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Two Iowa Officers Killed in Ambush Attacks; Six Days to Go: Clinton, Trump Make Final Pitch; Black Turnout Dips in Early Voting States. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 2, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:16] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You guys have a great day. NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you for joining me. We do begin with breaking news out of Iowa this morning.

Des Moines police just releasing this picture of a man they say gunned down two police officers early this morning in ambush-style attacks. Police say both officers were sitting in their patrol cars at the time. They were found just miles apart from one another. Schools in the area closing as officials hunt for the killer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. PAUL PARIZEK, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, DES MOINES POLICE: There is somebody out there shooting police officers. We hope we find him before anybody else gets hurt. We definitely don't want anybody in the public getting hurt, in the community getting hurt. But there's a clear and present danger to police officers right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Jean Casarez is following the latest developments for us. Good morning.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this just happened this morning, Carol. It's a little after one o'clock and in Urbandale, Iowa. This is just a picturesque city with a police force of 50. They got calls of shot fired, so they went and what did they find but one of their own shot dead, sitting in his patrol car.

About 20 minutes later, in Des Moines, Iowa, the neighboring Des Moines, officers went to an intersection, and it appears that this one just happened upon one of their own officers, shot dead in his patrol car. So at that point, they realized that there is that clear and present danger for police officers.

We want to show everybody the picture of Scott Michael Greene. This is the suspect right now. They are looking for him. There is a manhunt in this area. They believe he is armed and dangerous. Do not approach him if you see him, 5'11", 180 pounds.

Now, they've already had a press conference this morning. Listen to what the Des Moines, Iowa Police Department is saying. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PARIZEK: These officers were ambushed. On the surface right now, just like I said, we're just a few hours into this, it doesn't look like there was any interaction between these officers and whoever the coward is that shot them while they sat in their cars. That's the best we got that we can explain at the scene right now. Both of them were in their cars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And they are pairing up the police officers right now. An officer is not alone on patrol. And they do believe the police officers, Carol, could be a target at any point until they find who they are now calling a suspect. Very quickly, last known to be driving a Ford F-150, blue, 2011, Iowa license plate 780-YFR.

COSTELLO: So, hopefully, someone will --

CASAREZ: Will look out.

COSTELLO: -- will notice that car and police will have a good tip, and --

CASAREZ: Yes.

COSTELLO: Scary stuff. Jean Casarez, thank you so much.

CASAREZ: Thank you.

COSTELLO: All right. Let's talk politics now. With six days to go until Election Day, Hillary Clinton is turning up the heat. And already turned in your vote? Donald Trump says you can change that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am sick and tired of the negative, dark, divisive, dangerous vision and behavior of people who support Donald Trump.

(APPLAUSE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You can change your vote to Donald Trump. We'll make America great again. OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: This is what the campaign trail looks like today. The Clinton camp unleashing major surrogates in every direction while Trump hits Florida and Pence makes a play out west. We are covering all the angles with our team of political reporters.

Let's begin, though, with CNN's Phil Mattingly. He's in Orlando. Good morning.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. It's time to turn the page. That's how one Democratic operative described what the Clinton campaign is doing right now.

Yes, they're still very angry at the letter FBI Director Jim Comey sent to Capitol Hill. They still believe his rationale is faulty. But they also recognize just focusing on that, probably not the best way to deal with the last week of the election, especially given where Hillary Clinton is going to be today, the state of Arizona, a Republican stronghold.

Before the letter was even sent, this was supposed to be the big news of the week. Here's why. The Clinton campaign believes this is actually a toss-up state. They are looking at early voter data. When we talked to advisers, they see very high Hispanic turnout, turnout that they're seeking to boost with this ad. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 27 million strong already to vote for freedom, equality, and reason, traits that seem to have gone out of season. A vote to make a difference, to fight indifference, to silence the ignorance. Because when you're 27 million strong, no one can tell you that you don't belong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Carol, a powerful message. It's really tracking with an optic really across the country in Hispanic vote, at least in the early voting states, something the Clinton campaign is really trying to capitalize on.

Here's a reality when it comes to Arizona. The Clinton campaign, their top advisers, even acknowledge that it's a toss-up at best. But still, if they have an opportunity there, you can really shut down any pathway Donald Trump may have to the presidency.

[09:05:08] Now, the other issue is, again, taking the focus away from Jim Comey, away from the FBI, and putting it squarely back on Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton's campaign wants this to be a referendum on Trump. Take a listen to her attacks yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: My opponent can say whatever he wants about me. I don't really care. He just spends all of his time just denigrating, criticizing, America. He's insulted a huge majority of the American people.

I mean, think about it. Started with immigrants, moved on to Latinos, African-Americans, Muslims, people with disabilities, prisoners of war, and then women. If you know anybody who is thinking about voting for Trump, well, first of all, stage an intervention. I mean, this --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, Carol, they believe that that's the message people are focused on over the course of the next six days, Hillary Clinton wins this election. Now, it's important to note, you pointed out, Carol, the surrogates

all over the place for the Clinton campaign. This is, whether you're a Trump supporter or a Clinton supporter, something you have to acknowledge. When it comes to quantity and quality, there's simply no match-up between the two.

But this is why it's so important on a day like today when you have somebody like Hillary Clinton going to Arizona, then after that to Nevada. Her campaign did something very interesting yesterday. Decided to start spending money on the ground in traditional blue states. Raised a couple of eyebrows. The Trump campaign saying it is tacit acknowledgment that this race is getting closer.

So what does the Clinton campaign do, they spin on the ground but they also get to send surrogates there. In places like Wisconsin and Michigan, there's Bernie Sanders; Nevada, Elizabeth Warren; North Carolina, President Obama. Right here in Florida, Vice President Joe Biden.

It is one of the most effective elements of the campaign (inaudible) for the --

COSTELLO: Well, so you get the gist. Clinton has pivoted and her surrogates are everywhere. Donald Trump has surrogates in just a few places. So, Phil Mattingly, many thanks to you.

As for Donald Trump's latest pitch, convince early voters to change their ballots in states that allow it.

Let's bring in CNN's Sara Murray. She's in Washington. Good morning.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning, Carol. Well, Donald Trump is speaking to voters that he believes might have some buyer's remorse in the wake of this letter from FBI Director James Comey. So he made this pitch on the campaign trail last night, and he's continuing it on Twitter.

Let me read you what he put out today, saying, "You can change your vote in six states. So now that you see Hillary was a big mistake, change your vote to make America great again."

Now, Carol, you can actually change your early vote in seven states. It's rare, but it is legal in a handful of these states. And Donald Trump is betting that there are some people who are going to want to do that, particularly as he continues to hammer Hillary Clinton over this FBI investigation. Take a listen to what he said yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: She wants to blame everyone else for her mounting legal troubles, but she has really no one else to blame but herself. She is likely to be under investigation for many years, probably concluding in a very large-scale criminal trial.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MURRAY: Now, the FBI has said they don't even know if the e-mails that they're looking into will be significant. But, of course, that's not stopping Donald Trump from trying to use this against his political opponent. And when you look at where he and his running mate, Mike Pence, are going to be today, you sort of see how they're trying to play offense and defense.

Mike Pence is going to be in New Mexico as well as Colorado. These are both states that were tilting blue, but the Trump campaign is trying to put into play. But he's also going to be stopping by Arizona. This was a state that was tilting red, but that the Clinton camp is trying to turn into a battleground.

As for Donald Trump, he will be focused on a much more traditional battleground state. He'll be spending the entire day, a barnstorming across Florida. And his aides say he's expected to focus pretty heavily today on the economy, assuming he sticks to the script. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Sara Murray reporting live from Washington. I want to take you back to Des Moines, Iowa. There is a news conference going on now. Two police officers were shot, ambush-style. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PARIZEK: Our detectives are looking to speak with Mr. Greene right now. We think that he's got some information that's pretty critical to us closing this case out. We can't go into great detail right now, but he's definitely somebody that we want to talk to.

I'll let you ask your questions. Probably, it would the best way to go here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he have any previous record?

PARIZEK: Not that I'm aware of.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you say that you're looking to talk with him (inaudible) confirmed a suspect?

PARIZEK: The detectives have told us that he is a suspect.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just received some information about a disturbing YouTube videos that police believe help close this. Do you know anything about these videos?

PARIZEK: I've heard the same thing. I haven't seen it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What led you to him?

[09:10:04] PARIZEK: The Urbandale Police, I think, Sergeant Underwood, could probably speak to that a little better.

SGT. CHAD UNDERWOOD, URBANDALE POLICE DEPARTMENT: Sure, sure.

PARIZEK: But we can't give you too many details, obviously.

UNDERWOOD: Yes. At this point, I can't give you a whole lot of details as to what is the direction of wanting to speak with him. All I can tell you is that the investigators have told us to release his information in an effort to locate him, to try to get some information we feel could be vital to what happened this morning. As far as --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is he --

UNDERWOOD: Go ahead, I'm sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is he (inaudible) now?

UNDERWOOD: I don't want to release that information yet either because I'm really unsure of his whereabouts. Obviously, that's why we're looking for him. I don't know if he is a current resident of Urbandale or has been in the past. That information, we don't have. The detectives obviously are working on that information and trying to locate him at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you looking to speak with him in order to lead to someone else, or is this the person that you want to talk to right now?

UNDERWOOD: You know, as I said, this is an ongoing investigation. I don't know what the detectives' motives are for speaking with him at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

UNDERWOOD: All I can say to you is that we want to get his information out there because we want to make an effort to try to locate him, so we can find out more information about what happened earlier this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How did you guys exactly land on him?

UNDERWOOD: Through a series of leads and a series of investigative tips. And some of the things the investigators have been doing have led us to him as somebody we need to speak with in regards to these incidents that occurred this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any sense of what may have inspired these?

UNDERWOOD: At this point, I don't want to speculate. I will let the detectives do their job. And they're working very hard and diligently to find out what happened. Hopefully, when we'll get some answers once we locate him and speak with him, and the detectives complete their investigation.

PARIZEK: You know, your question, Dan, I think you know that, oftentimes, in these investigations, we don't figure out what motive is until we get done. And then there's times that we can't make sense of what their motive is, or they don't even share that with us. So we're not getting anywhere close to that and we may never actually know what motivated this act.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you know about his background, just in general?

PARIZEK: Not a lot. I mean, we just -- basically, what I shared with you is what the detectives have given us. They think he's got information, like Sergeant Underwood said, that's critical to us closing this case out. We want to find him.

As we noted in the press release, there's the possibility that he's armed, and we believe him to be dangerous. We don't want anybody to approach him if they see him. If they do, just call 911.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've heard he might be ex-military? (Inaudible)

PARIZEK: No, I don't know that part, either.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could you confirm date of birth?

PARIZEK: I think it was in 1970.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And to clarify, you do believe that he's in with the Des Moines metro area?

PARIZEK: We don't know where he's at. If we knew where he's at, we'd go grab him up. I mean --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Or -- OK. So it could be --

PARIZEK: Yes, we don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

PARIZKE: No. We've sent this information out about this incident across the nation. You know, clearly, there's threats to police officers, definitely not something we thought was going to happen here, you know. So we've shared this with everybody that we can share it with.

UNDERWOOD: And we're asking the public to remain vigilant and to obviously call 911, or the information we've provided you guys, provide it to the public to assist us in trying to locate him. So we can, hopefully, answer some more of these questions you guys have asked us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you go through, again, what each department is doing out of the ordinary to protect officers today, to ensure their safety?

PARIZEK: I think the only step that we've taken that's different from our day-to-day business is that we've partnered our officers up. Obviously, you know, there's safety in numbers. So we've partnered everybody up today. It kind of decreases our presence as we spread out through the city, but we're going to be able to cover, you know, calls for service and provide the services that we typically do.

UNDERWOOD: And the law enforcement community is very tight knit. We have a lot agencies assisting us as well --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to break away but you heard police officers sending out a plea. If you see this suspect, Scott Michael Greene, he's 46 years old, do not approach him. Please call 911 or call the police department. This is the man wanted in connection with the ambush-style killings of two police officers, one in Des Moines and one in nearby Uniondale. We'll have much more on this throughout the day on CNN. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:18:22] COSTELLO: Less than a week until Election Day and already, more than 24 million Americans have cast their ballot for president. But a dip in African-American voters across the battleground states could prove worrisome for Hillary Clinton.

CNN executive editor Mark Preston has new numbers for us. Here's Mark.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Good morning, Carol.

Election Day is six days away. But still, 24.4 million people have already cast ballots across the nation. CNN, we're tracking 12 battleground states, where the road to 270 is going to go through.

And let's look at two of those states. First of all, let's go down to North Carolina; 1.6 million people have already cast their ballots. How are they performing right now? Democrats have a 219,000 vote lead in early balloting at this point.

However, look at 2012, and their lead was 292,000. So, that's a troubling sign right there for Democrats who are hoping to take back North Carolina, that Mitt Romney won in 2012. So why is that?

Let's go to race. Let's figure out where people are voting. Look at this, 23.1 percent right now, African-Americans have cast early ballots, 1.8 percent of Hispanics have cast ballots. This is key -- two key constituencies for Democrats and for Hillary Clinton.

Let's look at 2012, though, and look at the drop-off right there. That has got to be troubling right now for Democrats who need to increase the level of the early vote amongst African-Americans and they have seen a bit of an increase amongst Hispanics. Not a huge increase but a bit of an increase.

Barack Obama is in North Carolina in a few hours on behalf of Hillary Clinton. [09:20:01] He'll also be there on Friday.

Let's look at the gender. Breakdown right now. Women voters right now are outpacing men by about 12 percentage points. Women tend to be more Democratic than men do.

If you go back to 2012 the numbers are about the same. Let's go further south down into Florida. The state of Florida right now, about 3.5 million people have already cast their ballots. Let's dig deep into these numbers, though.

Republicans have a very slight edge at this point. Right there this bottom number right here is independents and those affiliated with other political parties. Let's dig deeper into these numbers, though. In this time four years ago or rather eight years ago, you can see that Democrats have the advantage. So, again, a troubling number right now for Democrats in a state that Donald Trump needs to win.

Let's look into the deep -- deeper there and see where the numbers are taking us. Blacks have about 12 percent of the early vote right now. Hispanics at about 14 percent.

We go back to 2008, troubling sign again for Democrats. We've seen a drop-off the African-American vote in the state of Florida. Although we have seen a remarkable increase amongst the Hispanic vote in Florida.

Now, again, this is not predictive of the election, but what it does is tell us how the political parties are getting out their votes. And then let's just look at the breakdown between men and women. It's about 10 percentage points in 2016. It's about the same right now.

So, Carol, both political parties are trying to get the vote out, as I said, Barack Obama in North Carolina today. And then we see Donald Trump who is campaigning in Florida -- Carol.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Fascinating. Mark Preston, many thanks.

So, let's focus on exactly why voter enthusiasm may be down among African-Americans.

With me now, Rebecca Berg, she's a national political reporter for RealClearPolitics. Jason Johnson is politics editor for theroot.com, and political science professor, and Sirius XM contributor, and Andy Smith director of University of New Hampshire Survey Center.

Welcome to all of you.

REBECCA BERG, REALCLEARPOLITICS: Thanks, Carol.

JASON JOHNSON, THEROOT.COM: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So, Jason, let's zero in on North Carolina, shall we? The NAACP in

North Carolina filed a lawsuit Monday over black voter suppression. A federal appeals court accused Republicans of an almost surgical assault on black turnout. According to "The New York Times," black voters had only one polling place to cast a ballot in Gilford County, North Carolina. In 2012, there were 16 locations.

So, is Mr. Trump right, is the election rigged?

JOHNSON: Yes. Donald Trump is right. It's rigged in favor of Republicans in certain states.

You have a clearly racially targeted plan of voter suppression going on in North Carolina, going on in Ohio, and going on in Pennsylvania. That's one of the reasons why the Clinton campaign has been spending so much time there.

But I think the important thing to remember is this, Carol, when you look at these numbers of Hispanic turnout, African-American turnout, white turnout, Hillary Clinton is going to do better with white voters than Barack Obama did. Barack Obama only got 38 percent of the white vote and managed to get re-elected in 2012. Hillary Clinton is going to do much, much better with white voters. There's huge Latino turnout.

So, I think this idea of focusing on black turnout being the difference, it may be lower for Democrats, but it's going to be made up for by higher turnout among white women, and certainly higher turnout among Latinos.

COSTELLO: Rebecca, you agree?

BERG: I do agree that we are seeing some jumps among Latinos. And certainly we've seen college educated white voters in particular, favoring Hillary Clinton. And that's key because this is a group that traditionally in recent presidential elections has supported Republicans. And so, Trump has been forced to compensate with support from working class white voters which he has done to a large extent.

But this -- make no mistake, this is a major problem for Hillary Clinton, and it's one of the reasons that to try to energize African- American voters, you have seen President Obama, Michelle Obama, out on the campaign trial. Why we're seeing President Obama going to North Carolina today to try to make the case for these voters to get out early and to make their voices heard.

I think Democrats anticipated that this would be a problem. But the extent of the problem is really going to be the determining factor as to whether Hillary Clinton can win in some of these key states.

COSTELLO: So, Andy, you're the polling expert. What can we really read from the early voting numbers?

ANDY SMITH, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE SURVEY CENTER: Well, actually not a lot. There doesn't seem to be too much correlation between the early voting numbers, and what the actual vote will be, because, you think about voting, either early voting, or late voting, the biggest factor is determining if you have that much interest in politics or are going to vote at all, and actually even voting on Election Day isn't that difficult.

And we've not seen that voting turnout has gone up appreciably even though we've made it easier to vote in many states. So, you're either going to vote or not vote. When you do it isn't the critical factor.

But I think that one of the issues that I would say to pay attention to is that African-American turnout, because both in 2008 and 2012, African-Americans across the country turned out at higher rates than did whites.

[09:25:11] And if their numbers should drop say two percentage points or three percentage points in states like Ohio, or Pennsylvania, that would be enough, assuming everything else stays the same. Throw those states to Donald Trump. So, it is a concern for the Clinton campaign, and I think that's why you're seeing so much focus on African-American votes in those key battleground states.

COSTELLO: OK. So, let's talk about Republican voters. Mike Pence is urging Republicans to, quote, "come home". Yet, George P. Bush, who is Jeb Bush's son, says he is the only bush voting for Trump which means George W. Bush could actually vote for Hillary Clinton.

So, we also know that John Kasich the governor of Ohio, he wrote in McCain. We know the Massachusetts Republican governor says he's not voting for Trump or Clinton.

So, is there any sign, Jason, that Republicans are coming home?

JOHNSON: Well, I think you've got good news and bad news if you're a Republican voter. The, quote/unquote, "tightening", and it's really not tightening in the race, what we're seeing is Trump's numbers are creeping up a bit because you've got Republicans who were on the fence who are deciding that they are going to vote for him.

The problem is that that Republican voter is still very apprehensive about his campaign. A lot of them are manifesting themselves in Gary Johnson voters depending on the state. A lot of them are still claiming they're undecided voters. The fact that you have so many high profile Republicans who are saying, look, I'm not going to vote for this guy, that is reflective of many people on the ground and I think that's one of the reasons why the Trump campaign is still desperately campaigning in places like Arizona, where they shouldn't have to go, because there are Republicans who are still not going to vote for him and maybe vote for Clinton.

COSTELLO: So, Rebecca, what about this notion that there are a bunch of secret Trump supporters out there that are very eager to vote for him have we seen any real signs that that's true?

BERG: Well, so, the theory, Carol, is that in polling people aren't necessarily forthcoming with Donald Trump. So far, I haven't seen any indication that that is the case. Certainly, there are voters out there who are not enthusiastic about either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, and I think that's reflected in the unfavorable for both of these candidates, which are historic, two of the most unpopular candidates who have ever run for president, if not the most unpopular.

And so, certainly, there are some people are not going to be excited if they do end up making a choice and are currently undecided about the person they end up supporting. But I don't think that there is any sort of pronounced reflection in polling of people who are just not wanting to admit that they're supporting Donald Trump.

There's actually a precedent we can look at, which is the Senate race a few years ago between Claire McCaskill and Todd Akin in Missouri, Todd Akin made his very controversial remark about legitimate rape that basically torpedoed his chances in that race, but many Republicans tried to argue at the time that there were these hidden voters, people who were afraid to say that they were supporting him but actually did.

And when it came to Election Day, Claire McCaskill won by a ton and those voters never materialized.

COSTELLO: So, Andy, a lot of people say they won't vote this year because the choices are bad. But again a lot of people still people are talking about this election. And they're talking about it a lot. Everywhere, I go people want to talk about this.

So, it doesn't really wash with me that on one hand, you have people really involved in politics, and on the other hand it's like, well I'm just not going to vote. It's just like what, what can we read from that?

SMITH: Well, I think Rebecca is right these are the two most unpopular candidates we've seen since the advent of modern political polling. I was just looking at the ABC News tracking poll. One of the fascinating things is how less enthusiastic both parties are even than four years ago.

Democrats are about 20 percentage points less enthusiastic -- excuse me Clinton supporters versus Obama supporters are about 20 percent less enthusiastic and Romney supporters versus Trump supporters are about 10 percent less enthusiastic.

So, I don't think that voters are really seeing a positive choice here. And I think that's reflected in both candidates' closing remarks, and they're both going negative still because if you've got high negatives, the only thing you can really do is drive your opponents negatives even higher. And I think that's what we're seeing unfortunately over the last weekend here.

COSTELLO: I know, at least we have consistency, though, right? It started out ugly and it's going to end ugly, too.

Thanks to all of you for being with me. Rebecca, Jason Johnson, Andy Smith, many thanks.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, A-list celebs rallying young voters for Hillary Clinton. But can Clinton turn all of those concertgoers into actual voters?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)