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Presidential Race Tightening in Final Stretch of Campaign; Florida and Nevada Now Toss-Ups in CNN's New Electoral Map; Hacked Memo Reveals Bill Clinton's Lucrative Speeches; House GOP Preparing for Years of Clinton Investigations; Cubs Win. Aired 6-6:30p ET

Aired October 27, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And his message resonates today. With only 12 days until the election, a new national poll shows the race tightening. And now, more battleground states are up for grabs, Hillary Clinton in a dead heat with Donald Trump in Nevada as Trump now edges out Clinton in the must-win state of Florida. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I really think that we're going to have a tremendous victory. I believe we're winning. I actually think we're winning. (END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Trump saying he will invest millions more into his campaign. The billionaire so far has spent $56 million of his own money. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Let me just tell you that we have -- I'll have over a hundred million dollars in the campaign. (END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: A source telling CNN that earlier this month, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus asked Trump to put more money into his campaign to help compete with Clinton's advertising glitz (ph). The source says Trump did not listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Donald Trump is taking time off the campaign trail to officially open the hotel. (END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Meanwhile, Clinton is blasting Trump for stepping off the campaign trail to advance his business empire. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Donald Trump is the poster boy for everything wrong with our economy. The facts show he has stiffed (ph) American workers. He has stiffed American businesses.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP) FRATES: After opening a new hotel just blocks from the White House,

the billionaire got back to campaigning with two rallies in North Carolina, Trump hitting back at Clinton, attacking her stamina. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This (ph) woman, she makes a speech for 15 minutes, she goes home, goes to bed. (LAUGHTER)

She has less energy than Jeb Bush. (END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: And getting upset when CNN's Dana Bash asked him about the hotel stop. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: For you to ask me that question is actually very insulting because Hillary Clinton does one stop and then she goes home and sleeps. And yet, you'll ask me that question. I think it's a very rude question, to be honest with you. (END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: And doubling down in an interview with ABC, bringing up Clinton attending an Adele concert in Miami. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, Hillary Clinton goes to see an Adele concert last night. And everybody says, oh, wasn't that nice? Isn't that wonderful? I have stopped -- I did eight stops yesterday -- three major rallies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Adele wasn't the only star to help Clinton ring in her 69th birthday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WONDER: Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. (END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Stevie Wonder serenaded Clinton on a radio show. WONDER: Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday.

FRATES: Now, to give you a sense of how important Ohio is to the Trump campaign, just take a look at the numbers. He's visited this battleground more than any other state since the convention -- 12 visits, 21 events. And that continues today. He starts here in Springfield, goes on to

Toledo. And then he's in Geneva. He's not the only person campaigning here in Ohio, though. Tim Kaine

will also be in the state. Meanwhile, his running mate, Hillary Clinton,going to that other swing state of North Carolina with Michelle Obama. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, thanks so much for all of that. There's

another interesting poll that we want to tell you about. There is this new CNN ORC poll out just this morning. And it shows that a majority of Americans feel that things are going

well in the country. In fact, the numbers are at their highest level since President Obama took office. And the president's approval ratings also hitting the high point of

his second term. What's going on? Let's ask CNN's Michelle Kosinski. She's live from the White House with more. So interesting to hear that people think things are going well in

the middle of this divisive moment, Michelle. MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, yes. As you said, this is

a high for President Obama's entire time in office, that 54 percent of Americans now feel things are going well in this country. And that's been going up. When you look at January of this year, it was only at 42 percent. But

remember, when things get tricky is when you look at polls that ask, is America headed in the right direction, that's when about two-thirds of people tend to say no. But also new this morning, the president's approval rating, 55 percent

-- yes, a high for his second term of office. And it's reaching Bill Clinton levels during his last month in office. He was at 57 percent, Reagan 51, George W. Bush 27 percent. The news

has not been so good lately, though, in favorability ratings for Hillary Clinton. Recent polling is showing her at new lows. So you can see why she

stands (ph) to gain so much potentially from the popularity of both President Obama and of course, the first lady. And that's why they are in North Carolina today, battleground state. And they're appearing not at separate events to try to split the power

there. But they will be appearing together. Chris?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: All right, Michelle. Thank you very

much. Let's discuss this new state of play and the new CNN electoral map with "Washington Post" reporter Abby Phillip, CNN political commentator and political anchor of Time Warner Cable News, Errol Lewis, and CNN Political Analyst, David Gregory. Good to have all three of you here. Let's put up the battleground

map, shall we? CAMEROTA: It's new. So let's look at (ph)...

(CROSSTALK) CUOMO: So -- yes, new is always good. CNN has shifted Nevada and

Florida to leaning -- leaning GOP, right? It had been more up -- up in the air. CAMEROTA: Now, they're down (ph)...

CUOMO: It had been -- it had been leaned Dems (ph). Now, it's battleground. That's where (ph) it's yellow. It's color-coded there. Don't listen to me. What does this mean? It means that the numbers

are going to change. You now have Clinton at 272, Trump at 179. But it does show the fluid nature, Errol Louis, of things changing and

counting chickens before they hatch. ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, absolutely. Look,

they're -- you -- you start moving around some of the numbers. Those are big states. I mean, you know, 29 electoral votes in -- in Florida. You've got

Ohio, which is always in play. And there is a path to victory for Donald Trump. There was a lot of, I think, sort of premature glee on the part of

Democrats just a few days ago. And I -- I, you know, sort of showed some people the map and said, look, if -- if he does well, and if he wins Florida, and it's a contested state. If he wins Ohio, the map shows that he's very much in the running.

And so, we -- you know, there's -- there's absolutely no reason to write off Donald Trump. Now, he's got some fundamental problems. He's doing poorly with

women. He's doing terribly with Latinos. He's not doing great with millennials. Those are all going to present

problems for him. But when you see the Obamas go to a state like North Carolina, they're trying to sort of put a hard stop there. They're trying to sort of make it so that he doesn't get all of the

Romney map, plus a couple of flips, which is what it would take for him to get to the White House. CAMEROTA: So Abby, Nevada has now gone from lean Democrat back

to a battleground state. She was up there by seven points. And now, it's tied. What's going on?

ABBY PHILLIP, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, WASHINGTON POST: It's always been a tough state for her and for her campaign, you know, going way back. I mean, Nevada has been actually a surprisingly strong state for Donald Trump. It's a state with -- with the highest -- one of the highest Latino

populations in the country, the second highest. And it's -- so it should be a really good state for a Democrat. But it hasn't been. She's been up or down one or two points. And so

the state right now is -- is reverting back to where it's been all along in this election, which is a tight race. I think you're going to see some of that in other places, including in

Florida. These are places that are true battlegrounds. It's hard for either campaign to get a clear upper hand. And I think

the Clinton campaign is particularly skeptical of polls that give her pretty wide birth (ph) in some of these states because they're just not -- they don't have the composition to give you that kind of -- of -- of margin over your opponent. CUOMO: Now, David, you have been very good at kind of leavening

these ticks up and downs with what you see as the broader reality. It's kind of -- kind of echoing Nate Silver, right? He's from 538 (ph). And he says, I don't know that Trump is gaining.

I think they're both gaining. I think they're taking away from Gary Johnson and whatever trickle

Jill Stein had consolidating their bases. That's why you're seeing him move up in Florida. But he still puts his chance at winning at about 15 percent, which he

uses two analogies. One, that's the chance of losing a game of Russian roulette. But it was also the chance they gave the Spurs of beating the Warriors

the other night. And the Spurs blew them out by almost 30. GREGORY: Right. I think these couple -- first of all, I think

we're generally in the zone of the unknown here because zone of the unknown -- always good when it rhymes -- there's so much going on in terms of voter turnout that we can't really measure -- the impact of early voting. There's spin coming from the democratic side from Hillary Clinton's team that that's going particularly well for her. And you know, so there's going to be late deciders and late breaking

(ph). I mean, I -- I play around with -- with the map as I'm doing here. And look, I give Trump -- this shows you the -- how difficult the path is for Trump. I'm giving him Florida. I'm giving him Ohio. I'm giving him

Wisconsin. I'll even give him Nevada. I do all of that. And I give Hillary Clinton North Carolina. She's

at 274. He's at 259. So if you couple that with what we know about the polling, all the demographic advantages for Hillary Clinton, that's where, to me, it looks very difficult for him on the electoral map. CAMEROTA: But Errol, the fact that it has -- it does -- he has ticked

up, OK? So if he -- whether or not you're willing to say the race has tightened because she has ticked up a little bit, and he has ticked up, what is behind that? I mean, Nate Silver, the guru of numbers, thinks that if the

Republicans have come home to Trump, and if that's the case, the Billy Bush tape went away? I mean, what allowed them to come home to him basically (ph)? LOUIS: It's -- it's possible. I mean, I'm not going to argue

with my friend, Nate Silver. But I -- I would point out that in all of those states, there are some very heavily contested statewide races in Ohio, in North Carolina, in Florida, you know, in -- in Nevada. And so, you know, in a -- in a case like Florida, for example, Marco

Rubio is very much -- is doing very much better than Donald Trump in a lot of ways. He may be pulling Trump along with him. And despite all the personal friction...

(CROSSTALK) CUOMO: Yes, that's right (ph).

LOUIS: ...that we've all reported on, you've got those kind of factors that are going on. Same thing in Ohio, Rob Portman doing very well. He's going to bring along Trump in some ways. The Democrats in some ways had -- had already not quite given up, but

they've pulled a lot of their field troops out of Ohio. That's going to work to Trump's benefit -- a lot of different dynamics going on. Same thing in Nevada (ph).

CUOMO: And it's also a lot of money -- a lot of Republican money

that's like the -- the Koch brothers, pouring money into states for -- to get those Republicans to come home, as Errol says for in these Senate races or House races but generally, to kind of cotton (ph) back to the Republican brand. CUOMO: Now, it's interesting, Dana Bash was with Trump yesterday.

And she was on him about why are you putting more money into this race? If you want it so badly -- I think he's put about $47 million added (ph) into -- into the race and loans and they structure it that way for a certain reason, whatever it is. And she said, wow, why are you putting in a hundred million? Why are

you dumping more in? And he didn't like it. It is an interesting thing because we all want money out of politics.

But obviously, you have every right to put your own in. But are we seeing that Donald Trump -- he says I'm going to have a

tremendous victory -- why isn't he dumping more money into this race if he is that close and it matters that much to him? PHILLIP: That is the hundred-million-dollar question in this

election. I mean, we... CUOMO: Good metaphor given we're talking about a hundred million that he should put in (ph). PHILLIP: ...we don't know. I mean, the reality is that Donald Trump

has both put in some of his money. But he's also paid his own companies a lot of money as well. And so the situation for the Republican Party is that it's unclear

what the balance sheet ends up being at the end of the day. They still are at maybe a third of the ground troops that the Democrats have right now, all together... (CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: So why isn't he putting in money? CAMEROTA: But hasn't he said he's going to put in more money...

CUOMO: When? CAMEROTA: ...next two -- these -- these final two weeks, as he said

(ph)... (CROSSTALK) PHILLIP: It's also...

CUOMO: I heard he has money in reserve that they're going to throw into ad buys and stuff now. But if he has so much money, why isn't he dumping more in? PHILLIP: They're catching up in terms of ad buys, which is

remarkable considering that they've been so outspent (ph). So they are spending more on ad buys. But the -- the problem is that to get from where they are now to where

the Democrats are, it takes a huge investment. And -- and I frankly think it might be impossible to do at this late stage in the game. So it -- it -- he could throw in all of his money. But it may not do

him a lot of (ph)... (CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: But I mean, he also thinks that he's getting huge crowds at rallies. He continues to get huge crowds. He continues to think that the enthusiasm level for him is higher than his opponent. So I think that he thinks why -- why must I?

CUOMO: Because he's losing, that's why.

CAMEROTA: He's gaining.

CUOMO: I know. But... (CROSSTALK) CAMEROTA: I'm just telling you through his lens (ph).

CUOMO: ...I don't know that he's gaining. I'm -- I'm...

(CROSSTALK) CAMEROTA: Well, then...

CUOMO: ...I believe what's going on with Nate Silver. CAMEROTA: Sure...

(CROSSTALK) CUOMO: I think that you see the consolidation.

CAMEROTA: ...the numbers just show that he's picked up. CUOMO: But he's losing. In all of these polls, we've had, what, six

in the last 24 hours? I'm just saying, if I had unlimited cash, which is what he says he has, and I wanted this, as much as he says he wants it, would you like think, oh, maybe I'll hold back, right? You would be all in.

GREGORY: Well -- and particularly because of her advantages, I

mean, again, look at North Carolina. There's all this early voting. There's a reason why she started campaigning with President Obama in North Carolina. First time, Michelle Obama is out with her, it's in North Carolina, is

to capitalize on where the race has been the last 10 days to get early voting advantages to her side. And then her ability to close, her ability to -- to turn out all of the elements of the Obama coalition -- minority voters, younger voters, and women, where she has huge advantages -- those areas alone as well as college graduates is, to me, what puts that really huge road block in front of Trump's chances in any of these states to overcome. CAMEROTA: All right, panel, stick around. We have -- we want to

talk to you about Clinton's challenges as well very quickly. CUOMO: Yes, there are more e-mails, right? And again, you know,

you'll -- you'll see online, especially drip, drip, drip, all right? There's a new memo in the latest offering of Wikileaks, stolen e-mails

that shows former Bill -- President Bill Clinton made a lot of money in lucrative speeches. You're saying, I knew that. Yes, but it's how that process worked and the tension it created that

may be instructive (ph). We'll show you on "New Day," next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: The latest wave of hacked e-mails reveal how Bill Clinton made millions of dollars after leaving the White House. These e-mails describe how Bill Clinton's associates arranged consulting jobs and high-paying speaking engagements and how those appearances are related to the Clinton Foundation. So let's discuss with our political panel. We have Abby Phillip,

Errol Louis and David Gregory. So Errol, Doug Band (ph) seems to be the person at the nexus of this.

He's a long-time Clinton top aid -- Bill Clinton -- and adviser. He's -- continues to be on the advisory board of the Clinton Foundation. And he somehow was tasked with two things, it is revealed in these

memos -- raising money for the Clinton Foundation, as well as basically helping to get Bill Clinton rich. I mean, he arranged all of these speaking, I mean, just -- just because it's fun to look at how much rich people make, let's -- let's look at what they -- these secured paid speeches added up to. These are just a little handful of them. Look at this -- to UBS,

almost a million dollars, Ericsson, more than a million dollars, $1.1, Barclays, more than $700,000, I mean, a million. It just goes on and on. So is there something wrong with Doug Band

being the person who arranged both these things? LOUIS: I think the word is unseemly. But there -- there's

something ugly and unseemly about it. And frankly, it -- it brings us back to a debate that Bill Clinton, himself, was very active in, where he was saying early on, where (ph) questions were being asked about the whole range of the Clinton Foundation -- why are you doing this, you're dealing with despites. You're dealing with dictators. You're dealing with sketchy

businessmen. And he said, yes, but we're doing good on the other side, you know. What he never said was I'm doing well at the same time. That puts him in an entirely different sort of shade on the whole

thing. So certainly, politically, Trump is going to take it. He's going to run with it. A lot of the conservatives who were always skeptical about all of

this, the Clinton haters, they're going to take this and they're... CAMEROTA: But what's wrong with it? That there isn't a firewall

between -- Bill Clinton can make money for paid speeches, right? There's nothing -- nothing illegal about that. And you can raise money for a foundation that does good. So where is

the crime? LOUIS: Well, here is always the difficulty with the Clintons.

Now, we have to go back in part. So all of the statements that they've made when these questions came up before, and -- and see if it tracks with what he was actually doing at the time and... (CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Well, also, you'll never... LOUIS: ...the mere fact that you have to do that is... (CROSSTALK) CUOMO: You have a bigger concern also to -- I think -- I think an

easier answer to Alisyn's question is, you can raise money for the foundation. CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: You can raise money for yourself. And it makes sense that Clinton wasn't going out soliciting speech offers, right? It's a little bit beneath him. You know, you want to be wanted, you know. So you have an agent in

those situations. Band was his agent. They trust him very deeply. But to do them both with the same group of pockets gets to be a little

tricky, Abby. So if I want to hit up Abby Phillip and say, you know, give me a million dollars for the foundation, OK, if I want to say to Abby Phillip, give me a million dollars. Put me on your advisory board or put Bill on it (ph), that's OK. When

I'm asking you to do both, it can look like you're putting money in my pocket through the foundation, which you cannot do. PHILLIP: What's very telling about this whole situation is that there

were concerns within the Clinton world about the arrangement. You had Chelsea Clinton on one end. You had campaign aides saying, hey, we have to put a stop to this.

It's a political problem for us. That tells you everything you need to know about how they viewed it themselves... (CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: But do you see that as healthy, that it showed that there was that as opposed to all of them being like how do we hide it? PHILLIP: Sure, it's -- it's healthy. But I think it also

confirms the argument on the other side from Republicans, which is that these are two people who have been working in the public sector for basically their entire lives. They have simultaneously gotten rich in that process. We wouldn't be

talking about this if Hillary Clinton hadn't run for president. If they had just sort of gone off and just to sense (ph) that as a

former first lady and a former president, I think we wouldn't be talking about it in the same way. But she did run for president. And the argument that Donald Trump and Republicans are making is that

these are people who are -- are getting rich while serving the -- you know, the public. And that's -- it's unseemly, you know. We're -- we're in the point here where voters are looking at this and

they're saying, well, actually, that's kind of right. CAMEROTA: And by the way, David, Chelsea Clinton thought it was

unseemly on some level. So here is the memo that has been now released because of these hacked e-mails. "My father was told today of explicit examples at the global

initiative of Doug Band/Teneo -- that's his firm -- pushing for and receiving free memberships and of multiple examples of Teneo hustling business at CGI and of people now having quit at CGI. Ilya (ph) believes Hannah and Justin have taken significant sums of money from my parents personally, some expenses -- cars, et cetera, and others directly." So she was raising a flag of concern...

GREGORY (?): Yes. CAMEROTA: ...that something was unseemly or more.

GREGORY: I think that's what's significant. And I think you see this -- it (ph) relates to the Clinton e-mails as well -- Hillary Clinton's e-mails and the private server, that people are really concerned within the Clinton ranks about how decisions are being made and how these things are being handled, and a kind of sense of entitlement that the Clintons have that they don't have to bow to questions about all of this -- the questions about the propriety of how they are operating these things. And so I do think there's an impact. I think it's also unseemly and

shameful that we're scrutinizing these e-mails based on apparently the Russian government stealing them and having them leaked. So I think it's important to put that into the conversation. But I think that's -- that's the problem with all of this. and the

fact that you have either Chelsea Clinton or others close to the Clintons raising real doubts about how the foundation was run, raising the specter of this kind of pay for play, even though that really hasn't been proven, it's not only unseemly, but it's also going to fuel what we're looking at. You know, you've heard Jason Chaffetz on the Hill, the government

oversight in the House, a Republican, who's saying he's going to continue and investigate Hillary Clinton, whether it's the foundation, whether it's the public survey (ph). CUOMO: That's the real -- that's...

GREGORY: That's the reality. And that's... CUOMO: ...that's -- that's the real deal right there that David's... GREGORY: Yes. CUOMO: ...finishing on there, is that when and if Hillary Clinton

becomes president of the United States -- everybody keeps saying, I can't wait for this to end on November 8. It ain't over. They're going to dive deep on these issues. And Wikileaks is going to

give them an opportunity to do it. Who knows, Errol, how long this can last?

LOUIS: Well, that's right. I mean, it's -- it's got a lot of

legs. I mean, it's got -- there's a lot -- look, there's a lot of information there. There's a lot of e-mails. Now, there's a lot of dollars at their (ph)

hands (ph). There's a lot of conversations. Frankly, if they decide to make it a formal investigation, there are a

lot of people who have to be questioned, deposed (ph), subpoenaed. Yes, this could be a gigantic albatross around the next president, whoever that is. CAMEROTA: Chaffetz says he has about two years' worth of material on

the -- on Clinton if -- if, in fact, she becomes president. The real question is, what is Paul Ryan going to do? PHILLIP: He has indicated that these investigations have not been the

greatest thing for Republicans politically. It's been a huge waste of time or use in taxpayer money. CAMEROTA: The taxpayer money.

PHILLIP: And he's been very skeptical of going forward with this stuff in the future. But will he change his tune if the political situation... CAMEROTA: Yes. PHILLIP: ...is different come January 20 and Hillary Clinton is

president and, you know, I mean... CUOMO: Can he control it?

PHILLIP: Exactly. CUOMO: Whether he changes his tune or not, does he have the juice...

LOUIS: Right. CUOMO: ...within his own root (ph)?

CAMEROTA: Yes, but panel (ph), thank you very much for all the insight. Great to talk to you. CUOMO: All right, big news from the sports world. The World

Series is heading to the north side of Chicago for the first time in more than seven decades. The Chicago Cubs evened it up with the Indians in game two, a century-

old snide (ph). Is it about to be broken? The bleacher report informs, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: The Cubs tying it up, big win last night. the series now, one game apiece, an unlikely hero actually stepped up big for the Cubs. Second game in a row, we've had an unlikely hero. Andy Scholes...

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. CUOMO: ...our very likely hero with this morning's bleacher report.

This is it. This is why we watch. SCHOLES: That's big, Chris. You know, and I'll tell you what,

Cahill Trevor (ph) is going to be a hero in Chicago forever if they (ph) win this World Series. He only had four bats the entire regular season before tearing his ACL. But after rehabbing all year long, he's making a big impact on this

World Series, Trevor (ph), two RVI (ph) singles in game two. This is after he nearly hit a home run in game one. And his only chance to play this season was if the Cubs made it all

the way to the World Series. You know, Schwarber went. The Arizona fall league got some warmup at-bats, just sixth bat (ph) there before the Cubs did a private jet (ph) to get him to the World Series. They sure glad they did, as Schwarber -- he led the Cubs to a five-one

win in game two. Now, Schwarber, the D.H. (ph) for game one and two may not be able to start in the outfield for games 3.5 Chicago because his knee is still not 100 percent. World Series returns to Wrigley Field for the first time in 71 years

tomorrow night. All right, Halloween right around the corner. The Seahawks' Richard Sherman, at his son's request, dressed up as Harry Potter, for his press conference...