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Trump Raises Specter Of Hillary Clinton Impeachment; Polls Tighten As Election Approaches; Clinton & Trump Battle A Win In Ohio; Dems Sue Trump & RNC In 4 States Alleging Voter Intimidation. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired November 03, 2016 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:30:00] SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: We don't know what is on Wiener's laptop. Obvious it's enough to cause the political upheaval that it has done. Now you're having the FBI saying that there's sources (ph) inside, saying that they're going to be looking even higher into the Clinton Foundation and the pay for play.
CHRISTINE QUINN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Stop. Hold up. Stop, stop. Because this is the Trump campaign creating --
HUGHES: No. This is America.
QUINN: No, it's not. Because you are misrepresenting the facts. And if we want to talk about what the FBI is looking into on some level, let's talk about Trump advisors like Paul Manafort and their --
(CROSSTALK)
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Guys, hold on a second.
QUINN: He was in that role with that relationship when he was --
CAMEROTA: I want to just button this up for one second because the FBI is looking into both campaigns. OK? So we can go down these rabbit holes, but until there's a finding, maybe everybody should hold their fire.
HUGHES: But there's a difference between --
(CROSSTALK)
HUGHES: Investigations into business and investigations into government corruption and possible security risks that Hillary Clinton has put our country into.
(CROSSTALK)
QUINN: First of all, there's being having ties on a business perspective during a presidential race with Russia, when your candidate is the biggest cheerleader for a dictator we have seen and in recent history --
HUGHES: In your opinion. QUINN: No, I'm pretty clear, he's a cheerleader.
HUGHES: Because Hillary Clinton is the only one that has the ties to Russia. Not Donald Trump.
QUINN: Wait, that is not true. But second --
(CROSSTALK)
QUINN: Let's talk about what the congress members (ph) said, which is very important. They would move to impeach the president elect or the president. This tracks with Donald Trump's really unprecedented and unpatriotic statements that he might not and probably wouldn't abide by the election results. Let's remember, President Lincoln, during the Civil War, said there must be an election and had all of his cabinet secretaries sign a pledge --
(CROSSTALK)
QUINN: That's what America does. Not threaten president elects for impeachment.
CAMEROTA: Let's follow Abe Lincoln's lead and let's try to be honest, and let's try to turn this to the positive. We have all gotten, I think, both sides, so good at criticizing the other person and saying what's wrong with the other guy and you should elect my guy because of what's wrong with the other guy --
HUGHES: Or gal.
CAMEROTA: Or gal. So let's try to make the case today, Scottie, for your guy. Without mentioning Hillary Clinton, make the best case. Give me a few sentences for why he should be president.
HUGHES: Absolutely. The system is broken. If you are a millennial and you're just about to either graduate high school or college, hearing stories yesterday like Lehigh, Pennsylvania, where you have Kraft about to shut down a week before Thanksgiving, 450 people are going to be left -- are going to lose their jobs. That is very disheartening. Especially when you look at the trade policies in our country. You know something is not right and the system is broken.
If you are a young person like myself and worried how you're going to pay this latest premium cost of 25 percent to 116 percent and you don't know how you're going to afford it, you know the system is broken.
CAMEROTA: He's going to fix those premiums?
HUGHES: And if you realize that we've lost respect, and because we've lost respect for one another and law enforcement and veterans, you realize the rest of the world has lost respect for America. You bring in a problem solver, Donald Trump.
CAMEROTA: Got it. Make the case for Hillary Clinton. QUINN: Secretary Clinton has dedicated her entire life to public
service. In particular, to helping women and girls move out of poverty into a better life. It has been widely agreed that she is the most qualified on a domestic and foreign affairs level of anyone running for president. She stood up on the world stage and said things that had never been said before. That women's rights are human rights. That gay rights are human rights. She's someone who has committed her life to making this country better and she's the only person in this race who has a clear tax plan to help middle class people and a clear plan to bring jobs --
HUGHES: Not true.
CAMEROTA: Hold on. She's making her closing argument.
QUINN: She has the experience and the plan and will be the president who can carry on Obama's legacy.
CAMEROTA: Ladies, I got something out of those two closing statements. Thank you. Both statements, I should say. I appreciate the segment. Let's get over to -- oh, first, I have to tell you that Election Day is only five days away, in case you have forgotten. Be sure to join CNN for special all-day coverage next Tuesday. We'll have every race and result covered for you. Now I get to Chris.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: I've never wanted anything to end more, including even the most invasive medical exams.
(LAUGHTER)
We're going to dive into the latest polls and look at where the paths to 270 stand, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:38:33] CAMEROTA: There seems to be a flurry of new polls that come out every day. Many of them show the race tightening in several battleground states. So, what do Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump need to do to clinch that magic number of 270? CNN Political Director, David Chalian, is live at the electoral map. We love when you play with that video game.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hi, Alisyn, how are you? Remember, this is where we stand now. Those yellow states are the true battleground toss ups. But we've been talking a lot about a how Donald Trump needs to find some Democratic territory. That's why we see Ivanka Trump in Michigan and New Hampshire today, or Melania Trump in Pennsylvania. And there's some new polling news coming out of those blue states. Some good news for Donald Trump, potential opportunity.
Take a look here, brand new Colorado poll. Dead heat, 39 percent to 39 percent. That is good news for Donald Trump. A brand new New Hampshire poll. One point edge for Donald Trump, 40 percent to 39 percent.
Better news for Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin. She's holding a six- point lead there. And in Pennsylvania, she's got a four-point lead in our new poll there, 48 percent to 44 percent. So some of that blue wall holding, but some opportunity.
Now, remember, here's where we are. If we were to give every battleground state to Donald Trump, he still wouldn't be there. He' he'd be at 265. He'd be a little short. Where does he go? Well, I just showed you a New Hampshire poll. That might be one place for him to go. That gets him to 269.
[07:39:55] But that Colorado poll is a possibility. That's nine electoral votes here. Here's the one problem right now. As his path begins to widen a little bit, North Carolina may be a big, big road block. 46 percent edge to 42 percent. Sorry, four-point edge. 46 to 42, Clinton over Trump. If she can block Donald Trump in North Carolina, the state where both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will be today, that could effectively block him from 270 electoral votes.
CUOMO: All right, David. Let's put some more meat on the bones. Stay with us. We have two new national polls just out. We have a new ABC/"Washington Post" poll. It does what you see on your screen. Clinton plus two. That's a daily tracking poll. We also have a CBS/"New York Times" poll showing Trump minus three. This puts our CNN poll of polls, which as you now know, I hope, the average of the last five major measures, at 47 for Clinton, 42 for --- Clinton 46, Trump 42.
Let's bring in CNN Senior Political Analyst and Senior Editor for "The Atlantic", Ron Brownstein. You look inside the numbers --
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: And you see the defining characteristic of this race reaffirmed in both of these polls, as we talked about before. This race will produce the biggest gap ever between the way non-college and college whites vote. What we talk about as the class inversion. When you and I were growing up, when your dad was in politics, the Democrats were the part of the white working class and the Republicans were the party of people who wore a tie to work. That world has been eroding and reversing over the last 40 years, and it will reach a new peak.
In both of these polls, Hillary Clinton is 20 points better, running 20 points better among whites with a college education than whites without a college education. You will see this play out powerfully in a place like North Carolina where Donald Trump, outside of the big urban areas, is probably going to rack up a much bigger margin than Mitt Romney. He has the risk, though, of losing the suburbs of Charlotte, the suburbs of Raleigh, where Hillary Clinton or President Obama seem to be every day, by a much wider margin. And that is a defining characteristic. It's why in the end, I think Colorado stays very hard from the Democratic coalition now, are socially liberal college-educated whites and minority voters. And the states that fit that profile are really in the bulls eye for her.
The blue collar states, like Ohio and Iowa, that Democrats have relied on in the past, are going to be very tough for them against Donald Trump's powerful blue collar appeal.
CAMEROTA: David, it seems like in every cycle, there is one state that we all keep our eyes on in terms of the bellwether. Is that North Carolina this time?
CHALIAN: I do think North Carolina could be the linchpin of the entire election simply because of what Ron just described to you demographically. Of course, the Clinton campaign went early to put a lot into North Carolina because Barack Obama won it in 2008 and then lost it 2012.
I think it'll be pretty close and we'll see a battle all the way to the end. But remember, any one of those sort of toss-up states, if Hillary Clinton wins, she can effectively block Donald Trump. And North Carolina, because of the demographics there, may be her best target to do so.
CUOMO: What are you seeing, Ron, in the numbers of the GOP is moving, as you say, towards the middle class, towards the non-college educated, which is a demo we all hate the descriptive of. But how does that cut with Donald Trump, who also just inherently turns off a lot of educated people?
BROWNSTEIN: Right. He accelerates -- Donald Trump accelerates all the trends that are defining American politics. Demographic and geographic. This class inversion where Democrats are running better among college than non-college whites. The best -- the biggest gap they've ever had is seven points better among college than non-college whites, for president Obama in 2008. Both of these polls today, Hillary Clinton is 20 points better, and that's both because Donald Trump is pushing away many college whites, but also because he's dominating among blue collar whites.
Look at urban/nonurban. In 2012, President Obama won the 100 largest counties in America -- just 100 counties -- by a combined 12 million votes. He lost the other 3,000 by 7 million votes. It's entirely likely that both of those numbers will get bigger. That Clinton will win the bigger places by more and lose the smaller places by more.
And the third big one is the realignment of the electoral college, where Democrats have done better in the rust belt than the sun belt. But that's going to change in this election. Because Donald Trump, because he's so strong among blue collar and older whites, is really contesting the rust belt states. And then you see places like Colorado and Virginia, maybe North Carolina and Florida, that had been true battlegrounds, perhaps moving more towards the Democrats this year because they embody their modern coalition.
CAMEROTA: Very quickly, before we get to Colorado, and we want to show that poll as well and go back to the map, is there an issue that flipped that inversion?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. It was the movement, I think of politics, from class to culture. It's less about -- allegiance is now based less on economic issues and economic class and more on your attitudes on a whole series of social issues. It's all about things like abortion, gun control, and gay rights, and it now moved more towards these questions of national identity on things like immigration.
CUOMO: So David, Colorado, you always want to look at a group of polls, not just one. But Colorado and Nevada have just shown numbers that are disruptive to what we had seen in the pattern. Colorado, Clinton is supposed to be up. She isn't. Nevada was supposed to be a potential for swing with the Latino vote there, doesn't seem to be in the most recent polling. Ron is suspicious, how about you?
[07:45:06] CHALIAN: I will tell you that Colorado is the state that each campaign sees most differently. They just have different targets, different data that they're looking at, and they completely, each side believes that they have got the sort of math in Colorado. I tend to think that the Clinton folks, because of the coalition that Ron is talking about, that should be a state that is more in their camp. This poll certainly gives a little concern going on in Brooklyn. I'm sure they want to see more public polls also.
CAMEROTA: Great to talk to both of you.
Democrats now suing Trump and the GOP in four states, claiming that there is voter intimidation going on. Could that be -- make it ripe for violence? We're going to ask an expert who tracks militia and hate groups, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUOMO: Which state is going to matter most in the election? You're going to get a lot of different answers. But arguably, you could say Ohio, by history and also by demographics. No president has ever been elected that hasn't -- no Republican has ever won the White House without carrying Ohio. No Republican.
[07:50:06] So the state has voted with the winning side in 28 of the last 30 elections, dating back to 1896. Only five days to go, what do the polls show in Ohio? Donald Trump leading Hillary Clinton by five points. What does that mean? For perspective, CNN's Martin Savage speaking to voters who were far more willing to talk before the Indians lost. He's joining us now live from Cleveland.
They've had a good year. They had the convention there. They had Lebron and their Cavs, but last night had to hurt.
MARTIN SAVAGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It did. In a lot of ways, I watched that game, I was thinking that that final game was very much a metaphor for this whole election. Hard-fought, and seemed to go on forever. But anyway, here in Ohio, as in many states, the key is going to be for both candidates, the turnout, getting out the vote. Essentially on Election Day, who wins and loses is going to be determined by who shows up at the polls and who stays home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (voiceover): If Republican billionaire Donald Trump wins Ohio, it could be thanks to working-class Democrats.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We are going to build the wall 100 percent and Mexico is going to pay for the wall.
SAVIDGE: His tough talk on illegal immigration, ISIS, and political correctness, resonates in the suburbs.
DALE FELLOWS, CHAIRMAN, LAKE COUNTY GOP: So we believe very strongly that Trump's going to win Lake County.
SAVIDGE: But Trump's greatest Buckeye success has been winning over a group of once solidly Democrat voters. In part, by hammering Clinton on the subject of foreign trade.
TRUMP: America is running a nearly $800 billion annual trade deficit. In other words, our great negotiators, we're losing in a trade deficit.
SAVIDGE: In 1990, Ohio had over a million manufacturing jobs. Today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that number is down to 680,000. Callers vent their frustration on local talk radio.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're sending a message to Washington that we're that we're not going to continue with this crap.
SAVIDGE: A recent CNN/ORC Ohio poll found Trump soundly beating Clinton on issues of the economy and foreign trade. Among older voters and white men, the numbers are almost crushing. But the Clinton campaign is firing back.
RICHARD TRUMKA, PRESIDENT, AFL-CIO: She has a plan right now that will create 10 million jobs.
SAVIDGE: Sending supporters like the head of the AFL-CIO into union halls and factory towns, spreading the word, Trump's no union man.
TRUMKA: This guy is the most anti-union, anti-worker candidate that the Republican Party has put up since before World Sar II.
SAVIDGE: But unions here aren't as powerful as they once were. All of which makes the turnout of another Democratic dynamo even more crucial. African-American voters. Especially in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I'm concerned.
SAVIDGE: Clinton has to win the county big. Some say by a margin of 200,000 votes, to offset downstate Republicans. But early voting numbers have some Democrats worried.
REP. MARCIA FUDGE (D), OHIO: We're not that far off of 2012. And I just believe that by Election Day, we'll be right where we need to be.
SAVIDGE: African-American voters I talked to all support Clinton.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In this election, I'm going to go with someone that I feel is competent, and someone who has a background in government.
SAVIDGE: And all say they have, or will vote for her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've heard that numbers are down, as well. But I think we've got a strong team here in Cleveland, in particular, that will work in the next week to get people out to vote.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: Clinton campaign organizers stress the need to get out the African-American vote, especially here in the northern counties of Ohio. And to that end, this weekend, they're going to do another one of these souls to the polls. This has been traditionally African- American churches where after service, the church buses are loaded up and people go to the nearest early voting location. If you're not a member of any faith, then they have another way. You've got rapper Jay-Z coming to town. He's going to have a concert that is expected to be, I believe, Friday, and you can bet that the music -- he's a big supporter of Hillary Clinton -- that there will be a message as well to get out and vote. Alisyn --
CAMEROTA: OK, Martin. Thanks so much for all of that. Let's talk about a more troubling and sinister scenario. That being one of violence for Election Day, and how about voter intimidation. Democrats are suing Donald Trump and the Republican Party in four different states alleging a quote, campaign of vigilante voter intimidation. And there have been threats. So let's discuss it with CNN Digital Correspondent, Tanzina Vega, and Senior Fellow of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Mark Potok. Thank you both for being here.
Tanzina, I know you've been tracking this story. You've been investigating it for a week. What have you found?
[07:54:58] TANZINA VEGA, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: So far what we're seeing are isolated incidents across the country. We've heard reports of people yelling in their bull horns to voters, Clinton voters, supposedly supporters in Florida.
CAMEROTA: What are they yelling? What sorts of things?
VEGA: Essentially telling them not to vote and being a little bit intimidating and offensive in what they're yelling. We're seeing, hearing reports of people photographing black voters, license plates in North Carolina, for example. We've seen --
CAMEROTA: And what does that mean? If they were photographing -- spell that out for me.
VEGA: So there's this idea that a lot of these sort of vigilante poll watchers are going to, quote unquote, collect information, right? And on their own. And what they're going to do with this information, where they're going to store this information remains to be seen. But this is part of a larger technique of voter intimidation, right.
These are techniques that have been used for decades. We're not seeing this level of sort of racism in a campaign, I don't think since the Voting Rights Act was implemented in the 1960s. So what we're seeing now is the burning of the black church in Mississippi with the graffiti that was scribbled on it saying, vote for Trump. These are techniques that are really meant to cause fear and intimidation in voters.
CAMEROTA: And of course one of the Trump offices was also set on fire and there was graffiti on that. So you're seeing voter suppression and intimidation techniques or tactics or incidents? Mark, are you seeing actual violence or threats of violence?
MARK POTOK, SENIOR FELLOW, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: No, I can't say that we're seeing actual threats of violence. What we are seeing are radical groups like the Oath Keepers, a radical anti-government group, saying it's going to send its people with cameras, video cameras and still cameras to record evildoing in essentially black inner city precincts.
There's also a neo-nazi organization called the Daily Stormer that claims to have sent thousands of people out into the field to do the same thing. In that case, there's nothing to it. It's a tiny organization. They won't get anybody out. But I think there will be people from the radical right, from militias and so on out there, at least in some locations, and it seems to me the possibility for confrontation is very real.
CAMEROTA: Well Mark, dig into that a little bit. What makes you think that these are really going to happen? Since some of the stories that you've just outlined you say you can dismiss -- dismiss as just sort of, you know, an online threat. So what makes you think that something really is going to happen on Election Day?
POTOK: Well I'm not sure that something is going to happen. I just think the possibility, the very real possibility is there. And what makes me think that is that Donald Trump has spent weeks and weeks and weeks telling his followers, in many cases, his very angry followers, that they are about to be robbed. That they are about to have the election stolen from them. So I think given just the whole tenor of the campaign, the vitriol, the anger, the accusations of fraud, of election rigging and so on, that is very likely to result in some very angry people meeting each other at the polls.
CAMEROTA: Do you think any threats are credible? The ones that you've chased down, how credible do you think they are?
VEGA: I think what we're seeing again is intimidation. If we do this, it's going to scare people and keep people home. What I am seeing is also civil rights groups are on the offensive. They have called this potentially the most chaotic election that we've seen for people of color in decades. So you also have the Department of Justice. You have civil rights groups including the NAACP and the National Lawyers Committee, all of these groups are potentially getting lawyers to watch at the polls, they've got apps, they've got hotlines, they've got people available the day of and leading up to the election to make sure that there are any questions or incidences are reported immediately.
CAMEROTA: OK, so then the big question is, do you think that the voter intimidation will work?
VEGA: I don't think it will. I don't think it will. I think you've had people of color fighting for decades in this country to have the right to vote. I think these are old and outdated techniques that a lot of these sort of white supremacist groups are realizing, we've got a national platform, let's bring this out. These are not -- I don't think you're going to be able to intimidate Latino voters, Muslim voters, African-American voters, from exercising their right to vote.
CAMEROTA: Mark, are you as optimistic?
POTOK: Yes, I tend to agree. I think that the appearance of white supremacists or people who look like that in black neighborhoods may have precisely the opposite effect of what is intended. It may so anger local people that even if they weren't -- were considering not voting, they may, in fact, go to the polls in response.
CAMEROTA: Mark, Tanzina, thanks so much for sharing your investigations and reporting with us.
VEGA: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: Nice to talk to you.
We're following a lot of news. We'll speak with Trump's campaign manager in just a moment, so let's get right to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I've been watching Hillary the last few days. She's totally unhinged.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: If Donald Trump were to win this election, we would have a commander-in-chief who is completely out of his depth.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We don't operate on innuendo, incomplete information. We don't operate on leaks.
TRUMP: A lot of people out there that want us to really get this done.
CLINTON: Let's make sure that we win on Tuesday and we prove (ph) love trumps hate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Cubs have won the World Series.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The curse is broken.
