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Cinton, Trump Face Off Tonight in First Debate. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired September 26, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:00]

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello live from Hofstra University, the site of the first presidential debate of the general election and it's going to be a big one, right? You can already feel the excitement with the debate kicking off just 11 hours from now. Thank you so much for joining me this morning. The countdown clock is ticking. Less than 11 hours until tonight's presidential debate which of course you can see right here on CNN. And you will have lots and lots of company. The first one-on-one debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could draw 100 million viewers, a staggering number, usually reserved for the Super Bowl. And it underscores why this could be the single most moment yet in the race. This is a sneak peek at the stage where Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will face off and the stakes could not be higher. CNN's latest poll of polls shows the race has tightened and the two candidates are now virtually deadlocked. A big performance tonight could propel one of these candidates into the lead. CNN's Jason Carroll and Phil Mattingly are covering all angles in tonight's showdown but let's begin with you Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know a lot of anticipation about tonight. So let's go over some of the details. As you know the debate will be about 90 minutes. It will be broken into six 15-minute segments. Some of these details were decided because the campaigns got together and decided, OK, we will do this, we won't do that.

Others decided by a coin toss. Let's go over some of those. The Clinton will be on the podium stage left, Trump will be on the podium stage right. Clinton's podium, a little smaller than Trump's podium, that's because they want to make up for the height difference. Clinton is about 5'6," Trump about 6'3". Another one decided by a coin toss, who gets the first question. That will go to Clinton. She has about two minutes to respond. Trump then will have two minutes after that also to weigh in. 1,000 people will be in the hall where we were just a few moments ago and again, 100 million people expected to tune in to watch. Lot of eyes are going to be on what happens out there tonight.

COSTELLO: Who is going to be in the front row? Mark Cuban?

CARROLL: Mark Cuban possibly, we have to see who else is in the front row as well.

COSTELLO: Not Gennifer Flowers?

CARROLL: OK. I knew you're going to go back to -- Gennifer Flowers. But, look, we know what Donald Trump tweeted. He tweeted over the weekend, hey, look, if the Clinton campaign is going to invite his billionaire foe, Mark Cuban, to sit in the front row, he said, hey, perhaps I'll have Gennifer Flowers, we all know who she is. You know, Bill Clinton admitted to having an affair with her back in the day, if you will. But look, the campaign has come out to say she will not be there, she was not invited, but --

COSTELLO: -- they can have nice family and friends, and maybe Mark Cuban. --

CARROLL: -- we know it's going to be actually anticipated regardless, of who is in the front row. Let's just say that.

COSTELLO: OK. So let's talk about strategy now. Phil Mattingly, you are here for that.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So strategy is important. No questions about it. Look, you have two games going on. You have the public facing game which you hear from the campaign. One of the most interesting things of the course, Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump's campaign manager, compared his debate skills to Babe Ruth in baseball. Now, usually you're trying to ratchet it down the expectations. --

COSTELLO: But that's what they have been doing. They have been ratcheting it down. And all of a sudden he's the Babe Ruth of debates? --

MATTINGLY: Right. And now also, -- but I think that was more or less a little bit of a slip right there. What you see though is a lot of working of the reps, working of the reps on both sides. Take a listen to what Kellyanne had to say and Robby Mook had to say, the Clinton campaign manager.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: If Mr. Trump has any disadvantage going into tomorrow night's debate, it's that he's not really treated fairly and that's pretty obvious if you read many of the print reports, if you turn on the station any point in the day.

ROBBY MOOK, HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: We don't want to have some sort of a double standard where Donald Trump can get the most improved award but Hillary Clinton, you know, is getting judged on the fine points of policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: So Carol, I'm going to shock you here that both campaigns are slightly concerned that maybe their viewpoints won't be adequately described in the media afterwards in race. But that's what's going on publicly obviously. That's their purpose. What's going on behind the scenes, we will probably have a much larger impact tonight, in that 90-minute debate. What we know is Hillary Clinton is a more traditional candidate, no question about it. She has been cramming for hours, for days, for weeks, really. We know over the course of the weekend a couple miles away from her Chappaqua home she was holed up in a conference room of a hotel with some

[10:05:16] of her top advisers doing mock debates for hours at a time, not just a four-hour session in the morning but coming back at night, almost kind of trying to replicate the late evening hour of this debate.

Donald Trump, I'm going to stun you here, he is not doing a traditional way of doing things. Now, his aides, for the most part Carol, have been tight-lipped about the specifics of what's been going on. But here's what we know. He's been in Trump tower. He's been meeting with people like Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christie, top advisors. They have not had a stand-in. They have not been doing mock debates. He has been watching video of Hillary Clinton's past debate performances of which there are many. Trying to find weaknesses, trying to find points to attack, but there's no question about it, this is a huge moment in the campaign. There's been a lot of preparation on the Trump side, probably a little more than they are willing to let on.

COSTELLO: Yes. Because I find it difficult to believe that he would say, yes, let's wing it.

MATTINGLY: Yes. I think that they like that as the public -- we talk about expectations, sure, act like he doesn't care at all, and then come in and do this. Look, they know how big this moment is. The Clinton campaign knows how big this moment is. Everybody is looking at the same exact polls right now. Both candidates will be ready. I do think one of the -- kind of overarching things that you hear from both sides, they want their candidates to be comfortable. Their prep might look very different but it's what has made each candidate comfortable. That's what they think will be the most important key going into tonight.

COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly, thank you so much. So let's break it all down. With me is now is David Gergen, CNN's senior political analyst and former presidential advisor to Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. Ron Brownstein also joins me. He is CNN's senior political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic" and David Chalian, a CNN's political director. Welcome to all of you. --

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST AND FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR TO NIXON, FORD, REAGAN AND CLINTON: Thank you.

COSTELLO: So David, we were talking very early this morning about, you know, Donald Trump's going to be on the stage. Hillary Clinton's going to be on the stage. They will be together. What will that moment be like, because for viewers, that will be electric? Will they do a firm handshake and like a fist bump?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I doubt there will be a fist bump. --

RON BROWNSTEIN, SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST AND "THE ATLANTIC" SENIOR EDITOR: Go out on a limb. Go out on a limb. --

CHALIAN: Listen, you're right. We shouldn't overlook those body language moments though. They leave real impressions with voters who are tuning in, by you know, 100 million people may be watching that. They leave real impressions, there's no doubt about that. And remember, so much of what comes out of this debate will be cemented in popular culture by obviously what we cover in the news, how "Saturday Night Live" partly use it, so any of those body language moments that get picked up as a thing that has a life after the debate will be really important.

BROWNSTEIN: You know, the history of the debates are that I think the most memorable moments are ones that reveal more about personality than policy. I mean, there aren't a lot of policy exchanges that you remember years later. It's when they reveal something about themselves that you may or may not have seen. Ronald Reagan with there you go again kind of being genial and reassuring, algor (ph), sying (ph) in a negative way. Michael Dukakis' answer on Kitty Dukakis was attacked. I mean, it's often when you see something personal underneath the facade that they present to the public that is the most memorable and those you know, can be scripted or unscripted but it often - turns more on those kinds of personal revelations than the policy chops. --

COSTELLO: See, I even wonder -- how they will address one another. I will pose this question to you, David. Will Hillary call Donald Trump, Donald? -- Will Donald Trump call Hillary Clinton, Hillary, Secretary Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, what?

GERGEN: I would imagine they will walk out and be very gracious in the beginning and high toned in their early conversation and fairly quickly one of them will call the other by their first name, get on the first name basis. They have been on a first name basis, of course, in the past. So I think that's where they will go. But I do think -- I want to come back to this preparation point. There is a danger of being over prepared. That's what happened to Ronald Reagan, his first debate when he ran for re-election. He was so stuffed with facts he could barely get sentences out. But there is also a danger of being underprepared. My experience, I went through preparing Reagan for the 1980 debate, so part of the debate preparation team. And one of the things we discovered, he was very, very good person on his feet but he needed the preparation in order to figure out how to construct a two-minute answer that would have the most impact because he was used to saying things in 40 or 50 seconds, lengthening that out, knowing where to go on various subjects becomes a very important part of the preparation. If you want to be fluid -- and show mastery, show command in the debate, you need to come in there with that. I just question whether the Trump approach has been so casual. How was it that's going to serve him well in that 2-minute response? First response he has to give in the two minutes he has thereafter.

COSTELLO: Well --

CHALIAN: Well, I don't think that Carol, I don't think that because he has not prepared traditionally with mock debates that we should think that Donald Trump is not preparing for these debates. -- He is preparing and I don't think it's just casual conversations. My sense is that he understands the time constriction, the two-minute answer and what David is saying, formulating to fill that time for its highest, you know maximum impact, I don't think that's something that's lost on the Trump team or Trump candidate.

COSTELLO: So Hillary Clinton's camp is, you know, a preemptive strike, right? She tweeted out this new ad just this morning, talking about lies, so let's listen.

[10:10:16]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was always against the war in Iraq.

HOWARD STERN, HOWARD STERN HOST: Are you for invading Iraq?

TRUMP: Yeah, I guess so.

JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC MORNING JOE HOST: Would you have stayed out of Libya?

TRUMP: I would have stayed out of Libya, yeah.

TRUMP: Go into Libya. Knock this guy out.

TRUMP: I watched when the world --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And have that big red stamp -- on Donald Trump's forehead. So, how will she handle that?

BROWNSTEIN: No, I think both candidates go into the debate with miserable numbers on honesty and trust. I mean, Hillary Clinton's, you know, we talk about how high they are. Donald Trump's, are just a tick behind her in most polls. And I think, you know, she is going - I mean, one of the things they are really conscious of on the Democratic side is preventing Trump from re-inventing himself by essentially leaving behind all of the controversial things he has said before. And I think she wants to be very aggressive about tying him to his past statements. I mean, they each have a very clear problem here. Trump's 60 percent of the country says he's not qualified to be president consistently. That's the hump he has to get over with tonight. And with Hillary Clinton, I mean the trust ties into the sense that she's in this for herself. And ultimately, above all, all she has to do is convince people she's in this to make their lives better. And she has plans to do so. So they are kind of operating on different planes I think tonight in what they have to achieve. --

COSTELLO: But here's the thing about the credibility issue, right? Because David, I would suspect just the fact that Donald Trump is standing on the same stage as a long-time politician, as someone who served in the senate, as someone who was Secretary of State, that helps him with his credibility problem right there, doesn't it? GERGEN: I think that's right. And you know, just from the very second they walk out, people begin measuring each candidate. You know, he's going to have the advantage of height. That often favors presidential candidates in the past. She's going to have the advantage frankly of being a woman. And I think a lot of people, especially women is going to rally to that for the first time in history seeing a woman out there like that. But I think the bar is lower for him because --expectations for her I think from her point of view are too high. You know, our CNN poll has 53 percent of Americans think she will win, 43 percent think he'll win. That puts him in an enviable position in some ways. It's good to use the bushes and to be underestimated in this game. Because people are not expecting so much, you have got a lower bar. I think, he would simply have to prove that he is presidential. That should not be hard to do in terms much demeanor as long as he's got the facts down and can argue his cases well. She's got to go beyond that, because she's being held to a higher standard. It may be unfair in many ways to hold her to a higher standard. Clinton people have a right to be concerned about that. But that's the nature of this game. The front-runner tends to be held to a higher standard.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. David Gergen, Ron Brownstein, David Chalian, thanks to all of you for being with me.

Just another reminder, the presidential debate airs tonight right here on CNN, 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

Up next in the "Newsroom" debating Hillary Clinton, will Trump change his strategy and tone because he's up against a woman?

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[10:15:16]

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COSTELLO: And welcome back. The American Dream in all of its forms front and center tonight at Hofstra University, where Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will face off on that debate stage. The Trump campaign says he's at a disadvantage because Clinton is female.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONWAY: Donald Trump's biggest problem tonight may be something that Senator Obama said in 2008 when he was running against Hillary Clinton which is that Hillary Clinton will say anything or do anything to get elected. And so if she ends up saying to him that's just not true, you're distorting my record, you're being mean to a woman. And then people will say he was mean to a woman and the headlines will scream and twitter will blow up even if it's not true. So that would be my concern. That he's not able to get out all of his responses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So let's talk about that with former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who's a Trump supporter and joining me at Hofstra, former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, a Hillary Clinton supporter. Welcome to both of you. So Jennifer, I will start with you. Is Donald Trump at a disadvantage because he's debating a woman?

JENNIFER GRANHOLM, (D) FORMER MICHIGAN GOVERNOR: That I have to laugh out loud for that. Of course he's not at a disadvantage. I mean, here's the thing. Hillary Clinton, all of her life, she's done the right thing, right? She has prepared, she's gone to good schools, she's always the person, -- I mean, she is studying now. They are mocking her for studying. She's going to walk in and answer every question perfectly, she's got to wear the right thing, have the right hair, not smile too much but smile. She can't attack too much but she's got to attack. She's got to do it all perfectly. What does Donald Trump have to do? He has to walk in and "look presidential" which means, you know, he can't disassemble in front of everybody. It's ridiculous. Her bar is way up here and his is so low that a squirrel could jump over it.

COSTELLO: OK. Before we get into that, I did want to address this question to you Jan because you know, Governor of Arizona, I know that people have said awful things to you and they haven't hesitated to do that. They didn't care if you were a woman. Why is Kellyanne Conway saying that?

JAN BREWER, (R) FORMER ARIZONA GOVERNOR: Well, you know, I don't think it's going to make much difference. I think as a candidate, what many, many elections, 24-0 to be exact, and I have never asked anybody to vote for me because I'm a woman. I think that Hillary needs to really worry about her scripted answers and being so polished and obviously not being authentic

[10:20:16] and I think Donald will come out and be Donald Trump and he will be earnest and honest and talk to the people and connect with them. So I'm looking forward to tonight and I think that most people are going to be very excited to see the outcome and I think Donald is going to win this one.

COSTELLO: OK. So let's go back to the bar that's set for each candidate, right, because everybody kind of expects Hillary Clinton to win because she's been down this road before.

GRANHOLM: No, I don't think everybody expects that. I that think people understand -- that he's being graded on a curve. Recognizing when you are president you are not graded on a curve. You have to know your stuff. And I hope people come to the debate tonight watching not because they want to see a reality show but because they want to evaluate these two candidates who will be president.

Let me just say in response to something Governor Brewer said. She's not asking for people to vote for her because she's a woman. She's asking people to vote for her because a, the most qualified and b, she's got the best platform and best vision to bring this country forward. Be very clear about that. Let me just quickly say one other thing. One of the things that Kellyanne Conway said this morning triggered to me, -- so Hillary Clinton's team invited Mark Cuban, right? And Immediately, Donald Trump, hair trigger, tweets out that he's going to invite Gennifer Flowers. Let me just say as a woman, when I hear that, it is icky and creepy and it also suggests one thing that is -- that women do not like. Historically and in today's polls, they do not like a woman being blamed for something that her husband did. This is not new to Donald Trump. He sees things in this weird sort of 1950-ish point of view, and that to me is something that women, and he's got to try to attract women, --

COSTELLO: Along those lines, -- because Donald Trump does have a problem with women. I mean, I harken back to Carly Fiorina, right? Remember the big primary debate? Well actually we have that moment on tape to refresh all of our memories. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump said the following about you. "Look at that face, would anyone vote for that, can you imagine that, the face of our next president." Mr. Trump later said he was talking about your persona, not your appearance. Please feel free to respond what you think about his persona.

CARLY FIONA, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You know, it's interesting to me, Mr. Trump said that he heard Mr. Bush very clearly and what Mr. Bush said. I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.

TRUMP: I think she's got a beautiful face and I think she's a beautiful woman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So Jan, you can be certain that the Clinton camp has been studying that moment. Donald Trump's response was not a great response. It did not resonate for women. Just by looking at his face when Carly Fiorina was talking, he looked uncomfortable. So Hillary Clinton does something similar on that stage, how might Donald Trump react?

BREWER: Well, it probably wasn't one of his greatest moments you know. But I would like to go back to what Governor Granholm said about Donald -- about Hillary not asking women to vote for her because she was a woman because she has and so has her surrogates asked people to vote for her for a woman. In fact, there was a place in hell if you didn't vote for Hillary if I remember correctly. And Hillary has not been a truth teller and she has been a little hypocritical. The fact of the matter is she was an enabler - not what this debate is all about -

COSTELLO: But governor, I do you want to go back to the point --

BREWER: -- this debate is about the people and the women out there in the community that are concerned about economy, jobs, taxes, those are the things that we want to hear about.

COSTELLO: -- I hear you. I do. But I want to go back to this. Donald Trump said many sexist things about women and that's sure to come up. How does he respond? How does he convince educated white Republican women just like yourself, that he's not sexist, that he does listen to what they say, that he does admire them for their skills and their brains?

BREWER: And I think, you know Carol, I think that's what we will see tonight. We are going to see him come out and he is going to be Donald Trump but he's going to talk to the people. And he is authentic and the people have connected with him. He's not part of the machine which Hillary has been for 30 plus years. --

COSTELLO: But not these white educated women -- have not connected with him, governor

GRANHOLM: Can I jump in on this? Because there's things he has said, Governor Brewer, that it's difficult because 70 percent of women who have children are in the work force and he has said, "putting a wife to work is a dangerous thing or when I come home and dinner's not ready I go through the roof, or I won't do anything to take care of them, meaning children, I will supply the funds and she'll take care of the kids." And that was as recent as 2005. That kind of stuff is not stuff that makes women thrilled about voting for him. He looks at things, when he says I'll make America great again, to him it means going backwards. --

BREWER: Governor, Governor, I know Donald Trump. I have never heard him say those kinds of things. He respects women. He's got millions of -

[10:25:16] women supporting him. And he's going to come out on that stage tonight and Hillary's not going to be in his head and neither is Mark Cuban going to be in his head and he's going to talk about the things we as women are concerned about. We are going to talk about hopefully, we are going to talk about things like the economy, jobs, working women that need child care, things that the Democrats have promised year after year after year after year and not been able to accomplish. And that's what we are looking for in this debate tonight.

COSTELLO: All right. I got to leave it there, former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, thanks to both of you. Coming up next in the "Newsroom" the suspect in the deadly Washington mall shooting due in court at any time this morning. The big question, what motivated the killings?

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