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NJ Train Did Not Have Positive Train Control; Clinton's Battle to Clinch the Millennial Vote; Potential Impact of a Third Party. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 30, 2016 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:45] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: It has been a busy week in the presidential campaign. Can you believe the debate was only Monday of this week?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: It's not true.

CAMEROTA: I know, it was two months ago, it feels like. A lot has happened. Here's a reminder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate. And yes, I did. And you know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be president and I think that's a good thing.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think my strongest asset, maybe by far, is my temperament. I have a winning temperament. I know how to win.

CLINTON: And he called this woman "Miss Piggy" then he called her "Miss Housekeeping" because she was Latino.

TRUMP: She was the winner and, you know, she gained a massive amount of weight and it was -- it was a real problem.

GARY JOHNSON (L), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I guess I'm having an Aleppo moment in the former president of Mexico.

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST, MSNBC HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS: But I'm giving you the whole world.

JOHNSON: I know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: We threw Gary Johnson in for good measure.

CUOMO: And then Johnson tweeted it's been 24 hours and I still can't think of a world leader I look up to.

CAMEROTA: He did not. CNN political commentator Michael Smerconish, host of CNNs "SMERCONISH" joins us now. Good morning, Michael.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, HOST, CNN "SMERCONISH": Good morning.

CAMEROTA: We should let everybody know that you have a wonderful column in this Sunday's "Philadelphia Enquirer" coming out where you talk about the debate and sort of the repercussions in the days after the debate. So who do you think won this week?

SMERCONISH: Well, in 1980, it was Papa Bush -- George Herbert Walker Bush -- who, after he won the Iowa caucus claimed that he had the big "mo" -- the big momentum. He quickly lost it when he got to New Hampshire, of that year.

But in this case,I think Trump had all the momentum going into the debate but there was a complete shift in terms of what transpired Monday night at Hofstra. And whether it may ultimately be a major tipping point toward the end of the campaign remains to be seen.

But I thought that he completely lost focus. I think that he allowed her to push his buttons methodically. You go back and you read that transcript and you see deliberate things that she said to get under his skin, and it worked. He lost his focus and I think he has, most importantly, lost track of the audience to which he's now got to speak. It's not the primary and caucus voters, it's a whole new ballgame.

CUOMO: So, we have three polls that came out in battleground states -- Michigan, New Hampshire, and now Florida we have from Mason-Dixon. Clinton is up seven, seven, and four points, respectively, so we're seeing a little bit of a bump for her. We'll see what happens with the state of play. The race is tight and can go back and forth.

Michael, the idea of saying Clinton got under his skin, she said things that bothered him. Is this really about her or this about him? Politics is negative and nasty. If you're President of the United States people like you and me are going to come after him on a regular basis. Isn't this about how he chooses to respond to that?

SMERCONISH: Well, I think -- I think that the game plan from her vantage point going in -- I mean, Chris, they've been getting ready in Brooklyn for this for a year -- was that they decided that putting him on a split screen with her -- and I'm convinced that when she practiced she used video so that she could take a look at what that image would convey.

And very deliberately, you know, she used the Trumped-up line, which I think fell flat, but then she followed it up with his father gave him a $14 million loan. And then very soon thereafter -- and this was all within the first 12-14 minutes of the debate -- she said this is a guy who cheered for the housing crisis.

He initiallystarted by referring to her as Secretary Clinton and he said, you know, it's important to me that you feel good, and then he lost that. Then he became the undisciplined Trump, not the disciplined version under Kellyanne Conway's tutelage, which we'd seen going into the debate.

And you look at those tweets that you've been talking about this morning. My God, somebody needs to take away the man's iPhone. How does that grow his tent when he says go look at a sex tape for a former Miss Universe? I don't get it.

CUOMO: Imagine if Hillary Clinton offered to smash his iPhone with a hammer?

CAMEROTA: I like that energy from both campaigns. I like that. But, Michael, it's interesting to hear you say that you felt that she was strong in the first 12 minutes because so many people said that, you know, Donald Trump owned that first half an hour and then he seemed to lose focus and get more erratic during the debate.

[07:35:15] SMERCONISH: Well, Alisyn, I -- no, I do agree with the assessment that the best 30 minutes for him were the first 30. But after she methodically dropped those lines, then he unraveled and he became the unfocused, undisciplined Donald Trump.

And one other thing, you know. I thought he was probably playing possum when he said that he wasn't rehearsing for the debates and he was eating bacon cheeseburgers in Westchester, New Jersey. But he really didn't practice, that became obvious, and it caught up with him.

CUOMO: The first 30 minutes -- just that, you know -- I thought it was interesting that people said it was his best. I thought that there was a reflection of a low bar for him because what he didn't do was he wasn't insulting, he wasn't running all over the place in terms of non-essential issues.

CAMEROTA: But he talked about trade in a way that people responded to.

CUOMO: He talked about trade in a way that was negative about her, not about what he would do better or different on trade, other than this assumption that he could negotiate better than anybody else. And on jobs, very importantly, his big point will be how he can make more jobs because he understands business. His only idea was to keep jobs from leaving by instituting a tax that a president doesn't control. I thought it was a missed opportunity for him.

SMERCONISH: There were several missed opportunities for him. When he finally was able to put the email issue -- one of his strong suits -- in play, and Lester Holt gave him the opportunity to respond to that issue having raised it, he said something about emails.

He talked about the individuals who plead the Fifth and then he very quickly spun to more of a defense of his own tax return. And I would argue that any second that Donald Trump is talking about his failure to release his tax returns is a losing moment, so he couldn't even capitalize on that. And there were several of those during the course of the 90 minutes.

CAMEROTA: So Michael, you've talked about how -- you know, it's hard to predict these things. That momentum can shift on a dime. You talk about that in your upcoming column, and about how President George H.W. Bush thought that he had won but then the momentum sort of frittered away. So can Donald Trump, next week, shift the momentum back to him?

SMERCONISH: I think that he has the opportunity to do so. I would remind you, Alisyn, that Ronald Reagan had a poor first debate in 1984. Barack Obama had a poor first debate against Mitt Romney in 2012. And so the first debate was arguably the most important, and most important because so many Americans are already voting. One- third of Americans voted before Election Day in the last cycle. We might exceed that this time. So let's just remember that people are casting ballots as we speak, but there's still time on the clock.

The question is, is he going to practice, is he going to maintain some discipline? And most importantly, is he going to remember the intended audience because tweeting about Miss Universe is not a way that you grow the tent with suburban women with whom, right now, you're doing horribly.

CAMEROTA: Michael Smerconish, thank you. Always great to get your take on the winners and losers of the week.

SMERCONISH: Thanks, guys.

CAMEROTA: You can check out "SMERCONISH" Saturdays at 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.

CUOMO: So, could that deadly New Jersey train crash have been prevented? We're talking to a member of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Public Assets to get some answers.

CAMEROTA: And on this Sunday's "PARTS UNKNOWN" at 9:00 p.m., Anthony Bourdain heads to Nashville to take in the lively music scene and the rich cuisine. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, HOST, CNN "ANTHONY BOURDAIN: PARTS UNKNOWN": Nashville, Tennessee. When I planned to do a show here I was saying you know, everybody does shows about music and Nashville, but then we got really, really lucky. So prepare yourself. This show's all about music and it is filled with the most awesome music ever in the history of the world, maybe even the universe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:39:50] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:43:35] CUOMO: The investigation is underway into that deadly New Jersey Transit train crash. Could it have been prevented if the train had Congressionally-mandated safety features?

We're joined by Republican Congressman John Micah. He's a member of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Public Assets. Congressman, thank you for joining us.

Look, of course, investigators may learn something here that is an anomaly -- something about the engineer, something about the track, something about the train, maybe a combination. However, it is just as likely that this will wind up being a factor of excessive speed and improper control that could have been corrected if New Jersey had done what they were told to do by you in 2015, now moved to 2018. And it's not happeningbecause of money. Is that the bottom line?

REP. JOHN MICA (R), FLORIDA, SUBCOMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC ASSETS: Well, that's true, and we made available $35 billion in what's called RRIF loans -- railroad infrastructure financing loans -- so money was available.

Their neighbor, Metropolitan New York, applied for and got almost $1 billion to start their system. But, unfortunately, sometimes these systems are plagued with bad management. The Congress oversees, very closely, the District of Columbia Metro and that's been a disaster. They've gotten huge amounts of money but poor management and not good decisions as far as rail safety.

[07:40:05] CUOMO: So you say that the time has come for Amtrak to no longer have a monopoly. That the reason that you say we have a Soviet-style railway system is fixable -- explain.

MICA: Well, Amtrak has had a lock since we created it -- a monopoly, particularly on the Northeast Corridor, but for all of the operations. We've seen around the world incredible systems, many of them put together by private-public partnerships. And I actually opened the door the first time for competition. Now we're getting some bids, both through the Northeast Corridor, which could have much better, more frequent service.

Unfortunately, Amtrak just bought the wrong kind of equipment. They, spending $2.5 billion and making a mistake on the type of equipment they purchased. So their Soviet-style train operation monopoly -- we're breaking that up.

CUOMO: So why doesn't it happen? We're moving to privatized things all the time. Public-private partnerships are not uncommon. Why has the rail system lagged?

MICA: Well, again, for passenger service, long distance Amtrak control has controlled this as a monopoly. But I did put provisions in the last legislation to open it to competition. We're getting those bids in now. There's 22,000 miles of service for Amtrak that's run on freight and that's private rail. Private rail has actually stepped up to the plate on installing Positive Train Control. They're ahead of the game.

What's happened, though, is we've had some problems. We have some problems relating to the transmission of information. It's -- you need a FCC -- a Federal Communications license for these transmission systems. And we formerly had about maybe 200-300 applications into FCC. Now we have thousands because so many are required to get these systems in place so that's the only reason that they got a delay.

But we also provided money for systems like New Jersey Transit and other commuter and rail lines to install the equipment and get it done as soon as possible.

CUOMO: I mean, trains don't even have seat belts. I mean, it just seems like these incidents keep happening and the answer is always the same. One, it's excessive speed, which is yeah, you know, it's an antiquated system, it's complicated. We put the money out, the states don't manage it right or they don't ask for the loans and it's hard to handle.

Will anything change here, even with this tragedy where everybody's concerned? Will anything happen?

MICA: Well, we'll look at it. It's either the engineer or something -- he was distracted. We don't know. It was probably excessive speed from what we're hearing. But the train system there also had a crash avoidance system or slowing the train down. Maybe it was something wrong with that system, it wasn't properly maintained. We'll find out.

But, you know, I'm sad that we still don't have cameras in the cabs. The unions have fought putting cameras in the cab. I should know this morning what took place on that train. But they fought having, again, some systems to surveil what's going on in the cabs and I think that's reasonable.

CUOMO: You think having the cameras is reasonable so please bring it up and let us cover why it doesn't get done. It would certainly be a service to the public.

MICA: I just told you, again. That union opposition is actually going to court to stop some of that.

CUOMO: Hold a hearing. Make it exposed. Let people know what's going on.

MICA: That's what I do as -- that's what I do as chairman of transportation oversight for the House and we try to keep them all on a path to safety and also advance the system because America is behind in its passenger rail service and we need to be leading the world, not behind the rest of the world.

CUOMO: Congressman, thank you for being on the show and pointing out the obvious, appreciate it -- Alisyn.

MICA: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: (Audio gap) -- trying to clinch the nial vote. How's it going? We talk to young voters next.

[07:49:25] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:52:50] CAMEROTA: Hillary Clinton has been lagging with younger voters, so how will she try to reel in the millennial vote? CNNs chief political correspondent Dana Bash hit the road to find out. She joins us live from Washington. Good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. I was in North Carolina, which is just about the swingiest of swing states. President Obama won there in 2008 but lost in 2012, and this year the Clinton campaign hopes to win North Carolina back. But the challenge there and in battleground states across the country is convincing reluctant young voters that Hillary Clinton is their candidate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Emma Bonstein (ph) with Hillary from North Carolina here in Polk County (ph).

BASH: At field offices in 280 college campuses, millennials work the phones for Hillary Clinton.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was wondering if you'd like to come out and do some voter registration or a phone bank with us this weekend?

BASH: Young voters fueled President Obama's wins. He got 60 percent of 18-29-year-olds in 2012. A demo that was nearly 20 percent of the vote now could be growing.

CLINTON: Young people could represent 25 percent of the vote.

BASH: Team Clinton is putting such a premium on millennials they hired youth directors in key battleground states. Lillie Catlin runs North Carolina and says social media is key.

LILLIE CATLIN, NC YOUTH VOTE DIRECTOR, CLINTON CAMPAIGN: You know, we can't necessarily knock on every door and students move every year and so it's, you know, having those kind of conversations but through our text lists or through Twitter.

BASH: Still, polls show Clinton is underperforming with millennials so the campaign is deploying high-profile surrogates. Bernie Sanders is lobbying his army of young supporters.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is imperative that we elect Hillary Clinton as our next president.

BASH: Chelsea Clinton is hopscotching college towns.

Why has it been so hard for your mom to do that -- to get people your age to get behind her?

CHELSEA CLINTON, DAUGHTER OF HILLARY CLINTON: Well, Dana, thank you for including me in the millennial demographic. I'm just at the older end. If we think about the younger millennials we think only about 55 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds were even registered to vote at the beginning of 2016, so that says to me we just need to be doing a better job, collectively, on making the case at what's at stake in this election.

[07:55:00] BASH: At East Carolina University in North Carolina, we heard why it's been so hard.

What is your experience in getting your friends on the Hillary Clinton train?

ANNIKEN WILLIAMS, VICE PRESIDENT OF COLLEGE DEMOCRATS OF NC: Well, it's been pretty difficult, especially because a lot of young people, especially at ECU, were for Bernie Sanders.

BASH: One Sanders supporter challenged Chelsea directly, saying the primary was rigged for Clinton.

ZACHARY PATE, STUDENT, EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY: What moral ground does Hillary Clinton have to stand on to continue running as the Democratic nominee?

C. CLINTON: I would hope as someone who, clearly, is a passionate supporter of Sen. Sanders, that you'll listen to him directly and not rely on me to make the case.

BASH: He really came to protest and walked out holding a sign for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

You don't really think Jill Stein can win, do you?

PATE: I think that we're going to establish party power and relevance for the Green Party by doing what we're doing.

BASH: Losing millennials to third-party candidates is a dire concern for Clinton.

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: If you vote for someone other than Hillary or if you don't vote at all, then you are helping to elect Hillary's opponent.

BASH: For some, that's working. Erick Jenkins was a Sanders delegate who told us Clinton's college affordability plan convinced him.

ERICK JENKINS, STUDENT, EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY: Leveling out the cuts in colleges in states and also making the federal government match it four-fold.

BASH: But stroll through campus, it's clear Clinton has work to do.

Who are you going to vote for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jill Stein.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary Clinton.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm undecided.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Fascinating reporting there, Dana. Great to hear from them directly. But let's just talk about the numbers because you heard Hillary Clinton, there, say that the young vote can be 25 percent of the vote. That sounds extremely significant. How much of an impact will they have this year? BASH: A big impact and the Clinton campaign has good reason to be worried about. Just earlier this month there was a Quinnipiac poll, Alisyn, that showed 44 percent of young voters say they're going to vote for a third-party candidate.

When you think about it -- when you think about the fact that -- as I said in the piece, Barack Obama got 60 percent of that group. That's a huge gulf (ph) and really could mean the difference between winning and losing, not just in North Carolina but in battleground states across the country. Colorado was another one, Pennsylvania -- especially states with big college campuses and young voters.

CAMEROTA: OK, so let's talk about the impact that the third-party might have. You heard one of your interview subjects there talk about how he doesn't think Jill Stein will necessarily win but it will show third-party power. And then, Jeb Bush -- did he actually say to you that he was considering voting for Gary Johnson?

BASH: Not to me, but he did do an interview where he talked about the fact that he is considering that. And I have to tell you, Alisyn, that kind of blows my mind because covering George -- excuse me, covering George -- I covered George Bush -- but covering Jeb Bush in this election -- his main push to voters was you need a candidate who's serious, who can do the job, especially on the world stage.

For him to even think about somebody who doesn't know what Aleppo is or was confused by it. Can't answer a question about who his favorite world leader is, it's just mind-boggling and it does show -- I mean, obviously, Jeb Bush has personal reasons why he doesn't like Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, but if somebody like him considers that it's really telling.

CAMEROTA: It really is. This is a topsy-turvy, crazy election season. Dana, as you have shown us so many times, thanks so much for all of that reporting.

BASH: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right, we're following a lot of news, including Donald Trump's Twitter tirade. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

H. CLINTON: The future of our country will be on the ballot.

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

H. CLINTON: He puts his personal and business interests ahead of the laws.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: It's fair game to think about how Hillary Clinton treated those women.

TRUMP: I have a very good history. A lot different than his, that I can tell you. H. CLINTON: I'm not going to comment on how he runs his campaign. You'll be able to see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard a bomb-like explosion.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: The train came in at a high rate of speed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just didn't stop and she got thrown around. Lights went out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hear this really loud bang, then deafening silence and the screams and terror.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

CUOMO: Good morning, welcome to your new day. It is Friday, September 30th, 8:00 in the East now.

We woke up this early for you and so did Donald Trump. He's all over Twitter attacking a former Miss Universe, insisting on making this election about what he calls Hillary Clinton's sordid past.

CAMEROTA: Also, there are new questions about Trump's charitable foundation.