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Woman in New York Times Piece on Trump Disputes Story; Democrats Fight Shifts to Kentucky and Oregon Ahead of Primaries; Hillary Clinton Turns to Husband Bill. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired May 16, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:04] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Phil Mattingly is here with more on that. Good morning.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Donald Trump has been pushing back hard over the last 24 hours on this front page "New York Times" story that really exposed relationships with women that looked very untoward, raised a lot of concerns amongst Republican officials I was speaking to throughout the day yesterday, but Trump pushing back hard and now getting some help from one of the main women featured in that magazine story, Rowanne Brewer Lane on FOX this morning saying this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROWANNE BREWER LANE, TRUMP EX-GIRLFRIEND, FORMER MODEL: It was very upsetting. I was not happy to read it at all. The "New York Times" told us several times that they would make sure that my story that I was telling came across. They promised several times that they would do it accurately. They told me several times and my manager several times that it would not be a hit piece and that my story would come across the way that I was telling it, and honestly. And it absolutely was not.

They did take quotes from what I said and they put a negative connotation -- they spun it to where it appeared negative. I did not have a negative experience with Donald Trump. He was very gracious. I saw him around all types of people, all types of women. He was very kind, thoughtful, generous. He was a gentleman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, Carol, Donald Trump has been touting that appearance all morning saying it, quote, blows up the "New York Times" story. Now it's worth noting, the "New York Times" story was a put together over the course of a six-week investigation. Dozens of women who have worked for Trump or with Trump over the course of his career were spoken to, not just this one woman. It raises a number of concerns and questions, but Trump really seizing on this moment right now, Carol, to push back. And it's an important push back. This is an area where he's shown great weakness in polling on a general electorate. When you look at women voters, women who would consider voting for him, the campaign will push back hard.

Also something I'm told the campaign will look to put executives that Trump has elevated within the Trump organization out to talk publicly about Donald Trump in a positive manner in the days and weeks ahead.

COSTELLO: Well, and it's a major attack line. He's going to attack Hillary Clinton, you know, what Bill Clinton did within his marriage.

MATTINGLY: Right.

COSTELLO: Right? And these kinds of articles don't help make those attacks effective.

MATTINGLY: It essentially -- it almost mitigates them on some level. Right? Donald Trump says he's great for women. Donald Trump plans to attack -- not just plan, has already attacked Hillary Clinton repeatedly on her husband's relationships while in the White House, and more importantly Hillary Clinton's actions regarding those relationships in the White House. So if that's his focus and now he's being called into question based on how he's operated in his business career, all of a sudden you wonder if that undercuts or undermines those actions right there, and I think that's why you've seen such a fierce pushback from Donald Trump, from his team, and why this is something that they are willing to attack repeatedly going forward.

Carol, throughout the campaign, Donald Trump has been able to just kind of brush off attacks, not really care about them, move forward. On some level on the primary a lot them ended up helping him.

COSTELLO: Yes.

MATTINGLY: This is one that he and his team clearly recognize has hit home. It's a problem for them going forward and that's why he's pushed back so hard over the last 24 hours.

COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly, thanks so much.

So let's talk about this. I'm joined by political commentator Ben Ferguson and Scottie Nell Hughes, a Trump surrogate, CNN political analyst and senior editor for the "Atlantic" Ron Brownstein also joins me.

Good morning to all of you.

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

COSTELLO: And thanks for being here.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: I just want to be -- I just want to be more specific about Rowanne Brewer Lane and what was said about her in the "New York Times." She said on FOX she was not misquoted but they misrepresented the incident, you know, at its face. So basically years and years ago Miss Brewer Lane was at a pool party at Mar-a-Lago. There were 50 models and 30 men. She didn't have a swimsuit with her so Donald Trump took her into the house and opened up a drawer and said hey, put on a swimsuit. She put on a swimsuit and he paraded her outside and said hey, doesn't she look like a Trump beauty? They dated for a short period of time. And the "New York Times" said this was just is an example of how Trump

viewed women as, you know, objects per se. That's kind of what the "New York Times" intimates in here.

So, Scottie, knowing all of that, what do you make of the article itself? Because the "New York Times" also interviewed 50 women for the article. They quote nine women by name in this article. It's not just Miss Brewer Lane.

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, TRUMP SURROGATE: No, and I think, you know, you just gave a good rendition of the article to be honest with you, but you look at the "New York Times" article and they're a little bit harsher in their words, too. They obviously make it out to be -- to paint Mr. Trump as being sexist and that he just put her in a bathing suit and paraded her around. I mean, she walked out, he said, isn't she a Trump beauty? He had already walked around the hours for -- for an hour. There's two different kind of versions of the story. Obviously beauty is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to this. What's interesting about the story is it exposes the media bias that Donald Trump has been claiming this entire season -- entire primary season and now he has proof of it.

[10:05:06] And the "New York Times" purposely went out there to paint him in a negative light. They don't point out the good things and the good people they talk to, and I was actually one of those 50 women the "New York Times" talked to last week. And my story got put into a separate story which painted me in a negative light. So their whole goal right now is to paint Mr. Trump and this is an excuse. And I think they owe the Trump campaign an apology because they were called out for their bias in this.

COSTELLO: Well, like I said, there were other women interviewed for this article, Ben. Eight other women quoted by name, right? One of the women was the former Miss Utah. She claimed when Trump was -- when Trump introduced himself to her, he kissed her on the lips and she felt very uncomfortable. She's not refuting what she said in the "New York Times." Does that make a difference or is Scottie right?

FERGUSON: Look, I think this article is going to ultimately come down to which side do you want to look at Donald Trump as. Donald Trump is a guy who has his own beauty pageant, for goodness sakes. It's not going to be abnormal for him to be around a bunch of models. He has a modeling agency that he's been involved with for many, many years. Again, not going to be something that would be shocking for him to be around models.

I do think the timing of this certainly is questionable for the "New York Times." And the fact that why didn't you come out with this during the primary. They held this article and I think they did it on purpose as a hit piece to go after Donald Trump during the general after he'd already the nomination --

COSTELLO: Wait, wait, they held -- why would they hold it until now? What would be the purpose?

FERGUSON: Because I think they realized -- well, I think that they wanted to hit him hard when he's up against Hillary Clinton, and I think that shows their bias. If this article was so important, wouldn't you have it during a primary when he's up against other conservatives going after him? Why were they -- why did they wait on this until basically he's the nominee up against Hillary Clinton and now all of a sudden they're like, ox, OK, we're going to do our real journalism and go sit down with 50 women? And talk to them? They didn't sit down with any of these women before he had secured the nomination. So I do think --

COSTELLO: OK. I hear you.

FERGUSON: -- that this is a hit piece.

COSTELLO: I hear you. So, Ron --

FERGUSON: And I think most of people aren't going to care.

COSTELLO: First the media is not criticized for vetting Mr. Trump thoroughly enough, and now when it does, it's a hit job and the timing of it helps Hillary Clinton.

BROWNSTEIN: I don't think Donald Trump's relations with women were uncovered, you know -- were not given attention during the primaries at all either. Can I come at this with a slightly different angle?

COSTELLO: Sure.

BROWNSTEIN: First of all, the base line. In the last CNN national poll, Donald Trump has -- only 32 percent of women say they view Donald Trump favorably, only 35 percent of women said they would vote against -- for him against Hillary Clinton. That's a 26-point deficit. More than double Mitt Romney's deficit in 2012 among women. Not that he can't change that but he is starting with a significant problem, and I would submit to you that the core of the problem is not his personal relations with women which is what the focus is in the story. That's not relevant to the issue.

But I think the core of the issue is that his leadership style, his persona, his temperament, the way his confrontational language, his confrontational persona, his winking at violence at his rallies, for many men that connotes strength. I think for many women that connotes something else. Whether that is a stable kind of leadership that they feel comfortable with as the head of the country and the leader of the free world.

And I think, you know, there are going to be lots of stories about his kind of relations with women. On a professional basis often seems to be supportive. On a personal basis a very different story, I think, is what kind of the dual track you see in this article, but I don't think that is his core problem. His core problem is the way he presents himself as a potential leader of the country is something that I think women are more likely to find alarming than men.

FERGUSON: And, Carol, I agree with that statement but let me say this real quick. I think the biggest issue here is what the "New York Times" is going to learn from this is, if you're going to do a piece on Donald Trump, you better make sure that you quote everybody perfect and you better make sure you don't take him out of context because when you do, Donald Trump is going to be able to get that story out there and it's going to make your entire story look like the hit piece that I think this is, and I have been critical of Donald Trump, but when I read this, I literally was like, are you kidding me? This is what they held? This is their big story of the day?

COSTELLO: Well --

HUGHES: Well, and here is what we're missing here. 50 women were interviewed and they only used nine quotes. They don't point to any positive things that were said about Mr. Trump. They don't point out about Miss Wisconsin who said, thank you, Donald Trump, because of you my son will now be able to go to college completely paid for as I'm dying from a heart disease right now. They don't go after -- they don't sit there and talk about Miss Teen USA Tara Conner, who he didn't take her title away when she was going to rehab. He actually stood by her, support her, and now she's fully rehabilitated from her drug use.

There's no positive stories coming out here. So we're going to see all these negatives, and I think it's going to backfire because these media outlets are only going to be seen as being biased against Mr. Trump.

COSTELLO: See, I hear all of you. I do hear all of you, but, Ron, I'll pose this question to you. We know that Mr. Trump has called women crazy.

BROWNSTEIN: Right.

COSTELLO: And he's called them dogs and he's called them fat pigs. He's on tape saying those things. So at some level, wouldn't you believe some of what's in that "New York Times" article?

BROWNSTEIN: Well -- you know, that's what I was going to point out, which is that, you know, the most devastating I think ad run against Trump during the primaries by his opponents in the Republican Party did not rely on the testimony of women about his behavior toward women.

[10:10:11] It merely had women quoting his own words, things that he has said over the years, and I guarantee you if you look forward to the general election, you're going to see something like that in the suburbs of Denver.

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: A lot of it.

BROWNSTEIN: And in northern Virginia.

COSTELLO: But it's not just women.

BROWNSTEIN: And outside of Pennsylvania.

FERGUSON: Carol --

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: His biggest liability is going to be his own words. And if you want to know what Hillary Clinton is going to be doing and Democrats are going to be doing against him, they're going to be taking his exact quotes and they're either going to play them on a loop.

COSTELLO: They have already done that.

FERGUSON: But I think it's going to be in an orchestrated way which is going to say, here is what he said on Howard Stern, here is what he said here. Here's what he said there. With his own words.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

FERGUSON: That's the biggest issue he's going to have to overcome. But hit pieces like this on women from the "New York Times" are actually going to help him because it does show that there are certain people that just want to destroy him in the general when there really wasn't a whole lot to the story that we didn't already know about Donald Trump beforehand.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Scottie, I just -- Scottie, hold on a minute because I should have asked you before. You said the "New York Times" interviewed you for this article. What did it ask you? What did the reporters ask you?

HUGHES: A lot of the same questions they point out here. How was my interaction with him? What did I think of him? Did I have respect for him? Had I known him before? They ended up putting my part because I am a surrogate -- a part of another story that was actually more -- it was a positive piece but it still kind of made it look like that --

COSTELLO: Now wait a minute, it was a positive piece? You said that about the "New York Times"? Come on.

HUGHES: I said it was kind of a positive piece.

COSTELLO: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

HUGHES: It still made it look like we were capitalizing on our support for Mr. Trump in order to advance our own careers. But it's interesting that this has been going on, and let's point out, it's not just been women Mr. Trump has been harsh on. He's also been harsh on men, too. We can all remember all the comments he made about the 17 other presidential candidates. So it's equal opportunity. It's hard to sit there and say sexist when it's actually both genders that he's willing to call out. BROWNSTEIN: Yes. But I think the core issue, Scottie, is that men

and women may perceive that kind of systematic behavior differently in terms of whether it is appropriate for a president and, you know, women are a majority of the voters, right, 53 percent. They're also a majority of white voters and I think if Donald Trump -- if you're talking about a style of leadership that plays well among men and does not play well among women, that is a systemic challenge because women are a bigger share of the electorate than men.

FERGUSON: There's a gender gap issue.

BROWNSTEIN: And when you look at the kind of unfavorable ratings that he has, that is -- not to say that he can't dig out of that hole, but that is a significant hole to start the election in.

COSTELLO: All right, I got to leave it there.

HUGHES: But Romney only got 44 percent so --

COSTELLO: I got to leave it there. Ben Ferguson, Scottie Nell Hughes --

BROWNSTEIN: And he lost.

COSTELLO: Ron Brownstein, thanks to all of you.

FERGUSON: Thanks.

COSTELLO: I appreciate it.

Tonight on CNN, would John Kasich consider being Trump's running mate? Anderson Cooper has an exclusive interview at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

And still to come in the NEWSROOM, Hillary Clinton unveils her prescription for the economy. The man writing that prescription, Bill Clinton. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:16:43] COSTELLO: Kentucky and Oregon will be the latest states to weigh in on the Democratic dogfight between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Tomorrow the rivals will battle it out for a total of 116 delegates over the two states. Clinton doing what she can to get out the vote holding four events in Kentucky today. For his part, Sanders is looking ahead to delegate-rich California where he will campaign tomorrow.

Suzanne Malveaux has more for you this morning. Good morning, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Good morning, Carol. Well, Hillary Clinton making that big final push in Kentucky today, and she's really counting on African-American voters to put her in a better place in West Virginia. Now Kentucky is a state she easily won over Barack Obama back in 2008, but this time she's come under some criticism for saying that her policies would put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.

Well, she has since disavowed that and she's talking up a new role for her husband, Bill Clinton. So maybe a two for one deal. She doesn't give a lot of details but she does say that he's going to be in charge of the economic stuff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My husband, who I'm going to put in charge of revitalizing the economy because, you know, he knows how to do it, and especially in places like coal country and inner cities and other parts of our country that have really been left out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And she's waxing this out. They're trying to get voters to harken back to the days when Bill Clinton was in office, unemployment was low, the economy was strong, and having covered that the end of the administration, I can tell you that everybody wasn't doing well as a result of the free trade agreement, NAFTA, and welfare reform but she is trying to reassure voters that they're not going to be out o work, that she's also trying to win over those white male voters in those rustbelt states in the south who Bill Clinton, quite frankly, has greater appeal with, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. So on the Bernie Sanders side, he feels he can compete in Oregon. Why?

MALVEAUX: Well, the delegate math is against Sanders. He's got to convince the superdelegates committed to Clinton to switch their support for him. He has to make the case that he's a candidate who's going to beat Donald Trump in a general election. And there are some polls that actually point to that, that bears it out, but he also makes the case that if he loses, Trump gains.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Trump thinks he'll get a lot of Sanders' voters. Do you believe that?

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D), SANDERS SUPPORTER: He'll get some, yes. He'll get some, but you have that space where the right and left might meet, but the fundamental thing is that it's going to become very clear that Trump is a self-promoting huckster, and Bernie is going to help make that case if he's the nominee and if he's supporting the ticket --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: How deeply does that --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Senator Jeff Merkley, you just heard from him. So now what's happening, Carol, is both Sanders and Clinton making arguments now that is really more fitting for a general election against Trump than rather slamming each other during the primary, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Suzanne Malveaux reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

A former president as a first spouse? It could happen if Hillary Clinton wins in November. She wants Bill Clinton to be in charge of fixing the economy. But will that make her more or less attractive to potential voters?

CNN Politics executive editor Mark Preston joins me now to talk about this. Good morning, Mark.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Hey, good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: So --

PRESTON: Yes, no doubt look at Bill Clinton -- Bill Clinton on the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton has been very good, but he's also been fraught with a little bit of danger.

[10:20:03] He has upset the Black Lives Matters activists recently, and, of course, he had the Crime Bill back in 1994 which was problematic, Carol, because a lot of nonviolent |bent offenders were put in jail.

Having said that, though, if you were to look at his favorability rating when he left office, overall eight years in office, Bill Clinton had a 55 percent favorability rating, and if you look at what voters think of him right now, Carol, 58 percent think that he, you know, did a good job when he was president.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Well, Bill Clinton, I mean, it certainly is a strategy that both of them have worked out obviously. Hillary Clinton made those disparaging comments about the coal industry, and Bill Clinton ever since she made those comments has been talking to voters in a certain way. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: Hillary said the other day, so I can say it in public. She said if I get elected what do you want to do? And I said, I want to go to the places that have been left out and left behind. I want to go to coal country. I want to go to Indian country. I want to go to the Mississippi delta. I want to go to places where people think every tomorrow is going to be like yesterday and say, no, it's not. You can go along for the ride. And that's what we're going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, Mark, can Bill Clinton connect with those voters that Hillary Clinton cannot?

PRESTON: I think certainly better so than she can. Look, Bill Clinton in many ways is such an asset on the campaign trail for a couple of reasons, OK? As I noted at the top, he does have some vulnerabilities when it came to the Crime Bill back in 1994, but Bill Clinton is someone who is beloved by the Democratic Party. You know, they look back to the eight years when he was in office and they see economic prosperity.

He also can appeal to these white male voters, and quite frankly white voters in general that Hillary Clinton has had a difficult time connecting with. She's done very well through the primaries when it comes to the African-American vote and as Suzanne had noted, she's hoping to turn out the black vote in Kentucky to defeat Bernie Sanders on Tuesday night, but it's Bernie Sanders who has won over the white vote in the Democratic Party.

Bill Clinton is somebody who is still seen very favorably in the Democratic Party, and he is seen favorably when it comes to white voters -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So when Hillary Clinton goes out and, like, looks into the running mate, won't the running mate take into account the role Bill Clinton might be playing in a Clinton administration?

PRESTON: I think that anybody who is asked by Hillary Clinton whether -- if they want to serve on the ticket, then they're going to do so. I think all along it has always been this way, Carol, is that if you elect Hillary Clinton, you're also electing Bill Clinton to a third term. They come as a package, much like when he was elected back in 1992, Hillary Clinton came as a package with Bill Clinton except at that time she was lesser well known, of course, but, of course, Bill Clinton very well known right now and I think that if Bill Clinton does come in -- rather Hillary Clinton does win, you are going to see Bill Clinton really become in charge of or certainly take over helping trying to steer the economy back on track from where it is right now.

COSTELLO: She said she wants him to be her economic czar. So we'll see what happens.

PRESTON: Right.

COSTELLO: Mark Preston, thanks so much.

PRESTON: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, when it comes to the people running for the White House, how much does character really matter?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:27:48] COSTELLO: Checking some top stories for you at 27 minutes a past. Gun buyers are getting a third chance to purchase the gun used to kill Trayvon Martin. George Zimmerman is making a new auction attempt and has a new starting price, $100,000. A slew of bogus bids led Zimmerman to pull another auction on Friday with fake bids topping $66 million.

Stranded drivers are being pulled from floodwaters in Corpus Christi, Texas, this morning. Some areas hit with more than a foot of rain and that rain triggered flash flooding. So far more than a dozen water rescues have been reported and the rain is set to continue into tomorrow.

The 87-year-old bassist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra dies after collapsing on stage. Jane Little held the Guinness World Record for the longest tenure with a professional orchestra. She made music with the symphony for 71 years. She started way back in 1945 when she was still in high school.

Seventeen thousand, five hundred pounds of cocaine seized from one of Columbia's most powerful gangs. Columbia's president say it's the largest bust they have ever made. You can see all the cocaine still wrapped in individual packets ready to be moved. Four men are arrested. A handful of weapons have been seized.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.

This is a presidential year like no other. No one would disagree with that. It's a race between two candidates many voters find unlikable. Hillary Clinton has a trust problem and Donald Trump has a woman problem, although some Republicans, including the RNC chair and Ben Carson say voters should not judge him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: These are things that he's going to have to answer for, but I also think they are things from many years ago and I think that, you know, as Christians judging each other I think is problematic. I think it's when people live in glass houses and throw stones is when people get in trouble.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a Christian, are you comfortable with the way Donald Trump behaves with women?

BEN CARSON, DONALD TRUMP SURROGATE: Well, you know, Donald Trump has elevated a lot of women in his organization much sooner than other people began to recognize the value of women. So as a Christian what I do do is not judge everybody, and that seems to be something a lot of people got into.

(END VIDEO CLIP)