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New Day

First Lady Delivers Blistering Takedown of Trump; Donald Trump Versus the Media; Firefighters and Police Brighten Boy's Birthday. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 14, 2016 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00] DESIREE ROGERS, CHAIR, CHOOSE CHICAGO, FORMER WH SOCIAL SECRETARY TO PRES. OBAMA: I mean, you feel that pain and that hurt. And I think that is what she is talking about, is just the amount of disrespect that these lewd comments that this gentleman has made is just ridiculous.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Because, I mean, it does feel as though she's had some experience.

ROGERS: Yes, it's saddening, it's disgusting. It really is, you know, unacceptable.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Well, I don't know, you know, what she's reflecting in terms of his -- some personal life or whatever -- but she's had to go down this road several times in her political life.

In 2008, she raised a lot of eyebrows with her line -- I'll probably mangle it, but you know what I'm talking about -- where she said if you can't control your own house, you can't control the White House, which is what was seen as a straight punch to Hillary Clinton then about the perceived immorality of her life with Bill Clinton. And yet, now she seems to have fully embraced Hillary Clinton. What is that evolution?

ROGERS: I think the evolution is she is the first lady of this country and we really are now at a really strategic point where this nation has to make a decision. And my feeling is that enough is enough. I mean, these kinds of lewd comments, this kind of rhetoric -- I mean, I think she said I've got take a stand. I'm going to call on everything that I can, every power that I have, and the position that I'm in, and the feelings that I have, and I'm going to push as hard as I can to get our folks out, and that's what I believe.

CAMEROTA: It does feel as though the first lady has power, so there's -- this does feel like a pivotal moment and she is seizing on it or even creating a pivotal moment. And she did the same thing, as you'll recall, during the Democratic National Convention where, at first, there were these emails that had come out and it seemed as though Bernie Sanders supporters were sort of staging a mutiny against Hillary Clinton. And then, Michelle Obama, again, came out and gave a speech that was seen as a turning point.

What is her future? Has she considered running for office? ROGERS: Well, you know, I don't know, but I do think that it's important that you mention it is a turning point becauseI think that all of us -- men, women, black, white, whatever race you are, you're going to be able to say you know what, I really don't feel this way about women. I'm not a sexist. This is not how I want my daughters or children to be raised, whether they're boys or girls.

And I think that her voice is really a voice that people are hearing, people are listening to because it's beyond the rhetoric. This is not rhetoric, this is emotion, this is truth, this is --

CAMEROTA: And did she -- do you think the first lady recognizes that power that she has in these pivotal moments?

ROGERS: Well, you know what? When you're emotional and you're talking about something that's so important to you, you only hope that people hear you. And so I really feel like she hopes that people hear her. And I think it's a genuine, authentic voice, and I think that's what people will respond to.

CUOMO: Genuine, authentic voice. Politics is complicated.

ROGERS: Yes, it is.

CUOMO: In real life, if you tell me I can't run my own house so I can't have -- you and I are never going to be friends, that's over. Politics is --

ROGERS: Maybe. You never know.

CUOMO: Well, I'm telling you.

ROGERS: OK.

CUOMO: If you knew me better, Desiree, that's it. You go at me and my family, we're done. But, politics is different. How has the Michelle that you know negotiated that because she came in very raw in 2008 and that was her power? Now, she's embracing the same person she once had to go against. How has she managed that?

ROGERS: Well, here's what I would say. I would say in any position you mature over time. You start to get your sea legs, you make decisions about what's going to be important to you. As we know, she's done a tremendous amount on healthy eating. She's done a tremendous amount with the empowerment of women and girls, you know.

She's been graceful throughout this whole process and you get better and better at it, and I think that's what we see. We see a very mature woman -- a woman who knows what she wants, knows what's important her. And most importantly, not afraid to speak about it.

CUOMO: And you won't say she'll never run?

ROGERS: I have no idea. I have no idea, but not afraid. And I think in today's world when you think about politics, everything is measured, everything is judged, don't say this, don't do that, you see a woman who truly is saying what she honestly believes.

CAMEROTA: Desiree Rogers, thanks so much for giving us a window into the first lady. We appreciate you being here.

ROGERS: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK, Donald Trump now taking on a media giant. He's threatening to sue "The New York Times". Could legal action open him up to bigger problems? Our legal and media experts break that down, next.

CUOMO: He's taking on more --

[07:34:30] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:37:55] CAMEROTA: Donald Trump continuing his war with the media. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Instead of the issues, they've slandered and libeled me with false accusations, but we will not let these lies distract us from our campaign. And it's a campaign of truth. The failing "New York Times" -- and they're inventing false claims without any evidence, no witnesses, no nothing -- enacted (ph), supposedly, years and years ago. I never met these people. I don't even know who they are, if they're made up stories filed right before the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right. He's threatening, now, to sue "The New York Times" for libel but the paper has responded saying they welcome the opportunity to fight the GOP nominee in court. Is this something Trump actually will do?

Joining us now, CNN legal analyst Paul Callan and CNN media analyst and author Bill Carter. Great to have you guys.

Paul, will he really bring a suit against "The New York Times" or this bluster?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, FORMER PROFESSOR OF MEDIA LAW, SETON HALL UNIVERSITY: Well, if history speaks, he won't. He threatens lawsuits all the time but in going through the records the only time I could find that he brought a lawsuit, actually, was many, many years ago. I think 20-25 years ago. One lawsuit against the "Chicago Tribune" that described one of his skyscrapers as an ugly monstrosity -- the architecture critic of the "Chicago Tribune".

CAMEROTA: How'd that one go?

CALLAN: Trump lost the suit because, apparently, it was an ugly building. He never built it. So after the article appeared.

CUOMO: You know, full disclosure, Trump threatened to sue me when I was at "ABC NEWS" and we were doing an investigation into his finances. And I have to tell you, the power of the threat, Bill, usually works. It makes people, especially if they're going to have money in the game, think about whether or not they want to go down this road and spend the money defending what they do. The "Times" seems to be taking a different posture. Why the confidence?

BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST, AUTHOR, "THE WAR FOR LATE NIGHT": Well, I think they feel like, first of all, they have legitimate, on- the-record people talking. The feel like it's consistent with what he's said before so it's not like out of the realm of possibility. And they know that they haven't done it recklessly and the idea of you have to have -- a public figure has to have proof of falsity before you can say that he's been libeled, so they have very safe ground.

[07:40:00] And I also think they're confident that he will not follow through on this because they have seen the record. They know he's not -- he's full of bluster. And this is, I think, for applause lines at his rallies. He's going to continue this until the election and then, quietly, it will be over and he will say something like, oh, I'll destroy them another way. And I think that will be his strategy.

CAMEROTA: Here's a little bit more about how "The New York Times" is feeling. They have put out a statement. They say, "We did what the law allows. We published newsworthy information about a subject of deep public concern. It Mr. Trump disagrees, we welcome the opportunity to have a court set him straight."

Paul, it's interesting. He says all these allegations, there are no witnesses other than the women who say it happened. Don't they count as a witness? The person to whom it happened to?

CALLAN: Well, they certainly do count in a very important way. And as long as "The New York Times" investigated the claims responsibly, as other journalists would -- they interviewed the women and, of course, the women are on record now saying that, in fact, these things happened. So it's going to be very difficult to prove that "The New York Times" committed some act of journalistic irresponsibility.

CUOMO: But Paul is threading in an interesting question here, which is as long as they vetted the claims the way they have -- this does feel -- and again, we know that victims are supposed to be believed but you do have a duty to vet.

It feels different reporting-wise than it did with Clinton in the 90s. Then, there was this need to have contemporaneouscorroboration. They can't be intimates. You have to find people who objectively knew something. That's why the troopers -- the state troopers were so important in that.

I don't see that here, even when they say they spoke to four people with one of the women's allegations. They were intimates, they were familiars. They weren't people who, you know, at the same time that she went to somebody. The "PEOPLE" magazine woman is different. That's a different scenario --

CARTER: Yes. CUOMO: -- but we're just talking about the "Time". Do you see a relative softness here on that reporting?

CARTER: I think so. If you make a comparison and it isn't literally as stringent as it was. But you can also say this follows right after his on-the-record comment -- well, it certainly -- it was not on the record, literally, in journalism, but taped, microphoned comments that are completely consistent with the activities that these women are talking about. So there is -- there is another person talking about it. Trump, himself, is talking about activities like this.

CAMEROTA: Hey, Paul, about the "PEOPLE" magazine one. I want to dive into that for a second because this is -- this was a celebrity reporter -- an entertainment reporter who went to Mar-a-Lago, his home in Florida, to do a profile on Donald and Melania on their one-year anniversary. Melania was pregnant and this was supposed to be about, sort of, their first year of wedded bliss.

And while Melania went up to make an outfit change, the allegation goes, Donald Trump cornered this reporter in an empty room and forced himself on her. When they went back to the interview setting he then said to her -- according to her -- we're going to have an affair. Here's what we're going to do. And he's denied this.

Melania Trump has put out a statement, interestingly, about this from her attorney. She says -- he says, "Mrs. Trump did not encounter" -- she, the reporter says that then they encountered each other months later on the street and Melania greeted her warmly and said why haven't I seen you around. "Mrs. Trump did not encounter Ms. Stoynoff on the street, nor have any conversation with her. The two are not friends and were never friends or even friendly. We therefore demand a prominent retraction and apology."

So, nothing about the claims --

CALLAN: Right, exactly.

CAMEROTA: -- but that they didn't encounter each other on the street and they weren't friends.

CALLAN: You know, it's kind of fascinating because I agree with you that the "PEOPLE" magazine thing is extraordinarily disturbing. I mean, here it is -- it's on his one-year wedding anniversary and allegedly this is happening with a reporter covering a celebration of that while his pregnant wife is upstairs.

The other thing that's interesting about this is Melania is standing by her man in much the same way that Hillary Clinton stood by Bill Clinton, denying that those things happened. And I think a lot of people kind of give the women a pass in that situation. So maybe we should give Melania a pass, as well.

CAMEROTA: Yes, there are parallels --

CARTER: There are parallels.

CAMEROTA: -- certainly, that seem to be lost on Donald Trump sometimes when he brings it up. Bill, thank you. Paul, thank you.

CALLAN: Thank you.

CUOMO: Eleven-year-old Braden Garnett just celebrated a birthday he will never forget after police and fire rescue went beyond the call of duty. We have your ticket to the party.

CAMEROTA: And this Sunday at 9:00 p.m. on CNNs "PARTS UNKNOWN", Anthony Bourdain heats things up in the Chinese province of Sichuan with a taste of China's spicy cuisine. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, HOST, CNN "ANTHONY BOURDAIN: PARTS UNKNOWN": What happens when America's favorite bad boy chef and upright (foreign language) French chefEric Ripert go to China? Eric's never been to China before nor is he used to the elevated levels of, shall we say, heat and spice.

ERIC RIPERT, FRENCH CHEF: This is very sweet and sticky but I like it a lot.

[07:45:00] BOURDAIN: In fact, his delicate system totally can't handle what he's about to get.

RIPERT: Oh, my God. My sinuses are so open. You have no idea.

BOURDAIN: He's so in for it.

RIPERT: Holy cow, whoa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That spice prevents me to think right.

BOURDAIN: It's spicy.

RIPERT: I think that my face is changing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[07:45:40] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:49:40] CAMEROTA: Police and firefighters in central Illinois are coming together to brighten a bullied boy's birthday. They're going beyond the call of duty. CNNs Kyung Lah has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Braden Garnett's world is often a lonely one, diagnosed with Asperger, Dyslexia, and a condition that causes misalignment of his eyes. Other kids can be cruel.

BRADEN GARNETT, 5TH GRADER: At school, I struggle because people are calling me names. I'm getting bullied constantly.

LAH: What do they say to you?

B. GARNETT: Telling me how I'm a cross-eyed freak and I'm not good at kickball.

LAH: That's hard, huh?

Braden's 11th birthday was coming up. His mother hoped this year would be different.

How many kids did you invite?

CARRIE GARNETT, BRADEN'S MOTHER: Thirty-six, total.

LAH: How many said they would come?

C. GARNETT: As of two days before, only three were going to be there.

LAH: That's happened every birthday since he was five. This year was different.

C. GARNETT: I sent an email to Detective Eeten, the Pekin police.

LAH: What about this email caught your attention.

DETECTIVE MIKE EETEN, PEKIN POLICE DEPARTMENT: I thought, you know, if that was my child and nobody showed up, what would I say to him? So I thought, we can do this.

LAH: Detective Eeten spread the word to the beat cops.

OFFICER JAMES GUERRA, PEKIN POLICE DEPARTMENT: They were talking about this special kid, Braden, and how neat it would be if we could go and surprise him at his birthday party.

LAH: The cops called the fire chief.

CHIEF KURT NELSON, PEKIN FIRE DEPARTMENT: We put it out to the guys and within just a few minutes we had three guys who said yes, we'll show up.

LAH: Why bring the big rig?

NELSON: Why not? Go big or go home.

LAH: Big is what they did. More than a dozen Pekin police officers and firefighters played paintball with Braden for his birthday. They brought their kids, pooled their money for presents, and for just one day Braden forgot his daily challenges, and so did these officers.

It's tough being a cop right now.

EETEN: It is.

LAH: What do you tell your kids about being a cop?

EETEN: Sorry.

LAH: It's OK. Was this about a birthday party or was it something more? EETEN: We are people, just like him. Real struggles, you know, real feelings and real families.

LAH: Kyung Lah, CNN, Pekin, Illinois.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Wow.

CUOMO: What a beautiful demonstration of going beyond the call of duty. Made that boy's life, not just his birthday.

CAMEROTA: So nice, and police officers do things like that all the time. I'm so glad that we feature it.

CUOMO: It's an important part of the story. All right, so October -- October surprise is supposed to be like one big thing in an election. It's like every day --

CAMEROTA: Not daily.

CUOMO: -- there is a surprise. The leaked emails, the tapes, the accusations of sexual misconduct. Now, they are dominating the final stretch of the race and it seems like it could still get worse. Let's discuss where we are and what it means.

CNN political commentator, journalist, author, Carl Bernstein. Carl, you've seen it all but you ain't never seen anything like this, have you?

CARL BERSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, JOURNALIST, AUTHOR: I think this is the darkest, most dangerous moment in our history in at least 60-70 years. We have never had a nominee for the presidency the likes of Donald Trump. The kind of demagoguery, racism, xenophobia, and really a kind of sociopathy on the part of the candidate such as we've seen here.

And with a huge following who is now trying to delegitimize the very democratic system under which we operate, including the election, itself. It is a fraught moment that requires courage --

CUOMO: He puts it on you. He puts it on us. He says none of that's true, what you just said. You just want it to be true because he's going after Clinton. He's going after the establishment and that's where you live in the media. And he represents the rest of the country.

BERNSTEIN: Let me start by saying Hillary Clinton has been a terrible candidate and under other circumstances she would probably lose and you could have a real contest of ideas. This is something different. This is danger, demagoguery from someone who is antithetical to what we believe as a democracy. It is a time of requiring courage -- courage from Republicans, from the right wing.

We've seen it with people like Charles Krauthammer. He has got a fabulous piece in "The Washington Post" and I've watched Charles on "FOX" saying what he says about this candidate and the need to reject him in our culture. The same with George Will. It is a time for courageous Republican voices to get up and say you know, let's elect our senators, let's elect our congressmen. We must reject Trumpism as un-American.

CAMEROTA: And yet, so many voters and supporters of Trump just want to talk about jobs. They want to talk about the economy. They want to know --

[07:55:00] BERNSTEIN: And they're right.

CAMEROTA: Right. They want to know where they're going to get their next job.

BERNSTEIN: This is why I say Hillary Clinton has been such a bad candidate. She allowed Bernie Sanders and Trump to correctly identify the anger at the elites in this country, as well as she was so late to understand the pain of working-class people in this country. It's as if she were tone-deaf, but that's not what this election is about at this point.

She understands it -- that's demonstrable. She ran a bad campaign. So what, at this point? We need to reestablish our faith and our democracy in this country. And if it means for people who don't like Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, still accept someone who believes in democratic principles, which the nominee of the Republican Party demonstrably does not. That's what Michelle Obama was talking about yesterday.

CAMEROTA: Is 25 days too late or is it an eternity on a campaign? Is there any way for Donald Trump to stop talking about the allegations against him and get back to what really resonates with his crowd and with his supporters, and jobs, and what he can do for the economy?

BERNSTEIN: Unfortunately, what is resonating and what has carried him with his base is not just the jobs message. Rather, it is the xenophobia, the racism, the homophobia, the anger at the press, taken to a point -- you can, again, talk about the press and have a debate about the conduct in the press. To say there is a conspiracy in this country between the press, the Clinton campaign, the Democrats, is so outrageous, so far from the truth.

We need a fact-based campaign -- we've lost it. We don't have a chance of regaining it in this election. Right now is a time for courage. Courage for those in the Republican Party, on the right, who need to repudiate once and for all the demagoguery, the hate message that is dominating their candidate's presence in a historic election, and let's say this country cannot stand Donald Trump or any more of this kind of campaign.

CUOMO: You know, it's an interesting question. It may be a little bit too inside baseball for people at home but it's still -- Dave Bossie is Citizens United. They're a very powerful organization not just because of the court case that you're familiar with. That was really about the lawyer in the case, not Dave Bossie or the organization. But I wonder, this is a real tough moment for him, too. That organization has always been rock-ribbed conservative values. They've never really backed people who are personally, you know, outrageous. I wonder what it's like for the people close to Trump right now to realize who they're with and where they are?

BERNSTEIN: I can't be in their heads. What I do understand -- and I think some historical perspective -- and it's too easy, perhaps, to say Joe McCarthy. But I think we need to go back to Joe McCarthy and the darkest period of American history and realize that in the McCarthy era, when we had this kind of demagoguery and hate and allegations of conspiracy between all kinds of elements in the political culture, that McCarthy was never the nominee for President of the United States.

We are this close and we need to very quickly, in this country, get that close and say this is not America. And that is what I would hope that, especially, in the right wing press they take a look at their candidate. I think that the center-left press --I think the press -- the mainstream press has taken a very good look at Hillary Clinton and her failings and there are an awful lot of them. And she had a very, very rough time, especially with the server.

And the press, for all the right reasons -- as you know, nobody's been tougher on her than I have. I've written the biography of her. But this is something different in America. This is a strain we have never seen unloosed at the presidential level and it's time to put a stop to it by good people on both sides.

CAMEROTA: Carl Bernstein, always great to get your thoughts. Thanks so much for being here.

BERNSTEIN: Thank you.

CUOMO: And, just yesterday, we had the two speeches back-to-back that seemed to show the crossroads that this country is, indeed, at. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's so abhorrent.

JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A textbook definition of sexual assault.

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: It is cruel and the truth is, it hurts.

TRUMP: These vicious claims are totally and absolutely false and the Clintons know it.

JESSICA LEEDS, ACCUSES TRUMP OF SEXUAL ASSAULT: His hands were everywhere. His hands started going up my skirt.

TRUMP: These events never, ever happened.

OBAMA: This isn't about politics, it's about basic human decency.

TRUMP: This is a conspiracy against you, the American people.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: CLINTON: We've already learned who Donald Trump is. We have to prove who we are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Good morning, welcome to your new day. We are at a moment of reckoning in the presidential race.