Return to Transcripts main page

New Day Saturday

Trump To Lay Out First 100 Days In Gettysburg Speech; Clinton, Kaine To Campaign In Pennsylvania; Major Cyber Attack Infects devices Takes Down Sites Worldwide; Bridgegate: Chris Christie's Former Deputy Testifies; Trump Intensifies Attacks On "Rigged" System; Trump Pushes Theories of Media Conspiracy and Election Fraud; Trump and Clinton Neck and Neck in Historically Red Georgia; Asian Americans to Shift Battleground States; Beyond the Call of Duty. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired October 22, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- this is going to be Brexit plus.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We know in our country the difference between leadership and dictatorship.

TRUMP: We have a bunch of babies running our country, folks. They're losers. They're babies.

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I wish we are in high school. I could take him behind the gym. That's what I wish.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Take a nice deep breath because you made it to Saturday morning and we are so grateful to have your company. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you. In just a few hours, Donald Trump will speak in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, laying a big policy plan should he win the election.

PAUL: Now the significance of this venue not lost, of course. This is the same of course same city where Abraham Lincoln made his famous speech in 1865 uniting the country during this time of war.

Both candidates are in a campaign frenzy, so to speak, this weekend. They are making their pitch to undecided voters all over the map as they eye that finish line now.

BLACKWELL: All right, here is what Mr. Trump's advisers tell us to expect from his Gettysburg speech, quote, "A lot more details on policy and an outline of the ten principles he wants to do in the first 100 days." That's a quote.

Now, he doesn't plan to name any potential cabinet positions. We shouldn't look for that. But voters can expect to see, another quote, "real emotional connection with some policies that are near and dear to his heart like trade and supporting police."

Let's bring in CNN political commentator and host of CNN's "SMERCONISH," Michael Smerconish. Michael, good morning to you. Let me come to you first with the setting, the site, choosing Gettysburg for this speech.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Victor, Christie, nice to see you both. It's a two-fer. It's one of the most important sites in all of America and yet it's a Pennsylvania site, Mr. Trump was in my home state of Pennsylvania through the evening last night. He's back today.

So he gets to reach a Pennsylvania audience and a national audience. I don't know about you, Victor, it sent me back to the history books. I wanted to remind myself of some of the facts.

When Abraham Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg, it was only two minutes long and ten sentences. It's kind of ironic that Donald Trump is coming and saying well, this will be the speech where I will be more expansive and I will speak in detail as to what those first 100 days would look like.

He did this months ago and now he's coming back to try and close the deal. But you know throughout the course of the campaign it's really been generalities and not specifics that have brought him thus far. Maybe are precluding him from advancing so it will be a very interesting address.

BLACKWELL: Yes, so I went back and read the Gettysburg address and actually the second inaugural address as well this morning. That is brief compared to what we hear from president's elect today.

Now, let's talk about he's done this before. He did it four months ago as you mentioned. Is the expectation here that this will -- this emotional connection to these issues will spur some type of surge in the campaign or is this the typical closing argument we would expect 17 days out from the election?

SMERCONISH: What's been unique at least to me about the Trump campaign is that there really never was a pivot. For so many different events that would unfold, maybe it was the convention, maybe it was the debates, I kept waiting to see where is the outreach to the demographics that are not part of the Trump constituency and I would say it never came.

It's a little late to try to make that move today. So I guess what I'm trying to say, Victor, is I'm curious to know who is the audience? Is the audience those white working class, those blue collar voters who are firmly in his camp, those lacking a college degree? Will there be some outreach today?

You know, the purpose of this speech was one of unification after a blood bath in this country. Will Donald Trump try and be a unifier ala Abraham Lincoln today. Is that why he's going to Gettysburg?

Will he say more things to people of color and to Hispanics than he has said in the last several months? I don't know, but that will be the most interesting part.

BLACKWELL: Maybe try to write his own legacy after this campaign. The audience may be history will look ahead to see what we hear from Donald Trump. Michael Smerconish, thanks so much.

SMERCONISH: Thanks, Victor.

BLACKWELL: And be sure to catch "SMERCONISH" next hour at 9 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

PAUL: Hillary Clinton, we should point out, also in Pennsylvania today. She and her surrogates trying to win over the undecided voters as well particularly in some battleground states where both candidates are neck and neck in the polls. Want to bring in CNN national politics reporter, MJ Lee. MJ, walk us through some of these maps and how she specifically is doing in some of these battleground states.

MJ LEE, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, Christi. That's right. Seventeen days out from Election Day and it is all about the battleground states and the Clinton campaign right now is actually feeling pretty confident when it looks at the map.

They know they have pulled ahead in key battleground states like (inaudible) and like Nevada (inaudible) traditionally Republican strongholds, states like Arizona and Utah, they are now seeing a scenario where these states actually look competitive.

[08:10:10]So the campaign is starting to spend resources, money, devoting time and personnel in these states that they probably would not have necessarily thought would be this competitive, even a couple months ago.

Now all of this of course means that the road to 270 electoral votes is tougher than ever before for Donald Trump. We are seeing clear signs that the recent series of scandals that he has become involved in, whether it's the "Access Hollywood" tape, the various allegations from women about inappropriate behavior from Donald Trump years ago, that ultimately hurt him in the final stretch.

And all of this is why the Clinton campaign is making sure that she has picked up her pace of campaigning in this final stretch, right after the final debate happened on Wednesday night in Las Vegas. She's not taking a break this weekend. She's campaigning in Cleveland yesterday.

As you mentioned, she is going to be in Pennsylvania all of today with her running mate, Tim Kaine, and tomorrow she heads to North Carolina. So this is going to be a very busy weekend for her. And a huge focus for Clinton right now is early voting.

This means that she wants her supporters and potentially independent voters and people who might be reconsidering their support for Donald Trump right now heading out to vote now.

Her message right now is do not wait until November 8th and all of this means is Hillary Clinton wants to make sure that she is capitalizing on the momentum that she feels like she has right now and her message, of course, is that she's not taking anything for granted -- Christi, Victor.

PAUL: Obviously all righty. MJ Lee, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Hey, if you're wondering what happened to Netflix, Twitter maybe yesterday, if you couldn't watch or tweet, it's because your home DVR may have been used against you. Yes, we have the shocking new details on what happened with that widespread cyber-attack. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: So, let me ask you this, was your internet acting just a little crazy yesterday?

PAUL: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Is cra-cra is term of last year?

PAUL: Wonky, I don't know.

BLACKWELL: A massive cyber-attack was partly carried out by infiltrating devices in your home right now. This is serious. Hundreds of thousands of DVRs and web cams were taken over by Malware.

PAUL: Yes. This is an attack that caused widespread outages online. Look at this map. A number of popular websites, Netflix, Spotify, Twitter all going down. The FBI is investigating. But here's the thing, no one has pointed a finger at one particular group or nation as the culprit here. So what exactly led to this cyber breech?

We want to bring in CNN correspondent, Samuel Burke, who is joining us from London and looking at that. What have you learned about that question in specifics, Samuel?

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're just learning how these devices were used as part of this major cyber security attack. In fact, I would call it one of most serious, if not one of the largest that the internet has ever seen.

Basically what happens in this type of attack is the hackers overwhelm a company. In this time it was a company called Dime. It's basically the middleman of the internet.

When you type in Twitter.com, they make sure you get to that website. But what they did was use traffic from all over the world including traffic from your own device.

So imagine if in your home your DVR, which was recording some show was actually being used to send traffic to help overwhelm this company and then as a secondary effect it was taking down all these other websites so you couldn't connect to them.

Absolutely incredible to think that all that could be going on in your living room without you even knowing. PAUL: So, Samuel, let me ask you, I know that they don't have anyone in particular that they've been able to focus on as the culprit, but what was the overall intent here? Was there any information compromised?

BURKE: It doesn't look like there is any information compromised. This types of hack isn't the type of hack where they go in and get information and steal it. It's the type of hack where they just try to overwhelm the internet to try to bring it down.

Imagine if you and I were upset at a grocery store for some reason and we sent all of our friends to try to block the doors from getting in. That would be the actually physical equivalent of this happening. It did have a huge effect.

People want to know who was this. Though so far nobody is pointing any fingers at any particular group or nation, at least not yet. But as you guys can imagine, as you've been reporting on election, tensions are very high right now with the United States pointing their finger at Russia for some of the leaked e-mails.

But nobody has said it was Russia and again no other group or nation has been named at least not for now.

PAUL: And there is no understanding that or no expectation that anyone would claim responsibility in a situation like this.

BURKE: There's not. Many times there is, but lot of times you never know who it it, but there was this interesting tweet from Wikileaks, if we could put that up on the screen for the folks at home to see.

This tweet coming from them yesterday, "Mr. Assange is still alive and Wikileaks is still publishing. We ask supporters to stop taking down the U.S. internet. You proved your point."

So just to be clear, Wikileaks isn't taking any responsibility there, even hinting responsibility, and none of people that I've talked to close to this investigation on Dime side are saying that they believe that it was Wikileaks.

As you mentioned, the FBI is investigating right now and saying they're looking at every possibility, but they aren't pointing any fingers yet either.

PAUL: All right, Samuel Burke, thank you for walking us through it.

BLACKWELL: All right, Bridgegate is back, potentially to haunt New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. He maintains he has nothing to do with the scandal, did not know about it when it was happening, but in court documents, we know now from a top aide there is a different story out there. We'll hear the details from that aide.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:46] BLACKWELL: All right, new video in now. This is from Iraq. Video from near Mosul. You see here Iraqi forces conducting operations to take back towns and cities from ISIS. You saw the soldier with his arms up in air as it look in victory as they push toward the city.

We do know that there is fierce fighting outside of Mosul this morning. Just a few hours ago, Iraqi troops launched this large-scale operation to take back another city to the southeast as we get the new video in and much of the video, much of what we're seeing is live.

Like what you're seeing right now on the screen, as we get more of this in, we'll bring it to you as they launch this offensive to try to take back the country's second largest city.

PAUL: We should point out secretary of defense is there in Iraq on a surprise visit meeting with the troops and the prime minister there in Iraq. So we'll continue to follow that and let you know what news comes from that as well.

Meanwhile, more trouble here for Chris Christie, his state's Bridgegate scandal back in the spotlight after his former deputy chief of staff came out with some damning testimony about the New Jersey governor.

BLACKWELL: Yes, she claims that Christie definitely had a hand in purposefully snarling traffic on the George Washington Bridge back in 2013. Our Brynn Gingras is here with details -- Brynn.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor and Christie, this is the first time that Christie's former aide, Bridget Kelly answered any questions regarding her alleged involvement of what we now know as Bridgegate.

So now this is also the first time we're hearing about the discussions she had with the governor before those controversial lane closures.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GINGRAS (voice-over): Time for some traffic problems. Those words in an e-mail, a key piece evidence in what's notoriously known as Bridgegate, and sent by a former top aide to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to one of its closest associates.

The e-mail led to controversial lane closures at the George Washington Bridge connecting New York and New Jersey back in 2013, which since then has dogged Christie and landed his former aide, Bridget Kelly on trial facing federal charges.

Kelly testified in court the e-mail was sent to former Port Authority executive, David Wildstein, one day after letting Governor Christie know about a planned traffic study.

[08:20:03]Something Wildstein asked her explicitly to do, she says. She explained her words were meant to give the green light for that study. Wildstein has pleaded guilty to being the self-described mastermind behind the plot to close lanes, which federal prosecutor argue caused major gridlock and were an act of political retribution by Governor Christie against the Fort Lee, New Jersey mayor, who had yet to endorse Christie in his bid for re-election.

Christie has not been charged in the case and consistently denies any involvement. Kelly's testimony contradicts what Christie said in a 2013 news conference that his senior staff did not know lane closures would be a part of traffic study.

Kelly isn't the only one on trial. Her co-defendant, Bill Baroni (ph), a former Port Authority executive also testified this week and like Kelly, he maintains he was aware of the traffic study but knew nothing about lane closures as an act of political retaliation.

Separately, Christie will appear in a municipal court next month in a case following a citizen complaint about those lane closures. That case alleges Christie was negligent when he didn't order his staff to reopen lanes while witnessing those days of gridlock on the George Washington Bridge.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GINGRAS: We reached out to the governor's office to get comment in regards to Kelly's testimony and his office released a statement in part saying the governor had no knowledge prior to or during these lane realignments and had no role in authorizing them. Anything said to the contrary is simply untrue -- Christi and Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, Brynn, thank you so much.

Donald Trump once again claims the election is rigged against him, but he's also making a push today to try to unify the Republican Party, unify the country. Can he pull it off with just two and a half weeks until Election Day?

PAUL: Let's talk about Georgia, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton essentially tied in what is normally a red state. We're going to discuss if that could truly turn purple, blue?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:25:29]

BLACKWELL: Welcome back. Good to have you. I'm Victor Blackwell.

PAUL: And I'm Christi Paul. I know you know Election Day is coming up, 17 days and counting in case you haven't checked the calendar and Donald Trump's poll numbers are falling, he is stepping up his -- we need to say it, unfounded claims that the election is rigged against him.

Now, he just hasn't provided any evidence that fraud will indeed occur on Election Day. Here is last night in Pennsylvania, in fact, where he repeated the claims. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Remember, folks, it's a rigged system. Just remember it. It's a rigged system. It's a rigged system. Don't ever forget it. That's why you got to get out and vote. You have to watch because this system is totally rigged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Today, Trump is headed to Gettysburg. He is going to talk about unity. Want to bring in CNN politics senior reporter, Stephen Collinson.

Stephen, let's get back to this whole idea that this system is rigged. We said that he hasn't given us any evidence of that, but talk to us about really the plausibility. It seems there would have to be such widespread work from both Democrats and Republicans to disrupt an entire nationwide election.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: That's right. This is an election that's not just one election, of course, it's carried out across 50 states. So the idea that there could be some conspiracy in each precinct of each state to make this election unfair is fanciful.

We've had elections in the past, most recently in 2000 where the election was disputed. It's highly unusual if not unprecedented for a candidate to go into the election saying the election is rigged against him.

I think we need to look at what Donald Trump is trying to achieve with this. You know, this message probably alienates independent and more moderate voters. This point in the election, it looks like Donald Trump's strategy is to drive up a huge turnout from his base and confound the pollsters and all their models of what the electoral looks like.

This is a message that is taken very seriously by Donald Trump's supporters. If you go to a Donald Trump rally, people there sincerely believe the political system on a more broader sense is rigged against Donald Trump, particularly the media. They honestly feel that the mainstream media is inherently biased against Donald Trump and in favor of Hillary Clinton.

So this in some ways, although is a divisive message on a national sense is a very good message to drive up Donald Trump's turnout from his core base voters.

PAUL: Is it? I mean, is there a chance that his message about it being rigged could be counterproductive, that people think, well, if it's rigged I'm not going to bother to go to the polls because my vote doesn't count anyway?

COLLINSON: Yes, I think that's a possibility and some people think that Donald Trump's tactic is also designed to drive down Democratic turnout, to make Democrats perhaps fear that if they go to the polls there could be some intimidation. I think it's a good question. At the same time, there's no doubt that Donald Trump has stirred great enthusiasm among his most loyal supporters. The question is whether that translates to them going to the polls on Election Day.

But, you know, I don't think we're going to know the answer to that question until November 8th. It's possible if Donald Trump is down six, seven, eight points as he appears to be nationally right now, some of his voters won't turn out any way if they think the election is a fair to complete.

So I think it's very difficult to sort out at this point, and I think it could vary, you know, within states. So we're just going to have to work out and see what happens.

PAUL: OK. And again, watching Gettysburg in just a couple hours where Donald Trump will be giving a speech there. Stephen Collinson, appreciate your insight as always. Thank you, sir.

BLACKWELL: All right, let's talk about this claim that the election is rigged. We have with us Alan Dershowitz, defense attorney and author of the book with the best title out this year, "Electile Dysfunction" a guide for unaroused voters, and also Matt Schlapp, a Trump supporter, and former political director for George W. Bush.

I should also say that Alan Dershowitz has said that he would vote for Hillary Clinton, just so we have full disclosure there. Good to have both off you this morning.

MATT SCHLAPP, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Great to be with you, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Matt, I want to start with you.

SCHLAPP: Sure.

BLACKWELL: If Donald Trump is really -- guys in the control room, let's ready the May sound bite from West Virginia. If Donald Trump is really genuine when he says this because we heard this claim from Trump during the primary, and this is what he said near the end of the primary fight --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:30:06] DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You've been hearing me say it's a rigged system, but now I don't say it anymore because I won. OK. So, you know, now I don't care.

BLACKWELL: Yes, he doesn't care. He doesn't say it anymore. Is -- does he really believe this is a rigged system?

MATT SCHLAPP, TRUMP SURROGATE: Well, I think you saw with all the Wikileaks and the resignation of Debbie Wasserman- Schultz at the DNC in the primaries he was talking about how it was rigged against Bernie Sanders. And, the proof is just clear that it was.

And, I think a lot of conservatives and republicans Victor, across this country when they turn on their television and go across the cable networks, they do see a bias in the coverage of this race. And there has been this moral decision that Donald Trump is unacceptable and those who are going to support him like myself are somehow doing something bad for the country. And, I think they see that in the coverage over and over again. They don't think it's fair.

And, so I think, when he brings up the fact that the coverage of the Clinton scandals does not equal -- even come close to the coverage of these scandals within the Trump candidacy, I think they make a very fair point.

BLACKWELL: All right. The point there you're making, though, is based on media.

SCHLAPP: Yes.

BLACKWELL: What Trump has tweeted out that there would be large scale voter fraud on Election Day, which is a very different argument. But let me come to you, Alan. What do you make of what we've heard and seen from Donald Trump in the last several weeks and what we saw there from him back in May?

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I think this is a post defeat election strategy. I think that he is posturing himself for when he loses the election, he's going to be able to go around to his people and say I'm not a loser. I'm a victim.

Now, in terms of the media rigging, people have to listen to radio talk shows. I'm on radio talk shows all over the country because of my book "Electile Dysfunction." And on radio talk shows, almost every talk show host is in favor of Donald Trump. Almost every listener who calls in is in favor of Donald Trump.

So, we have a split in the media. I agree that the national T.V. has generally favored Hillary Clinton or at least disfavored Donald Trump. But radio talk has become a major influence in America and that's highly biased toward Donald Trump. So, I think what we're seeing is he's getting ready to lose and he wants to lose in a way that allows him to claim victimhood rather than loser status because it would be inconsistent with his brand to be a loser.

BLACKWELL: Donald Trump said at the debate, Alan, earlier this week that he is going to keep the country in suspense. I want to take you back to 2008 when Hillary Clinton had her own moment of keeping the country in suspense.

It was June 3rd, the night that Barack Obama got all of the delegates necessary to get the nomination. And she knew when she took the podium that night that she had lost the primary fight. Some expected that she would at least acknowledge that. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Where do we go from here? And, given how far we've come and where we need to go as a party it's a question I don't take lightly. This has been a long campaign and I will be making no decisions tonight. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: She'll be making no decisions on that night. There really was no decision to make. She had a moment, own moment of suspense there. Let me read to you what Hillary Clinton supporter, Hillary Rosen said about that moment. "She had a chance to surprise the party and the nation after the day-long denials about expecting any concession and send Barack Obama off on the campaign trail to the general election with the best possible platform. Instead she left her supporters empty. Obama's angry and party leaders trashing her."

So, she has her own history here with leading people in suspense after hearing the will of the voters.

DERSHOWITZ: I think that's right. There's an enormous difference, though, between primaries and the ultimate election. We're talking about ...

BLACKWELL: True.

DERSHOWITZ: ... the President of the United States being certified by everybody short of the Electoral College that comes later in December. And a candidate saying I don't recognize the legitimacy of the president. A candidate who has refused to recognize the legitimacy of the current president saying until recently that he was born ...

(CROSS-TALK)

BLACKWELL: Hold on, Matt.

DERSHOWITZ: ... that he was born in Kenya. So I think -- look, I think Hillary made a mistake. I think she should have at that point embraced Barack Obama. Remember the headlines today, too, that Sanders' wife urged him not to support Hillary Clinton.

So, you know, you get that in the primaries. But we've never had a situation in a general election where after the votes are counted the loser says it was rigged. I'm not bringing a legal claim, but I'm telling my supporters it was rigged. I'm not a loser, I'm a victim. That's what I anticipate. And the hero is going to be Pence because he's not going to stand for that.

BLACKWELL: All right, Matt, as I bring you back to this conversation I just have to say that Wikileaks has deleted that tweet about Jane Sanders urging Senator Sanders not to support Hillary Clinton. That was actually in reference to a governor who was making an endorsement. So, they pulled back on that. But that just came out.

So, let me give it to you, Matt. Your reaction to what you heard from Hillary Clinton in 2008.

[08:35:10]

SCHLAPP: Look, Hillary Clinton in 2008 as a matter of fact Barack Obama in 2008, Victor, sent a letter to the authorities in Nevada claiming voter suppression by the Clinton administration -- by the Clinton campaign. And the Clinton campaign volleyed back with their own letter saying that there was wrong doing going on in Nevada.

Al Gore was brought out of moth balls by Hillary Clinton most recently. Al Gore who's famous in history for even after the ballots were counted over and over and over again and I know because I spent 34 days in the Florida recount, he didn't agree with the outcome of the election and took it to court and took it to another court --

DERSHOWITZ: He didn't take it to court -- it's Bush vs. Gore.

SCHLAPP: Yes he did. Eventually ...

DERSHOWITZ: ... it's Bush vs. Gore ...

SCHLAPP: No.

BLACKWELL: Hold on -- hold on.

SCHLAPP: No the initial -- I'm sorry, I know you're a law professor and I want to read your book, it sounds very interesting, it sounds titillating. But, the fact is that there were all types of steps in this legal process including in the State of California. And that is what we know, which is the democrats here don't have clean hands.

BLACKWELL: All right, we've got to wrap it there. Alan Dershowitz, Matt Schlapp, good to have both of you.

DERSHOWITZ: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Christi?

PAUL: So, here's the thing, when we look at the map right here, there is one that is blaring for a lot of people. Historically red state of Georgia. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are neck and neck among voters there. And a state that's voted republican for decades, seems to be up for grabs now.

BLACKWELL: Plus, Asian-Americans are the fastest growing minority group, racial group, of any type in the U.S. And this election playing a major role in the key battleground state of Florida. But who will get those voters? And how? That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:16]

PAUL: 40 minutes past the hour right now and let's talk about Georgia right now. This is typically a solid red state. And voters are already casting their ballots in the race for the White House.

And Atlanta General Constitution poll shows Donald Trump is leading Hillary Clinton, but look at that, by just two points. So really that puts it in a virtual dead heat among likely voters there.

CNN correspondent, Nick Valencia is here and he spoke with some of the people who will be voting in Georgia. And, what a story. NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's really interesting. The

changing dynamic of this traditionally red state. The Mosqueda family I spent the day yesterday with them, he is conservative, a republican, registered as a democrat, but votes republican he says. But all this may be changing in Georgia. It's a traditionally red state but it's slowly turning purple because of people like the Mosqueda family. It has two parts to it, it's a newly influx of residents from out of state that vote democratic. And, it's also republicans who can't seem to bring themselves to vote for Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: It's Friday, at the Mosqueda household. The sun hasn't even come up yet and they're already talking about their future.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So do you want to try this avocado?

VALENCIA: Alberto and his wife, Keisha moved from Virginia to Georgia about two years ago. This will be their first presidential election as state residents. And it's people like them who are changing the historically red state, purple.

ALBERTO MOSQUEDA, HUSBAND: You can tell everybody is looking at him like, man, just end this.

VALENCIA: Mosqueda is a conservative. He didn't vote for President Barack Obama in 2008 or in 2012. Nor does he really support democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. But he says he's voting for her any way.

A. MOSQUEDA: If it wasn't for the candidate that's running right now, I probably would have voted for that other candidate than for Clinton.

VALENCIA: You would have voted republican.

A. MOSQUEDA: More than likely.

VALENCIA: What is it about her that's it's hard for you to totally accept her.

A. MOSQUEDA: The e-mails, the Benghazi stuff. You know, being a military guy, you know, you take all that into account. The Benghazi, especially the e-mails, the security and all that. And, it's just like there are direct breeches and direct violations of what the simple things that they teach you even as a lower enlisted guy in the military.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Try it. It's good.

A. MOSQUEDA: Smell it. You smell it? It smells good.

VALENCIA: The Mosqueda's are a house divided. While husband Alberto usually votes republican and relies on his Christian values, he says he can't bear to vote for Trump, especially after what he said about Latinos. His wife, Keisha, has always voted democrat. Her vote she says is guided by what she wants the future to look like for her 5- year-old son, Solomon. KEISHA MOSQUEDA, WIFE: I'm very concerned about him and the future. A

minority male that's something that's just always on my mind.

VALENCIA: Solomon might not yet understand the importance of his parents or the effect their votes could have in Georgia. But he knows this much --

K. MOSQUEDA: Which color are you voting for?

SOLOMON MOSQUEDA: Blue.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: Oh, 5-year-old Solomon, cute kid there. So the Mosqueda family says that they're a complicated family. Mrs. Mosqueda says that she actually feels she's more conservative than her husband though she traditionally votes democratic and he traditionally votes republican. They both agree on this though there is nothing that Donald Trump can say that are going to change their minds about him. Christi?

PAUL: All right, Nick Valencia, great package.

VALENCIA: Great to see you. Thank you.

PAUL: Good to understand that, thank you.

VALENCIA: Yes, thank you.

PAUL: Victor?

BLACKWELL: All right, it's the fastest growing racial group in America, Asian-Americans. And there is an historic shift happening in how they vote that could certainly impact the election. So I traveled to Florida to talk to some of the voters about their feelings on the candidates, voter outreach and the issues that are driving their decisions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: On the campus of the University of North Florida, politics is the topic of the day. And most of these students will be voting for Hillary Clinton.

JUSTIN DATO, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH FLORIDA STUDENT: I think, ultimately, like her vision for the United States, it kind of aligns with my vision of like open mindedness, kind of accepting everyone.

BLACKWELL: Justin Dato, and his friends are at the leading edge of a seismic politic shift among Asian-American voters. From once-reliable republican votes to a democratic stronghold.

In the 1992 three-way race, Republican President, George H.W. Bush earned 55% of the Asian-American vote.

20 years later, democratic President Barack Obama got 73% over Mitt Romney. KARTHICK RAMAKRISHNAN, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN SURVEY:

We have never seen a swing like that for any group.

BLACKWELL: Karthick Ramakrishnan is the director of the National Asian American Survey.

RAMAKRISHNAN: Democrats are far more likely to be reaching out to these voters than republicans. We also saw Bill Clinton do a lot in terms of outreach activity and also nominating Asian-Americans.

BLACKWELL: And democrats hope that outreach will pay off this year, as Asian-American voters could have an oversized impact in November.

RAMAKRISHNAN: There are these new destination states, states like Florida and other states like North Carolina, that are now battleground states for the presidency. These are the states where you have newer Asian-American populations and they're growing very rapidly.

[08:45:10]

BLACKWELL: At the top of the list, Jacksonville, Florida. It's mostly Filipino community has the highest population of Asian-Americans in any of the 2016 battleground states. Most analysts say Donald Trump needs to win Florida to win the White House. And it's Mauro Gines' job to find the votes. He's with the Filipino American Republicans of Northeast Florida.

The statistics would show that democrats are doing very well recruiting Asian-Americans.

MAURO GINES, REPUBLICAN: I think they appear to have very effective recruiting. And I would probably yield to that statement. I guess they have the support of what they hear, meaning the media. So, if there's too much they hear from the media about the democrats, they would lean towards that.

RAMAKRISHNAN: We've also seen factors on the republican side that have pushed them away.

BLACKWELL: And an August rally, when Trump reiterated his proposal to ban immigrants from what he calls terrorist nations, he mentioned the Philippines.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton wants to have them come in by the hundreds of thousands.

BLACKWELL: Soon after, a Philippines lawmaker proposed banning Trump from entering their country.

RAMAKRISHNAN: A majority of Asian-American registered voters have a very unfavorable view of Donald Trump. And that should be very concerning to the Republican Party, because it's possible that Donald Trump will turn off Asian-American voters even more.

BLACKWELL: The survey found that 59% favor Clinton and just 16% favor Trump. But there is opportunity for each party here. For these two voters the choice is less about who they want to be the next president, but more about who they don't.

Are you a Trump supporter?

GINES: I am a Trump supporter.

BLACKWELL: Tell me why?

GINES: Because I cannot be for Hillary.

BLACKWELL: Are you excited to vote for Hillary Clinton?

DATO: I wouldn't necessarily say excited. Just, I'm excited not to vote for Trump.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, here to talk about this, CNN Political Commentator and Mitt Romney's Former Policy Director Lanhee Chen. Lanhee, good morning to you.

LANHEE CHEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hey, Victor, good morning.

BLACKWELL: So, you've written about this and I've read your pieces. I just want to illustrate for our viewers just how quickly and dramatically this change is happening.

Let's put up the numbers among Filipino Americans. This is from 2012 to 2016. And, I've got to say some of these numbers are rounded so things don't add up exactly. But the numbers are rounded from the survey.

There was a ten-point advantage for republicans in 2012. An 18-point swing and now a 28-point advantage toward the democrats in just one cycle. 19 points for Korean Americans, 20 points for the Vietnamese and this is just one cycle. Are we looking at solely the Donald Trump effect or is there something else happening here?

CHEN: I do think Donald Trump has something to do with this Victor. Clearly the rhetoric that he's used, the tone that he's used has been problematic to many new Americans and that certainly includes Asian- Americans. Part of this is part of -- and you had this in your package. There has been this shift since the presidency of George H.W. Bush that's taken place over the course of two decades where Asian- Americans have become increasingly democratic. There's a number of reasons for that which we can get into.

But, this particular shift has been pronounced as well because the political preferences in the Asian community are much less well set. They're much less permanent than in some ways they are with other communities of color in the United States.

BLACKWELL: Yes, there are large percentages of these groups that lean toward a party or candidate instead of standing firmly with that group or behind a candidate. But, I've also read that you believe that the bias is America's colleges and institutions are also playing a role here. How so?

CHEN: Well, you know, one of the things that we've seen generally in American politics is that as individuals have had more exposure to higher education they do tend to become more progressive and more liberal. And, that is certainly no exception for the Asian-American community.

And so the argument that's been put forward and I've argued this, others have as well, that some exposure to institutions of higher learning exposures for example to faculty at many institutions of higher learning, particularly elite institutions of higher learning have driven particularly younger Asian-Americans, like some that you've interviewed away from conservative politics and toward liberal politics. And, so that trend is certainly one worth watching as well.

BLACKWELL: All right, Lanhee Chen, thanks for helping us understand this growing demographic, this growing voter base that according to the survey, 70% of the people surveyed said they had been not been contacted by either major political party. We'll talk about that at 10:00 o'clock in CNN Newsroom. Lanhee Chen, thanks so much.

CHEN: Thank you.

[08:50:00]

BLACKWELL: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: So, listen to this. A Baton Rouge offer gets a call of a gunman targeting officers. Nick Tullier, he rushed to the scene where three of his colleagues were already dead.

PAUL: And the thing is when he arrived, he was shot. CNN's Ed Lavandera has this week's beyond the call of duty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The vicious ambush peers through the heart of Baton Rouge. Three officers killed by a lone gunman on a quiet Sunday morning. But, as the story has faded from the headlines, one officer who answered the call to take down an active shooter targeting cops is still fighting for his life.

JAMES TULLIER, OFFICER TULLIER'S FATHER: Nick's a fighter. You know, we believe in him, he believes in himself and Nick's not ready to go.

LAVANDERA: East Baton Rouge sheriff's deputy, Nick Tullier, is in a coma. He survived more than a dozen surgeries after he was shot three times; once in the head and twice in the abdomen.

J. TULLIER: His heart stopped four times in ER so they brought him back four times.

LAVANDERA: Tullier's father James says doctors first told him that his son wouldn't survive a day. Then it was two, then five. Now it's been more than 95 days and Nick Tullier is still breathing. He defied every odd.

J. TULLIER: Everybody claims this is the place that miracles happen. And we hope so. He's passed everything they've thrown at him already and he's still here.

[08:55:08]

LAVANDERA: The night before the ambush, Nick Tullier was driving home when he noticed, Tyler Carter, and her daughter stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire. Tullier stopped, put his patrol car's spare tire on their car and followed them home to make sure they arrived safely. His friends say that's the kind of officer Tullier is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it goes back to his moral compass and it's always pointing due north.

LAVANDERA: Since the ambush Tullier's mother, father and fiancee have not left his side. They're waiting for him to wake from this long coma. But Tullier's son struggles with the questions that have no answers.

TRENT TULLIER, OFFICER TULLIER'S SON: What's going to happen in the future? Like, am I still going to have a father that's going to be able to, you know, have conversations with me? Is -- are we going to be able to hang out anymore, you know, just chat? But I have no clue.

LAVANDERA: If he survives, Nick Tullier will likely never patrol the Baton Rouge streets again. But for his family, Tullier's refusal to give up, to keep breathing is a miracle.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: 95 days.

BLACKWELL: Still with us.

PAUL: Thoughts and prayers to that family and hoping that we get to tell the story of the day he wakes up.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Listen, that's it for us. We'll see you back here at 10:00 o'clock eastern for an hour of "NEWSROOM".

PAUL: Yes. Don't go anywhere, though, "SMERCONISH" is with you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)