donald Trump's executive vice president, Michael Cohen, seemingly in denial that Trump is behind Hillary Clinton in the polls. Or doing his best impression of an owl.

But the latest swing state polls show a clear picture. Clinton leading Trump in Colorado, you see there, Iowa, and Virginia. And those are not the only battlegrounds where she is ahead. How will Trump turn things around?

Let's continue our conversation with Donald Trump's new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, who is also a pollster.

Kellyanne, you're a pollster. These polls cannot look like good omens to you. What do you see in those numbers?

CONWAY: I think it helps us to be a little bit behind, and we are. It lights a fire under us, and it reminds us what we need to do to get this done.

CAMEROTA: And what is that? What is the answer to turn those number around?

CONWAY: Yes, Alisyn. It's several things. I've noticed in the cross tabs, if you look at just the horse race numbers, which we all do, those look great for Hillary Clinton. If you just peak a little bit into the crosstabs, you notice quickly that Hillary Clinton's fundamentals are so poor. It's not as if a majority of Americans now say "I like her or I much trust her." She has a terrible gender gap among men, basically half of the electorate, that has not been able to be turn around. And I don't know that she has many places to go. In other words, she's a very defined individual.

And for whatever reason, because she's -- she's certainly surrounded by many talented professionals and smart people, for whatever reason, they're running a campaign about Donald Trump and not about Hillary Clinton's vision. It's very unusual for the Democratic Party to have a candidate that doesn't have that uplifting, generational, inspirational message, much like Bill Clinton, or Barack Obama, or JFK.

And so -- so we like our odds in this sense. We're the ones go out -- we're the one going out and giving these policy speeches. We're the ones talking to the press and not ignoring them. We're the ones who have the issues set in our favor, because at the end of the day, this is 2000. This is 2008 all over again. It's a change election. It's 1992. It's a change election.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CONWAY: If you look at the cross tabs, too, we've lost some votes among Republicans. They're not going to go to Hillary Clinton.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CONWAY: They're basically saying, "I don't like the way the last couple weeks went..."

CAMEROTA: Sure.

CONWAY: "... and I want you to get back to fighting Hillary Clinton."

CAMEROTA: But if you dive deeper into the polls, you've also lost support among women. What are you going to do about that?

CONWAY: We're going to do several things about that. We recognize that women are the chief healthcare officers of the households. They control two out of every three dollars spent in our healthcare system. And we're going to take the issue of Obamacare right to them.

Why? Because if you look at all the polling, people feel -- still feel very frustrated and unfulfilled by Obamacare. It hasn't worked for many people. Macro-economically, it hasn't worked for Aetna and United Healthcare. But it hasn't worked for many Americans who thought they'd be covered.

We're also -- if you look at his economic speech last week, helps the middle class. He's pro-entrepreneurship. CAMEROTA: Yes.

CONWAY: And for women also, we talk to a lot of security moms and security non-moms -- by the way, we're very focused on non-moms, which is a growing group in our country...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CONWAY: ... people who choose not to be married and choose not to have children. They're very concerned about security: economic security, health security and certainly national security.

CAMEROTA: Yes. As recently as four months ago, you were not a Donald Trump supporter. You were a Ted Cruz supporter. And I assume that's because you preferred Ted Cruz's positions over Donald Trump's. Let's just dive into some of those.

Immigration. You in 2014 co-authored a paper, basically -- it was a plan that would have created a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants.

[07:25:09] Here I'll read just a portion of the paper. This is the memo. "Most Americans don't believe deportation is a viable policy with respect to undocumented immigrants. In fact, there's an overwhelming consensus in support of some kind of legalization for undocumented immigrants, either legal status or citizenship."

That is as far away from "build a wall," pretty much, as you can get. So how have you squared that now, with Donald Trump's...?

CONWAY: I certainly hope Anna Palmer included the considerable body of work that we sent her on immigration, which is immigration through the lens of the worker, immigration as a security issue, immigration as a fairness issue. We have many Americans saying, "It's just not fair that I can't compete."

So I was a signatory to a poll -- to a poll that others had put in the field, and we did that to try to find out where America was on immigration. And you know what happened? The day that they were releasing those data, Eric Cantor lost his race the day before, based in long part -- in some degree on immigration. So I think...

CAMEROTA: So you don't -- just let me check in how you feel. So you don't feel anymore that a path to citizenship is the answer for the 11 million illegal immigrants, undocumented immigrants?

CONWAY: I don't feel that that's where the American electorate is. And I don't feel -- well, forget about what I feel. What happened there is the appetite in Congress was not there. And that's how -- that's how that reform did not happen.

There were many people -- you go back to 2014, Alisyn, we released a different poll at the Heritage Foundation that year. Governor Perry was there as the major speaker. And we were really the first people to talk about immigration through the lens of the economy, because it seemed to me, in listening to focus groups and the looking at quantitative polling, that people were talking about immigration now as laborers, non-college-educated households, as an impediment for them in being able to compete to find and secure jobs.

CAMEROTA: The workers feel as though their jobs have been taken.

CONWAY: Yes, they do. And that's where -- that's where, as a pollster, it's not for me to say, "Your feelings are wrong" or "Your facts are wrong." This is how people feel about it.

CAMEROTA: Right. But your position, have your -- has your position changed in terms of the answer for the 11 to 12 million people who are here?

CONWAY: Nobody knows my position, because I'm not running for president. But I will tell you this. I will tell you this.

On these issues, I'm glad you raised issues, I would love -- I mean, I would love to have a true debate, whether it's them side by side, which we will have and those will be incredibly important in moving these poll numbers.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CONWAY: We start debate prep this weekend. It's going to be incredibly important in moving those numbers.

We -- I would love to hear how -- the contrast between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on immigration. She's been critical of President Obama's immigration.

CAMEROTA: And we will hear that.

CONWAY: And we hear how many people he's deported. He's...

CAMEROTA: Sure. Just so -- just so I'm clear, is that -- so this wasn't your position when you felt that there should be some sort of answer for the 11 to 12 million people who are here. That was your prescription, I guess is what you're saying, to the Republican candidates.

CONWAY: And those were polling data that showed support for that, that way.

CAMEROTA: But that's changed now.

CONWAY: Well, and there's not a lot of support for that now. And there certainly wasn't in Congress in 2014.

But I also wanted to say something else. I appreciate you raising the issues. We feel when it comes to the issues, we really never had such a contrast election. You know, Governor Romney is a wonderful human being. He won one debate on October 3, 2012, but he never really truly won the argument.

My goal as campaign manager for Donald Trump is to win the argument. You have to win the argument every day. Emphasize, focus, reiterate. CAMEROTA: And so -- so back to debate prep, that's interesting that

you're already engaged in it. Who's playing Hillary Clinton?

CONWAY: It's actually a wonderful choice for this weekend. And I think he'll be very happy with the choice. I won't say it, because it's private and confidential. And we have many people very willing to help.

And that's the other thing, when you say I'm a big-tent Republican. I certainly, when it comes to a multitude of counselors, I welcome anybody. And I've heard from thousands of people since yesterday with advice and ideas. I think that's very exciting. And I promise to manage a campaign that is one where everybody's ideas and everybody at least feels included and heard.

CAMEROTA: Is Roger Ailes a part of the debate prep?

CONWAY: Roger Ailes and Donald Trump have been friends for decades, as I understand, pre-FOX News, pre-running for president, certainly. Donald Trump talks to many people in a given day, in a given week.

CAMEROTA: Is he helping with the debates?

CONWAY: No. Not to my knowledge.

CAMEROTA: So no formal position?

CONWAY: No formal position for Roger Ailes. I know they're old friends. And let's face it, Alisyn, as your own Brian Stelter said on "ERIN BURNETT" the other night, you worked for Roger for a number of years. They were very candid in saying who wouldn't want Roger Ailes' advice, you know, when it comes to communication or ads?

CAMEROTA: Sure. And that's why people are asking. So in an informal way, is Roger helping with the debate prep?

CONWAY: Well, they're friends. And he talks to many people. He talks to many people when we're not around. So it's not for me to say, but I will tell you, people would be surprised at who and how many folks truly want to help.

And I have not heard many people of late say, "We just have to stop Hillary. I don't want Hillary." They're excited about Donald Trump's candidacy.

And I would just say to my "never Trump" friends that they should think about that. They should think about recasting the Supreme Court in Hillary's likeness; they should think about even higher taxes, more regulations than the 600 we've gotten from President Obama, Obamacare, plus single payer, whatever that would mean.