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Donald Trump Continues Suggestions of Presidential Election Rigging; Interview with North Carolina Representative Renee Ellmers; Interview with Congressman Jerry Nadler. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 18, 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] MANU RAJU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Donald Trump's path to 270 electoral votes is getting increasingly narrow. His polls continue to show him losing nationally and in a lot of these key battleground states. So he's lashing out at the media, the political establishment, and the rules by saying it's all working against him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They even want to try to rig the election at the polling booths. People that have died ten years ago are still voting. Illegal immigrants are voting.

RAJU: Donald Trump ramping up his unfounded claim that the election is rigged.

TRUMP: You look at what's going on in St. Louis and many other cities. There's tremendous voter fraud.

RAJU: His willingness to accept the election results if he loses now in question.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Mr. Trump, what if there is overwhelming evidence of any kind of fraud or irregularities --

RAJU: Trump frustrating many Republican leaders who have rejecting his allegations of rigging.

JON HUSTED, (R) OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE: As a Republican I want to reassure Donald Trump and all Ohio voters and voters across the country that the system is not rigged

RAJU: The Republican nominee also intensifying his feud with House Speaker Paul Ryan after he said he doesn't want to support Donald Trump.

TRUMP: Maybe he wants to run in four years or maybe he doesn't know how to win. Maybe he just doesn't know how to win. Who can really know?

RAJU: Trump taking his rage against the establishment and Hillary Clinton a step further in Wisconsin.

TRUMP: It is time to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. RAJU: Trump proposing a package of ethics reforms aiming to tackle

corruption in Washington, including tighter restrictions on members of Congress and White House officials taking on jobs as lobbyists.

TRUMP: This will go a long way to ending our government corruption.

RAJU: A proposal sparked by his accusations that the FBI and State Department engage in a criminal conspiracy.

TRUMP: This is felony corruption.

RAJU: After newly released documents suggest a top State Department official pressured the FBI to declassify an e-mail about Benghazi that was on the private server Clinton used while secretary of state, possibly in exchange for offering to help station FBI agents overseas.

[08:00:00] MARK TONER, STATE DEPARTMENT DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON: The allegation of any kind of quid pro quo is inaccurate. There was no quid pro quo.

RAJU: Clinton is not commenting. She's been off the campaign trail for days preparing for tomorrow's final debate. Clinton's campaign now setting its sights on historically conservative states as she widens her lead in the polls, deploying her daughter Chelsea, Michelle Obama, and Bernie Sanders to Arizona in hopes of turning that red state blue.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Now Republican officials are continuing to push back against Donald Trump's suggestion that the election is rigged. Marco Rubio at a debate last night said that this should not continue to be said. Over the weekend House Speaker Paul Ryan's spokeswoman issued a statement saying that the election process, the speaker expects it to be fair.

But one person we have not heard from himself is Speaker Paul Ryan. He is actually being quiet. He's not coming in front of the camera and he's not pushing back against Donald Trump's allegations and attacks against him on a daily basis. One reason why he's doing that, Alisyn, is that he just wants to focus on the congressional majority and not get into a tit-for-tat with his party's nominee. Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Understood, Manu. Thank you for that reporting.

So Melania Trump is breaking her silence in a new interview with Anderson cooper. She addressed the leaked audiotape of her husband making those lewd comments about women as she also responds to first lady Michelle Obama's blistering takedown of Donald Trump. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S WIFE: I said to my husband that the language is inappropriate. It's not acceptable. And I was surprised because that is not the man that I know. And as you can see from the tape, the cameras were not on, it was only a mike. And I wonder if they even knew that the mike was on because they were kind of boy talk, and he was lead on, like egged on from the host to say dirty and bad stuff.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You feel the host, Billy Bush, was egging him on?

MELANIA TRUMP: Yes. Yes.

COOPER: Is that language you had heard him use before?

MELANIA TRUMP: No. No. That's why I was surprised, because I said, like I don't know that person that would talk that way.

COOPER: He described it as locker room talk. To you, you've sort of eluded to it too. Is that what it is to you, just locker room talk?

MELANIA TRUMP: Yes, kind of two teenage boys. Actually, they should behave better, right?

COOPER: He was 59.

[08:05:00] Correct. Sometimes I said I have two boys at home. I have my young son and I have my husband.

(LAUGHTER)

MELANIA TRUMP: So -- but I know how some men talk and that's -- that's how I saw it, yes.

COOPER: Michelle Obama, who you, I know, have positively of in the past. She said last week about what your husband said in that tape, she said, "This was not just a lewd conversation. This wasn't just locker room banter. This was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior and actually bragging about kissing and groping women." In terms of what he actually said on the tape, not saying he did it, but what he said, the behavior described to you, is that sexual assault?

MELANIA TRUMP: No, that's not sexual assault. He didn't say he did it. And I see many -- many women coming to him and giving phone numbers and, you know, want to work for him or inappropriate stuff from women. And they know he's married, so --

COOPER: You've seen that?

MELANIA TRUMP: Oh, yes, of course. It was in front of me.

COOPER: In front of you?

MELANIA TRUMP: In front of me. I said why did you give your number to my husband? I'm very strong. People, they don't really know me. People think and talk about me like, oh, Melania, poor Melania. Don't feel sorry for me. Don't feel sorry for me. I can handle everything. And for this -- for people talking like that, I see in the press a lot almost like celebrities or people, they think they're celebrities, I would suggest to them to look at themselves in the mirror and to look at their actions and to take care of their own families.

COOPER: In terms of what Michelle Obama was saying, she was saying that essentially any unwanted advance toward women, kissing a woman, touching a woman without consent, that is sexual assault. That's the definition.

MELANIA TRUMP: Yes, I agree with that. But every assault will be taken care of in a court of law. And to accuse no matter who it is, a man or a woman, without evidence, is -- it's damaging and it's unfair.

COOPER: She went on to say, Michelle Obama, she talked about that feeling of terror and violation that too many women have felt when someone has grabbed them or forced himself on them and they've said no but he didn't listen.

MELANIA TRUMP: Who didn't listen? My husband didn't do anything.

COOPER: No, no, I think she was just talking in general about --

MELANIA TRUMP: Oh, I'm he not surprised. I'm not surprised. She should also look maybe the people who supported her, what they doing. So I'm not surprised she said that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's discuss the state of play in the election with Republican congresswoman Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, a very hot state in this election. She supports Donald Trump. Congresswoman, thank you for hustling over here and being on NEW DAY this morning. Let me ask you something --

REP. RENEE ELLMERS, (R) NORTH CAROLINA: Good to be with you.

CUOMO: Good, always a pleasure.

Why support Donald Trump's suggestion that there is widespread fraud in this election? You have to know that there is no objective proof of any widespread fraud in of our elections in the modern era. Why support something that is so damaging to the process that is central to our democracy?

ELLMERS: Well, I think what Donald Trump is speaking is -- are the concerns of the American people when it comes to this process. And we're talking about the Clintons, and we're talking about Hillary Clinton who is the most corrupt politician to ever run for office, especially the presidency. But here -- you know, I was just adding up some things on the way. I knew this was going to be one of the questions. Just things from the media, 96 percent of the political contributions have been given to Hillary Clinton from you and the media.

We have a situation now where the political -- chief political correspondent reached out to John Podesta in one of the WikiLeaks e- mails that have been leaked asking, oh, hey, can you take a look at this to make sure it's OK before I put it out? I mean, this goes on and on and on.

We even have a situation in North Carolina where over 2,000 dead individuals, individuals 110 years or older, were found on the roles for registry. These are the things that we see. And most of those individuals were Democrats.

[08:10:00] I think when you look at the situation, what Donald Trump is saying is be vigilant, America, with this election. I believe this is the most important election since the election of Ronald Reagan.

CUOMO: That's not what he's saying though. And, by the way, everything you just said has nothing to do with election fraud. And I'll assume all of it is true. Everything is true, the media's the worse, everything is corrupt, Hillary Clinton is the worst ever. None of that is proof of election fraud that changed an election. You pointed in another interview to the 2000 interview. Florida wasn't proof voter fraud. That was a really tight race that that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

ELLMERS: That's not what Al Gore said.

CUOMO: So what if he said it? That doesn't make it true. So now Al Gore is your source for Donald Trump being right?

ELLMERS: No, absolutely not. What I'm saying is it has been put out there that those in the Bush administration have said that there's absolutely no voter fraud. Look, I'm not --

CUOMO: No, no, no, no, not absolutely no voter fraud. Congresswoman, I want to be clear about this. Everybody will acknowledge if they know anything about the system that there are flaws in the system, there is fraud.

ELLMERS: Yes.

CUOMO: But there has been a lot of exhaustive research on this, and the idea of widespread fraud in any election, let alone this one, has almost no basis in fact.

ELLMERS: Well, you're focusing on one area. You're focusing on one area, the political system, our democratic system alone. That's not fair. That's really not what Donald Trump is talking about.

CUOMO: That's what Trump said. What do you think he's talking about?

ELLMERS: No, that is not what Donald Trump -- what he has talked about, the rigged media against him. He has talked about the fact that we have all these situations where now we're finding out more and more. We're even finding out that the FBI and the State Department asking for quid pro quo. When he is looking at this from a 30,000 foot level and he is saying when you add it all up, it does amount to fraud.

CUOMO: But that's not election fraud.

ELLMERS: This election is going to go forward.

CUOMO: Keephe integrity of the process. Don't undermine the process. Go after the media.

ELLMERS: What you are doing -- you are -- what you are doing is you are -- you are taking one piece. These aren't individual silos. These aren't all in a vacuum.

CUOMO: Congresswoman, I can play you sounds from his latest rally, congresswoman, where he says you've got all these dead people on the rolls and, you know, there's fraud all over the place.

ELLMERS: Yes.

CUOMO: And I can't understand what's going on with these Republican leaders, where's their common sense. He's not talking about the media in that statement. He's not talking about quid pro quo.

ELLMERS: I just gave you an example of over 2,000 voters on the registry that are over age 110.

CUOMO: How many were allowed to register votes in an election?

ELLMERS: We don't know.

CUOMO: That's my point. That's my point. If you are going to say there is fraud you have to prove it. It's very dangerous otherwise to undermine the election.

ELLMERS: No, it's not very dangerous. What's very dangerous is electing someone like Hillary Clinton behind the backs of the American people.

CUOMO: Where's the behind the backs part?

ELLMERS: We already know -- you want proof, I'll give you proof. I'll give you proof that this woman is corrupt.

CUOMO: That's fine, but that's not election fraud. That's fine. You can make those arguments. They've been made very well in the media and out of it. All I'm talking about is the election fraud because we care about the integrity of the process. That all I'm saying.

ELLMERS: So if she's elected, will you have me back afterwards, after there's collusion.

CUOMO: I'll have you on whenever you want to come on. Have we ever said no to you being on the show? Never.

ELLMERS: No, absolutely not. You guys are wonderful.

CUOMO: Thank you.

ELLMERS: But the point I'm trying to make here is you're focusing on one issue, one issue alone. It's a cumulative issue for Donald Trump and what he's talking about. You add it all up and the stack is against him. He is a person that is with the American people. The American people believe in this. And when you criticize those of us, myself, Donald Trump, who say that there's a possibility of corruption when it comes to this election process, when we look at this situation and think that it's rigged against us, it's the American people that are saying this. The American people believe this is a rigged system. So when you criticize, you are criticizing the American people.

CUOMO: Look, all I'll say, and I want to get on to North Carolina because you're there and I want to get your read on the race. You can criticize the media, you can criticize Hillary Clinton. That's what an election is about. Go for it. To say that the actual democratic process is fraudulent and rigged, you should have a factual basis for it, and you don't have a good one. That's all I'm saying. But let's not belabor that point.

ELLMERS: I agree. Sure.

CUOMO: Do me a favor.

ELLMERS: Let's agree to disagree.

CUOMO: That's fine. And I'm always happy to have you on. This discussion is what helps make the democratic process work, right? And 48 to 47 in North Carolina.

ELLMERS: Absolutely.

[08:15:04] CUOMO: Very tight. Obama won it in 2008.

ELLMERS: Very tight.

CUOMO: But, traditionally, over the decades, it's a red state. Which way do you think it's going to go and why?

ELLMERS: Well, you know, in the 2012, North Carolina went for Mitt Romney. North Carolina is a very purple state. I know sometimes it seems to get lumped into the category of red state, but it really isn't. It's very diverse. The population and demographics are changing.

So, this is something that needs to be taken very seriously. I believe that at the end of the day that the Donald Trump is going to win North Carolina because the people are coming out in droves for him. He and Mike Pence. Mike Pence is going to be in Fayetteville this evening and I can only imagine there's going to be a huge crowd for him.

There is very much excitement. He definitely has the movement going forward and, you know, North Carolinians believe in America, they believe in the democratic process and they want it to work, and that's why they're putting their faith behind Donald Trump.

CUOMO: Congressman Renee Ellmers, thank you very much for being on NEW DAY. You are always invited on the show. ELLMERS: Thank you. Happy to be with you again.

CUOMO: Joining us tomorrow, please, will be all of you because it is the final showdown between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Our coverage is going to begin at 4:00 p.m. There will be a lot to get into.

Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: So, there are newly released FBI documents, as well as the WikiLeaks e-mails. And they're raising more trust issues for Hillary Clinton.

So, is she doing enough to reassure voters? We're going to ask a Clinton supporter, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:20:21] JOHN KIRBY, STATE DEPT. SPOKESPERSON: There was no bargain sought by the FBI. There was no bargain rendered. This was simply an interagency conversation about the classification of one particular e- mail. So, there was no wrongdoing there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, that was State Department spokesman John Kirby denying any quid pro quo between his department and the FBI. But newly released FBI documents capture a State Department official asking the FBI to declassify one of Hillary Clinton's e-mails. The FBI said they would consider it if their request for a presence in Iraq would be considered.

Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler. He is a Clinton supporter.

Congressman, good morning.

REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY), HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: So, how is this not quid pro quo? You have Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy in this email exchange that has been released by the FBI saying, hey, guys, to the FBI, is there anyway you can downgrade that classification from classified to declassified, and the FBI basically --

NADLER: Not downgrade it. It hadn't been classified. So, any way, you call it unclassified as opposed to classified.

CAMEROTA: OK, fair enough. Could you make it unclassified instead of classified? And they say, well, hey, could you consider our request for more of a presence in Iraq? That is the definition of quid pro quo.

NADLER: Yes, except it wasn't done. CAMEROTA: It was asked.

NADLER: There are competing documents from the FBI apparently as to who asked it, whether it was the State Department person, or the FBI person. In any event, it wasn't done. The FBI got its way, the document was called classified after the fact and this is a four- decade long career civil servant of the State Department. This is well after Hillary had left the State Department.

And so, this was an interagency spat over whether something should be called classified or not. They called it classified as the FBI wanted. No, the FBI didn't get any additional people, which is what it wanted in Iraq, and nothing happened.

CAMEROTA: The problem is that the exchange, just the actual exchange, even if it didn't happen, the FBI guy who was involved thought that it was a quid pro quo. Let me just read it to you just one second and I'll get you to respond. Let me just read to you, the FBI notes that were released.

So, "blank, this has been redacted, we don't know the name, received the call from blank, redacted, of the International Operations Division of the FBI who pressured him to change the classified e-mail to unclassified. Blank indicated he had been contacted by Patrick Kennedy, undersecretary of state, who had asked his assistance in altering the email's classification in exchange for a quid pro quo."

That's how the FBI characterized it.

NADLER: There was another FBI document according to the "New York Times" that said the request came from the FBI not the State Department. They're conflicting.

Be that as it may, this is an interagency discussion well after Hillary was no longer there. Nothing was done. No exchange. No quid pro quo. The document is classified "classified" as the FBI wanted. The FBI doesn't get anything. Nothing happened.

Now, does this mean one of the people involved in the FBI or the State Department should be looked at? Maybe. But it's -- nothing happened. It's got nothing to do with Hillary Clinton.

CAMEROTA: Well, the larger issue is that voters, particularly in this election year, particularly Donald Trump supporters, the reason they want a changed election, they say, is that they think there are special favors done for people in power that they are not privy to.

NADLER: Here's a perfect example of where no special favor was done for anybody.

CAMEROTA: Well, look, if a regular person gets in trouble with the police or the FBI, they have nothing that they can dangle to make that trouble go away.

NADLER: Hillary Clinton didn't dangle anything. She was totally uninvolved or unaware of this. She was long gone from the State Department.

This was an interagency discussion between two people and two agencies. Maybe one agency wanted something from the other. The answer was no. The FBI got its way. It was keep classified or it was classified as classified. It wasn't kept classified.

CAMEROTA: I understand this double speak, by the way. I get it.

NADLER: It was determined to be classified. Nothing happened and none of this has anything to do with Hillary Clinton who wasn't involved in this at all. It doesn't show anything about her trustworthiness. It shows something maybe about the internal workings of an agency.

CAMEROTA: Hillary Clinton has been off the campaign trail for the past couple of days. Is that partly because she doesn't want to have to go down this road again and answer these questions?

NADLER: I don't think so. I suspect it's because she's doing what she's done before each of the other two debates, which is to prepare. I mean, it's the responsibility of a candidate, unlike Mr. Trump who doesn't think it is, it's the responsibility of a candidate to prepare for a debate, for a discussion to bring up the issues that are important to the American people or that ought to be important to the American people.

[08:25:01] And one of the problems I have with this whole campaign is they're spending so much time on Mr. Trump's attacking women and on all kinds of allegations about Hillary's trustworthiness. We're not hearing enough about the economics, about the real issues of the campaign.

Trump, for example, has proposed a package to hugely reduce taxes on the rich and create a huge budget deficit. A package that most economist say would cost several million jobs.

Hillary Clinton has come out with a plan for increasing taxes on the rich, decreasing taxes on the middle class and lower income people. Having infrastructure, getting jobs. We don't hear discussion of this.

CAMEROTA: Do you think too much time has been spent on talking about Donald Trump's accusers?

NADLER: No, I think it's inevitable because it came out. But I wish we had time about other things, too.

I mean, the fact is that he invited it. When he talked, when he was heard on tape saying, I attack women and then he says it's only locker room talk, and then women come out and say, yeah, he did exactly what he said he did. He attacked me and so forth. It's inevitable it's going to be discussed.

I wish we heard discussion of regular issues, too.

CAMEROTA: Congressman Jerry Nadler, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY. Great to have you on studio.

NADLER: You're quite welcome.

CAMEROTA: Let's get over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. There is a major situation unfolding right now. It is the battle to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city from ISIS. Are Iraqi and Kurdish forces making progress?

We have a live report from the front lines, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)