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Probe Into Trump Allegations; Alabama Race; Alabama Goes to the Polls; Turnout Key in Alabama; Alabama's Secretary of State on Election. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired December 12, 2017 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Wherever you're watching around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Right now, pressure on President Donald Trump over allegations of sexual assault, as nearly 60 female members of Congress have signed onto a letter, calling for a formal investigation into the allegations. We expect to hear from some of them any moment now. Stand by for that.

But the president is hitting right back against those sexual assault claims, his accusers and the Democrats, tweeting in part, quote, "The Democrats have been unable to show any collusion with Russia so now they are moving onto the false accusations and fabricated stories of women who I don't know and-or have never met." Close quote.

But it's this tweet that's stirring lots more emotion. Quote, "Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office, begging for campaign contributions not so long ago and would do anything for them is now in the ring fighting against Trump. Very disloyal to Bill and crooked. Used."

Gillibrand has been outspoken on the issue of sexual harassment, calling on President Trump actually to resign. After the president's tweet today, she fired right back, saying she, and other women speaking out, won't be silenced.

Let's go to our Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta. He's over at the White House.

So, are you hearing anymore reaction? What else are White House officials saying about those rather controversial presidential tweets?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we have gone back to the White House press secretary and her top aides over here over the last several hours to ask what, in fact, did the president mean when he said that Kirsten Gillibrand, who has been very critical of him in recent days and called on him to resign yesterday, as you said, to CNN.

What he meant when he said that Senator Gillibrand would do anything for a campaign contribution. As a matter of fact, Wolf, as he was signing a defense authorization bill over here at the White House in the last several minutes, I asked the president what he meant about that and he did not respond.

But Senator Gillibrand is responding. She spoke to reporters earlier this morning. Here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D), NEW YORK: It was a sexist smear attempting to silence my voice. And I will not be silenced on this issue, neither will the women who stood up to the president yesterday. And neither will the millions of women who have been marching since the women's march to stand up against policies they do not agree with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, Wilf, just to give you a sense as to how sensitive this matter is over at the White House. I will tell you, in the moments before I asked the president that question in the Roosevelt room, as he was signing that defense authorization bill, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, pulled me aside. This was prior to me asking that question of the president. And she warned me that if I asked the president a question at this pool spray, as we call them, that she could not promise that I would be allowed into a pool spray again.

Wolf, this was a direct threat coming from the press secretary to me, warning me not to ask a question. And, of course, I went ahead and asked the question anyway and the president did not respond.

But, Wolf, as you know, we don't respond to threats. We're not going to be intimidated. But that did happen, prior to my asking that question of the president.

BLITZER: Yes, I noticed.

I want you to stand by, Jim, because the news conference up on Capitol Hill is just getting underway. This is the Democratic Women's Working Group. Representatives Lois Frankel, Brenda Lawrence and Jackie Speier, they are speaking out right now. Let's listen in.

REP. LOIS FRANKEL (D), FLORIDA, CHAIRMWOMAN, DEMOCRATIC WOMEN'S WORKING GROUP (live): The MeToo Movement has arrived. Sexual abuse will not be tolerated, whether it's by a Hollywood producer, the chef of a restaurant, a member of Congress or the president of the United States. No man or woman is above the law.

MeToo is saying loud and clear that accusations of sexual abuse should be taken seriously. Victims must be heard. Perpetrators must be held accountable. And all parties should have an opportunity for a fair resolution.

To date, more than 17 women have publicly come forward to accuse Donald Trump of sexual misconduct. As far as kissing, unwanted touching and groping on an airplane, in a corporate office, in a pageant dressing room.

The president tweets denials and his press secretary comes out to say the matter has been litigated which is why over 100 Democrats -- and incidentally this letter that we had -- we talk about was initially sent by 59 most overwhelmingly number of the women in our Democratic caucus and the men had insisted that they join us. So, we have over 100 members right now and that number is rising.

And we've all -- we've joined in a letter to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, calling for a Congressional investigation into the allegations of sexual misconduct by Donald J. Trump. Simply said, Americans deserve the truth.

BLITZER: And they've written a formal letter to the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Trade, Dowdy, and the ranking Democrat, Elijah Cummings, wanting a full investigation of the president of the United States amidst these sexual misconduct allegations.

Let's discuss this and more. We have our CNN Politics Senior Writer Juana Summers with us, our Political Director David Chalian and "Bloomberg News" white house reporter, Shannon Pettypiece.

Shannon, what do you make of this call? Sixty women and now you hear a whole bunch of Democratic men, lawmakers, they've signed on. They want a formal investigation by this committee.

SHANNON PETTYPIECE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "BLOOMBERG NEWS": I think the issue is not going away. This topic, which in a news cycle where topics come in and out at rapid fire within a few hours, this issue around sexual misconduct, not only among the president but members of Congress, in the media, across industries, is sticking. It is lasting. It's clearly resonating with a lot of people.

On this issue with the president, of course these are Democrats. Republicans control the House and the Senate. So, it will be in Republicans' jurisdiction to decide whether they want to move forward with this.

But it certainly looks bad on Republicans' part if they don't. And, of course, if there's a shift in 2018, this is just one more thing the Democrats could do to come after the president.

BLITZER: So, it's up to the chairman, Trey Gowdy. He's the Republican chairman of this committee. He's got to make an important decision.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: He does. Although as was just being said, clearly there's no expectation that the Republicans are going to, sort of, take the lead on this.

But I do think it is a preview of what a Democratically-controlled Congress may look like if after the 2018 elections, the Democrats would regain the majority.

Well, I think these issues of this kind of investigation, impeachment hearings, more calls for resignation, everything you're hearing out of the Democrats right now, it's less about what they can do in this moment and more about a predicate for an argument to voters throughout 2018 and what a Democratic-controlled Congress may look like.

BLITZER: And it comes amidst -- you know, Juana, I want to get into this tweet that the president launched this morning against New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

Let me put it up on the screen one more time. Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office, begging for campaign contributions not so long ago.

And then in parenthesis, and would do anything for them, close parenthesis. Is now in the ring fighting against Trump. Very disloyal to Bill and crooked. Used.

And would do anything for them. It's -- you know, hold on for a moment because Congresswoman Jackie Speier is now speaking out. We'll get right back to you, Juana.

REP. JACKIE SPEIER(D), CALIFORNIA, DEMOCRATIC WOMEN'S WORKING GROUP: And it is under that House rule that we are calling on the Government Oversight Committee to do the investigation.

But what took place this morning when the president tweeted about our colleague, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, is grotesque. It took my breath away and it represents the conduct of a person who is ill- equipped to be the president of the United States.

FRANKEL: We'll all say amen to that.

Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I wanted to know (INAUDIBLE.)

FRANKEL: I think -- I think all of us -- I think we've all taken the position that we want a fair process here. Some of us have been working with the House Administration Committee to get a fair process. I think that's what we're all about.

REP. BRENDA LAWRENCE (D), MICHIGAN, VICE CHAIRWOMAN, DEMOCRATIC WOMEN'S WORKING GROUP: I think the Democratic Party has been very strong in saying that there should be an ethics investigation and that you have seen actions from the Democratic party that we're not running away from this. We are standing together and saying accountability goes all the way to the White House.

FRANKEL: You know, I think we all -- we believe that sexual abuse, victims of sexual abuse, perpetrators, there's no specific race or religion or ethnicity or party. I think Republican and Democrats, independents, they're all equal opportunity offenders.

Anybody else? If not, thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. BLITZER: All right, that was Congresswoman Lois Frankel of Florida. And you also heard Jackie Speier very, very angry, Juana, at that tweet that the president launched, especially when he said in parenthesis about New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and would do anything for them, asking for campaign contributions.

[13:10:10] JUANA SUMMERS, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER: Absolutely. We heard Congresswoman Speier of California call about a grotesque statement unfit for the president's office.

She's been one of the leading lawmakers on Capitol Hill who's been pushing this effort for members of Congress to clean up their act and to bring more transparency onto the process as to how those claims are handled.

I think what's really important here also is Senator Gillibrand's response. As you noted, she said, she would not be silenced. President Trump referred to her as someone who is being in the ring with him on these issues.

So, I think these tweets really tell you a lot about the president's role of these. He sees her as a political opponent. I think this gives us a preview to what a 2020 campaign can and will look like against the president, the argument that Democrats are likely to wage. Particularly now as there's so much attention being paid to these issues of harassment and misconduct by powerful men in all walks of life, not just politics.

BLITZER: And everyone is asking, David, what did the president mean when he said, and would do anything --

CHALIAN: Well, --

BLITZER: -- for the --

CHALIAN: -- you heard Jim Acosta asked him that very question directly and he refused to answer. And there's only one person that can answer that question, Donald Trump who issued the tweet. Nobody else can answer that and he refused to do so.

But, clearly, that question hangs out there about what he meant. Although Kirsten Gillibrand and her response and many of her colleagues fear -- clearly they feel they have a clear idea of what he meant by that.

BLITZER: Senator Elizabeth Warren was very blunt in that area.

CHALIAN: Exactly. I -- to Juana's point about looking ahead to 2020 for a moment. Kirsten Gillibrand is thrilled to have this fight. Let's make no bones about that. I mean, this is -- she wants to be in the arena. She does want to be seen as the opponent to Donald Trump.

You'll recall a few weeks ago, she was out there in a "New York Times" podcast saying, well, if Bill Clinton were having his problems now, he should have been impeach -- or he should've resigned from office. You saw her leading the way on Al Franken, a beloved liberal in her own party, to get him out of office and get his resignation.

And now, she's in this fight with Donald Trump. She is -- this is part of becoming her 2020 brand, as she is clearly going to be looking at a possible presidential contest as well.

PETTYPIECE: I do wonder, this issue, though, of, you know, women's rights and, you know, going after sexual misconduct. How strong of a -- of a brand or case that's going to be in 2020. Because, I mean, I know there's a lot that can happen between now and then. In fact, that we're even talking about it is a little silly, at this point.

But, you know, you know, in 2016, the election wasn't about that. The Democrats tried to make it about that. They tried to make it about the accusers. They tried to make it about "Access Hollywood" video and the voters said, no. It's about jobs. It's about immigration. It's about strong America and these other issues.

So, I don't know.

(CROSSTALK)

CHALIAN: I agree with you. It may not be a voting issue then, but it's part of her brand-building right now. I don't -- I'm not looking to the electorate or anything. I'm saying, as Kirsten Gillibrand is starting to form her public perception and brand in advance of that, this is clearly now an issue that's she'll fully identified with.

BLITZER: You know, in one of the other tweets he did this morning, this is the president and I'll read it to you, once again. Despite thousands of hours wasted and many millions of dollars spent, the Democrats have been unable to show collusion with Russia.

So, now, they are moving onto the false accusations and fabricated stories of women I don't know and-or have never met. Fake news.

SUMMERS: There's a lot to unpack there, Wolf. First, you have the president saying, you know, these women are only coming out because Democrats are pushing this. Then, you have him saying that he didn't know these women.

You also have him saying that these instances didn't happen. I mean, and White -- this is something the White House has said, time and time again. This was asked and answered during the 2016 campaign. The voted made a different choice. They elected President Donald Trump.

But I think when you have more than 100 members of Congress saying there should be an investigation, when you have, as CNN has reported, as many 15 women with a wide-range of allegations, from lewd comments all the way to sexual assault, that demonstrates to me that not only is this not been answered, it's a -- not just a he said she said. It is a he said she said she said she said issue.

And if there are still a lot of Americans who do have questions about this, I'm not sure what eye-witnesses the White House press secretary is referring to. We don't really have evidence that there are eye- witnesses out there who have denied that these things happened. PETTYPIECE: Well, and, of course, there's some evidence of the

president on tape himself. (INAUDIBLE) with this Howard Stern interview and, of course, the "Access Hollywood" tape.

CHALIAN: And simply because he got elected is not the answer to the question. I mean, that doesn't negate what these women are saying, simply because he did get elected, despite these allegations being out in public.

BLITZER: And it's a hot issue right now. A year, two years ago, five years ago, not as hot. This is a compelling development that has happened over these past few months. It's certainly not going to go away.

Juana, David and Shannon, guys, thanks very, very much.

Let's move onto Election Day in Alabama. Voters there right now, they are deciding on one of the most talked about Senate elections in recent memory, a race that could have a big impact on the balance of power here in Washington.

The controversial Republican Senate candidate, Roy Moore, came to the polls on horseback today, hoping that voters look past allegations that he sexually assaulted young teenage girls when he was in his 30s.

[13:15:08] Then, past comments calling, for example, homosexuality, quote, "an inherent evil."

On the other side, Democrat Doug Jones, a former prosecutor, who's hoping to break the 25-year Republican stranglehold on Alabama's Senate seats.

In the hours heading into Election Day, we heard a wide range of final arguments, from native son and basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley with Doug Jones warning fellow Alabamians.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES BARKLEY, BASKETBALL HALL OF FAMER: I love Alabama. But at some point we've got to draw a line in the sand so we just -- we're not a bunch of damn idiots.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Then there was Kayla Moore, Roy Moore's wife, fighting back against allegations of anti-Semitism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAYLA MOORE, WIFE OF ROY MOORE: One of our attorneys is a Jew.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And Roy Moore himself telling voters who to listen to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROY MOORE (R), ALABAMA SENATE CANDIDATE: We're not going to stand by and let other people from out of state and money from California control this election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Moore said at a rally with President Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon, they both spoke. Steve Bannon, by the way, he is not from Alabama.

Our Kaylee Hartung is in Montgomery, Alabama, for us right now.

Kaylee, each candidate made a final push for votes with very different messages. So what are we expecting?

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, it's so difficult to tell standing at this one precinct, Precinct 101, in Montgomery, the state capital.

What I can tell you, though, is that there has been a steady line of voters inside this precinct, suggesting that turnout here is good. Speaking with one election official here, he said it's not quite the turnout we would see for a presidential election, but it's certainly greater than they saw for the Republican runoff and for the Republican primary in the lead up to this election.

But that being said, this state is so interesting for so many reasons. One of them being that so few people we've learned want to tell you who they voted for because of how polarizing this race has been. We learned that folk today who voted for Doug Jones are much more willing to share that vote with you. That's apparent as you see Doug Jones signs in yards throughout this state. Very few Roy Moore signs.

We've encountered more people here today who have taken the opportunity to defend Roy Moore. One woman who told us she wouldn't want people asking what she did 40 years ago. But there's such an interesting dynamic on this Election Day as we've heard Senator Richard Shelby say, he values the sanctity of the ballot and many people keeping that vote to themselves today.

BLITZER: Kaylee Hartung in Montgomery, Alabama, for us.

Kaylee, thank you.

Certainly going to be a county by county battle for votes in today's special Senate election in Alabama. Both sides have been pushing very, very hard to get out the vote with turnout potentially making all the difference in this critically important race.

Our chief national correspondent, the anchor of "INSIDE POLITICS," John King is joining us right now.

So, John, where do we expect to see the key battlegrounds across the state?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, Kaylee just made a great point there, this is an special election. It's an off year election. It is not a presidential year. Not even a normal Senate election. So, who is going to turn out? We don't know. The fact that people say it's steady turnout, who does that benefit? We'll be counting the votes, what, about six, seven hours from now. If you look, here's the map we'll be filling in tonight.

Let's go back to a different race, though, just to remind you, this is the presidential race in 2016. And it's not a surprise to anybody. This is a ruby, ruby red, deep Republican state. So the math is in favor of Roy Moore and against Doug Jones. That does not mean Doug Jones can't win.

This is 2016. Let's go back to 2012. Barack Obama's re-election campaign. He got just 38 percent of the vote, again, in ruby Republican Alabama.

Can Doug Jones pull this off? Let's look, Wolf. This is the last time Roy Moore ran for state supreme court chief justice in 2012. He only won with 52 percent of the vote. He does under perform other Republicans in the state because some moderate Republicans don't like to vote for him because of his positions mostly on the social issues.

So, what would Doug Jones have to do? Remember, this is Bob Vance, who lost last time at 48 percent. But imagine Doug Jones is the Democratic candidate tonight using this map so we can fill it in. Where Kaylie is, she's in Montgomery, Democrats have to not -- he has to not only run it up, Roy Moore needs to -- Doug Jones, excuse me, needs to not only do that, 70 percent vote. It's the math. It's, do people turn out near presidential turnout among African-Americans especially, college students, other Democratic voters in Montgomery, in Birmingham as well. This is absolutely critical that Doug Jones run up huge margins here because we do expect Roy Moore to win in these smaller, rural communities, in the northern belt of the state, in the southern belt of the state.

The other key question, what about the suburbs? We'll watch tonight. Shelby County, south of Birmingham, the suburbs there, again, this is a place where Luther Strange did very well against Roy Moore in the Republican runoff. Moderate Republican voters. Do they stay home? Do they vote for Doug Jones? Or do they write in another Republican? That's what we'll be looking for in the suburbs here.

[13:20:08] One last point, Wolf. No accident, Pensacola's in Florida. Nobody who lives there can vote in this election. But that's where the president went because he wanted to influence voters down here in the Mobile area. You see in Roy Moore's last race the Democrats won one county, came -- performed pretty well in the other county. This will be key here again, more moderate, suburban, main stream Republicans, do they stick with the president and Roy Moore, do they go to Doug Jones? That's why we'll count. Very difficult math for Doug Jones, but, given the special circumstances of this race, not impossible.

BLITZER: You're going to be very busy tonight with that map. We're all going to get to know the state of Alabama a whole lot closer. John King reporting for us.

Thanks, John, very much.

Up next, I'll speak live with Alabama's secretary of state. We'll talk about the turnout so far, whether any issues are erupting in the voting.

Also, after weeks of Republicans criticizing the special counsel, Robert Mueller, the president's legal team now demanding a second special prosecutor. You're going to hear why.

And comedian Jimmy Kimmel making a very emotional plea over health care while holding his son who just had a second heart surgery. You're going to hear his words and his message to Congress.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:25:35] BLITZER: More now on the voting underway in the controversial Senate race in Alabama. Who shows up to vote today certainly will be a huge part of the story. Both sides have been trying to rally the troops in the home stretch as they look to get the maximum amount of people to the polls, but it could be a rather tough battle. The August primary, look at this, only 18 percent showed up. And in the Republican runoff, it was just 14 percent. That's compared to 62 percent who showed up last November when the state chose Donald Trump as the winner.

Joining us now from Montgomery, Alabama, is the Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill.

Secretary Merrill, thanks so much for joining us.

JOHN MERRILL, ALABAMA SECRETARY OF STATE: Wolf, thanks for allowing me to be your guest.

BLITZER: What kind of turnout are you expecting today? Voting started several hours ago.

MERRILL: It did, Wolf. And we anticipate about 25 percent of the electorate participating in today's election. Of course, we have 3,328,117 voters. That means approximately 835,000 people may be participating if we reach that 25 percent threshold.

BLITZER: So that would be -- that are would your goal, let's say. In the August primary there were, what, more than 250,000 more Republican votes than Democrats. How does the state break down -- and you're an expert in this area -- Republican versus Democrat registered voters?

MERRILL: Well, we don't have party registration, Wolf. But what we do have is party participation. And one of the things that has continued to happen over the last few years is, there has been more and more Republicans voting in the primary process and fewer and fewer Democrats voting in the primary process. As a matter of fact, and I know that you know this because you always do your homework, but Judge Roy Moore actually received more votes in the Republican primary than all the Democrats combined in that process. So it will be interesting to see exactly where the votes come from today and exactly who chooses to participate. BLITZER: What do you say to the critics, and there are a lot of them

out there, who say that Alabama, a Republican state, that officials there have made it too hard for people to vote, that they're trying to tamp down voter turnout. What's your response?

MERRILL: Well, Wolf, I mean people are entitled to their own opinions, but they're not entitled to their own facts. And what are the fact? The facts are that since January 19, 2015, when I became the secretary of state of Alabama, we registered 865,107 new voters in Alabama since that time. Wolf, that's an impressive and unparalleled in the history of our state and no other state can catch per capita. So we're excited about that. We made a dedicated effort to insure that each and every eligible U.S. citizen, that's a resident of Alabama, is registered to vote and has a photo ID. We want everybody to vote. We want to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in Alabama.

BLITZER: What kind of photo ID do they need today when they go to the polls to actually vote? Forget about registering right now, but to actually vote?

MERRILL: Well, Wolf, we have approximately 10 different items that are available to be used as identification standards when one goes to the poll. Most people, 90 percent plus of our people, use their Alabama driver's license. But you can use an non-driver ID. You can use the ID card, the voter ID card that we provide for free to all residents in the state of Alabama that would like to have one. But government- issued IDs, whether it be a work ID, a hospital ID, if you work at a public hospital, if you work at a university or college, some type of school system. If you have a tribal ID, a military ID. All of those things qualify. And it's not too late to get your ID today to still vote if you don't have one.

BLITZER: As you know, your senior senator, Richard Shelby, he's a Republican, he stated publically he did not vote for Roy Moore absentee balloting before the actual polling -- the polls opened today. You're a Republican. You're a state official. Can you tell us who you voted for?

MERRILL: Well, Wolf, I voted several weeks ago and I voted for Judge Moore as the Republican standard-bearer in this election.

BLITZER: All right, so let's see what happens in the course of today. What's your prediction?

MERRILL: Well, I anticipate that we're going to have a strong turnout and I think that the Alabamians that participate today have had a lot of time to evaluate all of the information that's been presented to them and I think when their voice is heard tonight it will be loud and clear. It may not be understood by all the people throughout the nation, but it will definitely be understood by the people in Alabama.

[13:30:13] BLITZER: And, finally, the