Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Escalating Tensions with Russia Stoke Cold War Fears; Historic Hockey Debut; Several Women Accuse Trump of Unwanted Advances. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 13, 2016 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:32:43] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Are the U.S. and Russia on the verge of another Cold War? Oh, that's too provocative. Is it?

If you take a look at the situation, the relationship between the two countries is really deteriorating and now you have these accusations over military operations in Syria, disputes over Eastern Europe independence, and all this hacking which just seems to be dismissed as another occurrence.

Joining us now is Michael Weiss, CNN contributor and co-author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror."

Now, this article isn't directly about ISIS, but it does have tangential implications.

MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Sure.

CUOMO: It does seem that we keep saying, wow, it's really weird what's going on with Russia, as if it can't really mean anything that bad down the road, but --

WEISS: Well, look, the U.S. has spent a lot of time and energy saying, this is no some game anymore, the Cold War is over, all the while Russia has essentially been fighting the Cold War, in all but name, right? I mean, look at the last fortnight alone. Russia has deployed Iskander missiles, these are nuclear capable ballistic missiles, to Kaliningrad, their exclave in Europe which borders Poland and Baltic States.

These are missiles that can strike any number of NATO capitals within a matter of minutes. This is a big deal. I mean, on the verge of almost a Cuban missile crisis.

CUOMO: They move a heavy defense system into Syria, also.

WEISS: They did, indeed. Yes. Two of them actually, S-300s and S- 400s, anti-aircraft systems.

Now, when Russia went into Syria in 2015 claiming they're fighting ISIS. What do you need anti-aircraft systems in Syria for? ISIS does not have an air force, right? This is to deter U.S. intervention. They test fired three ballistic missiles this week. They have hacked the DNC and now we know.

I mean, Christiane's interview, she asked him point blank and his response was, we never denied it, but you have to prove it. Well, they denied shooting that MH-17, they denied bombing the U.N. cargo, convoy in Syria, they denied invading Crimea, they denied invading Ukraine, but they're not denying trying to sway a U.S. election.

This is a big deal. And I think, you know, unfortunately, we on the American side have downplayed this much to our peril. And now, I think people are beginning to realize that this is much more hostile and dangerous than we have perceived.

CUOMO: Well, I agree with all of that until the last part because it doesn't seem like people really get it, maybe they do in the upper echelons of U.S. government. But, I mean, look at the Ukraine situation.

[06:35:02] We went over there thinking that we were covering a plane situation and we wound up in the middle of a civil war that was, obviously, funded if not orchestrated by Russian military.

WEISS: Absolutely.

CUOMO: And they just denied it even though there were people walking around in Russian military uniforms.

WEISS: The thing I'm noticing, though, Chris, is they're becoming more playful and provocative and naked in their admissions of this kind of behavior. So, this week alone, Putin gave a speech before an audience of VTB Bank. This is one of the Russia's state-owned banks, itself sanctioned by the U.S. government over its involvement in helping finance the takeover and invasion of Ukraine.

He more or less said, look, we went into Ukraine, this is not Crimea, to protect our Russian-speaking brethren, so again, a belated emission of something he denied now doing for years.

But forget about all of this, right? Look at the rhetoric when it comes to nuclear escalation. Deputy Duma Speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who is an ultra-nationalist, has come out and said, if America doesn't elect Donald Trump, it's World War III, it's nuclear holocaust. He said they'll be Hiroshimas and Nagasakis all over the world.

This is a guy who has threatened nuclear war against the Baltic States time and time again. He claims that all three Baltic States belong to Russia. They have no right to their independence.

Again, if you're on the periphery near the Russian border, if you're Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, you've been experiencing this for over a decade. But Americans are now fearing it because the Russian- state media is amplifying this to such a fever pitch. CUOMO: So, we are more providing more scrutiny to Donald Trump for

what he said. MSNBC has this interview that Tom Roberts did. I think in 2013 where he says, yes, I have a good relationship with Putin and now he's denying he really knows anything about Putin. There's more scrutiny on him.

But not on the U.S. government in terms of doing nothing about these situations, even these hacks, which -- you know, if it happened in any physical world, the digital space, you would think it would be a war initiator. What is the right level of scrutiny? What can the U.S. do?

WEISS: Well, the Obama administration is now sort of scrutinizing options to retaliate. So, what does that mean? Hacking into some Russia state ministry, I don't know. I think the U.S. is still very much on a de-escalation footing, right?

We cut off diplomatic relations with Russia and we said we did over the crisis in Aleppo, where Russian warplanes are turning that city in Bosnia (ph). But then within 48 hours, Kerry is back on the phone with Lavrov saying, let's do a deal. It was just reported yesterday a summit or a talk on Saturday about kick starting the peace negotiations over Syria.

But, look, when it comes to the election and to Syria, these two things are intertwined. Make no mistake. The Kremlin wants to see Donald Trump, but more important than that, they want to see Hillary Clinton not president. Why?

Because her policy platform on Syria is essentially one of intervention. She has come out in favor of safe zones and no-fly zones, which will mean militarily confronting if not necessarily going to war with Russia, deterring Russia from the skies over Aleppo.

Why is this important from a U.S. national security point of view? Don't take my word for it. The CIA, the Joint Chiefs, have said the fall of Aleppo is not just a humanitarian crisis, it's also a counterterrorism one. Why? Because the population, 275,000 people, will be radicalized, this looks horrible for the United States and it's sort of a clarion call to groups like ISIS and Jabhat-al-Nusra, join our ranks.

CUOMO: And if people wanted to go from the theoretical to the practical, just look at Iraq and Afghanistan. That's what we saw there, where people are beaten down and they're left exposed and desperate, radicalism can take root, where opportunity does not exist.

WEISS: Exactly.

CUOMO: Michael Weiss, "The Daily Beast" column is worth a read. Thank you for getting ahead of the curve on this.

WEISS: Thanks, Chris.

CUOMO: Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Chris.

On to sports, the National Hockey League begins its 100th season with a top rookie making history. We have all the details in the "Bleacher Report", next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:42:34] CAMEROTA: Time for five things to know for your NEW DAY.

First, at least three women are accusing Donald Trump of unwanted advances. Two telling their stories to "New York Times." a third a "People" magazine writer. The Trump campaign denies these allegations.

CUOMO: The Clinton campaign playing defense after WikiLeaks releases another batch of hacked emails of campaign staffers Campaign chair John Podesta accusing the Russian government of orchestrating the hack of his account.

CAMEROTA: People in the key battleground state of Florida have until next Tuesday to register to vote. A federal judge agreeing to give residents an extra week because of Hurricane Matthew. Florida Democrats and other groups pushed for that extension.

CUOMO: The NTSB says a small plane crash in Connecticut does appear to be an intentional act. The student pilot who died reportedly fought with his instructor before the crash. Officials say it appears to be a suicide attempt. The FBI is investigating.

CAMEROTA: Bermuda is bracing for Hurricane Nicole. The category four storm is packing maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour. The powerful storm is expected to make a direct hit on the island today.

So, for more on the five things to know, you can go to NewDayCNN.com for all of the latest.

CUOMO: It is opening day of the National Hockey League.

CAMEROTA: I know that.

CUOMO: That was yesterday. And what a historic debut it was for the Maple Leafs 19-year-old rookie. His name, Auston Matthews.

Coy Wire has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report".

History of the good kind. Tell us about it.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: No doubt about it. Chris, this guy born in California, raise in the desert of Arizona, and those are two places you can't even play hockey outside. He is now the number one overall pick in this year's draft and becomes the first person in NHL history to score four goals in their playing debut.

To put that in perspective, Sid the Kid Crosby, last year's MVP of the Stanley Cup, he hasn't scored four goals in his entire 11-year-career, Matthews scoring at will all night for the Maple Leafs. Mom and dad so proud, loving every minute of this historic night. So, you know, again, no rookie ever scoring that many goals in a debut.

The team lost to the Senators, that's not the story. It's all about Matthews. Going to be watching this kid all season long.

Thursday night football game, big game for the defending Super Bowl champ Denver Broncos. They're going to San Diego to take on the Chargers without their head coach on the sidelines. He is going to miss the game with a, quote, "complex migraine condition," unquote, and on the field they might get their starting quarterback Trevor Simien back from a shoulder injury.

[06:45:04] His backup rookie was sacked six times against the Falcons last week and that was the Broncos first and only loss of the season. Siemian is going to be a game-time decision.

Now, don't forget tonight, you have the Dodgers and Nationals, game five. Winner go home at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Winner has a date with the Cubs in the National League Championship Series and tomorrow the Blue Jays and Indians in the ALCS on our sister station TBS.

CUOMO: We're debating here, Coy, if you missed your first good quip opportunity since you've been doing this. When you said that Auston Matthews born in California and moved to Arizona, both of us thought King Tut. Born in Arizona and moved to Babylonia, got a condo made of stone-a.

WIRE: I love that you guys are on me and you're going to push me to be better. I got to bring it for you tomorrow, guys.

CUOMO: That's what we do here.

CAMEROTA: Yes, yes.

Steve Martin references, that's what we provide. Thanks so much, Coy.

WIRE: You're welcome.

CAMEROTA: All right. So, back to our top story, a former long-time Trump executive speaking out about her former boss and what she saw on the job. What is her reaction to the avalanche of new allegations against Trump? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:50:28] ANDERSON COOPER, MODERATOR: Just for the record, though, are you saying that what you said on that bus 11 years ago, that you did not actually kiss women without consent or grope women without consent?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I have great respect for women. Nobody has more respect for women than I do.

COOPER: So, for the record, you're saying you never did that? TRUMP: I said -- I said things -- frankly, you -- you hear these

things. They're said. And I was embarrassed by it. But I have tremendous respect for women. And women have respect for me.

COOPER: Have you ever done those things?

TRUMP: And I will tell you, no, I have not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, that was the pivotal moment at Sunday night's debate that prompted 74-year-old business woman Jessica Leeds to speak out to "The New York Times" about an incident she says she had with Donald Trump during a plane flight in the early 1980s.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSICA LEEDS, ACCUSED DONALD TRUMP OF INAPPROPRIATE TOUCHING: It was a real shock when all of a sudden his hands were all over me. He started encroaching on my space. And I hesitate to use this expression, but I'm going to. And that is, he was like an octopus. It was like he had six arms. He was all over the place. If he had stuck with the upper part of the body, I -- I might not have gotten -- I might not have gotten that upset. But -- so when he started putting his hand up my skirt, and that was it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, Donald Trump calls that claim completely false. He is threatening to sue "The New York Times." CNN, we should let you know, has not been able to independently confirm her account.

Our next guest, Barbara Res, worked for Trump on and off for 18 years. She is author of "All Alone on the 68th Floor: How One Woman Changed the Face of Construction."

Barbara, thanks so much for being here this morning.

BARBARA RES, WORKED FOR DONALD TRUMP 18 YEARS: My pleasure.

CAMEROTA: When you hear that woman's account in "The New York Times" that she was groped on a plane by Donald Trump. There was another woman that "The New York Times" spoke to, we have not independently confirmed it, that says that he kissed her in a hallway when she first met him. That it was an unwanted kiss. There is also a report in "People" magazine from an entertainment reporter who says that he accosted her in a room at Mar-a-Lago. Do you believe these women?

RES: I do believe it. Yes, absolutely.

CAMEROTA: Why?

RES: Because, you know, I worked for him a while ago. And when we started out, he was -- he was respectful of women. His mother was alive. He had this incredible adviser, assistant who -- who was very influential on him and Ivana was around. So he had me and he had another woman, a sales woman, who were very strong people and he respected and listened to us.

And I never saw him comport himself in such a way that, you know, you would turn around and say it was sexist. Although he did say some things to me when -- when he hired me that sort of gave a little bit of an indication.

CAMEROTA: Sure, but, I mean, saying sexist things are different than forcing yourself on a woman. So why do you believe these women's accounts?

RES: Well, because when -- as time went on, he became more and more forceful. He said women were chasing after him and women were following him and women wanted to have sex with him. And then, at a point in time, he said that he was spending so much time off having sex with so many women that his business went down and he blamed his brother and his executives for the crash of his business.

CAMEROTA: And you believed him -- did you believe him at the time that he had become a so-called womanizer?

RES: Yes, absolutely. Yes. I mean after the "Playboy" thing and the Marla Maples thing, I mean when that headline came out, he was so proud of that headline. He wanted really to look like a -- like a sex machine, it seemed. I mean he wanted people to think of him that way.

CAMEROTA: But, again, being a womanizer is different than being a sexual assaulter. Do you think that he -- from what you saw, that he is capable of being this aggressive, what these women talk about?

RES: Yes, I do, because I saw him be aggressive in business. I saw him throw his weight around and use the fact that he had power. And I think that assault, sexual assault and sexual harassment, are really about the abuse of power. I can do this to you because I am who I am. And I do think that it went to his head. So much else went to his head that it does make sense to me that he would do something like that.

CAMEROTA: When you heard that -- those audiotapes come out of he and Billy Bush on that bus where he says, I just kiss women. I -- it's almost like I can't control myself. I just -- I just start kissing them when I see an attractive women. And, you know, you can even grab them by the genitals if you're famous. What did you think when you heard that audiotape?

RES: At first I was surprised. I said, you know, wow, I mean, admission to a -- to -- to a crime, basically. It -- it -- why would he do something like that?

And then I put it in context and I said, well, it's probably true and the fact that he would brag about it just is consistent with his other behavior that I had seen before.

[06:55:00] CAMEROTA: So, again, you did not see any physically aggressive behavior, but you did see sexist behavior from him? What was your experience? RES: Yes. Well, I -- you know, initially, like I said, it was pretty

good. But after a while we started talking about women in a different way that, you know --

CAMEROTA: Such as?

RES: Well, he would say, you know, this woman is very hot and she really wants me and that kind of thing. But then I -- he got weird. I mean we had a meeting with an architect once, which was really shocking to me, out of nowhere he started talking about women -- the women in Marina del Ray and how they're not like the women in Beverly Hills.

They have to work harder, so their bodies are -- I mean he described their bodies as being, you know, tighter and stuff like that. It was -- the architect and I looked at each other. We didn't know where this came from.

But, you know, at the time, I thought, well, he's having this break down because his -- his -- his empire was falling apart and maybe, you know, it's just a temporary thing. But it -- obviously it got worse.

CAMEROTA: And yet I want to ask you about the memoir in 2013 that you wrote because you talked about him and your take on him was different then. Let me read it for everyone. "Donald, for all of his womanizing and commentary, was the least sexist boss I ever had as far as trusting me and viewing me equally with all the men we encountered in our mutual dealings." Expound on that.

RES: That's an honest statement. I mean he did not treat me. He did not discriminate against me and I didn't see him discriminating against women, except that the women he hired were all very beautiful. But I don't mean myself. I mean, you know, the women that were decorating the office or doing important administrative jobs. They were all very beautiful.

But as far as trusting me, he trusted me. He treated me like the men. He -- he yelled at me like he yelled at the men and cursed at me like he did. But he -- he respected me. So that was not sexist.

However, having said that, and I could still say that statement is true. Based on what I know now, what I saw of his comments in writing and in the press and the things that he said to Howard Stern, I could never say that he wasn't just sexist, because he's such a blatant sexist. I just would -- would retract that statement.

CAMEROTA: I understand. So you're saying that in your experience he treated you like one of the guys. He trusted you with all of the hard work. But now that new information has come out, given what you heard him say, as well as all the new audiotapes, you've revised your view of him.

RES: And I've thought about now, you know, things that -- don't forget, I was in construction. That is such a sexist business. A lot of stuff went right past me. I didn't think about it. But, you know, I spoke to some women that worked there at the time and

I was reminded of things that he did and the way he looked at women and he did leer at women. There was no question about that. He even leered at me once at a black tie dinner. I wore this low cut dress and he was, you know, staring down at me.

And, you know, I just -- I -- I -- I took it in my stride. I didn't say, oh, my God, you know, he's doing this. It was just, well, he never saw me like this. I was always in construction clothes or in business clothes and I just took it in my stride.

CAMEROTA: It was a different time.

RES: Yes.

CAMEROTA: I mean, absolutely, everything has to be looked at through the lens --

RES: Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: Of that being the '80s or whenever and it was a different time. So you support Hillary Clinton.

RES: I absolutely support her, yes.

CAMEROTA: And you do not support Donald Trump. But you say it's not just because he's sexist.

RES: Oh, no.

CAMEROTA: It's for other reasons that -- because of what you know about him. what are those?

RES: Absolutely. Well, first of all, everyone knowns he has no experience. And, I mean, the idea that he would be president is -- is just ridiculous. I have other developers I worked for were just as smart or smarter than he was and I wouldn't vote for them for president either. I mean you need to have some experience. You need to have some knowledge of government. The way he shows himself, he doesn't even seem to know basic civics.

But the worst thing about Trump and the reason not to vote for him for president is his temperament. He flies off the handle. He -- he attacks viciously. I mean, you know, it's like shooting someone and having a nuclear bomb come back at you.

He's -- he's vindictive and he's dishonest. He always was dishonest all the time I worked for him. We never knew when he was telling the truth and when he wasn't. And I don't think that's what we need in a president.

CAMEROTA: Barbara Res, we appreciate getting your personal story having worked with him for so long. Thank you for being here on NEW DAY.

RES: Thank you. My pleasure. Thank you. CAMEROTA: We're following a lot of news this morning. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWD: We want Trump!

TRUMP: I see all these "Women for Trump" signs. I love this.

CAMEROTA: Explosive new allegations against Donald Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before you could put a robe or dress yourself, he walked in.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The whole world has heard how Donald Trump treats women. We're not going to let Donald Trump get away with it, are we?

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This took place years ago. We're just hearing about it 27 days before the election.

TRUMP: WikiLeaks, right? It's big stuff. She has to go to jail.

CLINTON: They're going to use a, quote, "scorched earth" strategy. That just shows how desperate they are.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY.

This election has taken another sordid turn. Donald Trump said his lewd comments about women were just locker room talk and that he never did what he said.