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Trump Holds Rally in Florida; Elizabeth Warren Campaigns for Clinton. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired October 24, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:01]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Earlier, she and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren there appearing on the trail, Manchester, New Hampshire.

Senator Warren used Trump's own words against him, specifically when he called Clinton a nasty woman in that last presidential debate. Here she was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Nasty women have really had it with guys like you.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

WARREN: Yes, get this, Donald. Nasty women are tough. Nasty women are smart. And nasty women vote.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

WARREN: She doesn't whine. She doesn't run to Twitter at 3:00 a.m. to call her opponents losers or dummies. She doesn't even cry that the election is rigged. Nope. Hillary is the kind who just gets up every day and she keeps on fighting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go to Sara Murray in St. Augustine, Florida, there at that Trump event.

We heard from Hillary Clinton and Senator Warren. Do you think Trump will respond to that?

SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we will certainly wait and see, Brooke.

You know, I know his advisers want him to talk about what he would do if he was elected, talking more about drain the swamp, get rid of everyone in Washington, and what he would do, renegotiating trade deals, increasing military spending.

But I think the question right now is what he can do in the last two weeks between now and Election Day to turn around this tide of polls that show him slipping. And their strategy seems to essentially be to hustle as much as possible in these battleground states. He's holding three roundtables in Florida today, as well as two rallies.

They certainly want him to try to hammer home this message that he's a change candidate. But in addition to hustling, Brooke, it's not clear if just staying on message is going to be enough or if Donald Trump can even stay on message. We saw over the weekend, for instance, when he tried to make his closing argument, he kicked it off by threatening to sue any woman who's accused him of sexual misconduct.

We will kind of be waiting to see what closing argument he has for Floridians here today.

BALDWIN: We will take him live when we see him. Sara Murray for now, thank you, in Florida.

By the way, President Obama is also looking past Trump in this unprecedented move. He is set to endorse more than 100 Democrats in down-ballot races.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can't elect Hillary and then saddle her with a Congress that is do-nothing, won't even try to do something, won't even get their own stuff passed, much less the stuff you want passed.

All they got to offer is blocking and obstructing every step of the way. We have got to have a Congress that's willing to make progress on issues Americans cares about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go to our White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski.

Michelle, it's obvious he wants the Democrats to win. But peel back the layers. What is this really about?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we haven't seen him do this before during his presidency.

I think now you look at all that's been going on in this election season, this unprecedented season, and they see places where Democratic support, where Democratic seats have gone away, where races are razor-tight, where state legislatures are setting policy when there's been obstruction in Congress, so they're making the changes there.

So, the White House now has this new focus on races farther and farther down the ballot. We're seeing him endorse 150 candidates in state legislature races. We haven't seen them do that before, at least 30 candidates who are running for the U.S. Congress. So, we have seen this kind of evolution.

Remember, in the beginning, President Obama didn't want to talk about Donald Trump. He didn't want to call too much attention to some of the controversial things that were out there. But as the race heated up, we see the president get out on the trail more and more. We see him deliver these ever-stronger slams of Donald Trump.

Then the first lady gets involved and does the same. You remember the president early on said, in this race, you have to treat it like you're running scared. But now that they see Hillary Clinton pulling out somewhat ahead in the polls, that that gap is widening a little bit, now they're jumping in with support for those candidates that are farther down the ballot. He's trying to do both.

He still wants to be as vocal as possible against Donald Trump, but he also wants to have that support for those who are running for Congress and elsewhere, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I will ask my next panel precisely what we're telling me about. Michelle Kosinski, thank you there at the White House.

Let me bring in our panel.

Maeve Reston is with us, CNN senior political reporter. Also have Gloria Borger, CNN chief political analyst, and A.B. Stoddard, associate editor and columnist for RealClearPolitics, the ladies panel.

Thank you so much for being on with me.

Gloria, let's go back to the beat, which is Jeff Zeleny reporting on Hillary Clinton picking up the phone, calling members of Congress, including Republicans, essentially saying, I want to work with you, the presumption is, when I get elected.

[15:05:10]

Is that being prepared or is that being a little overconfident?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think what it is, is throwing a little shade.

I think she's trying to kind -- I think she's trying to say to Republicans who she knows will talk about this that I want to reach out to your people on your side of the aisle. And it's a way to make that public without kind of going out there and saying, I'm going to win.

So, I think it's a -- I think it's kind of clever for her to do that. I think part of the bedrock of this campaign going forward will be that we're reaching out to Republicans. And if you're undecided right now, Brooke, chances are that you would have liked to vote Republican, but you don't like Hillary Clinton.

So, they're making a calculation that she's -- by saying I'm reaching across the aisle, I'm making phone calls, I'm going to work with your guys, will kind of help her get those last, very last persuadables.

BALDWIN: Maeve, to be fair, I wanted to follow up just on what the Trump team would be doing as far as transition. I was talking to Dana Bash, and she was saying obviously they're being much more quiet about it, but they have appointed Chris Christie to be in charge of transition. What would they be doing right now? And also you have covered other campaigns. What would other folks who would like to be president, would they have been doing the same?

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think they certainly are.

Donald Trump actually does have a very robust transition team. As you said, Chris Christie has been overseeing that and they're preparing for the possibility that he could go to the White House as well. I do agree with Gloria. I think this is sort of a clever move on behalf of Hillary Clinton to be making these calls and trying to broaden the universe of voters who would consider voting for her.

Trump has bigger problems to deal with right now, which is maybe why we're not hearing him do as much outreach to Democrats. We're obviously seeing him really sliding in the polls and he's got to get out there on the campaign trail today and show how he can bring his numbers back up.

BALDWIN: What about President Obama, A.B.? President Obama, to this point, this is unprecedented, endorsing 150 candidates, I want to say it's 20 or 22 different states. He wants the Dems to win, but is this about legacy-building, is this about doing this ahead of the 2020 redistricting? Why is this so significant?

A.B. STODDARD, REALCLEARPOLITICS: Well, it is about many things at once.

You know, one of his projects when he leaves office is going to be redistricting. That really has a stranglehold on our politics. Most people in the country don't really understand that only 19 percent of us or something can get into the current Election Day and swing our congressional district.

That will have to change in order to break this gridlock. But I also think he really wants a legacy. He wants Clinton to win. I think he wants some more turnout. I think he's trying to convince people who don't like Hillary Clinton to come out anyway. I think that that's going to help her on the margins. He's trying to build excitement.

Any time he's at a rally, there's going to be more people there signing cards at the table about where they're going to vote and how they're going to vote. And I think it just generates more excitement, as all her high-profile surrogates do. I do think they will take any participation they can. And I think actually juicing the down-ballot will end up sort of helping her with some numbers where, you know, she's going to lose vote among young people, African-Americans.

She's not going to probably get the Obama coalition completely, so I think that that's probably going to really help with her numbers.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Yes, go ahead, Gloria.

BORGER: I just want to add one quick thing.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BORGER: During the Obama years, state legislatures were hollowed out. The Democrats lost about 900 legislative seats, not to mention a slew of governorships.

I think it may be 3-1 Republican governors right now. So what Obama is trying to do also in a practical sense is make up all this lost ground. They see an opportunity to do it, so they're taking it.

BALDWIN: So, as he's taking it, what about Mike Huckabee? Maeve, have you seen his tweet from today? This is someone who wanted to be president. He was governor of Arkansas and he tweeted this.

"If Republicans lose the Senate, it's not because candidates ran with Donald Trump, but because they ran from him. No time for wimps and wusses."

Wimps and wusses from Governor Huckabee. Maeve, do you think there's some truth to that?

RESTON: I don't -- we won't know until Election Day, obviously.

BALDWIN: Is this blame game? What is this?

[15:10:00]

RESTON: Well, this is partly blame game.

And this is anger, certainly, among Trump supporters that some of these House and Senate candidates, the vulnerable ones, have been running away from him. But they're doing what they can to save their campaigns. You saw Elizabeth Warren out there on the campaign trail today just hitting Kelly Ayotte over and over on her -- trying to associate her with Trump. Those candidates are really grappling with that and trying to hold on in their states.

There's a possibility we could see a Hillary Clinton landslide here. If that happens, that means those vulnerable Senate candidates will have a very, very tough time hanging on.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: And now Kelly Ayotte is trying to say, I never should have said he was a role model, right?

RESTON: Right, exactly. Exactly. Trying to clean that up. That's been such a tenuous balance for all of those candidates this entire time, you know, the tightrope between saying that they would support the Republican nominee and dealing with Trump's daily rhetoric.

BALDWIN: OK, ladies, stay with me. I have more for you. We have to take a quick break. Let me show you also some live pictures from Florida. We're watching

and waiting to hear from Donald Trump. And this is also just minutes after Elizabeth Warren, to Maeve's point, unleashed on the GOP nominee. Will he respond to that? Will he stay with issues? We will dip in and listen.

Also, I will talk live with the woman who snapped this photo. See on the right side of your screen with Eric Trump and his wife wearing a T-shirt, actually, that says, Latinos against Trump, or contra Trump in Spanish. Why did she do that? Why was she there? Her takeaways coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Let's go straight to Florida. Donald Trump was just talking about Abe Lincoln. Let's eavesdrop.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's great to be here in St. Augustine. What a great place. Great to be back in Florida. I love Florida. This is my second home. I'm here all the time. And just in case you haven't heard, we're winning, not only Florida, but we're going to win the whole thing.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: The new poll that just came out from "Investors Business Daily," which was the most accurate poll from the last three presidential elections, has us up two points nationwide.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: What we have is, we have a movement like they have never seen before. We have some very, very unhappy people out there, though, I tell you, when they hear this, they are not happy, but we're going to take our nation back. Remember it. We're going to bring it back.

[15:15:15]

It's enough. It's enough. You heard where they have two more hostages in Iran and they're asking for billions of dollars. It's enough.

Early voting in Florida begins today through the 5th. So make sure you get out and vote. Locations include city hall and the supervisor of elections office. You have got to get out there. Who's voted already?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: That's not bad.

Well, can you do it early, because if you're not feeling well on the 8th of November, we don't want to take a chance. But if you're not feeling well, get up and vote. Who cares, right? (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Seventy-five percent of the American people, based on all polls, think our country is headed on the wrong track and we're going to fix it.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: It's common sense.

Our country is going to be put back on the right track and very, very quickly. And you're going to be very proud of your country again. You're going to be happy.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Together, we're going to fix our rigged system and deliver real change that once again puts America first.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Change has to come from the outside, or we're never really going to understand it.

And I will tell you, I have been on the inside, and the day I announced, June 16 of last year, I became a person on the outside. But we have to fix our country. We have to fix our country. The fact that the Washington establishment has tried so hard to stop our campaign is only more proof that our campaign represents the kind of change that only arrives once in a lifetime. And it's true.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Again, there has been never been a movement like this in the history of our country. And even those pundits that dislike me and dislike you and dislike everybody, they will admit, and they do admit, they have never seen anything like this before.

And wait until you see the results start to come in. The results are already starting. We're way ahead in Ohio. We're way ahead in Iowa. We're doing great in North Carolina, because people of this country are fed up with stupidity and weakness and we can't beat ISIS and all of the problems that we have got going.

They're fed up. And you know what else? They're fed up with losing their jobs to other countries all the time. The best evidence that our system is rigged is the fact that Hillary Clinton, despite her many crimes, was even allowed to run for president in the first place.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: True.

AUDIENCE: Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up! TRUMP: Hillary bleached and deleted 33,000 e-mails, lied to Congress

under oath, made 13 telephones disappear, some with a hammer, and then told the FBI she couldn't remember 39 different times.

(BOOING)

TRUMP: That the leadership of the FBI and the Department of Justice let Clinton off the hook for her crimes against our nation is one of the saddest moments in the history of our country. And we have to investigate the investigation, folks.

[15:20:00]

Just today, there are shocking new revelations, which you have seen, front page of "The Wall Street Journal," about how the Clinton campaign has corrupted our government.

It was just learned that one of the closest people to Hillary Clinton, with longstanding ties to her husband and herself, gave more -- this just came out -- gave more than $675,000 to the campaign of the spouse, the wife of the top FBI official who helped oversee the investigation into Mrs. Clinton's illegal e-mail server

(BOOING)

TRUMP: So, the man that was investigating her from the FBI, his wife runs for office and they give her more than $675,000 to run.

And it just came out. They just figured it out. We have never had a thing like this in the history of this country. This represented a large portion of the money the FBI official spouse had for the entire campaign, a big, big percentage. It's absolutely disgraceful. It's absolutely terrible.

And it's unbelievable how Hillary Clinton got away with the e-mail lie, the e-mail scam, the e-mail corruption, but now at least we have a pretty good idea.

And General Cartwright, a four-time, a four -- think of this -- a four-star general, highly respected, just at the end of last week struck a deal. He lied one time to the FBI, and he said he did that for national security reasons. Highly respected man, four-star. We're talking about a four-star general.

And he's going to go to jail, perhaps for as much as five years. And that's a tiny fraction -- that's a tiny fraction of what Hillary Clinton did. So, the fact that she's even allowed to run means our system is rigged. She never had a chance of being convicted.

Hillary knew this money was being paid, and she has to be held accountable for this, yet another crime, one of so many. And she has to be held accountable, because she knew that money, $675,000-plus, was being paid.

So, how is she allowed to continue to run for president? How is she allowed? She gets a subpoena from the United States Congress asking for her e-mails and other records. And she bleaches them and deletes them. Now, bleaching, nobody ever heard of. People, sophisticated people in that world, and the reason it's so expensive to do.

So, not only did they delete them. They bleached them. And now two weeks ago, they find out that two boxes of e-mails are missing. And you don't read about that in "The New York Times." And you don't read about that in the other newspapers, because the system is corrupt. The system is broken. The system is corrupt, folks.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And I have been saying it's rigged. I have been saying it for a long time. The system is rigged.

[15:25:00]

WikiLeaks also shows how John Podesta rigged the polls by oversampling Democrats, a voter suppression technique. And that's happening to me all the time. When the polls are even, when they leave them alone and do them properly, I'm leading.

But you see these polls where they're polling Democrats. How is Trump doing? Oh, he's down. They are polling Democrats. The system is corrupt, rigged and it's rigged and it's broken. And we're going to change it.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Thank you.

In an e-mail, Podesta says that he wants oversamples for our polling in order to maximize what we get out of our media polling. It's called voter suppression because people will say, oh, gee, Trump's down.

Well, folks, we're winning. We're winning. We're winning.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: These thieves and crook, the media, not all of it, not all of it, but much of it...

(BOOING)

TRUMP: They're the most crooked. They're almost as crooked as Hillary. They may even be more crooked than Hillary, because, without the media, she would be nothing.

Without the media, Hillary Clinton would be nothing. They're disgraceful. Just remember that. Just remember that. Without the dishonesty and deceit of the media, Hillary Clinton would be nothing, nothing.

Here's how all of this affects you. When the people who control the political power in our society can rig investigations, like her investigation was rigged, can rig polls -- you see these phony polls -- and rig the media, they can wield absolute power over your life, your economy and your country, and benefit big-time by it.

They control what you hear and what you don't hear, what it's covered, how it's covered, even if it's covered at all. Sometimes, I will have like these great events and it won't be covered. If there's a little glitch, it's front-page news all over the world.

They can ship your jobs all over the world, let drugs pour into -- look at the drugs that are pouring into this area, but all over -- let drugs pour into your community and let Congress write loopholes to benefit a select few.

And then you always hear Hillary, she's going to fight ISIS. Well, she's been there for a long time. She and Obama, through their incompetence -- and this guy, all he does is campaign. He ought to go back and trying to get jobs for our country. All he does is campaign.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We have an incompetent president. We have a president that doesn't know what he's doing.

And, again, take a look at Mosul. They announced four months ago, three months ago, we're going into Mosul. We're going to get the leaders of ISIS because they're living in Mosul. Guess what? Twelve minutes later, the leaders, they left. They're not stupid. They left.

Whatever happened -- remember the great generals? It was called the element of surprise, the element of surprise. So, now we're bogged down in Mosul. The enemy is much tougher than they thought. They have had a lot of time to get ready. They're using human shields all over the place. It's a horrible, horrible situation that's going on.

Why did we have to tell them we're going in? Why didn't we go in and then tell the public a week later, congratulations, we just got the leadership, we didn't lose many people?

I'm telling you, folks, our leadership -- I went to an Ivy League school, but there's some words that you can't describe any better. Our leadership is stupid. These are stupid people.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: So bad. These are stupid, stupid people. And they're leading us right down the tubes.

The corrupt system can also force brave National Guardsmen from California to return the bonuses they were promised, something that would never happen under a Trump administration.

(BOOING)

TRUMP: How about that one? These people, we want your money back that we gave you years ago.