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CNN Poll: Clinton Leads Trump by 5 Points; Obamacare Premiums Set to Soar Next Year. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired October 25, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We haven't seen before is somebody questioning the integrity of elections.

[07:00:05] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The media isn't just against me. They're against all of you.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: We nasty women are going to cast our nasty votes to get you out of our lives forever.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY.

Two weeks from today we will have a new president-elect. A new CNN/ORC poll shows that Hillary Clinton has a five-point lead over Donald Trump, 49-44. Trump's reaction to the poll is a reflection of why he is down. He says the polls are rigged by a rigged media. Note: he could not talk about polls enough when he was up.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, Clinton is facing a new challenge with Obamacare premiums soaring by double digits next year. How will that impact the presidential race? As Trump and Clinton battle it out for votes in Florida today. We have it all covered for you.

Let's begin with CNN's Jason Carroll. He's live in Miami. What's the latest, Jason?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And Alisyn, early voting underway here in the state of Florida, where a poll shows that Donald Trump trailing behind Hillary Clinton, but Donald Trump saying don't put stock in any of those types of polls.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): Donald Trump on the defensive.

TRUMP: I believe we're actually winning.

CARROLL: Trump flat-out denying he is behind in the polls as he blazes through the battleground state of Florida.

TRUMP: They are phony polls put out by phony media. CARROLL: Just hours before hitting the trail, Trump did admit he's

lagging.

TRUMP (via phone): I guess I'm somewhat behind in the polls but not by much.

CARROLL: And with only two weeks until election day, a new CNN/ORC national poll shows Hillary Clinton up by five points. No matter, Trump is ratcheting up the attacks on his rival...

TRUMP (on camera): If you look at her plans for Syria, these are the plans of a child. These are the plans of a person that doesn't know what she's doing.

CARROLL: ... the media...

TRUMP: The media isn't just against me. They're against all of you.

CARROLL: ... and the 11 women accusing him of unwanted advances.

TRUMP (via phone): They were made up. I don't know these women.

CARROLL: Trump raising eyebrows over his comments about Jessica Drake, an adult film performer who alleges he grabbed and kissed her without permission in 2006.

TRUMP: This one that came out recently, "He grabbed me and he grabbed me on the arm." Oh, I'm sure she's never been grabbed before.

CARROLL: This as Clinton works to seal a win in New Hampshire, campaigning with liberal favorite Senator Elizabeth Warren.

WARREN: I'm with her. Are you with her?

CARROLL: Both wasting no time hitting the GOP nominee.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This is someone who roots for failure and takes glee in mocking our country, no matter who our president is. Now, that may be who Donald Trump is, but this election is about who we are.

CARROLL: Warren capitalizing on Trump's "nasty woman" comment on Clinton from the last debate.

WARREN: He thinks that because he has a mouth full of Tic-Tacs that he can force himself on any woman within groping distance. Well, I've got news for you, Donald Trump. Women have had it with guys like you. And nasty women have really had it with guys like you. Nasty women are tough. Nasty women are smart. And nasty women vote.

CARROLL: President Obama joining the Democratic Trump takedown on Jimmy Kimmel.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What I don't do is, like at 3 a.m., I don't tweet about...

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, ABC'S "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!": You don't tweet in the middle of the night?

OBAMA: Insulted me.

KIMMEL: You watch Donald Trump, do you ever laugh? Do you ever actually laugh?

OBAMA: Most of the time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KIMMEL: And as for those polls showing Trump trailing behind Clinton, the Trump campaign feels as though pollsters and the media are not really taking into account the large crowds that they draw at Trump rallies. They feel as though that's anecdotal evidence, if you will, that the candidate is performing well. Trump, for his part, making two more stops here in Florida today. Clinton has one stop here in Florida today, two more tomorrow -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Jason, thanks so much for all of that.

Donald Trump and Republicans blasting Democrats after news that Obamacare premiums will soar next ar. Trump declaring it's over for the Affordable Care Act. The plan's defenders insist most consumers will not feel that crunch.

CNN's Athena Jones is live at the White House with more. What have you learned, Athena?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Well, millions of people could be paying a lot more for health insurance in 2017. That's because the premiums for the benchmark silver plan, the mid-level plan more people could be ping more for health insurance in 2017. Benchmark prices are set to rise an average of 25 percent for plans on the federal exchange. That's Healthcare.gov.

Now, that increase is compared to just a 7.2 percent increase last year. So it's a big jump.

[07:05:06] Now, since the vast majority of Obamacare enrollees get a government subsidy to help lower the cost of premiums, the government says that 77 percent of customers will be able to find a plan that costs them $100 a month or less when you factor in those subsidies.

Now, to be clear, this 25 percent is an average. So it's going to vary from state to state. If you look at Arizona, which had the lowest premiums last year, this year customers there are going to see an average increase of more than 100 percent. But in Indiana, the benchmark plan will actually be 3 percent cheaper.

So why are we seeing this big jump in prices in many of these states? That's because enrollees are sicker and costlier than expected. There's not enough young and healthy people signing up. Insurers initially priced their plans too low, and fewer insurance companies are offering coverage. We know Obamacare has been under fire since the very beginning, and

this is providing more fodder for all of those critics. And we know that health care is an important issue for a lot of voters. Fifty percent of voters said it was important in our latest poll. And that number is higher for Clinton voters, 53 percent. So this is something that she's very likely going to have to address on the campaign trail -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Athena. Thank you very much.

Let's discuss the implications with CNN political commentator and Hillary Clinton supporter Bakari Sellers; and CNN political commentator and Donald Trump supporter Scottie Nell Hughes.

Let's put up these numbers for everybody. We have the headline here: Clinton is up five in the poll. What that means compared to our last poll was that each has ticked up a little bit. OK? So you're seeing somewhat of a flattening in the state of play.

Key groups: independents, Trump showing a good advantage there. We're going to discuss that. Women, Clinton showing a good advantage there. It's actually lower in the CNN poll than it had been in the past.

Then you have what really brings you the fundamental case for Trump's campaign, which is non-educated voters. I hate that demographic description, but it's what the pollsters use. But you're really dealing with working-class people there. And he's winning two out of three in that situation, as you see when the numbers come up. We call it degree/no degree. And again, I don't like that, but that's what we're working with in terms of how the variables are described.

So let's discuss. Bakari, when you look at these numbers, the working man and woman, of course, and families. That has been the background for Donald Trump. He is their proxy, their voice, and frankly, that's why they're so forgiving of the man because they're so desperate to have their message get out there.

What do these poll numbers mean to what Hillary Clinton still needs to do?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think you have to delve just a little bit deeper than that original question, Chris. And you have to look down, because it is white, college-educated, versus white non-college-educated voters, which tend to be the key in this race.

And what we've seen is that Donald Trump has done yeoman's working ginning up the base. He's done yeoman's work in getting his message out. And he really has riled up and ginned up this base of white, non-college-educated voters.

But what you're starting to see is that this gender gap, this gender gap is the size of the Grand Canyon. It's something that we haven't seen before between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. And that is what's driving this. Between white college-educated women, African- Americans, and Hispanic voters, that's what's driving -- that's what's driving Hillary Clinton's lead, which, with all due respect, is a little bit more narrow in the CNN poll than it has been in other polls we've seen over the past ten days.

CUOMO: Well, look, you've got to take the range. Scottie, so flipping the case here, it's that he needed to expand past the simple base, OK, and get more educated people, get more -- get the Scottie Nell Hughes, you know, into the tent with him, including women and broaden his diversity, like he did in the 2012 report after those midterms and how you needed to grow. He hasn't done that. Can he? Or do you think he can win without it?

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, I think he definitely has to continue to expand that base. Let's remember, prior to this a month ago, Donald Trump was winning -- winning with married women by 17 points over Hillary Clinton. That was a huge problem.

Since then we've seen, definitely, an assault on the female supporters of Mr. Trump, who have either stayed or crossed over. What you have to look at is that you've never seen a candidate like Mr. Trump, who's had to fight so much.

You're looking at -- between the WikiLeaks have proven that the Democrats will do whatever it takes to win, and as long as they keep their folks in power, then it doesn't matter what they did, whether it's illegal or unethical. They're going to -- they're never going to be prosecuted.

The Republicans have never worked so hard to keep someone that today did not choose from winning. And so as long as he is sitting here taking his message of just that he is raw, his raw message of that he's there to divide up the cesspool and be an outsider, then he's going to win, basically, just based on the American people, males and females.

CUOMO: How much of what you think he's working against right now was created by his own mouth?

HUGHES: Not necessarily, because this has been a movement before. This was something that was -- I saw trying to actually accumulate over the last four years. It was a frustration within the Republican Party.

[07:10:06] Maybe we don't have the best quarterback -- we can debate that -- to carry that message to the goal line. But we've had truly a defense of the bad news bears this election season. And we've had to fight much of the bitterness of our own party and use our energies on that.

It's not necessarily been able to focus on Mr. Trump and more of the message getting over the line, which resonates with both Republicans and Democrats, of the swamp that's been created within Washington, D.C.

CUOMO: All right. So let's take what works to the GOP's advantage in saving themselves here, Bakari. What just came out about Obamacare. I know it's complicated. I know we could dive into -- there's something for everybody in looking at the economic analysis of Obamacare. But on just the basic political optics level, if premiums are going up, and we're told that the solution that will make people not feel the pain is that the cost structure is going to go up on the government's side, as well, it seems to suggest it's not working. And that's something that can unite an expanded Republican base. Your take?

SELLERS: I mean, that's a great talking point, but that's just not where facts meet reality.

The facts are that very few people are going to feel the brunt of this increase. I mean, we're talking about 77 percent of the people who actually get their health care from Healthcare.gov actually will be able to find a plan for about $75 per month. Because when you ask the question -- and everybody's talking about premiums go up. They never include the next part, which are that subsidies and tax credits go up, as well.

But let's talk about why this is occurring. It's because of states like my own, where Nikki Haley has put politics above people, and refused to expand Medicaid. And because you refuse to expand Medicaid, you have a pool of people that are fewer, so insurance companies don't bring in the revenue. Therefore, they leave the system. And you have a more unhealthy group of individuals as well.

And so that is what you're starting to see now. It's because the Republican Party for a long period of time has said that they are going to obstruct this and break this, because I guess for some reason they don't want individuals to have health care.

Twenty million people have health care in this country because of Obamacare. It is a law with problems, but Hillary Clinton is the only one who's talking about fixing it.

CUOMO: Scottie Nell Hughes, you were giving the signature lip curl head shake during that entire statement. You don't buy that rationale. How do you think this works for you?

HUGHES: Absolutely. Because I'm going to use Barack Obama's -- President Obama's words himself when he campaigned in '08. That the average tax-paying, healthcare-paying family would see a reduction in costs by, I think it was $2,500. That's the exact opposite with most health care now, on average $4,800 more than it was in 2008.

And those are people that pay for health insurance on their own or have employers that help pay for it. The cost for most average Americans has gone up either double or triple until most states.

CUOMO: So Bakari, do you own that? Is this an equivalent of the "You can keep your doctor" statement by President Obama? The costs would go down $2,500, and it hasn't happened?

SELLERS: Not at all. In fact, I think one of the -- one of the biggest criticism that you can place on the White House and one of the criticisms that I've placed on the White House, especially coming from a southern state, is a failure to realize that some governors, especially Republican governors, or all Republican governors would refuse to expand Medicaid. And that was an integral cog in this whole piece.

Now, if anyone sits up here and tells you that this law does not have flaws, then they are just lying to you and lying to the American public. But the fact is there is a greater good. People now cannot be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

People have health insurance. And now when you have a heart attack, Scottie and Chris, you don't just -- your family doesn't have to go bankrupt. I mean, that is the country that we're in. Now, we need to work together to figure out how to make this law better, and we'll do that with the Democratic Senate and a Democratic president of the United States.

CUOMO: All right. Bakari, Scottie Nell Hughes, thank you very much. Always good to have you both here -- Alisyn.

SELLERS: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Ah, Twitter. Well, there's not a person in the Twittersphere that, well, is not actually destroyed by Twitter comments. President Obama is no exception. Jimmy Kimmel striking comedy gold in "Mean Tweets," President Obama edition. Here's your late-night laughs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: "Barack Obama is the Nickelback of presidents."

"Obama couldn't negotiate getting a Whopper without pickles. @WoodstockDave.

Thanks, Dave.

"I bet Obama likes mustard on his hot dogs because he's gross." @DuckPunks

"Just found out my daughter shares a birthday with Obama. PUKE." In caps. @Momof4Munchkins

"Barack Obama dances like how his jeans look."

You know, this jeans thing, this is so old. This is years ago. Come on.

"My mom bought new conditioner and it sucks. It isn't even conditioning my hair. I blame Obama."

"Barack Obama, bro, do you even lift?"

Well, I lifted the ban on Cuban cigars. That's worth something.

"Barack Obama is the -- Barack Obama is the Sharknado of presidents. Loud, stupid, and overhyped. #Sharknado4."

"President Obama will go down as perhaps the worst president in the history of the United States" exclamation point. @realDonaldTrump.

OK, @realDonaldTrump. At least I will go down as a president.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: That's the best part.

CUOMO: You like the phone drop.

CAMEROTA: I love the drop. Did you send him the "Bro, do you even lift?"

CUOMO: No, no. He's very fit. He's a good ball player. I take no quibble with that.

But I will tell you this. What does this tell you about Twitter? He's at over 50 percent. No matter which poll you like, even if you're part of the rigged camp that Trump is trying to cultivate. But on Twitter, he gets savaged. Twitter is the toxic crucible of negativity.

CAMEROTA: It is. That should be its motto.

CUOMO: I say it all the time.

CAMEROTA: Yet, you do indulge it.

CUOMO: I do. Though, after the election, I will not.

CAMEROTA: You're going to be off Twitter after the election?

CUOMO: I'm not going to be doing what I do now, which is basically let everybody punch me in the face in the vain effort of trying to make them see some reason to their position. That I'm not doing anymore. I'm going to do something else. I have a new strategy.

CAMEROTA: When will you reveal that?

CUOMO: After the election, 15 days from today.

CAMEROTA: Fourteen.

CUOMO: Yes. Cuomo TV in conjunction with Trump. It'll be great.

CAMEROTA: Can't wait.

CUOMO: All right. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are crisscrossing Florida. Why? Because they need those 29 electoral votes, and it could go either way. Two weeks from today. So if Trump doesn't have Florida, does he have a path to victory? Requires analysis. You get it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:20:49] TRUMP: Just in case you haven't heard, we're winning. Not only Florida, but we're going to win the whole thing.

But you see these polls where they're polling Democrats. How is Trump doing? Oh, he's down. They're polling Democrats. The system is corrupt, and it's rigged and it's broken. And we're going to change it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right. That was Donald Trump making his final push in must-win Florida today with exactly two weeks until election day. Trump is holding five rallies in the key swing state in just three days.

So let's bring in his senior advisor for the Trump campaign and former Georgia Congressman Jack Kingston.

Good morning, Congressman.

REP. JACK KINGSTON (R), GEORGIA: Morning, Alisyn. Morning, Chris.

So why isn't Donald Trump running away with Florida? At the moment Hillary Clinton is winning Florida. Why isn't Florida leaning towards Donald Trump?

KINGSTON: Well, you know, Florida is a tough state. It's a diverse state. As you just pointed out, Republicans actually started voting early in big numbers for Romney, yet he ultimately lost the state. So it's an area where you have the west, you have the north, you have the central, you have the Miami area. And each area has a different constituency.

But our campaign chairman down there, Suzy Wiles, is the one who brought Rick Scott to the governor's mansion. She cut her teeth back on Tilly Fowler, a congresswoman who was a friend of mine, back in the early days when Republicans were the minority party in the state of Florida. So she's a very savvy woman and has been opening our offices. We hope to get 25 offices open in Florida. And we do have an aggressive ground game, but it is a tough state.

CAMEROTA: So you're confident, though, that Donald Trump will win Florida given that?

KINGSTON: I am. And you know, part of it is going to be this Obamacare issue. Because Obamacare premiums are absolutely skyrocketing, but everybody's very, very frustrated with it in general. They don't like the idea of a bureaucrat being in between them and their doctor. And that's exactly what Obamacare brought. And in a state like Florida, that is an important issue.

You know, Hillary is also talking about lowering the age of Medicare to 55. How in the world is she planning to pay for that? And the seniors who are in Florida, they're smart enough to know that if you decrease the eligibility age by ten years for Medicare, you're going to drive the system broke. And so those are issues which we own and we just need to keep talking about and talking about all over the state of Florida. CAMEROTA: Congressman, what about your home state of Georgia? At the

moment it is 45 versus 42. Donald Trump is up. That's the margin of error, but he's up 44 to Hillary Clinton's 42. That's a solidly red state. What's going on in your home state?

KINGSTON: Well, I think Georgia's going to be OK. Johnny Isaacson is our senior senator there, and he has -- I'm not going to call it a cake walk. He's having a very solid campaign. He's doing everything right. That's probably the only big -- it is the only big race besides the presidential race.

And so you know, our issue is making sure we just get our folks to the poll. And it's going to happen. Our state legislature is overwhelmingly Republican. Our constitutional officers are all Republican. We do not have that many contested seats. And so we're just going to get the people to come out, and we're going to win Georgia, I think, by about five or six points.

CAMEROTA: Congressman, I want to talk to you about one of the cornerstones of Donald Trump's campaign, his signature issue, which is immigration and illegal immigration. You know, of course, that he has called Mexican immigrants rapists, said that Mexico was sending rapists across the border. He has railed against illegal immigrants.

And that's why this next clip that aired in 2012 is so eyebrow raising, what he said then about undocumented immigrants. Just four years ago. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP (via phone): You have people in this country for 20 years. They've done a great job. They've done wonderfully. They've gone to school. They've gotten good marks. They're productive. Now we're supposed to send them out of the country? I don't believe in that, Michelle, and you understand that. I don't believe in a lot of things that are being said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:25:00] CAMEROTA: Four years ago he did not believe in deporting undocumented immigrants. He said that they were great people. They'd done a great job; they'd been in the country for 20 years. What has happened over those -- those next three years?

KINGSTON: Well, I think if we look at the many, many discussions that have taken place in the last -- just the last two months on immigration, that there is a very difficult decision that Americans have to face, and we're all slightly schizophrenic on it, because the people that we know who fall in a category like that we're all very fond of, and yet they still have broken the law.

What Donald Trump has done is somewhat -- I'm not going to say back down, but he's been careful to say lately, as recently as yesterday, I believe, that we're going to start with the bad guys. That there's about 2 million who have actually broken the law. They're involved in drugs. They're involved in gangs. That's the targeted group for deportation right now.

CAMEROTA: Right. But that's the targeted group of everybody. I mean, that's what Hillary Clinton says, as well. That the criminals have to go. But that's very different from what Donald Trump said, I mean, at the launch of his campaign, which was that everybody, all 12 million, were going to have to go, and there was a deportation force. And very different from what he said in 2012, where he said what a support they are for the country.

KINGSTON: You know, Alisyn, as a member of Congress, I was involved in this issue, because we had so many migratory workers who have worked on -- in the agriculture industry. So I got involved in this at a very, very early time. What we found is when the laws are stricter, you have less illegal immigration. When are the laws are open and a little loosely enforced, then you have more immigration.

So I think one of the things that Donald Trump has said is "I'm going to make this a priority." And when you have a candidate who makes it a priority, there is a natural slowdown in the terms of illegal immigration. And I think that's going to be very, very helpful in itself.

But I don't see it as, you know, one perfect solution, which is why it's been out there for a long time. But he's not backing down from immigration reform. He's not backing down from the wall. And that's something people are listening to.

And I want to say this real quickly. I was in San Diego two weeks ago. They built a wall there that's 13 miles long. It decreased illegal immigration in San Diego by about 90 percent, but it also decreased crime, drug-related crime in particular, by about 50 percent. So border enforcement actually does work. And that's why he's talking about it.

CAMEROTA: OK. We'll check those stats, Congressman. Thank you for bringing us your perspective on all of this on NEW DAY.

KINGSTON: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Let's get to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. On the other side of the ball, you've got Hillary Clinton making a pitch for down-ballot Democrats and planning her transition to the White House. Too soon? Too risky? A Clinton supporter weighs in next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)