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CNN NEWSROOM

Early Voting Kicks Off in Iowa; Trump and Clinton Ramp Up Attacks; Trump on Ex-Miss Universe: "I Saved Her Job"; PATH Service in Hoboken, NJ Suspended After Crash. ired 9-9:30 ET

Aired September 29, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:08] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. It is one of the key states that could tip the balance in the presidential race, and the first of those all-important votes are being cast right now.

Just within the last few seconds, Iowa became the first state to allow early voting in person. And it's no coincidence that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are courting voters in this battleground state. Their attacks ramping up, the calendar ticking down.

It's now just 40 days until the election, and a mere 10 days until the next presidential debate. And it's all signs suggesting an uglier showdown. We have word of new tensions bubbling up inside one of the campaigns.

We have a lot to cover this morning, as usual, but let's begin with CNN's Phil Mattingly. Good morning.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, good morning, Carol. Early voting starts now and that is extremely important in this state. Now, behind me, just a few minutes ago, voters were officially allowed to start coming in and vote in person. And for Iowa, that's crucial. Forty-four percent of voters in 2012 voted before the actual election, Carol, so both campaigns really focused on that issue.

But it's also an issue that underscores a problem Donald Trump has right now. Enthusiasm is what drives the early vote. Donald Trump's most enthusiastic supporters don't want Donald Trump to change. They want the impromptu, off-the-cuff Donald Trump. That has been problematic.

It's one of those issues that has been driving his advisers behind the scenes somewhat mad as they try and wrangle Trump in the wake of what even they would acknowledge was a weak debate performance. They're also extending to Trump's surrogates a call last night from Trump Tower telling surrogates that, despite what the pundits are saying, despite what the polls are saying, they need to act as if the debate was a big victory for Donald Trump, the type of victory that Trump is saying he had repeatedly on the campaign trail.

But one of the issues that's barring whatever message the campaign is trying to get out right now, Carol, a continual battle between not Hillary Clinton but the former Miss Universe Alicia Machado. It was a well-coordinated attack from the Clinton campaign that the Trump campaign is continuing to respond to, and Donald Trump continuing to respond in personal terms. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look what I get out of it. I get nothing. So a lot of things are coming out about her, I'm not going to say anything. I couldn't care less, but it's somebody I don't know, don't know certainly very well.

I saved her job because they wanted to fire her for putting on so much weight. And it is a beauty contest, you know. I mean, say what you want, Bill. I mean, they know what they're getting into. It's a beauty contest. And I said don't do that, let her try and lose the weight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.

TRUMP: Can you imagine I end up in a position like this? So that's the way it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, Carol, look, Donald Trump has made very clear from the very start of his campaign, he is a counter puncher. He is going to swing back even if that doesn't seem like politically the greatest idea in the world. That's exactly what he's been doing on this issue. And that's what the campaign is now telling their surrogates to do as well, CNN obtaining a memo of talking points released to surrogates yesterday talking about a number of different issues but specifically on this.

First and foremost, the campaign believes they have a winning message on Donald Trump the outsider, something he briefly talked about during the debate, a thing they want Trump and his surrogates to talk about more.

But when it comes to the issue of Miss Universe, they're willing to go right back at Alicia Machado and right back at Hillary Clinton, talking about bringing up, according to that memo, Monica Lewinsky and what Hillary Clinton did in her efforts to defend Bill Clinton with the accusations of infidelities over the course of the last couple of decades. It's an issue that you have heard Donald Trump say -- he was patting himself on the back for not bringing up during the debate. At least when it comes to the surrogates, Carol, they're willing to go all in on this battle.

COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly reporting live from Council Bluffs, Iowa this morning.

As you heard Phil say, Donald Trump insists he won Monday night's debate, the polls be damned. But insiders tell us the Republican nominee is furious at some aides for publicly admitting that he struggled in round one and that they have been pushing him to change tactics for round two.

Joining me now to talk about all of this is Julian Zelizer, historian and professor at Princeton University and author of "The Fierce Urgency of Now" and David Swerdlick, CNN political commentator and assistant editor at "The Washington Post." Welcome to both of you.

Oh, where to start. David, let's start with --

DAVID SWERDLICK, ASSISTANT EDITOR, THE WASHINGTON POST: Sure.

COSTELLO: -- with the notion that Trump insists that he won the debate last night. He wants to send his surrogates out there, and he wants his surrogates to say, yay, he won. But, really, most of the country knows he didn't win.

SWERDLICK: Yes, Carol, most of the country knows he didn't win because he had a fairly poor performance and the numbers bear that out. The overnight poll from Monday from the CNN/ORC poll showed that two to one, respondents said that Hillary Clinton won the debate. And you have even his surrogates, as Phil just reported, saying, yes, his performance was, at best, sort of lackluster.

Trump went in very confident saying that he wasn't going to prepare that much. I was actually someone who was saying it might be sort of a rope-a-dope and that he was behind the scenes secretly preparing for Clinton, but clearly he wasn't.

[09:05:07] She was the more upbeat, the more comfortable and the more prepared. I think she can't afford to get overconfident a week and a half from now in the next debate, but Trump clearly, Carol, has the higher hurdle. He now is in a position where he has to perform much better if he's going to be credible in these debates at all.

COSTELLO: But here's the thing, Julian. We have reporting from our sources that there is a rift inside the Trump campaign, that they're fighting about this, that the people advising Donald Trump on how to debate Hillary Clinton don't really know what they're talking about. And I'll give you an instance, these two generals.

Like, but the generals have never taken part in a presidential debate. They don't really know how to coach Donald Trump. People like Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani do, but they're fighting amongst themselves on whether to allow Trump to be Trump, as they say, or really, like, talk about issues and kind of get into the nitty gritty.

JULIAN ZELIZER, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Look, part of this is the fact that his campaign from the start has never surrounded the candidate with the kind of professionals that come at this point in a campaign. And so some of this is about somewhat amateurish approach to a campaign that's having a cost.

And the second is a debate that has emerged in the primaries and it continues today. Can Donald Trump win through this insurgent, somewhat outlandish style of politics in the general election part of the season as opposed to the primaries? And I think he wants to make the bet that that's how he wins.

But I think after a debate like that, there's many of his supporters who are very nervous that that won't work. COSTELLO: And let's go back to, you know, this internal document that

CNN turned up from inside the Trump campaign, David. The advice is attack Hillary Clinton on Bill Clinton's infidelities, attack Hillary Clinton for attacking Monica Lewinsky.

SWERDLICK: Right.

COSTELLO: You know, I wrote an op-ed on this today. And I talked to women who have stayed in marriages despite their husband's cheating, and that's not going to go over well with them. Let's face it, 50 percent of the country is divorced, so how exactly is this a winning strategy for Donald Trump?

SWERDLICK: No, you're completely right, Carol. Look, there are some issues that are hard for Secretary Clinton to address like her e-mail scandal. But when it comes to the past indiscretions of President Clinton, I don't think that's hard for her to address just for the reasons that you stated. She just simply has to go out there and say, look, all marriages go through, you know, rocky periods. They got through it, they're still together, and she is still here. I'm not sure why the Trump campaign thinks that that's going to be an effective line of attack.

I do think though, as Phil reported again, that one of the reasons the Trump campaign is circulating this memo saying essentially that they've got to attack, attack, attack is because Trump learned early on -- one of my colleagues, Robert O'Harrow, reported about this several weeks ago for "The Washington Post" -- that one of his early mentors, Roy Cone, who was also an attorney for Senator McCarthy in the McCarthy era, taught him not to backtrack, not to apologize, not to concede anything to the other side. And I think that's what's getting in the way for Trump right now, you know.

Like Julian said, he's never run a campaign before. And so when other candidates learn how to run for President, they learn by running for governor. When you run for governor, you learn by running for city council. And he's never done that.

COSTELLO: Well, going back to the Monica Lewinsky attacks for just a second. So, Julian, they've sort of tweaked the attack, right? They're not going to call Hillary Clinton an enabler for supposedly allowing her husband to cheat on her with many, many women. They're saying that she's lashing out at these women and destroying their lives, you know, i.e. Monica Lewinsky.

But Donald Trump isn't exactly a moral authority on the institution of marriage. So how is that an effective attack, even with the tweaking?

ZELIZER: I think part of it is simply somewhat random scorched earth strategy of going after the character of your opponent. I don't think this will be the entire attack. It will be combined with talking more about e-mails, talking more about the Clinton Foundation. It will be a shift away -- or not shifting to issues but focusing on this strategy to literally undercut the idea that she is a legitimate candidate. I don't think that's going to work. I mean, look the most effective

part of the debate, most agree, for Donald Trump was the first half hour where he talked about the economy and he talked about issues.

SWERDLICK: Yes.

ZELIZER: And I think by just focusing on where things went wrong, the campaign is actually doubling down on its mistakes. They should look again at that first half hour. And I don't think the six points of those memo -- the memo that's been leaked get at where he might actually be able to go after her and keep the polls narrow.

[09:10:00] COSTELLO: All right. Julian Zelizer and David Swerdlick, thanks so much. I got to get to our breaking news of the morning, since we received a breaking news sadly.

We are getting multiple reports of a train accident in New Jersey. We're sending a crew to the scene. We don't know how many injuries there are or how many trains are involved. Of course, we'll get more information as soon as we get it in, but this involves the PATH train in New Jersey. The PATH station is involved, but we don't know exactly how. As I said, we're trying to gather more information as I speak.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the gloves are off as early voting is kicking off. Both candidates launching attacks, but who has the advantage the least today?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right. A little bit of an update on our breaking news this morning.

We're getting multiple reports of a train accident in New Jersey. As I said, we're sending a crew to the scene. We don't know how many injuries there are or how many trains are involved, but we do believe there are injuries.

I'm looking at the verified Twitter account for PATH, the PATH Train.

[09:15:03] And it says here, the incident at a New Jersey transit station, not PATH station. And it says, the Lackawanna entrance connecting the New Jersey rail to PATH is currently closed.

But you can see by this picture that there is extensive damage at this train stop and there you see the tweet from the New Jersey transit authority.

Mary Schiavo is on the phone with me right now. She's our expert in everything transportation.

Mary, I know we don't have much information yet, but, you know, this train service, a lot of people take it and say it's kind of rickety and some people say they don't take it if they are in the New York/New Jersey area. MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER DOT INSPECTOR GENERAL (via telephone): Well,

that's a problem. I mean, so much of our rail infrastructure and our rail rolling stock is rickety. And that means we don't have the most modern equipment on it. We don't have automatic braking systems. In other words, the automatic things that are on the self-driving Tesla, we don't have those on the trains, most trains of America and we don't have the most modern tracks that are smart tracks that talk to the train.

But, you know, in a lot of these cases what they find is a combination. It's also inattention by the engineer, occasionally, although not often, occasionally, it's some other kind of incapacitation of the engineer. It's usually not the most modern equipment and perhaps some inattention of the engineer. I'm not saying that's the case here.

COSTELLO: Right. I understand perfectly. I'm looking at this picture from Twitter. Can you see it, Mary?

SCHIAVO: No, I'm on the phone right now, but I have seen some of them.

COSTELLO: OK, good. You've seen some of these pictures. So tell me what we might be seeing.

SCHIAVO: So, it looks like what we're seeing is a train that literally plowed into the station and didn't brake in time, didn't stop in time. It's hard to -- it's difficult to imagine why that is with an experienced engineer, why that would have occurred, but it could also be a malfunction of the train at this point.

It's possible, although unlikely in the station there was a problem with the track. That's less likely, but it does look like literally a failure to have the rolling stop, the train and the engine and the train cars brake in time.

COSTELLO: So how fast would a train be travelling as it comes into a station?

SCHIAVO: That's the most important question. Now probably the first question the NTSB asks because in coming into the station by that point it should be going very, very slowly. But it's hard to stop a train, the old saying from another company. But it's hard to stop because you have got the rolling inertia, and it's, you know, many, many tons of trains.

Now, these are shorter trains. These aren't like freight trains. For a freight train to stop, even once it's slowed down, it can take a mile. Here, they should be going probably at a speed, like a walking speed by the time you get into the station. No more than that.

COSTELLO: So if -- hopefully it was going that slowly but we just don't know yet. We have reporters going to the scene. But, of course, aboard that train it's probably packed because it's still rush hour right here in New Jersey and New York and packed with people there. A lot of people were probably standing up perhaps. There are no seat belts on board the train.

SCHIAVO: Yes. That's right. And that's exactly it. As you're coming into the station. I've been in that station and on that train. People are busy. People are trying to get to work.

You're up and literally at the door by the time you're at the station. You're at the door chomping at the bit to get off and get your day started.

You don't have a lot of protection at that point. Most people probably knocked off their feet, thrown around. Tough situation. The good part of it is the train should have been going very, very slowly, not a high impact speed. So that would certainly save lives and cut down o injuries.

COSTELLO: I hope so. So my other question, because I ride the subway all the time here in New York city and I always wonder if there's some sort of accident -- doors will automatically open or if I can get out of there.

SCHIAVO: Yes, and that's something that's been improving over time. In fact, several of the train crashes in the last decade has improved. Some have been retrofitted because there weren't enough emergency exits on the train, especially where there's a case of fire. People have to get out and get out in a hurry like the evacuation rules on planes.

The evacuation point should be on trains and increase them. And many trains have been retrofitted for increased egress windows and every car has to have at least one and now most egress the tin car.

[09:20:02] And the instructions are right on the window. But that is improving, sadly, crash by crash, but that is improving and that's always one of the NTSB's most wanted items a few years back. To have more egress points on the train cars.

COSTELLO: All right. Mary, stand by.

CNN producer Paul Murphy is standing outside the New Jersey train station. He heard the crash. He's on the phone with me now.

Paul, tell me what you heard.

PAUL MURPHY, CNN PRODUCER (via telephone): Hey, Carol. Here it's a pretty crazy scene. There's a number of agencies responding. I woke up to the sirens after the crash, and I walked down here for can you can't really get that close to the station. They've cordoned all of it off. What you are seeing is this massive response.

You are seeing Jersey City, which is the town below Hoboken. Hudson County, which is greater county. You're seeing a number of unmarked police vehicles, fire rescue vehicles. You have about five o six fire engine rescues here. I just saw an ambulance go by. The main sound you hear now is just sirens. Sirens everywhere.

COSTELLO: Are there a lot of ambulance responding to the scene? Because, of course, we're wondering about injuries, Paul.

MURPHY: I've only seen one ambulance go by. That doesn't mean there hasn't been more. I haven't seen many -- I haven't looked at where the staging is and how Hoboken train station is. You have to kind of walk to it. You can't drive up to it.

I haven't seen many stretchers, if any, since I've been here. As far as injuries, I can't really speak to any.

COSTELLO: So, Paul, are there a lot of people milling about?

MURPHY: Yes, this is -- Hoboken is a major transit point for people living in New Jersey to get into the city, and the fact that the New Jersey transit, the PATH is shut down. For that all to be shut down, it's a major, major problem for anybody commuting.

It's about to get very loud. The fire department, (INAUDIBLE). There's only one option for people who don't have cars to get out of Hoboken and that's the bus right now. The bus lines are very, very long. And many people are walking down here. Many people are on the phones with their work saying I'm just not coming in today or I'm just going to work from home.

COSTELLO: Do you take that train?

MURPHY: I have taken that's train before. I'm not exactly sure which one, but it's -- I've taken many transit trains before. I've always felt safe in them. I still feel safe in them. The way the terminal is, it just kind of dead ends and the train track, there's a space people walk about and then there's the terminal.

So, if this -- I'm not sure which track this train was on, but if it did go into the terminal, it's sad because of any possible injury or loss of life, but it's a very historic train terminal. It's been in a numerous amount of commercials but also viewers remember it from hurricane sandy. This sis an area that got flooded and there's some footage showing the area being flooded.

So, whatever happens, it's very sad. It's also an historic building and the town has fought hard to preserve it.

COSTELLO: OK. So, Paul Murphy, I'll leave you more information. Mary Schiavo, thank you for your expertise as usual. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:27:46] COSTELLO: All right. Want to continue our coverage of our breaking news. There's been a major train accident in New Jersey. We're sending a crew to the scene.

Actually, Jean Casarez is on the scene and also Paul Murphy, a CNN producer. They're gathering information for us. We have very little to go on.

This is a New Jersey transit train. It just didn't stop as it was supposed to. It just rammed right into the Hoboken terminal there. You can see all of the damage.

We do have reports there are injuries on board that train. We heard from producer Paul Murphy that ambulances were now on the scene, along with fire trucks and police. He wasn't able to tell us how many people have been injured because, of course, he can't get into the train station at the moment but he is trying. But we do believe there may be multiple injuries.

Mary Schiavo, our expert on everything transportation joins us again. We're looking at these new images we're getting in, Mary. What can you tell us about what may have happened here?

SCHIAVO: Looks like it was a failure to stop. I mean, they were either in an over-speed situation which seems he so many warnings to get your speed down coming into the station or you had a problem actually stopping the train, some malfunction with the train itself. Or it's possible a problem with the tracks. It doesn't look like that's the most likely explanation that could have derailed at that point.

And then finally, the fourth thing which will be one of the things the NTSB questions first is, was the engineer paying attention? What was the engineer doing? You know, what's was all going so those are often the factors that are involved in a train crash. Usually it's more than one factor, just like in other transportation accidents. It's usually not just one thing.

COSTELLO: Let me ask you this, because it's a straight shot there. I'm trying to figure out what ran into. Would it have to go off the rails for it to run into a wall at that station?

SCHIAVO: No, because they have arrester devices at the end of the train. There are barriers, if you will. And how fast the train was going, it could have pushed those barriers. The barriers themselves may not have been very strong and might have failed. But at the end of the track, if you have heavy train and enough speed you can push through those barriers.