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Trump on Early Morning Tweet Attack; Clinton's New Strategy to Court Millennials; Event Recorder Recovered from Train Crash. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired September 30, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:04] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you for weighing in. We're following a lot of news this morning, including new questions about Donald Trump's foundation. So let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The American people have had it with decades of Clinton corruption and scandal.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He spends all of his time dumping on America. Everything about America is in bad shape.

TRUMP: I'm the one that got him to put up his birth certificates. I'm very proud of that.

CLINTON: I have no idea what he's going to say the next time. You know, I will spend some time preparing for it.

TRUMP: We have a president who is a disaster, and he was ultimately impeached, in a sense, for lying.

CLINTON: It will be either him or me. I am going to do everything I can to make sure it's me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard a bomb-like explosion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hear this really loud bang. The whole platform had been destroyed. The entire roof had collapsed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Went through the bumper block and flew through the air, through the depot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her mission is not just to understand what happened, but why it happened.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY

Donald Trump is up early this morning. He is tweeting attacks about Hillary Clinton, as well as that former Miss Universe, who is supporting Hillary Clinton now.

CUOMO: Trump has decided to make this election about what he calls Clinton's sordid past, attacking Hillary Clinton's response to her husband's infidelity. What is Clinton doing? She's out on the campaign trail, trying to earn the votes of millennial voters. The stakes rising with just 39 days until election day. Only nine until the next presidential debate.

There's already early voting going on. Every angle covered, including CNN's Chris Frates, live from Washington. Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Chris.

Donald Trump is on a tirade this morning against Hillary Clinton and former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado. He said this. He said that Hillary Clinton was duped by Machado, accusing Clinton of floating her as an angel without checking her past.

Now, the Republican candidate also calling Machado disgusting and falsely alleging that she was in a sex tape and that Clinton may have helped her become a citizen. And, Chris, he's also preparing a few other lines of attack, as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: The Clintons are the sordid past. We will be the very bright and clean future.

FRATES (voice-over): The presidential race is getting personal, Donald Trump hinting that he's considering bringing up Bill Clinton's infidelity the next time he faces off with Hillary Clinton on the debate stage.

TRUMP: Well, she was very nasty to me, and I was going to do it, and I saw Chelsea sitting out in the audience and I just didn't want to go there.

FRATES: The thrice-married candidate telling reporters he's not worried about this attack inviting scrutiny of his own marital history, like his well-documented affair with actress Marla Maples while he was married to his first wife.

TRUMP: I have a very good history. I guess, I mean, they can do it, but it's a lot different than his. That I can tell you. I mean, we have a situation where we have a president who was a disaster, and he was ultimately impeached over it, in a sense, for lying. So, we'll see whether or not we discuss it.

FRATES: The plan, an attempt to fight back against Trump's own controversial comments about women, detailing talking points obtained by CNN this week, encouraging Trump's surrogates to drop names from Bill Clinton's past, like Monica Lewinsky.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you, as someone who presumably wants more women to run for and win office and high office, feel any obligation, if Trump brings up your husband's past, to speak out against a spouse's indiscretions or past being brought into a campaign like this?

CLINTON: No. Look, he can say whatever he wants to say, as we well know. We have seen it in real time over the last many months. And I'm going to keep running my campaign.

FRATES: Trump's also standing by his claim that he did a service to the country by leading the birther movement.

TRUMP: I was the one that got him to produce the birth certificate, and I think I did a good job.

FRATES: And going a step further, saying he's proud of his effort, while reiterating a false claim that Clinton questioned the president's citizenship when she ran against him in 2008.

TRUMP: I'm the one that got him to put up his birth certificate. Hillary Clinton was unable to get there, and I will tell you she tried; and she was unable to do it. And I tried, and I was able to do it. So I'm very proud of that.

FRATES: All this as Trump's foundation faces renewed scrutiny this morning, saying the New York state attorney general's office, "The Washington Post" reporting that the charity never obtained a certification that New York requires before charities can solicit money from the public. The Trump campaign has not responded to the paper's request for comment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRATES: Now, CNN has also reached out to the Trump campaign and has not yet gotten a response. And also this morning, "USA Today" has an editorial out calling Trump unfit for the presidency. It's the first time in the paper's 34-year history it's taken sides in a presidential race.

But the paper noted it was not endorsing Clinton. And yesterday the paper ran an op-ed by Mike Pence, where the veep candidate made the case for his running mate. So lots of news out there on the campaign trail today, Chris.

[07:05:12] CUOMO: All right, Chris. Appreciate it. Hillary Clinton is swinging through another key battleground today while opening a new line of attack against Donald Trump. The campaign also busy courting millennials. They're trying to keep them away from third-party candidates. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux live in Washington with details -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

Well, Donald Trump continues to try to bait Hillary Clinton with threats of bringing up her husband's past infidelities. Clinton is on the road, and she is mocking Trump for his debate performance, using his own words about being smart for not paying income taxes. Clinton's going after Trump's tax plan, his character, his business practices. And she's in Florida today for two campaign stops as she pushes to

court the millennials. Now, polls are now showing that they are being drawn to the third-party candidates, particularly Gary Johnson. The threat now is that Johnson could become a spoiler, and Clinton was faced with that question in her press gaggle aboard the plane. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I think either Donald Trump or I will be the president of the United States. And, so, people have to look carefully in making their decision about who to vote for, because it will be either him or me and I am going to do everything I can to make sure it's me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: This morning two new polls are out, giving us the first glimpse of Clinton's post-debate bounce. It shows that Clinton now with a seven-point lead over Trump in both the key battleground states of New Hampshire and Michigan.

What is particularly revealing is the 21-point lead that she has among women in Michigan. Desperately trying to cut into that. It should come as no surprise that is where Trump is campaigning today -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Suzanne, thanks so much for all of that reporting.

We want to bring in now CNN political commentator, Hillary Clinton supporter and vice chair of the New York state Democratic committee, Christine Quinn; and CNN political commentator and Trump supporter Kayleigh McEnany. Ladies, thanks so much for being here.

Donald Trump got up early. I don't even know if he slept, because throughout the night he has been tweeting, just sending out a flurry of tweets, mostly about the Miss -- former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, stuff. I won't -- I'll just paraphrase one. This was sent at 5:14 in the morning. "Wow, Hillary was duped. Used by my worst Miss Universe. Hillary floated her as an angel without checking her past, which is terrible."

Kayleigh, I'll start with you. You, as well as other advisors and surrogates we've had on the show, have advised Mr. Trump to move away from this. Let's get back to the issues. Why is he sticking with this?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, I do think that's important. When you're on the defense to move to the offense. It's important for the debate, important he do that next time in the debate.

That being said, I understand his inclination to want to bring this up. He's been accused of saying these horrible things about her. It's important to look into this lady's past. Go on CNN Espanol, and you'll find an article about how a witness accused her of having a child with a drug lord. On her own airwaves, she was asked about threatening the life of Judge Fuenmayor, and she said, "So..."

CAMEROTA: So again you're comfortable going back and dredging up things. You think this is important for the campaign?

MCENANY: I think when Hillary Clinton brings this up and presents her words as fact. That is to say that Miss Universe's words as fact, it's important for Donald Trump to explain his side of the argument. That being said, I think surrogates can do that. I don't think Donald Trump needs to be doing that.

CAMEROTA: We are four days after the debate, and he's still putting energy into this. And some suggest that he can't help himself.

MCENANY: Well, I know how frustrating it is. Look, we play the clip of that workout video, for instance. Well, I went and looked at the full context last night. And Donald Trump actually said, "I eat a lot, too. A lot of Americans have issues like this." He offered to work out with her. There is more to the story than I think has been reported, and I think he wants to get that out there.

CAMEROTA: Go ahead.

CHRISTINE QUINN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'm almost speechless, right, which is a lot for me. Right, right, right. These are the facts here.

This woman was Miss Universe. Apparently, she gained some weight. Donald Trump made that an enormous issue. He said she was an eating machine and that she gained a tremendous amount of weight. And that it was an enormous problem. That's not made up, and I think the Trump campaign is trying to make us all believe that Secretary Clinton has made this up. That's not made up. It's on video.

And then there's this workout tape, where he brought reporters to watch her work out and try to weight. It was unkind, inappropriate and sexist.

But then we have this position where he's now -- can't let it go. Which, in my opinion, only underscores what Secretary Clinton has said, which is that he is a man who can be baited by a tweet or less.

CAMEROTA: That's the point. But, Kayleigh, this is the point. It does seem to have gotten under his skin. I understand what you're saying. He wants to defend himself. That's the natural inclination.

But he's a presidential candidate. And four days later, we're still talking about it, because he tweeted about it multiple times last night. So, what does that tell you about his impulses and what he would be like as a president?

[07:10:08] MCENANY: I don't think it's impulses, because I think this dialogue is a perfect example. Christine, have you watched the entire video? The entire video. Workout video.

QUINN: First of all, let me just say something. MCENANY: No, answer, please. You haven't watched it. Well, let me explain what you have not seen. No, please, I sat there and let you talk.

CAMEROTA: I do want to hear your point.

MCENANY: Let me explain what you haven't seen. He calls her beautiful in the video. He says, "I fought for her to keep her title." He goes on and on. He says, "I have eating issues. I've eaten too much, as well."

CAMEROTA: But my point is, four days later, why are we still talking about this?

QUINN: Whether or not -- wait, Alisyn. Whether or not he did a thing, you allege, regardless of whether it was true or not, it doesn't erase that he said these bad things about her, one.

Two, it doesn't erase that, yet again, what you were doing and Trump surrogates started doing is attacking the messenger, demeaning the person who is in question here and denying the truth, which is a pattern.

And, three, even if he is the Mother Theresa of Miss Universe, as you would like us to believe, he has no impulse control.

CAMEROTA: That's the point.

Look, this is the point, is that people have said that. It suggests that he doesn't have impulse control, and as a president, you want somebody who has impulse control.

MCENANY: I think when you have someone impugning your character, spinning scenarios to make them seem bad when they were not, in fact, bad, not showing the entirety of this workout video and making these horrible allegations, I do think it's important to defend your reputation. And I think if any of us were said that we said these certain things, I think all of us would want to...

(CROSSTALK)

QUINN: If I had said them as he appears to have said a version of them on tape, I would apologize.

CAMEROTA: OK.

QUINN: And he -- the fact he is constitutionally incapable of knowing when to let go.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

QUINN: To step back, take a deep breath, really means I don't want him at the table...

CAMEROTA: OK. That's fine.

QUINN: ... the future of the world.

CAMEROTA: Let's move on. Let's move on to the past. Which is the 1990s because, once again, the sex scandals of the 1990s of Bill Clinton and, let's face it, Donald Trump, have reared their ugly heads.

Let me read for you, Christine, what the Clinton campaign put out, a statement about this yesterday. Brian Fallon, the spokesperson, says, "Well, Trump and lieutenants like Roger Stone and David Bossie may want to dredge up failed attacks from the 1990s; as many Republicans have warned, this is a mistake that is going to backfire."

How can they be so sure? We're not in the '90s any more. How can they be so sure that this is going to backfire, bringing up Bill Clinton's past and Hillary Clinton's response to it?

QUINN: I think we know it's going to backfire. One, we know because elections are about the future. And we're spending, what are we, five, six weeks away from the election, and we're talk abo Donald Trump attacking women's weight. We're talking about a presidential nominee being up at 5 a.m. in the morning tweeting about things. We're talking about the past. We're not talking about the future.

And, really, if you're going to throw -- which I just don't think is appropriate in a presidential election, it's undignified. If you're going to throw issues about people's marital past, be sure you're standing on incredibly firm ground, which Donald Trump is not.

And quite frankly, we've heard over and over that Americans are not uplifted by this election. Right? And this school of thought is going to further drag us down, not up.

And we've seen Republican leaders, one of the people who led the impeachment effort say, don't do this. We know high-level Republican senators are saying, don't do this. It is going to demean the election, and it's not going to work.

CAMEROTA: You heard this argument. What is the point of going back?

MCENANY: There are few times I agree with Christine. But I do think you shouldn't bring it up on a debate stage, because it does open him up to criticism. And I think two people sparring about marital past is not going to gain any new voters for either of them.

I understand the logic. I think it's important. If Hillary Clinton wants to paint herself as a hero for victims of sexual assault, I mean, it's important to look at how she treated women who accused her husband of that. But not on a debate stage.

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump has suggested that he may bring it up at the second debate. So, you think that that would be a bad idea. But do you think that he will? I hope not. I think that the e-mail scandal, the Clinton Foundation smashing BlackBerries with hammers. These are the important issues. Voters don't trust her. Bringing in something new, I just don't think, is the right way to go. I don't think he'll end up bringing it up. But we'll see. QUINN: you never know. I mean, he would have thought, but he

wouldn't have been tweeting about Alicia Machado at 4 a.m. in the morning. Who knows?

CAMEROTA: Christine, does it give you any cause for concern that the way they're spinning it is that it's a character issue for Hillary Clinton. How she handled it back in the '90s. So even if you don't want to look at what Bill Clinton did, how she handled it, and they've been able to use some material.

QUINN: No, Hillary Clinton is probably one of the most, if not the most significant champion for women and girls and survivors of sexual harassment, rape, sexual assault, female genital mutilation this country, this world has ever had, certainly that I've seen in my lifetime.

[07:15:08] She's a woman who stood on the international stage and, for the first time in China said, human rights are women's rights, said gay rights are human rights. She has helped change the world and make it a better and more equal place for women and girls, and that's what she'll do as president.

So, I'll put her record up, against anybody's, particularly Donald Trump's any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

MCENANY: Except when she put private investigators on women who were accusing her husband of sexual assault.

CAMEROTA: But they say that, when it came to her own life, she didn't have the...

QUINN: These are ridiculous attacks. Hillary Clinton made a decision, as a lot of women have, a personal decision about her marriage. That's her marriage. The Trumps' marriages were his marriages. They're none of our business.

But look at her record. As a children's advocate, as a senator, as a first lady and secretary of state, it is unparalleled and championed by both parties.

CAMEROTA: Maybe this is the last we'll ever hear of it. Thank you, ladies, for being here.

Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Funeral services held today for former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. President Obama and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, among dozens of world leaders who attended the services. Peres spent more than 70 years in public service. He earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating Israel's first peace deal with the Palestinians. Peres died Wednesday after suffering a major stroke. Shimon Peres was 93 years old.

Four Republican state attorneys general filing a lawsuit to stop the Obama administration from transferring the oversight of the Internet to an international governing body. The lawmakers in Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma and Nevada say the move violates the Constitution, even threatens online security. The action throws a serious wrench into the Internet transfer, which was scheduled to roll out tomorrow.

CAMEROTA: All right. Coming up, we have more on Donald Trump. What is he trying to accomplish with his early morning tweets this morning? Michael Smerconish has some ideas. He'll weigh in.

CUOMO: Plus, we all know what happened with this train. We know it was about speed. We know how many were injured. What we don't understand fully is why, why the technology that exists to make this happen still isn't in place. We have the very latest on the investigation from the NTSB, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:21:22] CUOMO: There's breaking news in the investigation into the train crash in Hoboken, New Jersey. CNN has learned the train's event recorder has been found.

Officials are going to download the information before waiting to go back to D.C. to do so. It's a major piece as investigators try to find out what led to the crash that killed one person, injured more than 100 others.

Here to discuss the latest on these two fronts is NTSB vice chairman Bella Dinn-Zarr.

Bella, thank you for joining us this morning.

BELLA DINN-ZARR, NTSB VICE CHAIRMAN: Thanks for having me.

CUOMO: Is it also true that the engineer, because he was heavily sedated after hospitalization for his injuries, has not been interviewed yet?

DINN-ZARR: That's right. We have not interviewed the engineer and we will be requesting that interview today.

CUOMO: Is there anything to lead investigators to believe that this was something other than an accident?

DINN-ZARR: We are looking into every aspect of it. So, we like to say we look at the man, the machine and the environment. So, we're going to be looking at everything from the track to the mechanics to the human performance operations, as well as the occupant protection survival factors of this train.

So, we do a very, very rigorous investigation. This is a terribly sad time for this community. And we're here to try to find out exactly what happened so we can prevent it from happening, again.

CUOMO: The governors of New Jersey and New York both mention that it seemed to be about excessive speed. Are they getting ahead of the facts or is that what it looks like to you all, as well?

DINN-ZARR: Well, I think that they understand that the NTSB is the lead in this investigation. So, we pride ourselves on our accuracy. We think that the people who are involved who have been affected deserve that.

So, as we get the most factual information, that's when we release it. So we're more about accuracy than speed.

CUOMO: OK. So, for 40 years, the NTSB has been calling for PTC, positive track control. Control the trains, take human error out of it. It has not happened, we are told, because of money. At the end of the day, if PTC were in place, would this have happened?

DINN-ZARR: You're right. We have recommended PTC for more than 40 years. Cs a system that does prevent train-to-train collisions, as well as other types of collisions, by stopping a train.

But as far as this particular accident, we don't know yet. And we're going to look at that. When we have access to the three passenger cars, which right now is a very unsafe situation. There's a canopy that is resting on top of the train. Once that's removed, we'll be able to look more closely at this train and we hope we'll be able to get more information.

CUOMO: Is it true that what you're looking at right now because of that canopy and water that's been coming in that, even once you get the train out of there, the situation may be unstable. That that depot may need to be completely redone before you can have another train in there.

DINN-ZARR: We are very hopeful that we'll be able to remove the parts of the canopy that are resting on the train. Or the contractors will be. And then we'll be able to access it safely. We have already accessed the locomotive, and that's how we're able to remove the event recorder from the locomotive.

CUOMO: Now, tell us what you're looking for on the video in terms of clues and, is it true that there is no more second man or woman with the engineer any more, that for cost savings, there's only one person now in control of the train.

[07:25:08] DINN-ZARR: So, there were three crew members onboard. The engineer, the rear brake man and then a conductor. And those are the crew members. We will be asking to interview them. And that is the entirety of the crew, as far as we know it.

CUOMO: but you don't have a second set of eyes any more with the engineer, right?

DINN-ZARR: No. We do have forward facing cameras, as you said, on both the locomotive and on the controlling cab, which is the front passenger car. So, we'll be looking at that and trying to get information from that, if it's available. That's always an "if" with us.

As far as the event recorder and the cameras, we hope the quality of the data is usable. We'll also be looking at any data that is available from other security cameras that are around. CUOMO: Bella Dinn-Zarr, we know that the NTSB takes its job very

serious and we look forward to hearing what you find so we can try to find our way to a better solution on trying and try and avoid this the next time. Thank you for joining us on NEW DAY. Appreciate it.

DINN-ZARR: Thank you.

CUOMO: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Chris, the focus of the race for president turning to Twitter. Why would Donald Trump turn everyone's attention back to the Miss Universe controversy? Michael Smerconish has some answers about that. And the winners and losers of the week. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)