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New Day Saturday
Trump: "I Said It, I Was Wrong, And I Apologize"; Hurricane Matthew Sweeping Southeast Coast; Trump Apologizes for Sexually Aggressive Remarks; Hurricane Matthew Leaves Hundreds Dead in Haiti. Aired 7-8a ET
Aired October 08, 2016 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:00:51] VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm Victor Blackwell.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christi Paul. Always thankful to have your company.
We're tracking Hurricane Matthew now hitting South Carolina as we speak here, the eye of it. Take a look at some of these pictures we're getting in. Reporters along the eastern seaboard. We're going to have live reports for you throughout the morning.
But first, we have to get to this bombshell in Donald Trump's presidential campaign this morning.
BLACKWELL: The Republican nominee making an unprecedented in this campaign, apology after this video from 2005 reveals him using stunningly vulgar language. He's using that to describe acts that some say amount to sexual assault.
PAUL: Now, we're going to play Trump's comments right now. I would not be a good person if I did not forewarn you that this is very graphic, and there are some things that are quite uncomfortable about it. I just wanted to give you that heads-up. Here we go.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She used to be great. She's still very beautiful.
DONALD TRUMP, BUSINESSMAN: You know, I moved on her actually. You know she was down on Palm Beach. I moved on her and I failed. I'll admit it. I did try and (EXPLETIVE DELETED) her. She was married.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's huge news.
TRUMP: No, no, Nancy. No this was -- and I moved on her very heavily, in fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture, I said, "I'll show you where they have some nice furniture."
I took her out furniture. I moved on her like a (EXPLETIVE DELETED), but I couldn't get there, and she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she's now got the big phony (EXPLETIVE DELETED) and everything. She's totally changed her look.
BILLY BUSH: Sheesh, your girl's hot as (EXPLETIVE DELETED). In the purple.
CROWD: Whoa! Whoa! Yes! Whoa!
BUSH: Yes! The Donald has scored. Whoa, my man!
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Look at you. You are a (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Maybe it's a different one.
BUSH: It better not be the publicist. No, it's her. It's-
TRUMP: Yeah, that's her, with the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I'm automatically attracted to beautiful -- I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait.
And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
BUSH: Whatever you want.
TRUMP: Grab them by the (EXPLETIVE DELETED). You can do anything.
BUSH: Yeah, those legs, all I can see is the legs.
TRUMP: Oh, it looks good.
BUSH: Come on, shorty.
TRUMP: Oh, nice legs, huh?
BUSH: Oof, get out of the way, honey. Oh, that's good legs. Go ahead.
TRUMP: It's always good if you don't fall out of the bus. Like Ford. Gerald Ford, remember?
BUSH: Down below. Pull the handle.
TRUMP: Hello. How are you? Hi.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Hi, Mr. Trump. How are you? Pleasure to meet you.
TRUMP: Nice seeing you. Terrific, terrific. You know Billy Bush?
BUSH: Hello, nice to see you. How you doing, Arianne?
ZUCKER: I'm doing very well, thank you.
Are you ready to be a soap star? TRUMP: We're ready. Let's go. Make me a soap star.
BUSH: How about a little hug for the Donald? He just got off the bus.
ZUCKER: Would you like a little hug, darling?
TRUMP: Absolutely. Melania said this was OK.
BUSH: Have a little hug for the Bushy, I just got off the bus.
Here we go. Excellent. Well, you've got a nice co-star here.
ZUCKER: Yes, absolutely.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: All righty. Well, the woman that Trump is talking about, by the way, it has been revealed this morning, it is Nancy O'Dell, the former co-host of "Access Hollywood". This is according to that show.
CNN has reached out to her. We haven't heard back from her yet. But in the meantime, the Trump camp has swiftly launched into disaster mode, it seems. Early this morning, most likely, some of you are sleeping, the candidate issued this online apology.
(BEGIN VIDEOI CLIP)
TRUMP: I've never said I'm a perfect person nor I pretended to be someone that I'm not. I've said and done things I regret and the words released today on this more than a decade old video are one of them. Anyone who knows me knows these words don't reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong and I apologize.
I travel the country talking about change for America, but my travels have also changed me. I've spent time with grieving mothers who've lost their children, laid-off workers whose jobs have gone to other countries and people from all walks of life who just want a better future. I have gotten to know the great people of our country and I've been humbled by the faith they placed in me.
I pledge to be a better man tomorrow and will never, ever let you down.
[07:05:04] Let's be honest. We're living in the real word. This is nothing more than a distraction from the important issues we're facing today. We're losing our jobs. We're less safe than we were eight years ago and Washington is totally broken.
Hillary Clinton and her kind have run our country into the ground. I've said some foolish things but there's a big difference between the words and actions of other people. Bill Clinton has actually abused women and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims. We will discuss this more in the coming days. See you at the debate on Sunday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: We will discuss this more in the coming days, that from Donald Trump there at the end of that apology.
But for a lot of people in Trump's party that is not enough. The most powerful Republican in Congress disinviting the nominee from a campaign event today.
And here is Trump's own running mate, dodging reporters. Mike Pence, you'll see in a moment, dodging questions before bolting from an event, in a key swing state.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Governor, did Donald Trump apologize?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: All right. So it all comes as insiders tell CNN this could be the death knell for the Trump campaign.
BLACKWELL: Well, the Clinton campaign took to Twitter for its first reaction to that 2005 footage. And here it is. "This is horrific. We cannot allow this man to become president."
PAUL: Clinton's running mate Tim Kaine later called on Republicans to rethink endorsements.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TIM KAINE (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's a couple of things I think this suggests and it's just so clear. First, any Republican who has said they are for Donald Trump, they need to be asked by the press and others and by constituents right now, do you still think he's qualified to be president of the United States?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: Now, if you were talking this, House Oversight chairman, for example, Jason Chaffetz, is pulling his support.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH (via telephone): I'm out. I can no longer endorse Donald Trump for president. There's no possible way I'd vote for Hillary Clinton. You know, my wife Julie and I, we've got a 15-year-old daughter, do you think I could look her in the eye and tell her that I endorse Donald Trump for president when he acts like this?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Well, as for house speaker Paul Ryan, he's not going as far as to rescind retract his endorsement of Mr. Trump, he's disinviting him to a Republican unity event today, writing this in the statement. I am sickened by what I heard today. Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified.
In the meantime, a Trump campaign source tells CNN the next 24 hours will be the most consequential of the entire election.
Let's talk about that. With me now from Washington, CNN senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar. And at the site of the next presidential debate there in St. Louis, CNN politics executive editor Mark Preston.
Mark, good morning to you again. And good morning to you for the first time, Brianna.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORERSPONDENT: Good morning.
BLACKWELL: Let's start here with Jason Chaffetz, a top critic of hilly Clinton for some time now, now retracting his endorsement from Donald Trump.
Mark, first to you, put that into context. Help people understand the gravity of that.
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Well, let's just that this happened very quickly last night at around, about 11:30. Jason Chaffetz called into CNN and retracted his endorsement. Why this is so big? Is that Jason Chaffetz has spent the last couple years on Capitol Hill investigating Hillary Clinton going after her specifically about Benghazi.
As the interview was going on, I received an e-mail from a top level Democratic official who says to me, "Oh, my God, I can't believe Chaffetz who went after Hillary Clinton for so long is now disavowing Donald Trump."
What Jason Chaffetz has done right now has created cover for other Republicans. And we have seen a few of them to go out and to distance themselves as far as they can from Donald Trump.
We're heading into an election that isn't just going to see Donald Trump on the ballot. You're going to see ever Republican in the House of Representatives on the ballot. You're going to see several Republican senators who are on the ballot as well.
This is terrible for them and it is going to drag down the ticket. There's concern that they could get caught up in this whole situation.
So, I think what we're going to see, Victor, as we said in the next 48 hours. I think in the next 24 hours right now, you're going to see a lot more Republicans come out and distance themselves publicly as more and more Americans learn of what Donald Trump had said on that tape.
BLACKWELL: Brianna -- go ahead.
KEILAR: Especially when you have somebody like Jason Chaffetz. He has room, Victor, to maneuver politically, because you have Utah which is the most reliably Republican state. [07:10:06] And Donald Trump is only winning by nine points. Now,
that's a comfortable lead in any other place, but that was before this happened. And he should be just walking away with this race as the Republican nominee, and he's not.
So, you have maneuverability politically for Jason Chaffetz there. And the other thing is, this is a guy who is very much a family man. And that is something that he has created his political image on. It's also very genuine.
You heard him saying, look, I have a 15-year-old daughter. I think that's something where, you know, he's certainly hearing from a lot of people in his state who feel similarly, they're very religiously conservative. Most of his constituents are Mormons. And they're not cool hearing what's coming out of Donald Trump's mouth, whether 11 years ago or not.
BLACKWELL: Yes, Mark, people who went to sleep before midnight last night are waking up to this 90-second apology. He released it just after midnight. We had it here on CNN.
And I wonder if this is the appropriate posture heading into the debate on Sunday night, or will we see a third apology or treatment of this from the campaign?
PRESTON: I can't imagine, Victor, that they're not going to have to keep on addressing it. They spent several hours in a crisis mode last night, figuring out how to deal with this. They decided to release that video right after midnight.
But was it much of an apology? At the very end, he went right after Hillary Clinton. Specifically Bill Clinton's infidelity, and said, you'll hear more from me in the coming days.
I think that Donald Trump right now is probably going to go into a slashing and burn-type of situation against the Clintons. I don't think that that's going to be winning strategy for him at this point. If he wants to try to win over the American public, if he wants to try to get support back from them, he's going to have to apologize in a way that really seemed sincere. If you look at that video, I don't see much sincerity in what Donald Trump said last night.
BLACKWELL: All right. Brianna quickly to you, there is other news on the other side of the aisle with Hillary Clinton, and those e-mails, John Podesta's emails, and a portion of some of the speeches that Bernie Sanders made so much of during the primary. And we're learning some of the things that were said about trade that's getting a lot of attention.
KEILAR: That's right. She was very much an advocate for trade which was really a hurtful position for her in the primaries and has been in the general election, because she's in this odd situation where she has been for trade. And Donald Trump as the Republican nominee has been very much against trade agreement.
So, it's sort of a flipping. Now, she has come out and said she's not for the Trans Pacific Partnership. She has talked about some of the bad things created by trade agreements.
But a lot of Democrats, especially on the left, they don't believe her. So, this just plays into that.
Now, this is something that obviously is not welcome by the Clinton campaign. But it's also something that doesn't quite compare, right, to what we're seeing going on with Donald Trump if ever this was going come out, something like this, and you're a part of the Clinton campaign, you're pretty happy that it's coming out at this time when Donald Trump has something that is just so much more explosive.
And if I could add about that apology, one of the most interesting things I've seen reported came from one of our CNN contributors Maggie Haberman at "The New York Times" where she said, there was an adviser in the room as they were coming up with this apology who made it clear, you can't be hitting Hillary Clinton. It's not going to work if you do this in the apology. You saw the apology. He did it against the good advice of some of his aides.
BLACKWELL: We'll pick up on that, and as we continue this conversation this morning, Brianna Keilar, Mark Preston, thank you both.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as we mentioned there facing off in the second debate co-moderated, of course, by our Anderson Cooper. Begins at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
PAUL: And so, you might be looking at this and thinking October 7th, 2016, yesterday, could that be the pivotal day that things turned around in the Trump campaign. But which way they turn is the question.
BLACKWELL: Yes, the fallout from that shocking tape is just beginning. Next, where this bombshell tape came from, how it dropped. We'll look into that.
PAUL: Also, we want to let you know, we're tracking the latest on Hurricane Matthew. Take a look at the pictures we're getting in. The eye of that storm lashing right now, Myrtle Beach, Charleston, South Carolina. It has already drenched Florida and Georgia, blamed for four deaths in Florida.
Where is it going? How powerful is it still? We'll answer all these questions in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: So, the tape everybody's talking about has been collecting dust on a shelf for 11 years. And then suddenly, it becomes a bombshell that rocked the presidential race. Where did it come from? Who sent it? Why drop it now?
I think you know the now question, the answer to that one.
CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter joins us with more on that. How did this get fro that dusty shelf to our show this morning?
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: This was a tape at the NBC archives that the producers of "Access Hollywood" went on a search for days ago. There have been stories, especially an "Associated Press" story about Trump's lewd and sexist behavior behind the scenes of "The Apprentice."
So, NBC went looking for this tape. They were preparing a story about it and that's when it leak to the "Washington Post."
Now, one theory about this, Victor, is that someone at NBC wanted to make sure this video was seen before Sunday's presidential debate. And now, clearly, the whole world has been able to see the tape. You know, we've been wondering what was Trump doing that day? Why was he on the studio lot? Why was he going to visit a soap opera?
Well, he was the star of "The Apprentice" at the time and he was doing a cameo of "Days of Our Lives". So, we dug up that tape. Here's that clip of what he was filming on "Days of Our Lives".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Trump, can I just have one more minute of your time? I'm afraid I gave you the wrong impression earlier. I was more than just Victor Kiriakis' trophy wife. I have a very impressive resume, if I do say so myself. I mean, I was co-CEO of a major corporation. I know my way around the boardroom. And when comes to be tussle I can put Caroline and George to shame, OK? Hell, even Omarosa.
So, I was just wondering if maybe you could consider me for a place in the organization, whatever that might be. I think you'll find that I'm a very willing employee working under you. I think it would be mutually beneficial.
TRUMP: You know that's an interesting proposition, Mrs. Walker. I'll get back to you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really?
TRUMP: Yeah, really.
UIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really?
TRUMP: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STELTER: So, that's the soap opera moment that he was taping. He was on the set that day for it.
[07:20:01] What's interesting about it, Victor, a reminder, that Donald Trump is above all else, an entertainer, certainly back in 2000 when he was working on "The Apprentice" and making these cameos, he was a television star by day and by night, building up his brand through television.
Now, however, the reverse is true. This video coming out on Friday and then his strange apology video seems to be making a bad thing worse. The question now is, are there other tapes. Or maybe a better question is how many tapes are there?
I asked a source at NBC, did "Access Hollywood" have other damaging tapes involving Donald Trump? The source said, not that I know of, but you should ask Mark Burnett.
Now, people might know Mark Burnett, he's a famous reality TV producer and one of his shows was "The Apprentice". The point my source was making was that there hundreds, thousands of hours of old unreleased material from "The Apprentice", you know, behind the scenes sort of things that were filmed.
This source is suggesting there's lots of that kind of material just waiting to be mined. It's unclear if it's accessible. It's unclear if it can be heard.
But the bottom line is that I'm thinking a lot of Republican politicians, political commentators are all thinking the same thing, that there must be even more embarrassing audio and video of Donald Trump out there somewhere.
BLACKWELL: I'm sure there's a team of overworked interns looking through all of those tapes right now.
Brian Stelter for us there in New York -- Brian, thanks so much.
STELTER: Thanks.
PAUL: Listen, you have to pay attention to the big story we're watching today. Hurricane Matthew's movement. Right now, it is lashing the South Carolina coast as the eye wall makes land fall there. It drenched and brought flooding to both Georgia and Florida, four people have died. We'll get the latest on what it's like in South Carolina. Where it's headed, how bad it's going to continue to be. Stay close.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:25:19] BLACKWELL: To this deadly hurricane has been sweeping the southeast coast for days now.
BLACKWELL: Yes, it's been unleashing 100-plus-mile-per-hour winds. And now, the most powerful part of that storm is lashing coastal South Carolina. Look at these pictures. These pictures we're getting in. That's the Charleston harbor there. You see the waves coming over it.
The storm left four people dead in Florida. Power has been knocked out to more than 1 million people. And we're getting some new information regarding what is coming next from this storm.
I'll let you take a look at the latest on the storm's path with CNN's Chad Myers in the severe weather center. So, Chad, what are you learning this hour?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, those pictures from Charleston are disturbing that we're seeing this morning because we're at low tide. When high tide comes in, the regular high tide will push that water four feet higher than it is right now. And so, high tide may certainly be well into the city. We're already seeing pictures from some of our affiliates where that water's a couple feet deep and a couple feet could turn into seven feet.
Eighty-seven miles per hour in Hilton Head in the past half hour. We had a 94 in Tybee Island overnight. I suspect we'll see significant damage in Tybee when the sun comes up there. There was big surge in Tybee.
There was a higher surge, a record surge, higher than in Hurricane David back in 1979 as that storm came in. So, Charleston, you're very close to the Hugo surge was. You remember how big that storm was. Winds blowing significant amounts of water onshore and it's raining. This is still a very wet storm because the storm itself, the center of the eye is still in the gulf stream.
Now, earlier, Christi, you said the eye wall has made landfall. That is true. But that doesn't mean the storm has made landfall, because officially, the National Hurricane Center needs the center of the eye to make landfall. And that may not happen.
In fact, who really cares about the center of the eye because that's where it's calm. What has made landfall is the eye wall, the most dangerous part. That's exactly what you said earlier.
The most dangerous part of this storm is completely onshore at this hour. But something else I want to take you to, is this, this storm here is all the way through Washington, D.C., through Raleigh, Richmond, Hampton Roads and all the way down to the Carolinas.
The spread shield, the wetness of this storm will spread flooding rainfall through the Carolinas, into parts of Georgia, and possibly into Virginia and the Northeast before it falls away. There are spots here, guys that will receive ten inches. Every purple spot you see here will receive ten inches of rainfall. That's a flash flood event on a normal day.
PAUL: Chad, thank you so much for the clarification.
MYERS: No, no, you were absolutely correct. I just wanted to point out how correct you were that the eye wall is on land and that we may say tomorrow that the storm never made landfall. But the eye wall certainly did.
You're correct. I was pointing out your correctness.
PAUL: No, look, if I'm wrong, I want to make sure I tell people that I was wrong, because I want to get it right for them. So, Chad Myers --
MYERS: I want to tell people that you were right.
PAUL: I appreciate that. Thank you, sir, very much.
MYERS: You bet.
PAUL: Chad is going to be with us all morning because obviously that's a story that we're going to be watching as Matthew continues to cross into land. Thank you so much, Chad.
And we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:32:06] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: It is always good to have you with us. I'm Christi Paul.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. And good to be with you. We are tracking Hurricane Matthew as it moves along the southeast coast. We know now, four people in Florida have lost their lives in the storm. More than a million people lost their power.
PAUL: And the storm is raging in the political round as well. Republicans, Democrats condemning Donald Trump's vulgar sexually permissive remarks from 2005 that have been released.
Donald Trump is compelled to apologize for the first time since he entered the presidential race. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've never said I'm a perfect person nor pretended to be someone I'm not. I've said and done things I regret and the words released today on this more than a decade old video are one of them. Anyone who knows me knows these words don't reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong and I apologize.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: For more than a year, Mr. Trump's past and present controversial remarks about women specifically have been front and center for much of his campaign.
Here's CNN's Randi Kaye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump says he loves beautiful women. He also loves to talk about women and it lands him in hot water. Like his long running feud with Rosie O'Donnell.
TRUMP: She came to my wedding. She ate like a pig.
KAYE: After his dustup with Megyn Kelly during the FOX News debate, Trump said this about her on CNN.
TRUMP: She starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions and, you know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.
KAYE: Critics charged she was referring to menstruation. Trump insisted it was a big misunderstanding.
TRUMP: I was going to say necessary and/or ears because that's a very common statement, blood flowing out of somebody's nose. It's a statement showing anger.
KAYE (on camera): Kelly wasn't the first female journalists Trump sparred with. Decades after "The New York Times" columnist Gayle Collins wrote about rumors of bankruptcy, he sent her a copy of the article she written and circled her photo, writing across it, quote, "The face of a dog."
(voice-over): Much of what Trump has said about women was during his many appearances on Howard Stern's radio show. In 2005, he made this remark talking about a woman in a beauty pageant.
TRUMP: First of all, she's unbelievably short and I'm a little bit surprised. I think the boob job is terrible. You know, they look like two light posts coming out of a body.
KAYE: After he bought the pageant, Stern asked Trump how he might change it.
TRUMP: They said, how are you going to change the pageant. I said I'm going to get the bathing suits to be smaller and the heels to be higher.
KAYE: A woman's breast were always a hot topic for him.
TRUMP: I view a person who is flat-chested to be very hard to be a ten. OK? I mean you he to be extraordinary. You have to have the face of Vivien Leigh to be a ten if you're flat-chested, OK? But she went from an eight to a solid four.
KAYE: And in another appearance on the show --
TRUMP: Some incredible beautiful women they'll walk up and they'll flip their top, and they'll flip their panties.
[07:35:06] I've been wit women with extraordinarily bad breast jobs.
Isn't it unbelievable? Women, one woman, beautiful, had big beautiful real boobs, really beautiful, and she wants them reduced.
KAYE: Years later on the Howard Stern show, Trump boldly mocked Kim Kardashian's physique.
TRUMP: Does she have a good body? No. Does she have a fat ass? Absolutely. And if it weren't Kim, they'd say, Wow, I don't want to go out with her.
KAYE: And just last week, Trump had to defend comments he made about former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado. He called her Miss Piggy and an eating machine on Howard Stern show, mocking her weight gain. He doubled down on those comments on FOX News.
TRUMP: She was the winner, and, you know, she gained a massive amount of weight. And it was a really problem. We had a real problem.
KAYE: A candidate struggling to win the support of women come Election Day in his own words.
Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: Scottie Nell Hughes is a CNN political commentator and Trump supporter. A. Scott Bolden is a former chairman of the Washington, D.C. Democratic Party.
Thank you both so much for being here.
Before we get into this, I want to play some sound here from Jason Chaffetz, House Oversight and Reform Committee chairman. He had given Trump his vote. He's now rescinding it.
Let's listen to a part of what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH (via telephone): I'm out. I can no longer endorse Donald Trump for president. There's no possible way I'd vote for Hillary Clinton. You know, my wife Julie and I, we've got a 15-year-old daughter, do you think I could look her in the eye and tell her that I endorse Donald Trump for president when he acts like this?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: So, Scottie, I want to start with you, I know last night you were on CNN. You said you can't judge Trump's words. You will judge his actions.
How do you parlay that to people who are on the fence, and people specifically who are so turned off by this, and people whose votes he needs?
SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, don't misunderstand me, Christi, these words are horrific. They're horrible. They should never be applied to any woman, any man, any human. They're not good.
So, in no way am I defending the words that Donald Trump said 11 years ago. What I am going to defend, though, is the timing of this because it has to be real interesting.
Yesterday, we had some major things come out with Hillary Clinton about her Wall Street speeches. And Brianna actually reported some e- mails. And today was supposed to be a unity reunion by Paul Ryan.
If you don't think that this is a coordinated attempt between some members of the media, "Washington Post," "The New York Times" and Hillary Clinton camp, then you've got to be just completely blind to see, because obviously Hillary Clinton cannot win the female vote based on what she can do for women. She has to demonize the other candidate. A tactic that we knew was going to happen regardless of whoever the GOP nominee was and Donald Trump does give unfortunately a lot of rhetoric from the past to give fodder with.
PAUL: We are going to talk about the Hillary Clinton e-mails here in a moment, but it doesn't change what Donald Trump himself has said.
With that said, Scott what do you foresee with the Republican Party here? How can they pull support for Trump when you've got House speaker, even Paul Ryan, cancelling his event with him. And what does Pence do? Because as we understand it, Pence is taking his place?
A. SCOTT BOLDEN, FORMER CHAIRMAN, WASHINGTON D.C. DEMOCRATIC PARTY: I can't wait to see pence defend this vulgarity and sexual predator, if you will.
PAUL: But you don't know for sure that he will.
BOLDEN: I don't know for sure that he will. He didn't in the debate, and who knows what's going forward? But the Republicans can run but they cannot hide from this caricature of a candidate who is sexual predator, who is a sexist, and narcissist. You can't run from it, nor you can blame Hillary Clinton and the media.
My goodness, Donald Trump drives this narrative. Every time he gets in trouble because he's not discipline, every time he says something offensive to women, have a long history of it, they criticize him but won't pull their support. What do they say to their daughters, and their mothers and their grand mothers, as to why they supported a candidate who has confirmed he's a sexual predator.
It is irreconcilable. It is unsupportable. And the Republicans need to stop and define exactly how they're going to rebuild their party over the next 10, 20 years because Donald Trump can't lead when you are a sexist and a sexual predator.
PAUL: Scottie, OK, listen when we look forward to the debate which is happening tomorrow night, in this second apology that Donald Trump released via video, last night, overnight, it was about midnight. He said, "I said some foolish things but there's a big difference between the words and actions of other people. Bill Clinton has actually abused women and Hillary Clinton has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims. We'll discuss this more.
Is it fair? If voters are supposed to dismiss Donald Trump's comments Scottie that were made 11 years ago, why would what happened years ago with Bill Clinton years ago be relevant?
[07:40:05] HUGHES: Well, because we're bringing this up. I find it very -- and actually, I find it absolutely insulting that you're going to call someone who has never been convicted, who's never really been arrested, has no issues whatsoever as calling Donald Trump a sexual predator. Probably Scott and other people are going to going on -- (CROSSTALK)
BOLDEN: Clinton has never been charged --
HUGHES: Yes, he was. He was impeached by and he lied to the American people for a barely legal woman in the Oval Office. Do you call Bill Clinton a sexual predator?
BOLDEN: He's not running for president and it has nothing to do --
HUGHES: It doesn't matter.
(CROSSTALK)
PAUL: Wait a minute, we want to get this in. We know this is part of the conversation tomorrow night at the debate. But the emails that were just recently leak from Hillary Clinton's camp may also be as well. There are some interesting moments in some of these speeches. These excerpts, Scott, from speeches that she gave to Wall Street execs, some of them talking about the TPP, about trade.
This could be a real issue for her, could it not?
BOLDEN: Well, the trade issue is baked into the numbers already. She has said that she disagrees with the trade agreements that she's once supported.
But here's the thing. She's said that we need to do trade agreements that are enforceable, that we need to hire a trade prosecutor, and that she will only support these trade agreements if they protect the American worker more.
And so, I don't see -- I saw the excerpts. They weren't from her e- mail. They were from the consultants' e-mail. I think it's a nonstory. Even though we're talking about it right now, there's nothing negative, per se, that we haven't seen already in the political makeup of this.
PAUL: Except, according to the e-mails, I want to go to things she said did say in the 2013 speeches, you need both a public and private position in politics which may make some somebody -- some people question what her position is either in public or in private.
I'm sorry, we've run out of time. I just want to -- I want to make sure that we try to get to everything we can.
Scottie Nell Hughes, Scott Bolden, we know you'll be watching the debate tomorrow as well. It will be interesting to hear from you after that. Thank you so much.
BOLDEN: Thank you.
PAUL: And we're going to continue our discussion in just a moment. Stay close.
BLACKWELL: All right. And still ahead, one day before the debate and four weeks before the election, does the Trump campaign have time to recover?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:45:52] PAUL: All right. Take a look at the pictures coming in from Charleston, South Carolina, right now. That water coming up above the Charleston harbor there, dangerous storm surges already. A major concern, as this storm moves up the Southeast coast. It's killed four people in Florida. It's left more than 1 million people without power in three states there.
And Chad Myers just recently said what we're seeing here is low tide. High tide isn't even in effect yet.
BLACKWELL: Before it came to the U.S., Matthew killed hundreds of people in Haiti, left behind widespread destruction in a nation that's still trying to recover from the devastating earthquake six years ago.
PAUL: CNN has reporters standing by, not only here in the U.S. but also in Haiti to show you what Matthew's done there and is continuing to do.
First, we want to go to CNN international reporter Shasta Darlington in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Shasta, what are you seeing in the aftermath of this storm?
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christi, it's really staggering, if you look at it. Hurricane Matthew actually slammed into Haiti back on Tuesday. But it's only now that we're beginning to really understand the extent of the devastation. That's because it's taken aide workers and authorities this long to get to those hard-hit areas.
The storm knocked out roads, communication, power. It also inundated entire villages and flattened hopes and destroyed livestock and crops. Hundreds of people were killed. We don't even know how many yet. The death toll is rising on an hourly basis.
Officially, 300 people have been confirmed dead. But aide workers tell us they say that could easily triple.
Right now, of course, the focus is just trying to get help into those people who are affected. They're trying to helicopter in food and water. Also to set up shelter.
Just to give you an example, this town of Jeremy, on the southwestern peninsula, 80 percent of the buildings there were destroyed. And they initially had plans to have five shelters set up.
So, you have this huge influx of people looking for a place to stay, looking for clean water. This is what authorities and aide workers are dealing with, just trying to get them help. As you mentioned, this is a country that was still struggling to rebuild after the 2012 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people. Some were still living in tents. So, this is a huge effort ahead. The big concern looking forward is
disease. There was a big outbreak of cholera after that earthquake. Thousands of people were killed because of cholera. And even now, since Matthew hit, there have been cases of cholera.
So, the urgency is really felt here. People just trying to get this aid, trying to get the clean water out there to prevent a major disaster, Christi.
PAUL: Yes. So, we've seen the pictures of some of those people who were still living in those tents. They almost look like tent cities who had not even recovered yet from the earthquake. Do we know, were they taken to other shelters? Do we know? Are all of those people accounted for yet?
DARLINGTON: The information is really piecemeal at this point. What the authorities and aide workers are trying to put it together, we're trying to put it together, we know that the first day after Matthew, they talked about two dead, five dead and now we're up to 300 and that is climbing. The same goes for the number of people who were displaced.
A lot of physical structures were destroyed. You can just imagine what happened to tent cities that were in the path of Matthew. Again, it's a matter of everybody getting in there with all of these roads -- these roads destroyed to figure out what's going on. That's what we're looking at right now. That's the process that we're in, Christi.
PAUL: Yes, I can't imagine what these people are going through. Shasta Darlington, thank you for bringing that information. We appreciate it. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: Donald Trump facing strong condemnation this morning after this tape was released. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful -- I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait.
And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
BUSH: Whatever you want.
TRUMP: Grab them by the (EXPLETIVE DELETED). You can do anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Mr. Trump was playing damage control yesterday, posting this video of apology on Facebook.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: I've never said I'm a perfect person nor pretended to be someone I'm not. I've said and done things I regret and the records release today on this more than a decade old video are one of them. Anyone who knows me knows these words don't reflect who I am.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: But the damage is already being felt and questions are now swirling about who leaked this footage. CNN spoke with "The Washington Post" reporter who broke the story. We spoke with him last night. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, David, I know you are not going to disclose your source on this but whoever gave this to you or alerted you to it, obviously knew they had something big on their hands. Can you give us any more details on this?
DAVID FAHRENTHOLD, THE WASHINGTON POST: I really can't. I can't say much of anything about how we got ahold of this.
BERMAN: But when you heard it the first time, what was your first reaction?
FAHRENTHOLD: Oh, just that it was shocking. I mean, this is the voice of Donald Trump that you have heard now for a couple of years solid, a voice you have gotten used to hearing in a political context and here he was discussing this stuff in a pretty lewd and pretty outrageous manner. I was really surprised.
BERMAN: He calls this locker room banter. But the thing is, you know, he's 56 years old. And it's not just crass language. It's predatory. He says, you know, when you are a star you can do it.
[07:55:02] You can do anything. You can grab them by the -- and, then he goes on.
FAHRENTHOLD: It's not just, hey, look at that woman, isn't she hot? It sort of goes beyond that, to talk about sort of his -- what he does. He's not describing not what he'd like to do, but what he has done apparently to women and describing sort of how because he's a star, he can kiss them if he wants to. He can grope them.
That just makes this more interesting and more shocking. It's not just that he's saying, like look at that woman. She's a ten. He's saying, this is what I have done to women in the past and will do again.
BERMAN: And you can judge the magnitude of this by the fact that the Trump campaign responded very quickly with a statement that included the word "apologize."
So, let's break this down into parts, right, because he's apologizing if anyone was offended, which at "The Washington Post", you know, that's a non-apology, apology. FAHRENTHOLD: Yes, that's right. He apologized to people who were
offended, which obviously leaves room for the idea that many people will listen to this and see this and not be offended by it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: All right. We'll play more of that throughout the morning.
Let's take a turn now. U.S. officials now say they know who is responsible for interfering with the political system here and potentially the election in November. We'll look into that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: Another political story that might have gotten buried under a lot of news we've been talking about this morning, the Obama administration saying it is now confident that Russia is to blame for the hacking e-mails related to the election.
PAUL: Officials say the hackers were trying to interfere with the election process. Now, the announcement marks the first time that the U.S. has officially accused Russia of hacking into U.S. political systems. For its part, Russia calls the accusations, quote, "nonsense."
