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Clinton, Trump Enter Final Stretch of Campaign; 13 Killed in California Tour Bus Crash. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired October 24, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:04] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is absolutely essential that we destroy ISIL.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're booby trapping doors. They're booby trapping windows. A deadly, deadly business.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

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

The 2016 race entering the final stretch. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump set to deliver closing arguments to voters as they barnstorm the battleground states over these final two weeks.

A new national poll that we want to show you. This shows Clinton at this point with a double-digit lead. The Trump campaign acknowledges that they are behind, so they are zeroing in today on must-win Florida.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Meantime, Clinton intensifying her charge into red states and starting to focus on her transition team 15 days from the big day, election day. We've got it all covered. Let's begin with CNN's Jeff Zeleny.

Good morning.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Chris. Hillary Clinton is heading to New Hampshire today, but not just for herself. For the third straight day she is visiting a battleground state that also has a competitive Senate race. She's working to maintain her edge over Trump and trying to help Democrats win control of the Senate.

But this morning we're also learning that she is looking ahead, taking more steps to plan what she increasingly believes will be her transition to the presidency.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY (voice-over): A two-week fight to the finish. It's time for closing arguments. Hillary Clinton striking an optimistic note. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I want to be the president

for every American: Democrats, Republicans, independents; people who vote for me, people who vote against me. Because we've got to bring this country together.

ZELENY: Donald Trump less so.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Are we glad that I started? Are we having -- well, I'll let you know on the evening of November 8 whether I'm glad.

ZELENY: With 15 days to go, Trump no longer talking about when he wins but if.

TRUMP: If we win on November 8, we are going to fix our rigged system. It's a rigged, broken, corrupt system.

CLINTON: Some people are sore losers and, you know, we just -- we just got to keep going.

ZELENY: A wild weekend, with Trump visiting Gettysburg for an unusual Gettysburg address. Overshadowing the plan for his first 100 days in office by pledging to sue the women accusing him of inappropriate behavior.

TRUMP: Every women lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. Total fabrication. All these liars will be sued after the election is over.

ZELENY: Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway bluntly acknowledging the uphill climb.

CONWAY: We were behind. We were behind one, three, four points in some of these swing states that Mitt Romney lost to President Obama. Chuck, our advantage is that Donald Trump is just going to continue to take the case directly to the people.

ZELENY: Trump undermining that acknowledgment.

TRUMP: "Investors Business Daily," the most accurate poll from the last election and the two elections before that, just announced that we are leading nationally by 2 points.

Numbers are looking phenomenal in Florida. Don't believe the media.

ZELENY: But a new ABC News national poll shows Trump trailing Clinton by 12 points.

Meantime, CNN has learned Clinton is increasingly moving behind Trump and turning her attention to her transition to the presidency. A Democrat close to Clinton saying she's not being arrogant, she's being diligent.

Clinton is sizing up candidates for White House chief of staff. One top contender, Ron Klain, who led her debate team. All this as President Obama is tying GOP Senate candidates to Trump. Visiting Nevada, one of the hottest Senate battlegrounds.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You're for him, but you're not for him. But you're kind of for him. What the heck?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY (voice-over): Now, Donald Trump is continuing a three-day swing through Florida today. He's fighting for those 29 electoral votes. He needs to stay viable. Now Clinton is heading there tomorrow in hopes of blocking that path. But she's also multi-tasking and increasingly planning her transition.

I'm also told she's already started reaching out to old allies on Capitol Hill, including Republicans whose help she will need if she wins. Her team is loath to talk about any of this publicly, with one adviser telling me, "First, she has to win."

CAMEROTA: Yes, good point. That is a very excellent point, Jeff. Thank you very much for all of that.

Let's discuss it with our CNN political commentators. We have Van Jones. He's a former Obama administration official. And Jeffrey Lord, he's a former Reagan political director and Trump supporter.

Gentlemen, great to see you both this morning.

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Jeffrey, let me start with you with your energy that abounds there.

Both candidates are making their, you know, closing arguments, as you just heard Jeff say. And Donald Trump seems to be "The system is rigged against the regular person, the little guy, and I'm going to drain the swamp of corruption in Washington."

Do you think that that message is what will help him close the gap in the next two weeks?

[07:05:03] LORD: It's a great message. That is the problem here. I mean, this is why Donald Trump is the nominee of the Republican Party in the first place. This, I think, was part of the energy behind the Bernie Sanders campaign.

So there are a lot of Americans that feel very definitely that the entire system is rigged to the benefit of a group of ruling class elites of both parties, I might add. And Donald Trump is carrying that message. Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: And so -- so, Jeffrey, just quickly, you think that that will be enough for him to close the gap and win?

LORD: Well -- well, he should tie it all in together. I mean, trade and illegal immigration and work through these issues that he's been discussing for months and months and months. But tie it all together and make that the closing argument, yes. CAMEROTA: OK. Van, what is Hillary Clinton's closing argument. I

mean, in a sentence or two over the next two weeks of why she should be elected. What's different? What -- how will the country change under her?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, I just want to say about what Mr. Lord just said, that is a good message, but you don't have a good messenger.

And the problem that you've got going forward now is that people have made up their mind about both candidates. People say both candidates are very flawed. But they think that you have one who's flawed and one who's unfit to govern, unfit to be president.

And so, what Hillary Clinton is going to be doing going forward is basically trying to continue to point out that she does have actual plans and policies that will make things better. Frankly, most voters don't listen to all that stuff. They both give long speeches. What you get are just these little snippets.

For instance, Donald Trump gave a great speech in Gettysburg over the weekend. It was substantive; it was clear. I didn't agree with it. But it was meaty. It was there. But then he throws in this line about suing women, and that's all we've talked about. You have a messenger who continues to step on his own message.

I am so glad, frankly, that Donald Trump keeps doing stuff like that. Had that speech be heard, he might have picked up three or four points.

CAMEROTA: Yes, see but Van, here it is.

LORD: Aly...

CAMEROTA: I bet -- hold on, Jeffrey, because I bet you're glad that he keeps stepping on his message. Because Hillary Clinton's message is the other guy is unfit.

LORD: Yes.

CAMEROTA: And I guess that you're saying, Van, that that's enough.

JONES: I'm saying -- I'm saying where we are now, given the fact that Donald Trump has managed to slip on every banana peel and every marble on every stairway the entire summer and the entire fall, that's all she has to do. And I think luckily, she does have, luckily, really, really good policies and really good ideas. But, frankly, nobody is listening to that anymore, because Donald Trump has made himself the issue from the beginning, and now he's thrown himself down the stairs. He's gone from Trumpzilla to Trumpety-Dumpety.

CAMEROTA: Wow.

LORD: Aly...

CAMEROTA: Yes, Jeffrey? You can tackle that word play. LORD: Aly, this is anecdotal to be sure. But Saturday I took a break from CNN and plopped my 97-year-old Mom in the car and drove out into the countryside about 20 miles to get a pumpkin for Halloween.

I can only tell you, this place is littered with Trump signs. Everywhere I looked. And I saw exactly one Hillary Clinton sign. Now, you know, I'm seeing these polls as we all are, but I'm telling you, here on the ground, the Trump stuff is everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. And there was almost no evidence of a Hillary Clinton campaign visually.

CAMEROTA: Jeffrey, you're not -- you're not wrong. I see it, too. I see it; I hear it. The polls don't sort of match the, still, enthusiasm that people have for Donald Trump. Jeffrey, are you saying that you think all the polls are wrong and that, in fact, Donald Trump still has a real fighting chance and will win?

LORD: Oh, I think he does have a real fighting chance. I'm saying I'm leery of these polls, because when you add to what I was just saying, his crowds when he comes here, when he goes anywhere, he fills these arenas, and there's thousands more people outside trying to get in. That's just not the case in her situation.

So, I am...

JONES: There's a reason for that.

LORD: I am a little bit leery of these polls.

JONES: There's a reason for that. Hillary Clinton is not an electric speaker. She's not an electric performer. So people who will be very, very happy to go vote for her wouldn't necessarily want to go hear her talk.

On the other hand, Donald Trump is an electric speaker; he's an electric performer. People will be very, very excited to go hear him talk and vote for him. Basically, you've got to understand, there's a lot of people that are very enthusiastic to go vote for Hillary Clinton that wouldn't even watch her give a speech on TV, because she's just not that kind of performer.

CAMEROTA: So then how confident are you? I mean, on a scale of one to ten, do you think that it is too early to already be talking about the Hillary Clinton transition team that she is trying to assemble? Or do you think that polls have been wrong before?

JONES: Listen, this is not the year to trust the polls. This is not -- listen, you saw with Brexit. The polls were, you know, before, during and after, said people were against Brexit in the U.K.

But the reality is, even though the opinion modeling may have been correct, the turnout modeling was totally wrong. And you had the same kind of dynamic settling in, where you had real arrogance on the part of the people who were for remaining. You had real passion on the part of people for Brexit, and they outperformed folks on election day. [07:10:13] So there's no room for any kind of complacency. The only

reason to have a little bit of confidence is that -- the operation of the Clinton machine kicking in, getting those early votes in has been a long stronger.

But, now, listen, anything can happen this year. You cannot be arrogant. But I'm going to tell you right now. If you are up double digits and you aren't making preparations, that's irresponsible. You've got to be making those preparations, but can't send the signal that it's over because, you know, Truman was down, too.

CAMEROTA: Yes. 15 days is actually a long time in this election cycle.

LORD: I had to...

CAMEROTA: Quickly, Jeffrey, yes.

LORD: I had the chance to meet Nigel Farage of Brexit fame the other week, and he told me they were down by 10 and won by 4, and no one expected it. So I think Van is right about this.

CAMEROTA: There you go. There's a cautionary Brexit tale that everyone should be paying attention to.

Jeffrey, Van, thank you. Let's get to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. The NTSB and California Highway Patrol are investigating what caused a violent and deadly tour bus crash. Thirteen killed, dozens injured. The bus slammed into a big rig as it was returning to a casino.

We've got CNN's Paul Vercammen live in Palm Springs, California. Paul, what do we know?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, I'm here at the Desert Regional Medical Center, where four patients remain in critical condition, another in serious.

As you said, this happened when the bus crashed into the back of a big rig. It pierced through, or slammed, slammed some 15 feet into that big rig and that's what caused these deadly, deadly 13 fatalities and all of these other injuries that doctors are describing many of them as facial lacerations.

A veteran highway patrol officer saying in 35 years he had never that had killed 13. Among other things they're going to have look into. Driver fatigue. Was that a possibility as this happened in the predawn blackness on the return trip from the casino.

Also, one thing that they are going to definitely check out is the notion that this bus was going much faster than the big rig and that the driver did not apply his brakes.

Reporting live from Palm Springs, I'm Paul Vercammen. Back to you now, Alisyn. CAMEROTA: Oh, Paul, what a tragedy that whole story is. Thank you for the reporting.

Well, American Airlines is issuing an apology after two passengers gained unauthorized access on a Philadelphia to Boston flight Sunday. Officials say they boarded the plane through an unlocked jetway door. The entry appears to be an accident. The airline does not suspect foul play. The flight was delayed nearly three hours as Americans switched aircraft because of an abundance of caution.

CUOMO: A Pentagon effort to recover millions in signing bonuses given to U.S. soldiers is facing major backlash. Here's what the military says.

Thousands of national guard members who reenlisted a decade ago were improperly given cash bonuses. Now, the government wants that money back with interest. Many of those soldiers are speaking out in the next hour of NEW DAY. We're going to talk to an Iraq war veteran who said he had to refinance his home to settle his so-called debt.

CAMEROTA: I look forward to talking to him. He says it was just so stressful when they claimed that he didn't get that bonus after he had bought his House, had a student loan.

CUOMO: And why they're saying it and why this happened and what the remedy is are all very interesting and important details that may not get addressed by the Congress; and then the men and women are really in a bad place.

CAMEROTA: All right. You'll hear his personal story coming up.

Meanwhile, Democrats getting fired up over the prospect of a clean sweep on election day. Could both chambers of Congress turn blue? The major races that are in play, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:17:15] CUOMO: Hillary Clinton and President Obama looking down ballot, blasting vulnerable Republicans in tough congressional races.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I hope you will do everything you will do everything you can to elect Katie McGinty your next senator. Katie will help us break through the gridlock. When you look at Katie's opponent, he still refuses to stand up to Donald Trump.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, when suddenly it's not working and people are saying, "Wow, this guy is kind of out of line," suddenly that's a deal breaker. Well, what took you so long? What the heck? What took you so long?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right. So Democrats are eyeing a potential flip in Congress's balance of power, and the party's biggest names are talking about Donald Trump every chance they get in order to give their colleagues an edge.

Why am I laughing? This is very serious business. I'm going to tell you why with CNN Politics executive editor Mark Preston, because we're going to take you behind the scenes here of what's happening with the Magic Wall. We hit the button, and it was all these discussions about, like, European parliamentary elections and which...

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Which you are an expert of.

CUOMO: We don't know. We weren't even identifying the countries right. Is that Spain or Portugal?

All right. While we figure out the wall, there is a question I want to get to. So much of this modeling right now is on these turnout tables and these presumptions. I have been openly questioning them, because I've been bitten by them in the past.

PRESTON: Right.

CUOMO: You do not have a big enthusiasm drive with Hillary Clinton. Cyclically, the Democrats are supposed to lose. You see Trump's crowds. I get that they don't size up as a macro to the overall population of voters. But why all this confidence that the numbers in 2016 will be better than 2012 in terms of turnout?

PRESTON: Well, let's just look at the baseline of it all, Chris. You know, Donald Trump doesn't have a ground operation across the country. He hasn't built supporters. He hasn't put money into the individual states to get phone banks, to get people knocking on doors.

[07:20:03] The RNC has done the best that it has -- that it can do. But Donald Trump pretty much ran the campaign based upon his own, you know, persona. We saw that during the primary. But when you get to a general election, you need to invest money into the states.

CUOMO: You think it's infrastructure?

PRESTON: Absolutely. It absolutely comes down to infrastructure.

CUOMO: Over enthusiasm?

PRESTON: Well, enthusiasm only gets you so far. You need to get people to actually go out and drag you to the polls. You might be supportive of Donald Trump, but what -- you know, does that mean that you're going to get up at 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning and go to vote? Or early voting in Florida, are you going to decide, "You know what? I'm going to go vote"?

CUOMO: All right. So let's look at the balance of power. Because we're going to talk House and Senate right now. OK?

Right now in the House, I believe you put up a graphic, if you have it, about the balance of power: 246-186. Two-forty-six, one-eighty- six, that's the current state of play. Now, in the House, the Democrats need 30 seats. PRESTON: Right.

CUOMO: Is there an argument that they're going to get it? A real one.

PRESTON: Unlikely to happen. Unlikely to happen. But you could see Democrats pick up somewhere between 20 and 25 seats, right, which would be a huge improvement from where they have been, of course.

Republicans would still control the chamber by five seats, and quite frankly, that's enough for them to control the chamber. What it could do, though, is that it could weaken Paul Ryan who, of course, is going to run for speaker, again. Or we expect he's going to run for speaker, again. But it could weaken him where he could be drawn to the more conservative side of his caucus which could be actually bad for him.

CUOMO: But it doesn't change any of the chairmanships, doesn't change any of the committees. So the way the wheels turn would stay the same.

PRESTON: Absolutely.

CUOMO: So now, on the Senate side, let's take a look at what we have there.

There it is.

TV is back, 54/44. Now, there's been all this talk about how Trump can affect down ballot. But when I was looking at these races to get ready for this, a lot of these Republicans seem solid to me.

PRESTON: A couple things, right? So 54, actually 46 because two of these independents actually are with Democrats. So Democrats would need, let's assume Hillary -- on the assumption Hillary Clinton wins. OK? That means all they would need is a net gain of four to control the chamber. That would get them to 50/50, and Tim Kaine, who is the vice president, is really the Senate of the president. He would be the deciding vote.

However -- however is that with Tim Kaine leaving, that means they're going to have to appoint somebody to his seat, and then they're going to have a special election. And, quite frankly, in 2017, Republicans could maybe win back the chamber in 2017.

But your point there are some folks, such as Marco Rubio in Florida, who's looking at split-ticketing and, you know, probably will win.

CUOMO: These independents, you have King up there in Maine and you have Sanders.

PRESTON: Bernie Sanders.

CUOMO: All right. So we're picking them. So, when you look at this race, you see this as a key race. You don't think that the incumbent has it? PRESTON: She's been struggling. She's been struggling, because she's

been embracing Donald Trump and then pushing away, embrace and pushing away. The problem with pushing Donald Trump away is that you're pushing his supporters away, which is really the baseline that she needs to build upon. Right now you have, you know, a fairly popular governor right now up in New Hampshire. She's struggling right now.

CUOMO: All right, Illinois.

PRESTON: Race is gone at this point. I mean, Democratic state. Barack Obama's home state. She's got enough right now, I mean, in the polls. I mean, this has basically been written off by both parties.

CUOMO: So you see this as one sure lock, but you're still going to need it, by your math, at least three more.

PRESTON: Right.

CUOMO: What do you see in here?

PRESTON: Again, Russ Feingold came back. Ron Johnson hasn't run a terribly good campaign. It's a little bit tighter than what it was a few weeks ago. But Feingold has the advantage.

CUOMO: Pennsylvania.

PRESTON: Now, this is a split ticket situation where you have Katie McGinty, who's the former chief of staff to the governor, Tom Wolfe. Patrick Toomey has done a pretty good job working for Pennsylvania and campaigning, building the infrastructure that Trump doesn't have in the state. So even though Trump is losing in the state of Pennsylvania, this race is very tight. Toomey could pull it out. But if there is a Democratic wave, Hillary Clinton could drag Katie McGinty across the finish line.

CUOMO: Evidence of Democratic wave, as witnessed in what's going on in Florida. Rubio basically had to be bid to run again there. Right? How's he doing? What does it mean?

PRESTON: He's doing well. He could raise a lot of money. He's got a high name I.D. Even though he lost the primary to Donald Trump, which is an anomaly anyway, down, you know, in this past year, Rubio is a good candidate and, you know, looks -- right now looks like he's going to win. But if there was a huge wave, then he could get swamped out.

CUOMO: That takes us back to where we started, which is turnout. Will there be a wave or will this be very tight? And if it is, you could see very different outcomes.

PRESTON: Yes. No doubt. No doubt. And there's some other states, as well, that could go.

CUOMO: Mark Preston, thank you very much. Looking forward to talking to you about Austria and Hungary. We didn't get to do it today -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Technology, how we love it.

Hillary Clinton gaining in the polls with just two weeks until election day. But Donald Trump says he's winning. Members of Congress who support each make their case, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:28:40] TRUMP: I've got news for all of the people taking advantage of our rigged system. In 17 days, everything is going to change.

CLINTON: He refuses to say that he would respect the results of this election, and that is a threat to democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right. Just two weeks left until election day. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. It's time for them to make closing arguments. The good news is, it will finally be about you.

The latest national poll shows Clinton with a lead as high as 12 points in the latest ABC poll, but there's time to turn around. There's a lot of questions about turnout. So let's get into the case for you from each.

Democratic Congressman Steve Israel joins us. He's a Clinton supporter. And Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn. She's endorsed Trump.

Let's start with quick 30 seconds. The closing argument for Trump. What you think the case is. We'll start with you, Congressman Blackburn. To the American people. Give me a quick take on it. Here's his case.

REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R), TENNESSEE: His case is let's make certain we have constitutional jurists on the Supreme Court and the federal bench. Let's make certain that we repeal and replace Obamacare, that we protect our nation's economy and get it humming, again.

Wage stagnation, low economic growth is something that is stifling every single corner of this country. And let's bring economic prosperity all across this country into our rural areas and into underserved areas.

CUOMO: Congressman Israel, what is Hillary Clinton's case?