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Clinton, Sanders Court Millennials in New Hampshire; Inner Turmoil in Trump Campaign?. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 28, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:01]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: How effective can she be for Clinton?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, I think she can be very effective for voters who may not be as excited about Hillary Clinton as the Clinton campaign would like them to be.

Look, and we have to remember there are so many younger voters who were not of voting age during the -- Obama's campaign in 2008 or 2012. I just talked to two young women a few moments ago who said that they were never able to vote for President Obama because they were too young.

They like the president. They really like the first lady, so that's another, I guess, way to give another Obama vote here for his legacy by voting for Hillary Clinton. But a challenge here as well is for Hillary Clinton herself to win over these voters.

Yes, she can call in reinforcements, but she also her campaign believes and knows that she has to excite them herself. But, boy, I think Michelle Obama is pretty much the best person out there to have on your side in this very toxic climate, Poppy.

HARLOW: Jeff, thank you for the reporting.

Again, we're waiting for Hillary Clinton and her former rival, now advocate Bernie Sanders to take the stage. We will bring you live to Durham, New Hampshire, as soon as we get that.

Donald Trump set to hold a rally in just a few minutes in Iowa. The Republican presidential candidate kicked off the day in Chicago. He spoke to the Polish National Alliance there. Next, Trump attended a private fund-raiser at a golf course in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Protesters gathered nearby holding those signs.

Let's go to Phil Mattingly. He is with Trump. He is in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

I guess you have been in, what, three states today, Phil?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump is a little bit busy.

There's no question about it. When it comes to Donald Trump's schedule, he has an intense one. He's all over the place doing multiple battleground states a day.

But, Poppy, I'll tell you. In that first event in Chicago, we actually had kind of an interesting moment for Donald Trump. You think back over the course of the last couple months, one of the things that has unnerved foreign policy officials in both parties and frankly across the world has been Donald Trump's criticism of NATO, at one point calling it obsolete, at another point saying, if he were president, he wouldn't honor the Article V commitment.

That's the collective defense commitment the United States has signed with the 28 member countries. If one is attacked, all will enter the battle, essentially. This is what he had today to say to that group of Polish Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We want NATO to be strong, which means we want more countries to follow the example of Poland. If every country in NATO made the same contributions as Poland, all of our allies would be more secure and people would feel better, even better, about NATO.

NATO is very important. But they would feel better about it. We will work with Poland on strengthening NATO when I am president. We will strengthen NATO. And we are going to bring NATO and get NATO involved with terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: So, Poppy, going from NATO is obsolete to strengthening NATO is not a small shift. It's a notable one.

And it's one, frankly, his foreign policy advisers have been pushing him to move towards over the course of the last couple months. That is a move that has now been made. And when you talk to foreign policy officials, that's important one, particularly because a lot of Republicans in the foreign policy sector have been wary of Trump's candidacy.

HARLOW: Well, and this is something Hillary Clinton, Phil, went after him at in the debate. She talked about Article V specifically and she said, by the way, the only time it's been invoked is after we were attacked on 9/11 and the 28 member countries came to our defense.

Was that the shift for him? Is that why he now is saying we will strengthen NATO?

MATTINGLY: There's no question that this goes at least part of the way to trying to take that attack line off the take.

And, Poppy, I think an interesting element of this is this is part of a 48 hours where the Trump campaign behind the scenes has really been trying to figure out the next steps forward after the debate. If you talk to them publicly, they're very happy with the debate performance. They raised a ton of money the day after the debate. They're talking about online polls that aren't scientific that

continually show Donald Trump as the victor of the debate. But if you talk to them privately, there is no question about it. They are very concerned about the fact that there was not a lot of preparation, or at least not a lot of serious preparation put in, and it showed.

What are they going to do to change things going forward? Poppy I'm told from a senior adviser today here in Iowa and in this rally in Wisconsin after this later today, they will sharpen their attacks on Hillary Clinton, particularly on her ties to Wall Street, on the so- called corruption issues that have plagued her campaign during the Democratic primary and were very effective at that point. That will be a shift, Poppy.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: I have to jump in here. Phil Mattingly live in Iowa, we're expected Trump soon. Thank you so much.

Breaking news. Just two hours after the Senate, the House has voted to override President Obama's veto of a controversial bill that would allow the families of those 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia for its alleged role in the terror attack. The Senate vote was overwhelming, 97-1 overriding the president's veto for the first time in his presidency.

Let's bring in Manu Raju for more on the Hill on the story, 97 of them opposing the president on this.

[15:05:06]

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Remarkable. A very stunning rebuke for the White House in the president's final days here in office.

His party just did not listen to the concerns that the White House laid out about this bill, saying that this bill could expose U.S. -- Americans overseas to retaliatory lawsuits from other countries who may feel like U.S. military action should be grounds to sue these United States diplomats overseas.

Now, not only that, the 97-1 vote in the Senate, just hours later, the House doing exactly the same thing. Paul Ryan, the House speaker, just walking by me right now -- a 348-77 vote here in the House to override the president's veto, a very, very overwhelming margin.

The president was not table to sell his party to side with him. Now, there's been a bitter back and forth between Democrats on the Hill and the White House, the White House calling the Senate vote today the most embarrassing thing the Senate has done in more than three decades.

That's prompted a sharp rebuke. One Democratic aide told me it's amateur hour at the White House. Other Democratic senators also pushing back shows probably the message that the party did not want to have here on this final day of Congress before they wrap up heading home to campaign ahead of the November elections, Poppy.

HARLOW: Manu, thank you very much for the reporting from Capitol Hill.

Let's get to my political panel.

With me now, chief political analyst Gloria Borger and CNN political analyst Kirsten Powers, who served in the Bill Clinton administration.

Thank you both for being here, ladies.

Kirsten, let me go to you first, just your reaction to what we saw, what Manu was just talking about, a 97 -- such opposition to the president on this, the vote, 97-0.

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN COMMENTATOR: Yes. Well, it's stunning. I think basically what you have are the senators feeling that they are being asked to be put between families who are coming to them and who want to be able to sue Saudi Arabia.

And then you have to White House who's saying we have a relationship with Saudi Arabia that's obviously extremely important to the United States, they're our key ally in the Middle East. And so I think that both sides have different probably interests in this case, and the White House wasn't able to bring the senators around to see it their way.

HARLOW: Gloria, I want to move on to the "New York Times" reporting this morning, a lot of fascinating details here that they have about the Trump camp, while publicly very supportive of their candidate, saying he did extremely well in the debate, look at the all money we raised, they talked about how he needs to be much more rigorously prepared, drill him on answers, on facts, on counterattacks.

Some people said why didn't he go after her on that? Why didn't he go after her more on her e-mails? My question is, do you read this report in "The New York Times," which has a number of unnamed advisers, though, as their way of publicly making Donald Trump prepare better next time?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. Yes.

HARLOW: Leaking it and saying if you're not going to listen to us, you can read about it?

BORGER: Yes, because I think it's another way of communicating with the candidate.

This very often happens in campaigns, where you can't go to the candidate directly and say, look, you messed up. You have to kind of go around the candidate, who, by the way, pays attention to what people are saying on television in the echo chamber, what they're reading in "The New York Times."

And I think if you want to sort of tame the lion that's Donald Trump, you have to figure out a way to do it without allowing him to continue to blame the moderator or blame the microphone.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: That was fascinating.

But, Kirsten, here's the thing. The next debate is different, right? The next debate is a town hall. So he is going to get these 40 questions from voters. And so he went after Lester Holt on some things that were factual and he told Lester they weren't. You can't really do that with a voter, can you?

POWERS: Well, you would think that you can't, but Donald Trump tends to do things his own way.

But the problem remains the same, whether the problem is the way he was in this debate that we just had and a town hall, is that he does need to prepare. And so that's why you're seeing this pressure being put on him through "The New York Times."

Donald Trump, as much as he bashes "The New York Times," he actually cares a lot about what is in "The New York Times." And so this may be the only way to put pressure on him. It's kind of ironic, considering that the line the Trump campaign had been taking all the way up until the debate was to mock Hillary Clinton for preparing, to basically make it out she's there with her binders and studying and locked up, and he's so brilliant and he doesn't need to prepare.

Well, it didn't really work out very well.

HARLOW: Right. She completely filmed that on him in clearly a rehearsed line.

Gloria, Michelle Obama again stumping for the second time in a big speech today in Pennsylvania, a key swing state Hillary Clinton really, really wants, saying things like Donald Trump -- she didn't use his name, which she doesn't.

BORGER: She doesn't need to, does she?

HARLOW: But she said, you can't pop off.

BORGER: Right.

[15:10:00]

HARLOW: And she said, we need an adult in the White House.

My question about Michelle Obama is, clearly, she is being used strategically here and they call her the closer, but who can she get to vote for Clinton that isn't already? That's what interests me.

BORGER: First of all, she has a 58 percent approval rating, so let's put that out there, a little bit higher than her husband's right now, but they're both very popular.

She can talk to millennials. Hillary Clinton right now is up 16 points with millennial voters. Her husband carried millennials in 2012 by 23 points.

HARLOW: And the whole point is Michelle Obama convincing them not to vote for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein.

BORGER: Right. Right. Exactly.

She also raised the birther issue, and she can help with young people of color, with young minority voters, who are not as enthusiastic about coming out and voting this time for Hillary Clinton. She talked about birther. She talked about how it demeaned her husband in one way or another.

HARLOW: On the same day that he said, by the way, on the radio that she is my legacy.

BORGER: That's right. Exactly, exactly.

And so I think that she can stir people to get out in vote in much the same way that Bernie Sanders can talk to millennial voters. And we are going to see him coming up with Hillary Clinton. But it's kind of a one-two punch.

HARLOW: Yes.

BORGER: And she can be quite effective because she's a terrific speaker.

HARLOW: And there's a lot of concern. There was this Quinnipiac poll, right, a few weeks showed 62 percent of people 18-34 are considering vote for a third party. It's a real concern.

BORGER: That's what we have to hear from Bernie Sanders. Will he come out and say don't throw your vote away? He's an independent. Right?

HARLOW: Very, very good point.

Let's move on to Howard Dean, Kirsten, because Howard Dean alleged that Trump possibly was using cocaine at the debate. I kind of can't believe that we're using these words and debate in the same sentence, but he's someone who ran for president, he's former head of the DNC.

David Axelrod, a Clinton supporter came out, and he said, I love Howard Dean, but this is nuts.

Should he apologize?

POWERS: He should, but he doesn't want to. I think he's been asked to apologize, and he refuses to.

So I don't think there are very many people who think this is what was going on. Donald Trump has kind of famously -- I don't think he even drinks, let alone does drugs.

(CROSSTALK) HARLOW: But Howard Dean on MSNBC came out and basically said, like, I'm not saying he said it, I'm not making a medical diagnosis, but it's something that we should talk about.

POWERS: Yes. Well, maybe he's just trying -- he seems like he's trying to sort of get back at them for what they did to Hillary Clinton with her health. Like, just throwing it out there, let's talk about it kind of thing.

But it does seem out of bounds. And, frankly, I thought a lot of what they have done on Hillary's health has been out of bounds, and so I don't think the way to react is to act like them.

HARLOW: Ladies, stay with me.

Let's go to New Hampshire. Let's listen to Bernie Sanders trying to rally those millennial voters for Clinton.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: Transform America.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: You have come to the right place. Thanks very much for being here.

I want to thank Secretary Clinton for inviting me to join her here in the great state of New Hampshire.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And, today, I am asking all of you to think big, not small.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: To understand that, here in the United States, we are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world.

And if we are prepared to stand together and not allow people to divide us up...

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: ... if we are prepared to stand up to powerful and wealthy and greedy special interests, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish, no goal that we cannot achieve, and that includes making fundamental changes in the way we fund higher education in our country.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: Now, here is a simple truth; 40 or 50 years ago, in New Hampshire or Vermont, virtually any place in America, you went out and you got a high school degree, the odds are that you can go out and get decent-paying jobs and make it into the middle class. That was the world 40 or 50 years ago.

[15:15:00]

But that is not the world today. The world has changed, the global economy has changed, technology has changed, and education has changed.

Today, in a highly competitive global economy, if we are going to have as a people the kind of standard of living that the people of the United States deserve, we need to have the best-educated work force in the entire world.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: But let me be very honest with you, and tell you that, sadly, that is not the case today.

Our nation used to lead the world in the percentage of young Americans with college degrees. We were number one. Today, we are number 15, and that is not acceptable.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And that is why Secretary Clinton and I understand that, in today's world, when we talk about public education, it's no longer good enough to talk about the first grade through high school.

That was good. That was wonderful 30 or 40 years ago. It is not enough today.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And today, when we talk about public education, it must mean making public colleges and universities tuition-free for the middle class and working families of this country.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: Now, during the campaign, the primary campaign, Secretary Clinton had some very strong proposals. I had a different approach. But we came together after the campaign and reached an agreement that says that every family in this country earning $125,000 or less -- that is 83 percent of our population -- should be able to send their kids to public colleges and universities tuition-free.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And make no mistake about it. This is a revolutionary proposal for the future of our country with wide-reaching implications.

It means that, first, students will not be leaving college with outrageous levels of student debt.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) SANDERS: I went all over this country during the campaign, and I talked to too many young people and people who were not so young who were paying off student debts of $30,000, $50,000, $100,000, and in some cases, it was taking them decades to pay off those debts.

I want young people to leave school excited about the future, the new businesses they will open up, getting married, having kids, buying a house, not being saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in student debt.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And, secondly, making colleges and universities tuition-free does something even more profound than just lowering student debt.

In my state of Vermont, here in New Hampshire and throughout this country, there are millions of low-income and working-class families with kids who don't know anybody who graduated college.

Their parents didn't graduate college. My parents never went to college. And they are thinking to themselves, there is no way in God's earth that they are ever going to make it through college and into the middle class.

What this proposal, Secretary Clinton's proposal, tells us is that,if you are a low-income family, a working-class family, if your kid studies hard and does well, yes, regardless of the income of your family, your kid will be able to make it into college. That is a big deal.

[15:20:17]

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: Today, hundreds of thousands of bright and qualified young people do not get a higher education for one reason and one reason alone. Their family lacks the income.

That is unfair to those families. It is unfair to the future of this country. How many great scientists and engineers and teachers and police officers are out there who will never get a chance to do what they could do because of lack of income of their families?

Secretary Clinton and I are going to change that. If you have the ability, you will be able to get a college education.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And while we are going to make colleges and universities tuition-free for the middle class and working families of this country, we are also mindful that there are millions of people out there who have already incurred deep debt. And we intend to change that and lower those student debts as well.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) SANDERS: It makes no sense to us that we can go get an automobile

loan, refinance your home for 2 percent, 3 percent, 4 percent, but there are millions of people stuck with interest rates on their student debt at 6, 7, 8 percent. People should be able to refinance those debts at the lower interest rates they can find.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: Now, some people will say, our critics will say, well, you know, it's a good idea making public colleges and universities tuition-free, but it's expensive. It costs a lot of money.

And the truth is, it is an expensive proposal. But I will tell you what is even more expensive, and that is doing nothing.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: We must invest in our young people and the future of this country.

And I will tell you something else, that at a time when we have massive levels of income and wealth inequality it is absurd, it is disgraceful for Donald Trump and his friends to be talking about hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks for the top 1 percent.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: I think that the overwhelming majority of the American people understand that it is far more important to invest in the future of our country than to give Donald Trump a -- and his family, Donald Trump's family, a $4 trillion tax break if Trump were to repeal the estate tax.

The Walton family, wealthiest family in America, would get a $50 billion tax break. So, when you have Republicans telling us that it is OK to give tens and tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the richest people in this country, do not tell me that we cannot afford to make public colleges and universities tuition-free.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: All of you know that New Hampshire is a battleground state. All of you know that this is a very tight election, and, in fact, New Hampshire could decide the outcome.

So, I am asking you here today not only to vote for Secretary Clinton, but to work hard to get your uncles and your aunts, to get your friends to vote.

If anybody tells you that this election is not important, you ask them why the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson and other billionaires, why they are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to elect their candidates.

[15:25:13]

This election is enormously important for the future of our country. It is imperative that we elect Hillary Clinton as our next president.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And, with that, let me introduce the next president of the United States, Hillary Clinton!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Thank you all so much!

CLINTON: It is great being here on the stage at UNH with my friend Bernie Sanders, one of the most passionate champions for equality and justice that I have ever seen and someone who I am looking forward to working with to get the kind of agenda through our Congress that will begin to make our country stronger by providing the kind of support that working families and middle-class families so richly deserve.

You know, Bernie's campaign energized so many young people, some of you in this crowd.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: And there is no group of Americans who have more at stake in this election than young Americans, because so much of what will happen will affect your lives, your jobs, the kind of country we are, the kind of future we want to build together.

I'm proud of the primary campaign that Bernie and I ran. We ran a campaign about issues, not insults.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: And, when it was over, we began to work together to try to figure out how we could take the issues that we agreed on come together, knowing we are stronger together, to come up with specific policies in education, in health and so much else.

Thank you, Bernie. Thank you for your leadership and thank you for your support in this campaign.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: Now, we're going to need some help in Washington.

And I hope New Hampshire will send your now Governor Maggie Hassan to Washington as your senator.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: And I hope sure you will send Carol Shea-Porter back to Washington.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: Isn't this one of the strangest elections you have ever seen?

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: I -- I really sometimes don't know what to make of it.

Standing on that debate stage the other night, I was especially

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: ... thinking about that.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: And, look, I have been very clear about what I want to do, if I'm fortunate enough to be elected president.

And Americans increasingly are zeroing in on the fact that we're not only electing a president. We're electing a commander in chief. And we're looking to see who can protect our country and provide steady and strong leadership around the world.

I was very honored today to earn the endorsement of John Warner, a retired Republican senator, World War II veteran, former secretary of the Navy who served under two Republican presidents.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: I served with him on the Senate Armed Services Committee. And I have the deepest respect for his patriotism.

And it's a great honor. He's never endorsed a Democrat for president before.

And I'm also very grateful that a number of Republicans and independents here in New Hampshire have announced...