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Trump Refuses to Say He'll Accept Election Results. Aired 6- 6:30a ET
Aired October 20, 2016 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger.
[05:58:31] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: These women, I think they want either fame, or her campaign did it. And I think it's her campaign.
CLINTON: When it comes to the walls, he choked.
TRUMP: We have some bad hombres here, and we're going to get them out.
CLINTON: He'd rather have a puppet as president.
TRUMP: No puppet. No puppet. You're the puppet.
CLINTON: This is a pattern of decisiveness and, in many ways, dangerous vision for our country.
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Do you make the same position (ph), that you will absolutely accept the result of this election?
TRUMP: I will tell you at the time. I'll keep you in suspense.
CLINTON: That's horrifying.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. You're watching NEW DAY.
Up first, Donald Trump's debate bombshell, refusing to say if he'll accept the results of the election. He says he will keep the country in suspense, despite the threat that it poses to the Democratic process.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton called Trump's comments "horrifying." Some Republicans are slamming their own nominee, his own party trying to clean up his words by saying of course they will accept the will of the people. There are only 19 days until election day. How will the final debate
impact the race? We've got it all covered. Let's begin with CNN political reporter Manu Raju, live in Vegas. What a night, Manu.
MANU RAJU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed it was, Chris. Now, Donald Trump needed a commanding performance last night to reverse his sharply declining poll numbers that we have seen since the beginning, since last month's first presidential debate.
And at the beginning of that debate last night, Donald Trump prosecuted an argument that conservatives wanted to hear over the Supreme Court and abortion. But then Hillary Clinton got under Donald Trump's skin, and then this happened.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAJU (voice-over): Donald Trump refusing to say he will accept the election results.
TRUMP: I will look at it at the time. I'm not looking at anything now. I'll look at it at the time.
WALLACE: Are you saying you're not prepared now to commit to that?
TRUMP: I will tell you at the time. I'll keep you in suspense. OK?
CLINTON: Well, Chris, let me respond to that, because that's horrifying. You know, every time Donald thinks things are not going in his direction, he claims whatever it is, is rigged against him.
RAJU: Trump suggesting Hillary Clinton's e-mail use is disqualifying.
TRUMP: She shouldn't be allowed to run. She's guilty of a very, very serious crime.
RAJU: Clinton changing the subject from her Wall Street speeches to Russia and pressuring the GOP nominee to condemn Russia for hacking and stealing Democratic records. Trump taking the bait.
CLINTON: Will Donald Trump admit and condemn that the Russians are doing this and make it clear that he will not have the help of Putin in this election, that he rejects Russian espionage against Americans, which he actually encouraged in the past.
TRUMP: I don't know Putin. He said nice things about me. If we got along well, that would be good. If Russia and the United States got along well and went after ISIS, that would be good.
He has no respect for her. He has no respect for our president. And I'll tell you what: we're in very serious trouble.
From everything I see has no respect for this person.
CLINTON: Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president.
TRUMP: No puppet, no. WALLACE: You condemn their interference?
TRUMP: Of course I condemn.
RAJU: Throughout the night, Trump repeatedly interrupting and attacking her.
CLINTON: ... be clear.
TRUMP: You're the puppet.
Wrong.
CLINTON: This is a very clear fact that before the...
TRUMP: Excuse me. My turn.
CLINTON: .. replenish the Social Security trust fund.
TRUMP: Such a nasty woman.
RAJU: Trump did have a strong start, sparring with Clinton on issues that play well with conservatives, like abortion.
TRUMP: Based on what she's saying and based on where she's going and where she's been, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, on the final day; and that's not acceptable.
CLINTON: Using that kind of scare rhetoric is just terribly unfortunate. You should meet with some of the women that I've met with. Women I've known over the course of my life. This is one of the worst possible choices that any woman and her family has to make. And I do not believe the government should be making it.
RAJU: Trump even going as far as claiming his pro-life Supreme Court picks would automatically overturn Roe v. Wade, something he can't guarantee.
Later, Clinton hitting back on immigration.
CLINTON: When it comes to the wall that Donald talks about building the wall. He had a meeting with the Mexican president. Didn't even raise it; he choked.
TRUMP: First of all, I had a very good meeting with the president of Mexico. Very nice man.
RAJU: Trump raising eyebrows with this response to the question of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants.
TRUMP: Once the border is secured at a later date, we'll make a determination as to the rest. But we have some bad hombres here, and we're going to get them out.
RAJU: And once again, rejecting the growing number of accusations from several women of making unwanted advances. TRUMP: Because those stories are all totally false. I have to say
that. And I didn't even apologize to my wife, who's sitting right here, because I didn't do anything. I didn't know any of these women. I didn't see these women. These women, the woman on the plane, the woman -- I think they want either fame or her campaign did it. And I think it's her campaign.
CLINTON: Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity, their self-worth; and I don't think there is a woman anywhere who doesn't know what that feels like. So, we now know what Donald thinks and what he says and how he acts towards women. That's who Donald is.
RAJU: And Republicans close to the Trump campaign realizing how politically damaging his remarks were last night, that he may not accept the election results. Reince Priebus, the RNC chairman saying, of course he would accept the election results, but other Republican critics jumping on Donald Trump, including Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona tweeting this last night, saying that "Donald Trump saying that he might not accept election results is beyond the pale."
Other Republicans in tough reelection races similarly voicing concerns, including Carlos Corbello, who is in a difficult re-election in south Florida district. He was campaigning yesterday with House Speaker Paul Ryan. But one person who has not weighed in on this yet is House Speaker Paul Ryan --Alisyn.
[06:05:00] CAMEROTA: OK, Manu. We're going to be talking a lot about this. But first, who did viewers think won last night's debate? CNN's scientific poll of debate watchers finds 52 percent of viewers thought Clinton won, giving her a clean sweep of all three presidential debates now. Thirty-nine percent said Trump had the better night.
More than half of those polled say the debate will not change their mind about who to vote for. Among those who did feel swayed, Trump and Clinton essentially split their vote. We should note that the debate watchers in our poll do skew slightly for the Democrats.
CUOMO: All right. Let's discuss what happened last night and what it means. We've got CNN senior political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic" Ron Brownstein; CNN political analyst and one bad hombre, David Gregory; CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast" Jackie Kucinich; and "Washington Post" reporter Abby Phillip.
So everybody's jumping on this, David, that he said, "I'm going to keep you in suspense." Whether it was born of the moment or whatever, it was the moment of the night. Here's how it happened and when it happened in the debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Do you make the same commitment that you will absolutely -- sir, that you will absolutely accept the results of this election?
TRUMP: I will look at it at the time.
WALLACE: Are you saying you're not prepared now to commit to that principle?
TRUMP: I will tell you at the time. I'll keep you in suspense.
CLINTON: Let me respond to that, because that's horrifying. You know every time Donald thinks things are not going in his direction, he claims whatever it is, is rigged against him.
That is not the way our democracy worked. We've been around for 240 years. We've had free and fair elections. We've accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them, and that is what must be expected of anyone standing on a debate stage during a general election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: So?
DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think this is a death blow for Donald Trump. I think he had a strong first hour, sounding like a more conventional Republican. I think which was good news for supporters. Good news if you were looking for him to kind of expand his support, and then this.
It undermines our democracy. It's way outside the tradition of our democracy and presidential races. It comes in a context of him, again, flirting with Putin, praising him, suggesting that he and other world leaders would sit around and talk about how stupid America's leadership is.
And again, what's the big rap against Donald Trump among voters? A majority of whom says he's not qualified, doesn't have the judgement or temperament to be president. This only goes to that point. That huge vulnerability he has, I think it sets him further back.
CAMEROTA: Also poses a big challenge for his surrogates. So in the past 24 hours, his top people, from his daughter to his vice- presidential nominee, had to spend time trying to explain what Donald Trump means on this point. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I've said before, we'll certainly accept the outcome of this election.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you want Mr. Trump to make that clear.
PENCE: But in the 20 days...
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: He hasn't said it.
PENCE: Well, he said it in the first debate.
TOOBIN: And then he took it back.
PENCE: Well, he said it in the first debate, folks.
IVANKA TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF DONALD TRUMP: Of course, I think my father will always do the right thing. That's the type of person he is. He'll either win, or he won't win. And I believe he'll accept the outcome either way.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIR: Donald Trump will accept the results of the election, because he's going to win the election. So it will be easy to accept. Absent evidence of widespread abuse and irregularity, yes, I would say that. But I actually think I'll be saying to him, "Congratulations, Mr. President." And I'll see you there in two weeks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Jackie, they don't like this question coming up again and again.
JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's not a hard question. There's one right answer to this question. And that is, "Of course I will accept the results, because that's a foundational part of American democracy."
But you've seen Mike Pence struggle with this. I mean, he tried to dismiss it. You saw there, as a ridiculous question by the tone of his voice. And -- but Donald Trump keeps on undermining not only his vice president but most of his surrogates. Reince Priebus came out last night, the RNC chair, and said, of course he's going to accept the election results. Not hearing it from the nominee. Yes, he said it once, but he's gone back on that.
CUOMO: First of all, he went farther last night than he ever has before. You know, as you said, that was in the last 24 hours. He doubled down in the worst way on this point.
Ron Brownstein, you made an interesting allusion...
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.
CUOMO: ... on this point, which is what about all those other Republicans who are ahead right now? What if they win their races?
BROWNSTEIN: Right.
CUOMO: Is he saying that their results are illegitimate? Or is his rigged theory unique only to him?
BROWNSTEIN: Right, which is a kind of an implausible argument, right, that almost certainly whatever happens in the presidential race, Republicans will win most House races.
If you look at states like New Hampshire and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and North Carolina, the Republican Senate candidate is almost certainly going to run several hundred thousand votes ahead of Donald Trump. They may win; they may not win. But they're going to be ahead of him.
So is all of that rigged, as well, or is that undermined?
You know, I looked at that comment as really the exclamation point on the story on all of the debates. Because going into the debates the central question was, to go back to what David said, could Donald Trump reverse the perception? Sixty percent of the country going into the debate said he was not qualified to be president, didn't have the judgement to be president, was biased against women and minorities. That was the central hurdle he faced. That was the central head wind that had been keeping his support in the low 40s.
And now that we're through all of the debates, with a remark like that, certainly as kind of the underscoring, it's likely that those perceptions are not only hardened, but expanded. And so I think he failed at the fundamental test he had going into the debate, and that really just was, as I said, the icing on the cake.
CAMEROTA: Abby, no one wants a constitutional crisis. Who is he playing to here?
ABBY PHILLIP, "WASHINGTON POST": Right. I mean, what's paradoxical and damaging about this is that he's actually kind of conceding the race by looking like a sore loser 20 days before election day, and voters are looking at this. They're going outside and picking up their newspapers. And it says Donald Trump won't accept the results of the election.
And I think what that says to voters is, this is a man who thinks he's going to lose and doesn't want to accept it, and that actually undermines him. He has 20 days left to run this race, and he seems to be throwing in the towel by basically calling, you know, fraud before it's even happened.
CUOMO: So, how do, how do we wind up being wrong in the assessment? What could happen in terms of how this plays, David, that shows Trump to be mad like a genius, you know, as opposed to mad at his own demise?
GREGORY: You know, I just don't know. I mean, everything that he's speaking to there is about getting more enthusiasm from his core supporters. But I think Abby makes a really good point, which is there are those die-hard Trump supporters who may feel disillusioned to hear him and say, "What's the point? Why go out?" Especially if they haven't been civically engaged before. Maybe they haven't voted before, and they think, "Well, what's the point? The whole thing is rigged against me."
I think the core point is that he was losing the race going into last night's debate. He had an opportunity to try to get some traditional constituencies back. What Ron talks about so often, the college- educated white voters. And a comment like that just speaks to a lack of presidential temperament, which is the hurdle he had to cross.
CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much for all of those insights. Hold that thought, Ron. We'll be back to you at some point. BROWNSTEIN: I will.
CUOMO: Yes. We're coming back right after the break. But also on NEW DAY we'll hear from both campaigns. The Democratic vice- presidential nominee Tim Kaine will be here. Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway is going to be here in the next hour, as well.
CAMEROTA: OK, so Donald Trump's refusal to accept the election results was the stunning moment of the debate, but it wasn't the only one. There were also plenty of clashes on policies. We'll break down all of those big moments for you, next.
CUOMO: I thought there was a bigger one.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:16:49] CAMEROTA: The final debate had some harsh exchanges between Trump and Clinton, as well as personal attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: What we want to do is to replenish...
TRUMP: Such a nasty woman.
From everything I see, has no respect for this person.
CLINTON: Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president.
TRUMP: No puppet. No puppet.
CLINTON: And it's pretty clear.
TRUMP: You're the puppet.
And once the border is secured, at a later date we'll make a determination as to the rest. But we have some bad hombres here, and we're going to get them out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: We have a lot to discuss with our political panel: David Gregory, Jackie Kucinich, Abby Phillip and Ron Brownstein.
Ron, what did you think of those moments?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, and it goes to the answer -- there is an answer to Chris' question from a few minutes ago. By any conventional expectation or definition of what the electorate looks like, what Donald Trump has been doing the last few weeks doesn't make a lot of sense. Because it certainly -- many of these kind of accusations -- "The election is rigged against me, I won't accept the results" -- only deepen the questions about temperament among the voters, you know, to most political analysts look like the swing voters that will decide this thing. Donald Trump seems to be operating on a counter-theory, throughout the
campaign but especially in the last month. What is called the missing white voter theory in parts of the Republican Party, after Mitt Romney won white voters by a higher share -- won a higher share of white voters than Ronald Reagan did in 1980 and lost by 5 million votes. Most people said the Republicans had to reach out.
A counter theory said no, the answer was to increase turnout against blue collar white workers. And if there's any method to the madness of what we have seen from Donald Trump, he is constantly feeding, in the last few weeks, he is constantly feeding those voters more of kind of, you know, their coal in the fire to kind of stir them up. And that -- there is a way forward, it is by radically transforming the electorate into something that no one else really expects to see on election day.
GREGORY: Can I say how much we've all changed in the course of this election. I mean, imagine if...
KUCINICH: So much younger at the beginning.
GREGORY: Right. But imagine if Dan Quayle had said that devastating line, "You're no Jack Kennedy," and said, "Am, too." I mean, that's effectually what.
CUOMO: No, you're not Jack Kennedy. You're no Jack Kennedy.
GREGORY: I mean, this is what -- this kind of "she's a nasty woman" and "Oh, you're the puppet. You're the puppet." I mean, it's just the dialogue.
CUOMO: He has changed -- he has changed the rules and in a bad way. There's a very low bar for success for him going into these debates, and yet, he doesn't seem to make it this time.
I didn't even think this was the wackiest thing he said, the idea of not accepting the results of the election.
CAMEROTA: Oh? What did you think was?
CUOMO: Because he does have this -- he does have this tortured basis of why it might be rigged. There is some basis. I thought there were wackier things that he said last night.
He said the reason we're going into Mosul right now, the allies helping the Iraqis, is because they want to help Hillary Clinton's election.
CLINTON: Wag the dog.
CUOMO: Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Let me tell you, also so sad. We had Mosul, but when she left, when she took everybody out, we lost Mosul. But you know who the big winner in Mosul is going to be after we eventually get it. And the only reason they did it is because she's running for the office of president, and they want to look tough. They want to look good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GREGORY: Yes.
[06:20:11] CUOMO: I mean, that got me. What's that crazy expression I always have to look up? Gobsmacked. I was gobsmacked. Literally, with my hand went over my face. What is he talking about?
KUCINICH: There are so many voters right now who are looking for a reason not to vote for Hillary Clinton. I mean, these are those moderate Republicans, those Romney Republicans who are maybe the 6 percent of people in these polls who are undecided right now.
And Donald Trump is not, day in and day out, not giving them a reason to vote for him instead of -- instead of for Hillary Clinton. And that's where we are right now. He's not convincing anyone that all the attacks against him are untrue, because he continues to do all of the things that Hillary Clinton has been telling the American public for eight months he's going to do.
PHILLIP: Well, and her campaign knows that. You can see that on her answer on guns, because she really moderated her usual lines on firearms. And it seemed to me to be a direct appeal to Republicans and independents who don't, to your point, want to vote for Donald Trump. She talked about it in terms of safety for children, rather than some of the other arguments she's made that have been harder.
CUOMO: That's why she was so gentle about the Heller decision.
PHILLIP: See? That's what I mean.
GREGORY: Whether it's Putin or whether it's the, you know, conspiracy theory of invading Mosul to help her in the election. I mean, I think it's just striking. I'll be looking for conservatives, you know, who would so quickly condemn a Democrat for speaking this way, for talking down America...
CUOMO: Saying Assad is smarter than the president.
GREGORY: ... giving comfort to our enemies. The suggestion that Trump made that essentially Iran, Assad, Putin, that they all sit around and just talk about how stupid America's leaders are. If a Democrat had said that, I mean, it's striking the kind of criticism they would get.
CAMEROTA: Let's listen to the moment where Putin came up in the debate. Ron, take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't know Putin. He said nice things about me. If we got along well, that would be good. If Russia and the United States got along well and went after ISIS, that would be good.
He has no respect for her. He has no respect for our president. And I'll tell you what, we're in very serious trouble.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: We missed the part where she had one of her lines, hard to know if it was practiced or spontaneous, but it worked, where she said, "Because you're a Putin puppet." What did you think, Ron?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Yes, no, it goes to something I think that's larger. You look across the expanse of all three debates, Donald Trump gets in the most trouble when he is the most kind of unique and distinctive and taking the Republican -- with the exception of trade on many of the other areas where he -- whether it's Putin or what he says about Assad or that she should not be allowed to run. That's when he kind of gets in the most trouble.
Where he was the most effective last night was, as in the second debate, when he was the most generic. For that first 40 minutes, he did a really good impersonation of a conventional Republican and kind of reminded a lot of Republican-leaning voters around the country that, "Hey, this is the guy who's going to cut taxes and cut regulation and appoint conservative Supreme Court justices."
That's probably not enough to overcome her deficit -- overcome his deficit, but it certainly puts him, you know, in a stronger position, puts Republicans in a stronger position to hold the Senate.
And where he got in the most trouble, again, was where he was kind of taking these very idiosyncratic routes, such as his refusal to condemn the overwhelming-- second the overwhelming conclusion, the intelligence that Russia intelligence is trying to interfere in our election.
CUOMO: Seventeen intel agencies.
GREGORY: And he gets those briefings. He gets those intel briefings.
Cuomo: And he interrupted and said, they don't know. They don't know. And Wallace had to push him to say, "Well, if it is Russia would you" -- and he said, "Yes, yes, I would. Them or anybody else." Interesting why he picks that to have a hard line on it.
CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much for getting up extra early for us.
CUOMO: So there's no question that there were a lot of shots traded last night on issues that actually matter, like the economy. So, whose ideas meet the presidential standard? We have a reality check, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:28:01] CAMEROTA: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump sparring over many issues during their final debate last night, including the economy. So let's fact check their claims.
CNN's Christine Romans has more with CNN Money now. What are you seeing, Christine?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: OK. Donald Trump during a question about his plan to create jobs, create new jobs he took the opportunity to make this claim, again, about the state of the U.S. economy. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Last week, as you know, the end of last week they came out with an anemic jobs report. A terrible jobs report. In fact, I said, "Is that the last jobs report before the election? Because if it is, I should win easily." It was so bad. The report was so bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Terrible, anemic, it was so bad. So, was the latest jobs report anemic? Let's take a look at the numbers.
According to the most recent jobs report the U.S. economy added 156,000 new jobs in September. In fact, the 77nd month in a row that the economy has gained jobs marking six straight years of monthly gains.
And now, although the unemployment rate ticked up slightly, look at where it is. It's at a relatively low 5 percent. That's cut in half from the 10 percent we saw in October 2009.
UBS economist Drew Maddist (ph) calls September's gains healthy, and all that combined makes this claim by Donald Trump false.
We also want to take a look at the accusation that Hillary Clinton leveled against Trump about Trump Tower.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: He used undocumented labor to build the Trump Tower. He underpaid undocumented workers, and when they complained he basically said what a lot of employers do, "You complain, I'll get you deported."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Hillary Clinton claimed Donald Trump used illegal workers to build Trump Tower in New York City, and he threatened to deport them when they complained about their low pay.
Here are the facts. In 1983, undocumented Polish workers sued Donald Trump in a class action lawsuit, complaining of low wages of just $4 an hour. Some said they never received wages owed to them.
Now, this is according to litigation cited by "The New York Times." Trump denied knowing the workers were undocumented since they were hired through a contractor and not directly by Donald Trump.
