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New Polls Show Hillary Clinton Maintains Lead Over Donald Trump in Presidential Race; Interview with Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge; Authorities Recover Event Recorder from NJ Train Crash; Witnesses Describe New Jersey Train Crash. Aired 8-8:30a ET.

Aired September 30, 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] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Also, there are new questions Trump's charitable foundation and Hillary Clinton's struggles to shore up support from a key voting bloc. So a lot to talk about with just 39 days until Election Day. We only have nine days until the next presidential debate. We're covering every angle for you, beginning with CNN's Chris Frates live in Washington. Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. After a week of fallout from Trump's lackluster debate performance, his advisers are now talking about overhauling how the GOP nominee prepares for his next big face-off with Hillary Clinton. And some are suggesting that Chris Christie take the lead and bring some brutal honesty to that preparation process. Now, meanwhile, Trump, he's preparing a couple of new lines of attack.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRATES: Donald Trump is on a tirade this morning against Hillary Clinton and former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, tweeting the Hillary Clinton was duped by Machado, accusing Clinton of floating her as an angel without checking her past. The Republican candidate also calling Machado disgusting, falsely alleging that she was in a sex tape, and that Clinton may have helped her become a citizen.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Clintons are the sordid past. We will be the very bright and clean future.

FRATES: This as Trump hints 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 the 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 -- but a lot different than his that I can tell you. 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 surrogates to drop names from Bill Clinton's past, like Monica Lewinsky.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you as somebody who wants more women to run for 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?

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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 is 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: 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. 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 of 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 the 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 response either. But also this morning, "USA Today" has an editorial out calling Trump unfit for the presidency. And it is first time in the paper's 34-year history it has taken sides in any presidential race. But the paper noted it wasn't endorsing Clinton. And yesterday it is important to note here, the paper ran an op-ed by Mike Pence where the veep candidate made the case for his running mate, Donald Trump, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, thanks so much for all of that.

Hillary Clinton is hitting the key battleground state of Florida today. She's trying to convince millennials that she is the better choice than any third party candidate. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is live in Washington with the details. Good morning, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Alisyn. While 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, she is going after Trump's tax plan, his character, and his business practices. But today, she is in Florida. She's making two campaign stops as she's pushing for courting the millennials, who polls now show are being drawn to the third party candidates, particularly Gary Johnson. The threat now is Johnson could become a spoiler. And Clinton was faced with that prospect aboard her plane.

(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 is me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:05:12] MALVEAUX: Every hour there is a new poll. This morning we have three new polls that are out, giving us first glimpse of Clinton's post-debate bounce. So it shows Clinton now with a four- point lead in Florida, dominating among women, African-Americans, and Hispanics. Trump has a big lead with whites, independents, and men. Clinton has a wider seven point lead over Trump in both the key battleground states of New Hampshire as well as Michigan. What is particularly revealing is the 21 point lead that she has among women in Michigan. Desperately trying to cut that, it should come as no surprise that is where Trump is campaigning today. And a big challenge for her, Hillary, is going to be turnouts among the millennials. Chris?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: It will be interesting to see what happened with Johnson lately, what that will do when it gets picked up in the polls. He's still up close to 10. Suzanne, thank you very much.

Let's bring in Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge. She's also a Donald Trump supporter. A.G., good to have you on the show this morning.

LESLIE RUTLEDGE, ARKANSAS ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, thank you, good morning.

CUOMO: As an attorney general, are you concerned about these accusations about the Trump foundation? The self-dealing, not just that was captured by the IRS, but the idea that he was paying for personal gain out of that foundation. You're familiar with the list, but I'll put it up for the audience. In 2007, there was $100,000 that came out of it to settle a legal dispute over Mar-a-Lago, $158,000 to settle a golf course lawsuit, $5,000 for hotel advertising, 10 grand for a Trump portrait. You're not supposed to use money out of a charitable foundation to self-deal. How does this concern you as someone who enforces the law? RUTLEDGE: What concerns me is my colleague in New York, Eric

Schneiderman, playing right into the Democratic playbook of using the office of attorney general in a political realm. We have the Clinton Foundation that accepting millions of dollars when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. That's much more concerning on a national scale than the Trump organization, Trump Foundation.

CUOMO: The foundation, Clinton Foundation raises real questions, gets investigated. The FBI and U.S. attorney pass it over. These are things that were actually flagged as a violation by the IRS. And these allegations from the Trump Foundation could also trigger a prosecution.

RUTLEDGE: Well, they could also be overlooked by the justice department and the FBI, and that's what I think that we have here is Eric Schneiderman, again, my colleague, that is using the office of attorney general as a political, you know, machine. And that's just, you know, unfortunate for the folks in New York to have their attorney general using the office dishonestly, really, to, as Hillary Clinton's activist.

CUOMO: What is dishonest about saying from 2007 to 2014 you had over $250 grand that came out of your foundation that wasn't supposed to be used for those kinds of things? That's not political, just a fact, isn't it?

RUTLEDGE: What is a fact is that the Democratic A.G. who is supporting Secretary Clinton in this wanted to be part of the Democratic machine, leading up into this November election. And I am disappointed in my colleague in New York, but unfortunately I'm not surprised because this is, again, just another play in that playbook of Democratic politics.

CUOMO: One of the big claims that Donald Trump uses in the election about foreign policy is he was right about the war in Iraq. Mike Pence, his running mate, when he was in Congress he voted for the war. Hillary Clinton voted for the war, or to give the president authority to take military action. And Trump criticizes that. The basis of it has been disputed, that we can't find any proof that he was against the war. Howard Stern just came out and said the following.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD STERN, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Trump was on our show years ago and said, yes, you know, he was kind of for the Iraq War, us going into Iraq. He was saying he really wasn't for it, so they were forced to mention my name. Yes. It's cool. Good promotion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Stern is not one to turn down attention. But even though he says he's backing Hillary Clinton, he is a friend of Donald Trump. And don't you think the truth matters on something like this? Why not just own a proposition like this? Why does Donald Trump insist on saying something that can't be proven? RUTLEDGE: Well, Donald Trump was a private citizen during that time,

and I think that when it comes to the voracity of someone's statements, we certainly need to look to Secretary Clinton and the veracity of her statements over the last several years and certainly while she was secretary of state and hiding, for example, and deleting those 33,000 plus e-mails, having the server in her basement, being dishonest with the federal bureau of investigation, when asked, being dishonest with the American public, more importantly.

[08:10:01] And so, yes, we must -- I think when it comes to trusting our candidates, we need to take former President Reagan, and that's trust but verify, and we can verify that Hillary Clinton is certainly the most dishonest candidate that we have ever seen run for president.

CUOMO: But Donald Trump's claim is to be the change agent. He's supposed to be better than what you accuse Hillary Clinton of, and then something as simple as whether or not he can tell the truth about being for or against the war, he lies about it. Says he was against the war, we can't find any proof of it, doesn't exist.

RUTLEDGE: Donald Trump is a change agent. And that's why we're seeing this great movement across the country is because he's taking the fight to bring back jobs to America, to strengthen the military, right to the inner cities of our country that are hurting desperately for new jobs and to care of their families in a half-safe neighborhood. So he is the agent of change while Hillary Clinton is the agent of the same old, same old failed policies.

CUOMO: Same old, same old to me would also refer to dredging up what happened in the '90s with Bill Clinton. If you notice, this interview with you, I talked about other things. I don't see how it is productive to go back there. But Donald Trump is tweeting up a storm this morning. He's upset about what was said about the Miss Universe contestant. He wants to talk about Bill Clinton's past. He wants to talk about Hillary Clinton's role. Do you advise that, going back into that sordid trash and raising all kinds of questions about Trump's own life? Or should we talk about what you're talking about, these issues and veracity and legitimacy?

RUTLEDGE: Well, we should be talking about jobs, the economy, and the military. Unfortunately Secretary Clinton is the one who raised the discussion about Miss Universe during the debate. She wanted to use her time to talk to the American people to drag up the past of the 1990s. And the things that she has said and done to women in hurting them have been vicious. And they pale in comparison to the things that Donald Trump may or may not have said. So it is really the Clinton campaign, planting stories about this woman from the 1990s, Miss Universe, that has brought all of this up. It has not been the Trump campaign.

CUOMO: But it is the Trump campaign's decision to respond, right? If you're going to be a change agent, even if everything you just said is true about how this is about Hillary Clinton baiting Donald Trump and not about his own volitional behavior, if he's a change agent, if he's supposed to be about things that matter to the American people, why is he doubling down on talking about Miss Universe and dragging up the sex life of Bill Clinton?

RUTLEDGE: Well, what has been brought up is the treatment that Hillary Clinton gave to those women, how viciously she attacked them, that she went to destroy their lives. And that's what pales, you know, his actions and statements over the years pale in comparison to what she did and how she treated those women and continues to do so. Having a war room that she was running in charge of, six figures, spent on investigators on what she called and was termed the bimbo eruptions.

CUOMO: Attorney general of Arkansas Leslie Rutledge, I appreciate you making the case for the Trump campaign on NEW DAY this morning. Appreciate you being with us.

RUTLEDGE: Thank you.

CUOMO: Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, let's get the Clinton camp response to what we just heard as well as the week's news. Joining us now is Neera Tanden. She's the co-chair of the Clinton-Kaine Transition Project, and the former policy director to Hillary Clinton. Good morning, Neera.

NEERA TANDEN, CO-CHAIR, CLINTON-KAINE TRANSITION PROJECT: Great to be with you.

CAMEROTA: I was watching your face during that last interview that Chris just conducted with the attorney general. And I saw some pained expressions. What is it that you want to counter first?

TANDEN: Well, I hope everyone just paid attention to what the attorney general of Arkansas just said on every charge, whether it was a foundation around Donald Trump, the GOP nominee's tweets this morning, between 3:30 and 5:30 in the morning. There is no response. There is no defense of his actions, there's no defense of what he's done. It is just one continual attack and often lie about Hillary Clinton.

She didn't run any war room to destroy any women, but if they want to get in the gutter of the '90s, they think that's what it looks like to be president of the United States, to have the temperament to be president of the United States, keep at it. I think people will make the judgment that America wants to move forward. They don't want to look into the past. They want to have a person who actually is not obsessively tweeting at 3:30 in the morning in response to some slight, but someone who is actually going to solve their problems.

CAMEROTA: OK, well, let's talk about a couple of things that have come up and get you to address them head on.

TANDEN: Sure.

CAMEROTA: Alicia Machado, she's former Miss Universe who is now in this fight with Donald Trump. Basically what he has done is raised issues and questions about her past. She may have been connected to a crime in the past. Do you think that the Clinton campaign adequately vetted her before talking about her at the debate?

TANDEN: OK, let's just take this in turn. I realize that Donald Trump and his campaign want to destroy another person, an American, who has criticized him.

[08:15:05] I realize it is their goal to do that. But let's look at what really happened here. Alicia Machado made a point about how she was treated by Donald Trump.

She was treated terribly by Donald Trump. She was attacked for her weight. She was called Miss Housekeeper because she was a Latina. Nothing that has come forward disputes what his actual words are.

They just want to destroy her as a person. They're going to use the media to do that. I suggest the media do not take the bait by the Trump campaign to destroy another woman.

(CROSSTALK)

TANDEN: I hear the point. I hear the point you're making, which is that these are issues raised. But the issue that Hillary was talking about was his treatment of women and it is not just Alicia Machado. There are dozens of women that he's called pigs and a number of names and there is no dispute of it. There's absolutely no dispute of it.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: So, you're saying if there was anything about, if there's anything in Alicia's past, where she was connected to a crime of any kind, you're comfortable with that and that the campaign vetted that adequately?

TANDEN: I'm saying the facts stand. There is nothing that Donald Trump has disputed. Donald Trump has disputed about the words she's used to describe what he said. We have them on tape. There is video running of what he said live on tape. He can't dispute that.

Though he tends to try to dispute words he's actually said multiple times.

CAMEROTA: Let me read to you something that the Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon put out a statement about going back to the '90s and dredging up Bill Clinton's sexual past. Let me just read this for everyone.

"While Trump and his 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 back fire."

Neera, how can you be sure it is going to backfire this time as it did in the 1990s since attitudes and mores about sex have changed since then?

TANDEN: I mean, I think most people look at these facts and say that this is a guy being advised by Roger Ailes, who has predatorial behavior, during his debates. Donald Trump has a number of marriages between him and Newt Gingrich, Giuliani, and the idea that they're going to pass judgment on other people's marriages is ridiculous.

You know, I mean, they can go through with this strategy, but it is not Democrats who are saying don't do it, it is Republicans. Republican surrogates, Republican congressional leaders, Asa Hutchinson, a whole range of Republicans are pleading with Donald Trump not to go down this road because they recognize the problem that it will create for them because if you want to appeal to suburban women, perhaps, and the public in general, perhaps you should actually talk about your future and not try to viciously attack your opponent because of what her husband has done in the past.

That is not change. If you want to be a change agent, that is the gutter politics that most Americans will reject. And I have faith in the American people that they will reject that gutter politics and the important thing is for Hillary to stay on her message, she's talking about national service today. She's not talking about these issues.

CAMEROTA: She has seemed to be reveling in her debate performance from Monday night. We have seen her on the campaign trail looking quite happy about it. Is there some concern in her campaign that she is overconfident, particularly since the format changes of the next one, it is a town hall, where Donald Trump is said to perhaps do better in that setting?

TANDEN: You know, I'm a Democrat, and I'm never overconfident. I don't think Democrats are generally -- it is not in our nature to be overconfident.

Hillary is definitely not overconfident, you know? She will prepare for the next format. She looks forward to every opportunity to talk about her vision and her agenda for actually addressing the country's problems. So, I think that the issue here is never being overconfident, and go have a tight race going over the next, you know, several weeks, and there is going to be an all-out effort to get people to the polls to register and get people to the polls in the last few weeks.

But definitely not a -- never a problem being overconfident on our end.

CAMEROTA: OK. Neera, thanks so much for coming on. We appreciate you being on NEW DAY.

TANDEN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's go to Chris.

CUOMO: Imagine what it was like to be on board that train that crashed in New Jersey. We're going to talk with two people who thank God lived through the crash, relatively unscathed, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:23:09] CUOMO: We got some new information into the investigation into what happened with the train. The event recorder that crashed Hoboken, they found it. And officials are going to download the information from it this morning. That's faster than it usually happens.

It is a major step in the investigation as they try to figure out why that train slammed into a terminal wall killing one person and injuring more than 100 others.

We have CNN's Brynn Gingras live from Hoboken. It's good news at least that we're going to more information fast.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Chris. I mean, that is a big part of the investigation. Another big part, hopefully coming today, the NTSB says they're going to interview the engineer of the train, Thomas Gallagher, a 29-year veteran of New Jersey transit.

He was actually out of the hospital, was overmedicated, couldn't talk to NTSB officials yesterday. That's the hope today. There were two other crew members on the train, so investigators hope to talk to them as well.

And as far as evidence, of course, you mentioned that event recorder, that does measure about the speed and the braking system on the train. So, as you said, Chris, very important information.

Other evidence that they hoped to collect but probably not until later this afternoon are cameras that were on the train. Those are located in the front where the engineer sat. Because of the debris that fell on top of the train, it has been difficult for investigators to safely get in there. So the hope is to get all that cleared up later today. And to get in there, get the four cameras, two on the outside and two on the panel, where the engineer sits.

So, a lot of evidence to still be collected. This is the first full day that the NTSB is on the scene. Of course, a lot of questions about this as 114 people were injured and one death, a 34-year-old woman killed standing on that platform -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Brynn, thank you so much for all of that.

We're joined by two passengers on the train, we have Omar Maamoun. He was headed to school. And Jamie Weatherhead-Saul, she was headed to work.

Thanks to both of you for being here. We're happy you look fine and neither of you were injured.

[08:25:04] So, Jamie, let me start with you. What happened?

JAMIE WEATHERHEAD-SAUL, PASSENGER ON TRAIN THAT CRASHED: I mean, it was a typical commute. We stared out just fine once we left Secaucus, as we left the tunnel, which is usually an indication when we usually slow down. A few of us noticed the train isn't slowing down.

CAMEROTA: Were you talking about it?

WEATHERHEAD-SAUL: We kind of, like, looked at each other, like, this is strange, but we thought maybe it is going to slow down further into the station, and as we looked out of the door, because I was standing in the vestibule at that first car, ready to exit, I noticed that the train had continued into the station and we were still going at that same speed.

CAMEROTA: How fast do you think you were going?

WEATHERHEAD-SAUL: If I had to estimate I would say had to be 70 miles per hour or --

CAMEROTA: You mean, regular- the speed at which you had been going the whole time?

WEATHERHEAD-SAUL: Yes. It just didn't slow down. It didn't brake. We didn't feel any, like, gradual deceleration. It was just, like keep going.

CAMEROTA: So, you were standing, you were about to get off. What happened to you when you felt the impact?

WEATHERHEAD-SAUL: So, before we even noticed there was going to be impact, the light started flickering, because we didn't know what was happening on the other side, standing up, the folks from the second vestibule, like, right at that -- the beginning of the second car, were thrown into where we were standing, so folks were just piling up in front of us.

A woman right in front of me had her legs caught in between the two -- the door and her body on my side. We were able to get her up. Another woman had a bad knee, folks immediately in front of me had their, you know, some gashes, gentleman was trying to help people. Am I bleeding, am I bleeding? We were, like, yes, he was really helpful in keeping folks calm.

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh. Omar, tell me where you were in the train and what your experience was?

OMAR MAMMOUN, PASSENGER ON TRAIN THAT CRASHES: I was sitting toward the middle of the train. When you're entering the station, you hear the squeaking brakes. I didn't hear that. I looked out the window and I noticed that we're moving very quickly, but by the time that you register moving very quickly and in the station that something is going to happen, we had already hit the platform and were on the course.

CAMEROTA: Omar, what was that impact like?

MAMMOUN: Honestly, I thought it was an explosion. Everybody was standing up, so the whole train -- the whole train car just moving left and right and up and down so people were being thrown everywhere, people were hitting their heads on either the doors or people's shoulders, elbows, shoulders, opening to the door frame.

CAMEROTA: Omar, some of the video we're looking at, some of the still pictures are yours. You were able to see your cell phone and take some video of the aftermath as well as pictures. What kind of injuries were you seeing? MAMMOUN: All kinds. People had their brows cut open, cuts on their

heads, on their necks, especially out of the first car. The emergency windows were pushed out and almost everybody coming out of that car had blood on them.

CAMEROTA: Omar, it is just incredible that no one on the train died. It is just inconceivable. If you were going as fast as you had been the whole trip, and then just slammed into the platform, how is it possible that no one on the train died?

MAMMOUN: I honestly don't know, because especially the first car, the first -- the first half of that first car was completely crumpled. So, I can't imagine that nobody was, like, squashed by that, so that's really kind of miraculous.

CAMEROTA: It is miraculous.

Jamie, what do you think happened?

WEATHERHEAD-SAUL: I want to believe that it was a mechanical error, because we have never experienced that. There is always that five to ten miles per hour as you approach the station and we never felt a brake or slowdown, and, you know, obviously there is maybe human error, but I honestly think this is someone who has done this route several times and they would know --

CAMEROTA: Oh, for years. The engineer, the conductor had done this for decades.

WEATHERHEAD-SAUL: You know what I mean? So I'm more concerned that there was something, something went wrong and I'm sure you try to do the best he could to get us to safety and it is amazing that we all lived to tell the story. For sure, you thought we're all going to die.

CAMEROTA: And you both -- the fact that you both are -- look unscathed. Obviously, we can't see your mental state, but you seem physically OK and for which we're really grateful.

Omar, Jamie, thanks so much for sharing your story and your pictures, Omar, we really appreciate that.

WEATHERHEAD-SAUL: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's get over to Chris.

CUOMO: Let me tell you why she's so happy she got home. Look at this guy. He's watching his mom on TV.

Miles, say hello to everybody. And a Yankee fan. That's what I'm talking about.

It has been a volatile week in presidential politics, the first debate, Donald Trump going after bill Clinton's infidelities, tweeting about a former Miss Universe. Strategy working? We'll look next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)