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CNN NEWSROOM

Trump to Hold Event in Chicago; Clinton and Supporters to Woo Millennial Voters; U.S. and Iraq Agree on Plan for More American troops. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 28, 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]

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Donald Trump campaigning this hour behind closed doors. He's in Chicago right now. He's expected to speak before the Polish American Alliance and then Mr. Trump will attend a fund-raiser before traveling on to Iowa and Wisconsin. Obviously these are pictures from the debate. At each stop we expect Mr. Trump to claim victory in Monday's debate and promise a big performance in the next showdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For 90 minutes, I watched her very carefully and I was also holding back, I didn't want to do anything to embarrass her, but I watched her and she was stuck in the past. For 90 minutes, on issue after issue, Hillary Clinton defended the terrible status quo while I laid out our plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Also today, rival Hillary Clinton rolls out some heavy hitters. Michelle Obama, Chelsea Clinton and Bernie Sanders will be on the stump for her from North Carolina to New Hampshire, their target, young voters. Jason Carroll, live in Chicago for the Trump event, Joe Johns is following the Clinton campaign and its star- powered surrogates. Let's begin with you though, Jason. Good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you Carol. You know, both candidates are basically out this morning claiming victory laps, Donald Trump, for his part outraising money, claiming victory. He's going to be attending this breakfast at the Polish American Alliance here in Chicago. We should tell you that overnight, the building that's just right behind me was actually vandalized. There were anti-Trump obscenities written not only on the outside of the building but on the sidewalk as well. So city workers, overnight and early into the morning got out here, started cleaning up the building ahead of Trump's arrival. Trump, a controversial figure here in Chicago, as you know, Carol. In terms of combatting violence here in the city, he's been calling for reinstituting stop and frisk, using it here in the city. You know that was a controversial practice used in New York City. It was ruled to be unconstitutional. A federal judge basically ruled and said it was a form of racial profiling but Trump is calling for that to be used here in Chicago. He's also once again saying that he is the one who won the debate. And Carol, he says he has the fund-raising dollars to prove it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Today, we had something where I understand through largely small donors and some others. We had the biggest day we have ever had because of the success last night of the debate. They raised almost $18 million today. Can you believe it? $18 million. Crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: $18 million but despite all that, as you know, there has been a lot of talk about whether or not Donald Trump was properly prepared for the debate. "The New York Times" is reporting that in the beginning, Carol, there was some sort of an effort to have more of a traditional preparation in terms of how to go forward with the debate. The former Fox News head, Roger Ailes was involved with this but apparently there was some sort of effort in terms of trying to get Trump to focus and to concentrate so that was abandoned and they went for this unconventional route. So going forward, according to the "Times" and according to the camp, there will be more preparation. The hope is that there will be more focus on the next debate on issues such as hitting Hillary Clinton on the Clinton Foundation, hitting her on Benghazi, the economy, getting her on trade, hoping that will be the focus, more focus on that, hopefully less focus on former Miss Universe and Trump's criticism about her weight. Carol?

COSTELLO: -- What about policy? Is that in there somewhere?

CARROLL: Policy, in terms of policy, well, of course, I mean, you know, the Trump campaign is hoping that going forward, in the next debate, that as I said, he will be able to really get Clinton and the moderators to focus more on issues such as the Clinton Foundation, Benghazi, more focus on trade and the economy. These are the issues where the Trump campaign -- feels as though he does extremely well. The hope is going forward on the next two debates there will be more focus on that and post-debate, less focus on issues dealing with a former Miss Universe.

COSTELLO: Jason Carroll reporting live from Chicago this morning. Hillary Clinton hoping to build on her performance at Monday's debate, rolling out some high profile surrogates across the country, including the first lady, her daughter Chelsea, and one-time rival Bernie Sanders. But there's another big name, John Warner,

[10:05:16] the former Republican senator and Navy Secretary, who is also telling voters that he is with her. CNN's Joe Johns in Washington with more. Good morning.

JOE JOHNS, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol. Former Senator Warner has been out of office for years but he is not forgotten and the Clinton camp hopes this sends yet another signal to Republicans in a critical battleground state who may be on the fence on Donald Trump. Warner was a moderate Republican in the senate, a true expert on national defense issues from the state where the Pentagon itself is located, former Secretary of the Navy, though he may best be known in pop culture as the husband of the legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor, now coming to support Hillary Clinton, appearing in Alexandria with her running mate, Tim Kaine, meanwhile, the Clinton campaign ramping up on multiple fronts, releasing a new ad featuring first lady Michelle Obama. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Our children watch everything we do and the person we elect as president has the power to shape their lives for years to come. Hillary has spent her entire career bringing folks together on behalf of our kids, because she believes that every child deserves a chance to succeed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Also today, Hillary Clinton, the candidate, herself appearing in New Hampshire with Bernie Sanders reaching out to younger voters which they -- very much need this November. Carol?

COSTELLO: All right. Joe Johns reporting live for us. Thanks so much. After Monday's debate, Donald Trump's team is reportedly pursuing an aggressive strategy for his next face off with Hillary Clinton. You heard Jason Carroll mentioned that. "The New York Times" is also revealing that campaign advisors to Donald J. Trump plan to more rigorously prepare him by drilling the Republican nominee on crucial answers, facts and counter attacks and by coaching him on ways to whack Mrs. Clinton on issues even if he is not asked about them. One line of attack for Mr. Trump could be talking about sex, specifically bill Clinton and his mistresses. But Hillary Clinton is reportedly ready, her camp seeing that as another way to win over female voters. So let's talk about this. Patricia Murphy is a columnist for "Roll Call" and "The Daily Beast" and Paul Singer is the Washington correspondent for "USA Today." Welcome to both of you.

PAUL SINGER, CONGRESS AND POLITICS EDITOR "USA TODAY": Thank you very much.

COSTELLO: So the next debate, Patricia, -- will it be all about just attacking Hillary Clinton and hitting her hard on issues like her e- mail controversy and such?

PATRICIA MURPHY, COLUMNIST "ROLL CALL" AND "THE DAILY BEAST": Well, I think we don't know. I also think the Trump campaign doesn't know and I think Donald Trump doesn't know. So for Republicans in Washington, around the country, that is deeply, deeply concerning. There's clearly a split between Donald Trump's campaign and his advisors and what he wants to do. He has been repeatedly saying even since the debate just minutes after the debate was over I could have been tougher, I could have been tougher, I could have talked about Bill Clinton's problems, many people within his debate think that will be a terrible mistake for him to do. They want him to be smarter but not tougher. That's a really tall order for somebody who has only been in one major debate in his career. So I think, you know, he made significant mistakes if he were to focus on hitting Hillary Clinton on areas of policy, I think that would be well advised but -- in the last debate he did not have the discipline to follow through on that.

COSTELLO: So Paul, what if he does bring up Bill Clinton's infidelities? I mean, I talked to a lot of women about that, that really wouldn't resonate with them but he could frame Bill Clinton's infidelities in another way to make Hillary Clinton look, I don't know, he said he might make her look like an enabler and he might accuse Bill Clinton of even worse things than just infidelities.

SINGER: Right. And this came up last year at the end of the year, he had said that basically, you know, Bill Clinton was an abuser and that Hillary Clinton let him get away with it. I don't think it helps him anywhere. I really think, and Jason pointed this out in his piece and we saw it during the debate, his best moment in the debate was when he was able to push Hillary Clinton on trade policy. She did not have a good answer to his question, well, when did you change your mind, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and is it Obama's fault, is it the president's fault for not negotiating that properly? That's a good line of attack and good policy centered line of attack and it lets Hillary on her heels for that moment. I think, as soon as he starts getting into any kind of infidelity issue it opens up his own kind of bizarre past of three marriages and who knows how many affairs and Howard Stern conversations about women's bodies. None of that helps him with anything. It certainly doesn't help him convince anybody. Maybe it, you know, gets some people that are deep in his base more excited about him but I kind of doubt it.

COSTELLO: OK. So, there are a lot of bizarre happenings surrounding this election. Howard Dean, a Democrat. You know, Trump kept sniffing throughout the debate. He said it was a microphone problem but people definitely heard it. Howard Dean has been running around saying that maybe Trump has a coke problem. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD DEAN, (D) FORMER VERMONT GOVERNOR: He has trouble with pressured speech. He interrupted as you pointed out Hillary Clinton 29 times. He couldn't keep himself

[10:10:16] together. So look, do I think at 70 years old he has a cocaine habit, probably not. But you know it's something that I think it would be interesting to ask him and see if he ever had a problem with that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Oh, Patricia, why?

MURPHY: Why, why Howard Dean? I think Howard Dean is just trying to get into Donald Trump's head and just throw wild accusations the way Democrats think Donald Trump has done against Hillary Clinton and other candidates. The problem is that when Democrats have been saying they are going to take the high road while Donald Trump takes the low road, this totally undercuts that message. Democrats want to be seen as the adults in the room. The people responsible enough and with the temperament both as individual, as Hillary Clinton and as the Democratic Party, to the ones who are going to be responsible to govern the country. When you have this kind of language out there and you have Howard Dean who is a high profile Democrat making accusations about Donald Trump, who doesn't even drink, I think it's just - it's ridiculous and it's not a good look.

COSTELLO: And it's totally, totally ridiculous. So Paul, final question for you about the next debate, it's a much more intimate setting, right? The candidates will be sitting down. There will be two moderators. There will be a live audience. -- Questions will be taken from the audience. So is it possible -- that these candidates will not be comfortable insulting each other quite so much because of the intimate setting?

SINGER: Yes and keep in mind that some of the memorable debate moments have been in these sort of intimate settings. Remember Al Gore got a little too close to George W. Bush and it looked like he was stalking him. Rick Lazio running for senate got a little too close to Hillary Clinton and handed her a piece of paper, ordered her to sign, looked like he was threatening her. That means -- be careful about basically coming into someone's living room which it ends up looking like and getting bombastic. It's a very difficult thing and particularly a challenge I think for Donald Trump to not look like he is being rude and overly aggressive in a setting that's really quite quaint and polite. It's designed to look polite, hard for him to moderate sometimes if he's going to particularly talk about Bill Clinton.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Patricia Murphy, Paul Singer, thank you so much.

At any moment now, Donald Trump will begin speaking in Chicago. He's set to talk before the Polish American Alliance. We are going to monitor his speech for you.

And still to come in the NEWSROOM today brings another all-out Clinton campaign blitz to reel in new voters. Will Millennials bite?

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[10:15:16]

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COSTELLO: All right. At any moment now you will see Donald Trump behind that podium. He's speaking in front of the polish American alliance in Chicago. He just had a private breakfast with them. We will monitor Trump's remarks and bring them to you as we see fit.

In other news this morning, in other political news, pseudo trio of heavy hitters will be out on the trail for Hillary Clinton. Bernie, Chelsea and Mrs. Obama talk about a one, two, three punch, right? As they travel, their big target today will be Millennials, a group Clinton has struggled to excite despite big celeb endorsements like Katy Perry. The pop star-turned Clinton surrogate by the way is now baring all to try to get those young voters to the polls. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATY PERRY, POP STAR CLINTON SURROGATE: Let those babies loose!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right ma'am. That's enough for that.

PERRY: No, no, no. I read the Constitution. I know that I have the right to vote naked.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you read it or did you just briefly scan it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on. No, no, no, come on. Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You, too?

PERRY: Scratch that. Got to wear clothes. My bad. See you at the polls November 8th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: With me now is Asma Khalid, political reporter for NPR. Welcome. Thank you for being here.

ASMA KHALID, POLITICAL REPORTER "NPR": Happy to be here.

COSTELLO: Whenever I see spots like that, I think really? I mean, I know people are young and they want to have fun and they find stuff like that funny sometimes but does that really get them to the polls?

KHALID: You know, that's a really good question. I spent a lot of time talking to young voters, particularly in key battleground states like Florida and North Carolina recently and I don't know how effective something like that is. The thing I - you know, continuously heard from young voters is that they are really concerned about the personality more than the party. So you know, maybe that kind of helps with the personality thing.

COSTELLO: OK. So let's talk about the personality thing. What do they want to see in these candidates that would attract them?

KHALID: So I've heard a lot about authenticity and feeling as if the candidate sort of genuinely identifies with them. And so that's why I think we saw during the primary season a lot of younger voters really come out in droves to support Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont. Now, you know, I think Hillary Clinton is struggling with this group. It's certainly true. I mean, we should be clear that she does lead all of the polls that we have seen against Donald Trump. She leads them by double digits. So the question isn't really, you know, will younger voters support Hillary Clinton because it seems that some of them will. The question is how many. And part of that's because we see young voters shifting towards either, you know, a third party candidate or at times telling me that they are just disappointed with their options and they may stay home on Election Day.

COSTELLO: But, wait a minute. Mr. Trump, everybody says he's authentic, he has an authentic personality. He says what he means. Why aren't they attracted to that personality?

KHALID: So I guess there are kind of two main reasons. One is that Millennials as a whole are the most diverse generation to date. And so when you look at this population, about -- more than 40 percent identify as people of color and the other folks who don't often tell me they have grown up in a very different generation. So they have grown up with very dear friends of theirs who either may be immigrants or the children of immigrants and so some of Donald Trump's rhetoric around building a wall or about Muslims just doesn't resonate well with this generation.

[10:20:16] And I have heard that time and again, regardless of whether or not some younger voters tell me you know, that they identify as conservative. I met a lot of folks who told me they liked Marco Rubio or John Kasich during the primaries but feel very hesitant about supporting Donald Trump because of his rhetoric.

COSTELLO: Interesting. -- So Mr. Obama, President Obama has been reaching out to young voters in an attempt to get them to vote for Hillary Clinton. He just did an interview with Ryan Seacrest. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Anybody who is watching the debate I think got a sense that you have got really sharply contrasting visions about where we should take the country and I'm admittedly biased. I have worked with Hillary, I know her. She is well-prepared. I would say that the other guy doesn't have the preparation, the temperament or, you know, the core values of inclusion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSETELLO: So when President Obama was running for office, young people were psyched about him, and then you know, as time went on, they became less and less excited about his presidency. So do his words resonate with those younger voters who are thinking of voting for Hillary Clinton?

KHALID: I think that he's perhaps one of the best surrogates that Hillary Clinton could have with this younger population, but you're right. I mean, 2008 was sort of a high water mark in terms of Millennial-turnout and we did not see the same sorts of turnout in 2012 for President Obama. So I think his words -- he's certainly a very effective surrogate for her. They also have limitations. When you look, it's no accident that Hillary Clinton is out today on the campaign trail with Senator Sanders. He is also one of the most highly effective surrogates for her this election season, and you know, sort of combining that along with the fact that the first lady is also out could be effective in reaching some of these voters because I will say, a lot of times younger voters are not telling me that they are enchanted or inclined to vote for Donald Trump. They are telling me they may vote for a third party candidate or that frankly they just don't care for any of their options this year. COSTELLO: Asma Khalid, thank you so much for joining me this morning. Still to come in the "Newsroom," a deadly police confrontation sparks more protests and new questions.

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[10:25:16]

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COSTELLO: All right. We have a bit of breaking news to tell you about right now. The U.S. and Iraq have agreed on a plan that could send 500 or more additional American troops to help retake the ISIS stronghold of Mosul in Iraq in the coming days. CNN Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr has more on this. Good morning.

BARBARA STARR: CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This has been under discussion for some weeks between the U.S. and the Iraqis. President Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi, now finally are coming to that agreement that could send up to an additional 500 troops to Northern Iraq in the coming weeks, if not sooner. This is all about sending more military advisors and trainers to Iraq to help the Iraqi forces and the Kurds retake the Northern Iraqi City of Mosul. This is the ISIS stronghold in Iraq. This is the center of ISIS' so-called caliphate in Iraq. It's a very important military target for the Iraqis to get back, Iraq's second largest city. So everyone agrees they need more help doing it. This is supposed to be the last plus-up of U.S. troops in Iraq. There are about 4500 there now on deployment orders. This again will bring it somewhat over 5,000. So if it works and there is a battle for Mosul in the coming weeks and they get Mosul back, it will be an important military victory against ISIS but will it mean the defeat of ISIS and the ISIS ideology? I don't think anybody is betting on that any time soon. Carol?

COSTELLO: All right, Barbara Starr reporting live for us this morning. Thank you. All of this happening as the president gets ready to sit down for a town hall event hosted by CNN's Jake Tapper. The focus veterans, national security and foreign policy. Let's bring in CNN White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski. Good morning.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi Carol. Yes, I mean, this will be a unique venue for the president to speak directly to troops. He's coming here to thank them for their service. Then he's going to participate in this town hall so in the crowd we are going to have active service members, veterans, maybe some special guests like World War II veterans, family members of those who served in the military, even people who have lost loved ones to war. So you can imagine the array of questions and likely tough questions that he's going to get.

Is this a tough crowd for the president? Well, you might say that. Especially when you consider that while President Obama's popularity numbers, his approval ratings have been going up over the last year, to the point that it's made headlines, that it's over 50 percent, his numbers among members of the military are considerably lower. I mean, one survey, it was an unscientific poll but it showed that among U.S. troops, his approval rating was around 15 percent two years ago. There's low morale in the military. One survey showed that about half of U.S. troops feel that they are underpaid and overworked. And you know, when the president goes out lately, he always wants to talk about what the next administration would look like, making the case for Hillary Clinton, but that too is going to be tough here, especially since surveys have shown that U.S. troops support Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by a factor of two to one and that about a fifth of U.S. troops that were surveyed felt like that they didn't like either choice.