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Presidential Candidate Prepare for Debate; Video of Police Shooting of Black Man in Charlotte Released; Trump And Clinton To Face Off Tonight; Active Shooter Situation In Houston. Aired 8-8:30a ET
Aired September 26, 2016 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: This is where tonight's first presidential debate is going to be. History in the making, there is no question about it, so much on the line for Clinton and Trump.
We have 13 hours. Where is our clock? That was 13 even, that was great timing.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well done.
CUOMO: When that clock hit 000, we're going to see something we've never seen before, Clinton and Trump one on one.
CAMEROTA: So you will have a front row seat on history as we do here at Hofstra. Many are calling tonight's debate the most consequential in modern political history. This showdown tonight comes at a pivotal time in the race because there are these new national and battleground state polls that show that this race is locked in a virtual tie. Election Day is just 43 days away, and of course the stakes could not be higher.
So let's being our debate coverage with CNN's Jason Carroll. He is inside the debate hall. How is it looking, Jason?
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they have just been testing some of the music here in the debate hall, getting some practice sessions in. The candidates have been practicing in albeit in very, very different way. Take Trump, for example, not following the traditional path, not holding mock debates as we have seen candidates do in the past. His adviser is basically saying is that what he wants to do is review the issues with his advisers. Kellyanne Conway speaking out about it, saying the candidate is not going to be robotic, not going to be scripted. He's going to be nimble and resilient, as she says, in her words.
Clinton, on the flip side of that, is following a more traditional path. She had been holding mock debates leading into this debate tonight. In fact working late into the night last night and practicing with one of her longtime advisers, Philippe Reines, a longtime aide. He's known for having a combative style. He's been standing in as Trump as she prepares. So you can imagine both campaigns coming forward, basically trying to manage expectations ahead of tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROBBY MOOK, CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: I am very concerned that Donald Trump will be graded on a curve. Just because he does not fly off the handle in the middle his debate dos not mean that he is prepared for being the president of the United States.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: If Mr. Trump has any disadvantage going into tomorrow night's debate, it's that he's not really treated fairly. And that's pretty obvious if you read many of the print reports or you turn on almost any station at any point in the day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: So Chris, a few details about tonight, some of what's going to be happening on the stage behind me was decided by both campaigns coming together, other things decided by coin toss. For example, Clinton will be on the podium on stage left, Trump will be on stage right. That was decided by a coin toss. Also Clinton will get the first question. She will have two-minutes to respond. Trump then will have two-minutes to weigh in as well. That also decided on a coin toss. And 1,000 people will be seated here in the hall tonight, 100 million expected to tune in. Chris?
CUOMO: Boy, oh boy, Jason Carroll, what a moment this is going to be. It is not just that it's a first, it is a first time that we have seen Trump and Clinton, it's that the polls are so knotted up. CNN's new poll of polls, that's the average of the last five national surveys shows this, Clinton with a 44 percent to 41 percent lead. That is really just neck and neck once you build in all the different suppositions. This morning, CNN has new battleground state polls as well, has the race down to one point in two key states. In Colorado Trump is edging out Clinton among likely voters, 42 to 41. Clinton has a slight lead in Pennsylvania. That's going to be a hugely consequential state, 45-44. Alisyn?
CAMEROTA: So what can we expect from Hillary Clinton at tonight's debate? Joining us now is the press secretary for the Clinton campaign Brian Fallon. Brian, great to see you.
BRIAN FALLON, PRESS SECRETARY, CLINTON CAMPAIGN: Thanks for having me.
CAMEROTA: How are you feeling?
FALLON: Great. This is an important night for the campaign.
CAMEROTA: Do you think?
FALLON: Hillary Clinton is looking forward to this, you know. On the campaign trail it gets harder and harder to break through with a positive, affirmative message. And so I think Hillary Clinton wants to take the opportunity tonight and talk about what would do as president. She's actually invited a few guests here to the debate site tonight to join her, people like Anastasia, the young woman that she spoke about last week when she gave a speech about how we need to build an economy that works for everyone, including those with disabilities. Meanwhile you have somebody like Donald Trump who goes around and insults reporters with disabilities. So we're going to be talking about people like that and how Hillary Clinton has made a career out of fighting to make a different for people like Anastasia.
CAMEROTA: What's Hillary Clinton's plan if she hears a falsehood from Donald Trump?
FALLON: I don't think she's going let it go by the wayside, and I don't think that the moderator should either. Donald Trump is somebody who lies 70 percent at the time if you look at the analysis that "Politifact" did last year when they dubbed "liar of the year." And just this past week you had a range of media outlets look at his statements and "Politico" calculated that he lies about every three minutes.
CAMEROTA: Because the reason I ask is the executive director of the Commission on presidential debates that sets the rules said that they do not think that it is the moderator's responsibility to call it out and they're going to let the candidates fact-check each other. So does Secretary Clinton have a ready quip, a "there you go again" moment if that happens?
[08:05:13] FALLON: I don't know about that. But I know there is enough lies that Donald Trump tells consistently that everyone by now should be able to call him out. Lester Hold, Hillary Clinton will too. But I think even the observers and reporters tonight watching that are grading the two candidates performance should take it into account. By now we all know he likes to lie about his record when it comes to the Iraq War. He lies about his support for the intervention in Libya. He lies about who started birthism. He lies on any different number of issues. And he touts them so frequently that we all know them now. If he says them again that should be disqualifying. He can't possibly be given a passing grade if he repeats those lies.
CAMEROTA: Donald Trump's supporters feel that Mrs. Clinton has not always been straightforward about her e-mails. Does she have a pat, ready answer that is concise if it comes up tonight?
FALLON: I'll think that she'll reiterate her sense of regret that she's expressed pretty consistently over the last year. She's apologized for it. I think she will do the same if it comes up tonight. I think on the other hand is a bunch of questions that Donald Trump has not answered. There is a lot of attentions on Hillary Clinton and whether she would give a press conference. As it turns out in the last three weeks she's been widely available to reporters and taking questions on the plane. Donald Trump meanwhile has gone a full two months without having a press conference. And in that time there has been all kind of news questions raised about his business holdings and whether he will recuse himself and put his assets into a true blind trust, not actually pass them onto his kids which --
CAMEROTA: Is going to bring those up tonight?
FALLON: I think that it's something that is bound to come because he hasn't answered questions about it as new developments have happened over the last couple of months. Just the last week we also learned that a Trump campaign adviser had meetings with Russian government officials that is apparently being looked at by U.S. intelligent agencies. He hasn't answered questions about that either. So I think all of that is going to come up.
CAMEROTA: We have heard her in fact on the campaign trail say recently what would Ronald Reagan think about Donald Trump's sort of complimentary take on Vladimir Putin? Does she plan to have that line tonight?
FALLON: It is unbelievable the degree to which Donald Trump apologizes for Russian's policies. His policies are in complete alignment with Russia's and he expresses admiration for Vladimir Putin to the extent where he said that he thinks Vladimir Putin is a stronger leader than our president. That is an unpatriotic statement. And just last week there was a report by ABC news suggesting that in contradiction to what Donald Trump had said in media interviews for the last several months, he actually had hundreds of millions of dollars worth of investments in Russia.
CAMEROTA: So it sounds like she will be bringing that up tonight.
FALLON: I think it is a fair game question.
CAMEROTA: We understand her longtime aide Philippe Reines has been playing Donald Trump during the mock debates. What insults has he hurled at her? How has he pretended to be Donald Trump?
FALLON: Philippe is someone that has known Secretary Clinton for a long while now. He's deeply loyal but also has an interesting personality. But I actually think that for all this talk of which Trump is going to show up tonight, I think we are pretty well convinced that we're going to see Trump number two, which is this Kellyanne Conway creation, a subdued Trump, a Trump that shows restraint separated from his Twitter account for 90 minutes, try to come in desperately try to seem presidential. So that's what we're expecting.
I don't think that should be enough for this to be categorized a win for Donald Trump. He needs to do two things -- show seriousness on policies, present detailed plans about what he'd do to make lives better and protect us from the threats that we faced from ISIS, and number two, avoid all those lies he likes to retell so much.
CAMEROTA: I know this is your biggest fear because we keep hearing it from the campaign, that you fear that Donald Trump is going to be graded on a curve, and if just look presidential, then what? What do you mean by that? What will happen tomorrow that you would hate to see if he was graded by a curve? What will that look like in the media?
FALLON: I don't think it should or will happen. I think that Donald Trump has showed us who he really is over the course of these 18 months that he's been running this campaign. This is somebody that does not have the temperament or the fitness to be presidential of the United States. He's erratic, he's combustible. We can't trust him with nuclear weapons. He's somebody that wants to walk away from alliances like NATO in European. He is somebody that has insulted and demeaned Mexican-Americans, Muslim-Americans, women. And so I think that is the Donald Trump, that is his true self. Tonight I wouldn't be surprised if Roger Ailes and Kellyanne Conway have coached him into submission to try to get through a 90 minute debate. But, that can't be the standard. The American people expect for more.
CAMEROTA: All right, Brian, thank you so much for helping to preview it with us. Obviously, all eyes on tonight. Thanks for being here.
FALLON: Have a great day.
CAMEROTA: Lets' get to Chris.
CUOMO: The mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, lifting a midnight curfew one day after releasing dash-cam and body-cam video of the deadly shooting of Keith Lamont Scott. That video is raising lots of questions about exactly what happened. We have CNN's Brynn Gingras live in Charlotte with more. Brynn?
[08:10:00] BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, this is one of the reasons that the Scott family wanted this video to be released. They says it clearly shows Scott was not acting aggressively toward authority. But police maintained the fact that he was breaking the law and that's why deadly force was needed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GINGRAS: Keith Lamont Scott's widow releasing cellphone video of her husband's final moments before he was fatally shot by a Charlotte police officer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He doesn't have a gun.
GINGRAS: Insisting Scott was not armed when officers opened fire.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Keith, Keith, don't you do it.
(GUNSHOTS)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you shoot him? Did you shoot him?
GINGRAS: Under mounting pressure from the public, Charlotte police releasing their own video a day later, including this dash-cam footage showing an officer in plain clothes with his weapon drawn on Scott. You can see Scott exit his SUV and begins walking backward towards police, then Scott is shot at four times by Officer Brentley Vinson who was off camera at the time.
JUSTIN BAMBERG, FAMILY ATTORNEY: There is no definitive evidence in this video as to whether or not there is an object in his hand, and if there is, what that object is.
GINGRAS: Also made public, body camera footage from an officer racing to the scene. In the chaos you briefly see Scott with his right arm by his side. Moments later, he's lying on the ground with five officers converging on him. None of the three videos show clearly whether Scott was armed.
CHIEF KERR PUTNEY, CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG POLICE: You have to put all the pieces together. We interviewed a lot of people, we interviewed all of our officers involved, and the consistent themes were the facts.
GINGRAS: Police presenting photographs of a handgun, holster and marijuana cigarette that officers said they recovered at the scene. Demonstrators swarming Bank of America Stadium Sunday, activists boycotting the NFL Carolina Panthers game protest of Scott's death.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GINGRAS: And protests over the weekend were peaceful. That's what prompted the city to lift its curfew which was in place since Thursday. Tonight, though, a sit-in is scheduled, calling for the resignation of Charlotte's mayor and police chief. Alisyn?
CAMEROTA: OK, Brynn, thanks so much for the update form Charlotte.
All right, so we're here at Hofstra. We are talking debate strategy. We're going to have a former New York Congressman on who went head to head with Clinton and lost. So what he says Trump should do tonight to defeat his rival.
CUOMO: That's why he lost right there.
CAMEROTA: That moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We are counting down to the most anticipated presidential debate in modern history. Hillary Clinton, a candidate with plenty of debate experience is going to face-off against Donald Trump who'll be in his first one-on-one debate. What could go wrong?
Joining us now, CNN's commentator, former New York congressman, Rick Lazio, who ran against Clinton back in 2000 for New York Senate and Tony Schwartz, he is the co-author to Trump's bestseller "The Art of the Deal." He helped prepare Clinton's team before tonight's debate.
Gentlemen, there are not two people probably on earth who can understand and give us insights into these candidate like you can. Rick, let me start with you. So there was that moment when you cross the stage. It was seen as being --
RICK LAZIO (R), FORMER NY CONGRESSMAN: I remember, I remember.
WHITFIELD: It must really annoy you that people keep on replaying this moment time and again. But it was seen as being pivotal because you were seen as the optic as too aggressive.
LAZIO: Right. CAMEROTA: Do you want to watch it? Let's remind everyone, Rick.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I would be happy when you give me the sign letter. Well, we'll shake on it.
LAZIO: No, I want your signature because I think everybody wants you to see that you sign something that you said you are for. I'm for it. I haven't done it. You've been violating it. Why don't you do something important for America while America is looking at New York? Why don't you show some leadership because it goes to trust and character?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: What does Donald Trump learn from that moment?
LAZIO: Stay at the podium, number one. Number two is these moments can define an entire debate so you got a 90-minute debate tonight and 90-minute debate with me with Hillary Clinton. I remember the next morning the New York papers had surveyed a group of experts and they said that I had won. That didn't matter. What people saw with these 90 seconds of this moment that stayed in their memory and so --
CAMEROTA: So don't be too aggressive. I mean, is that message for you?
LAZIO: Be genuine. So I look at this and looks that I am totally out of character and it makes me cringe because I think about myself and who I am. So I was a little amp up going into that debate. I remember my advisers, which again, is something that both Trump and Clinton ought to be thinking about were advised you cannot be aggressive enough.
That was the wrong advice probably for me. They meant well and they said they like you better and they think you got more relevant experience to the Senate, but you've got to be tougher to match up with her.
CAMEROTA: So be true to yourself.
LAZIO: Be true to yourself, incredibly important. And last thing here was there are two debates. The debates that will happen tonight, the people will watch, and then there's the debate that people will hear about tomorrow and days thereafter. And so they really, the Clinton camp really did an excellent job in outspending us and making that moment the defining moment of the debate.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Rick has a good piece online at CNN with the ten points of advice that he has for Donald Trump going into debate tonight. It is good, it is worth the read.
So one of the things that you have the benefit of now is time. You were very young then. That was almost 20 years ago, but even then I play ball with Rick and we have known each other for a long time. He learns from his mistakes and he goes on with his life.
That is not something that is given as a given with Donald Trump. What do you know about him in terms of if people come to him and say, don't do this, this does not work for you. It seems that sometimes he will do it again anyway. What is that about?
TONY SCHWARTZ, CO-AUTHOR OF "THE ART OF THE DEAL": Well, I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours with Donald Trump. The Donald Trump of 30 years ago is the Donald Trump of today.
[08:20:07]He is an intimidating swaggering presence. He will, if he is himself as Rick suggest he ought to be, that would be good for Hillary. Because that would be intimidating and he would be operating with very few facts and he will be doubling down on any situation in which he's challenged about some misstatements he made.
It was extraordinary last week that three different media outlets found that he made an average of one lie every three seconds when he was out in front. So I hope he is like himself. My worry is that he will find the capacity in this 90 minutes to play a role that is not him.
CAMEROTA: Tony, what do you think this is -- I mean, we know you've met with the Clinton camp, what do you share with him about what his Achilles heel is?
SCHWARTZ: I'm not going to talk about what I said to the Clinton campaign for obvious reason, but what I feel about Donald Trump is that she has an opportunity to simply put in front of him the in defensible things that he says.
If he starts to speak and say lies at the same rate that he did before, her best response is to burn dog him and stay the course and relentlessly although quietly and calmly going after those lies.
This is a long period of time and he will not be able to live on one sentence or sound bite as he usually does if she stays the course.
CUOMO: Rick, I want to ask you about what you learn about Hillary Clinton seeing her up on that stage because I do think there is a prize fight element to it. The candidates are never at each other the way they are.
But just to get back to the idea of fact-check. Just so you know, Tony, "Politico" did that study you're talking about. Trump averages one falsehood every three minutes and 15 seconds.
You narrowed those down successfully. Just so you know, that's the job that somebody does tonight. So Rick, what did you learn about Hillary Clinton in term of how she is in those situations and what there is that you can use to your advantage?
LAZIO: Yes, Hillary Clinton is going to be very well prepared and she's going to spend a lot of time on policies. She knows the issue. She's been in Washington for 25 years. Trump certainly should not get in a nuts and bolts ted and ted about policy with Hillary Clinton, but he still needs to be able to establish some bonafides around policy.
CUOMO: Stick and move you're saying, stick and move.
LAZIO: But for her, I think she needs to be aware of the fact that the debate is about the head and the heart. So the head, she can win on points. The heart is connecting with the audience. Her issue I think is whether she could smile a little bit or showing some warmth or maybe tell a small joke.
Something that warms her up. I think that's really what her challenge is, is whether she could do that and for her not to appear as though she's getting out of character as I mentioned before.
You know, when I saw during the Bernie Sanders' contest when she started to yell at Bernie and get amped up. It did not work well for her. I would stay away from that. I try and be softer, make your point as Tony said, I'd stay determined. Birddog in a bit but in a way that seems in offensive and not past where --
SCHWARTZ: I would say follow on Chris' analogy, I would say the classic float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. She has to keep stinging this man and she has to get him to the point where he begins to double down on the things that are in defensible and that'll affect the next morning profoundly.
She can come across as someone who cares. I don't believe he can come across as someone who cares. The question is does he have soul or a heart, that's what people need to be watching for.
CAMEROTA: Tony and Rick, thank you very much. It is great to have both of your insights in particular here with us this morning.
Our other story here is the police video and that deadly shooting in Charlotte and they are raising more questions today than answers. What was Keith Scott really a threat to officers? What's happening in the community? We'll speak to community leaders about this story ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:28:33]
CAMEROTA: Folks, we do have some breaking news for you right now. We are following this in Houston. It is an active shooter situation. We are looking at live pictures right now from an aerial chopper point of view. This is a shopping center, a strip mall we are told.
Law enforcement is asking people in the Houston area to stay inside their homes. Police say they believe that the scene is contained. Meaning they believe that the shooter is down. You can see it is still an active scene.
There are details coming into our newsroom right now. CNN's affiliate, KTRK, says there maybe multiple victims. That's what we know at this hour. CUOMO: You see right now they are sweeping area inside the mall. It's obviously a very large area. You see fire trucks there because those are EMTs. First responders will be in the area and fire department and municipality here is Houston.
They put out an emergency alert that says Houston Police Department is responding to an active shooter situation in a shopping center. At this time, the shooting scene is believed to be contained.
Residents is still kept free. They are squaring off the area. What's going on inside that mall could be much more than what you are seeing outside. CNN will stay on this as we get information about casualties and why this happens. We'll take you through it.
Another situation we are monitoring this morning is what's happening in Charlotte, protesters there vowing to continue marching through the streets, demanding justice for Keith Scott's death.
However, we still don't have --
