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Report: U.S. Suspends Cease-Fire Talks with Russia Over Syria; Trump Questions Hillary's Loyalty to Bill; Black Box Recorder of NJ Train Had Not Been Recording Since July. Category Four Hurricane Mathew Hits Jamaica and Haiti. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 3, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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


[15:30:00] NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: While Russia was talking peace, that's the bedrock of the U.S. decision to suspend cooperation with them here. While Russia was talking peace with U.S., it must have been talking to Syria about the amass of troops held outside of Aleppo and getting this kind of firepower together.

We haven't seen anything like it so far in the war. It reminds what Russia did to Chechnya, carpet bomb it, basically, into submission. The images you so aware of now so commonplace from that particular part of the world, people are worried the fatigue induced by so many years is being exploited by Russia to push forward.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: I go back to the picture of that little girl being pulled out of the rubble by her father. What happens to families like that? Where do they go?

WALSH: There are very few choices. This is the problem with Aleppo, besieged, surrounded. We hear them say fighters who want to surrender may have free exit. They don't trust the regime, frankly, obviously, that's been bombarding them for years and they don't believe safe passage will happen. One doctor suffered substantial burns but couldn't get the medical help he need.

Today's frankly symbolic decision by Washington to say we're not talking to Moscow after this comes from this intense bombardment. It doesn't change much on the ground, makes it difficult now for John Kerry, who's put so much weight in diplomacy. He has no other tool in his tool kit given how the White House doesn't want an escalation and military involvement, particularly against the regime inside Syria.

It makes it hard now for John Kerry, although he'll persist to fulfill diplomacy it will leave much fruit on the ground. We've had so much blood shed in the last few days inside Aleppo alone.

BALDWIN: Nick Paton Walsh, keep sharing the stories.

I want to tell you about another family in Aleppo. They're trying to help folks outside Syria understand what exactly is happening there through twitter. I want to show you how this one 7-year-old girl and her mom are sharing the daily life in a war zone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BANA, 7-YEAR OLD GIRL IN ALEPPO: We are still alive. Hello world. Hear that? We will live forever. Good-bye.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Coming up next, we go to Jamaica. Parts of Jamaica already flooded as category four hurricane Matthew barrels through the Caribbean. We'll take you live to Kingston as the U.S. prepares for a possible hit later this week.

Also ahead, he praised himself after the debate for not attacking Hillary Clinton's family, but now Donald Trump is suggesting Clinton hasn't been faithful to her husband. Not that -- he doesn't have any evidence to support that. We'll discuss whether the strategy will backfire.

[15:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We're back. You're watching CNN. News of a formal cease and desist for the Trump Foundation. An ugly bookend of what could be the presidential candidate's worst week on the campaign trail so far. Started off with a widely criticized debate performance, spiraled into the erratic 3:30 a.m. twitter tirade about a Latina beauty queen. Then the bombshell reported that the presidential candidate may have avoided paying federal income taxes for 18 years. Perhaps the most jaw-dropping moment was this base accusation of infidelity. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton's only loyalty is to her financial contributors and to herself. I don't even think she's loyal to Bill, if you want to know the truth. And, really, folks, really, why should she be, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, that was Trump. Then you have his surrogate, dear friend, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani doubling down on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER MAYOR, NEW YORK CITY: That was a sarcastic remark pointing out that Bill Clinton has, you know, quite a past and Hillary Clinton has done quite a job on attacking the people who are victims of Bill Clinton. Not only that, she poses as a feminist and she's taken money from countries that stone women, kill women --

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Bill Clinton is not the nominee, sir. This is my last question for you --

GIULIANI: And --

TAPPER: Is the Trump campaign -- is Donald Trump and the people around Donald Trump really the ones to be casting aspersions on the marriages of anyone else?

GIULIANI: It isn't a marriage. It's the way she goes on the attack and tries to hurt victims of sexual predation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let me bring in Matt Schlapp, Trump supporter and former political director for George W. Bush. And Maria Cardona, CNN political commentator, Hillary Clinton supporter. Welcome, welcome to both of you. Max Schlapp, first up, do you the strategy of attacking the Clinton's marriage, do you think it is a smart way to go?

[15:40:00] MATT SCHLAPP, FORMER POLITICAL DIRECTOR, GEORGE W. BUSH: I think when Hillary Clinton brought up in the debate, in which she said with her deplorables comment that Trump is a misogynist, and those who support him, 50% of us are deplorable, I think it was over the line. If they're going to make the moral case for why Donald Trump is not somehow morally acceptable to be president, he should push back on that aggressively because the Clintons --

BALDWIN: That's a yes? It's OK for him to go there.

SCHLAPP: No, it's OK to respond and put this in context. But Clinton should not be making moral arguments, Brooke.

BALDWIN: But -- sorry. Where is the evidence that Hillary Clinton was unfaithful --

SCHLAPP: I did not hear that. and I have no evidence of that. I would not make that charge.

BALDWIN: OK. Just wanted to be clear on that. Maria?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, I really feel for my friends who day in and day out twist themselves in knots trying to defend the indefensible because that's exactly what they are doing. This Is a candidate who has demonstrated time and again that he is who he is and that is who we will get at the white house. We have seen this past week an undeterred Donald Trump, unfettered Donald Trump, an unplugged Donald Trump.

What that has made very Clear to the American people is that that is an unfit Donald Trump who will be unhinged in the White House if he gets anywhere near the nuclear codes. It should really send chills down our spine. What he is doing right now, Brooke, in terms of attacking Hillary Clinton, attacking their marriage, Republican strategists themselves have said, don't do this. They cringe. They have done focus groups on this for years, since the '90s.

BALDWIN: Listen, Maria, I'm listening.

CARDONA: It doesn't work.

BALDWIN: I'm listening. You and others may say it is cringe-worthy but not when we look at the recent poll numbers we've seen from the Quinnipiac swing states which I will get to in just a second. But I do have to play one more, there you go, swing states, there you go, neck and neck with Trump winning in Ohio. So, if we talk about cringe-worthy Donald Trump, you know what, Maria, why then is he doing so well?

CARDONA: I will say this. There is certainly a whole slew of Donald Trump supporters who will never waiver. He was right when he said that if he stood on fifth avenue and shot some people, that --

SCHLAPP: These are the deplorables, right?

CARDONA: -- his supporters would not move. No, actually.

BALDWIN: We're talking independents. The key differentiation we're not talking about the Trump supporters. We're talking about independents. Who are still vacillating.

SCHLAPP: That's right.

CARDONA: Here's a point, let me just say this, the polls are actually moving. If you looked at before the debate, Donald Trump actually had some momentum. After the debate, he has done nothing but prove time and again that he would be unhinged and unfit in the White House. If you look at the poll of polls, Brooke, in all of these swing states, Hillary Clinton is ahead in all of them, as she is ahead --

BALDWIN: Matt, I want you to respond. Let me play one more sound bite. Donald Trump from Saturday.

SCHLAPP: I want to respond.

BALDWIN: Hang tight. You will. Sound bite and then we'll chat. Go ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: She's supposed to fight all of these different things and she can't make it 15 feet to her car. Give me a break.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You can respond, but I also had to get that in there as well because, listen, you shouldn't be making fun of anyone's health. When I saw that, Matt, it was reminiscent of him and "The New York Times" reporter and I think any of that, shouldn't that be totally off limits?

SCHLAPP: Well, apparently she doesn't have any health problems, so I guess that's not an issue. But the point is this, which is what we know about these polls is the following which is why can't we talk about our economy, our desire to create jobs, defeating radical Islamic terror and changing the way Washington does business.

BALDWIN: Because Trump decides to take to twitter on his iPhone at 3:30 in the morning, Matt.

SCHLAPP: The other thing, Brooke, in all fairness, as Maria went through what she just said. I know Maria is a smart person. I know that's how she thinks. These are the talkers. The only way though she can win is to demonstrate Donald Trump is unhinged and not fit to be president.

The fact is the people across this country, they actually like the fact that he's bold and brash because they think that's what we need after 7 1/2 years of Obama, to change our country and put it in the right direction. If this was working so well for the Clintons, why are these polls so close? Close because they simply don't like her. She's not likable. It's the truth.

CARDONA: Let me respond really quickly, Brooke. The polls are so close because no matter how you look at it, we live in an incredibly divided country that's so polarized. Hillary Clinton had no illusions this was going to be easy. So she's going to --

SCHLAPP: Why did Obama do so well?

CARDONA: She's going to continue to with the argument that what we need to do is fight for real solutions on the economy. What we really need to do is hold candidates to the same standard that 40 years have held candidates to.

SCHLAPP: But why is Obama so popular?

CARDONA: All we need to do is look at why Donald Trump hasn't paid taxes in the past 20 years. If you're going to look at economic solutions, that needs to be a key point.

SCHLAPP: Brooke, Brooke, why is it --

[15:45:00] CARDONA: Families pay taxes every single day and who try to be good examples for their children --

SCHLAPP: I would love to be able to get a chance to say something.

BALDWIN: Matt, Matt, let me be fair --

CARDONA: As a mother of a Latina daughter, I cringe this is the person who could be in the White House.

BALDWIN: I'm listening, Maria, but Matt go ahead, quickly, then we got to go.

SCHLAPP: Why was Obama able to do so much better? Why is there a huge difference between Obama's popularity numbers and Clinton's popularity numbers? She's been at it for 20 years. There's a second set of rules for the Clintons and it's a scandal machine, Maria, and you can't --

CARDONA: Talk about second set of rules --

BALDWIN: I respect you both. But we have to go.

CARDONA: Let's do it, bring it on.

BALDWIN: Thank you. I was in Argentina last week and people were like, what's going on in your country?

Coming up next, new details on that deadly train crash in Hoboken, new jersey. We're learning a disturbing detail about the data recorder on the train. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:50:00] BALDWIN: A setback into the investigation of last week's New Jersey commuter train crash that killed a young mother here. We're now learning that data recorder that was retrieved from the back of the train actually hadn't been recording anything since July.

And that key device was at least 20 years old. This recorder, if working, would have provided clues to what exactly caused the crash. There is a second one, we're told, but crews have yet to be able to find it from the crash site. Rene Marsh, our aviation and government regulation correspondent, is with me now. It hasn't been recording anything since July? Why?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: That is the big question that we have for New Jersey Transit. This certainly does put a wrinkle in the investigation, Brooke. Again, that recorder, the back of the train actually not recording any data since July. Now had that recorder been working at the time of last week's fatal train crash in Hoboken, we would probably know basic information like how fast the train was traveling when it smashed into the terminal and if and when that engineer took to applying the brakes. Instead we have no clues to what might have caused that deadly crash.

As this source puts it, for that recorder to not be working for so many months, it really speaks to the safety culture at New Jersey Transit. CNN has also learned that New Jersey Transit was under a federal audit just months before this deadly crash. The audit was due to safety concerns. Federal data shows that since 2011, New Jersey Transit trains have been involved in more than 150 accidents.

Now, the train's engineer says he does not remember the crash, but Brooke, there is a second event recorder. That's located on the front of the train. Investigators may be able to pull some data from that one. However, the NTSB has not been able to access it because of the extensive damage you see there on your screen to the terminal, but they may not get access to that second recorder until tomorrow, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Somebody may find it. Thank you so much.

More breaking news in the run up to the presidential election. Hackers have now attempted to penetrate voter registrations in 20 states. This is according to the Department of Homeland Security which is telling us that 23 states have asked for help to protect their registration systems, we have much of this coming up with Jake Tapper on "The Lead".

Cruise line have rerouted their trips to stay out of the path of this category 4 hurricane which could put the U.S. at risk later this week. We're live in the storm's path, next.

[15:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Hurricane Matthew heading to Jamaica and Haiti. Other parts of it could make landfall in Haiti tonight and slam other parts of the region throughout the week. 140-mile-an-hour winds are expected to dump more than a foot of rain and cause mudslides and flash flooding. Several islands in the Caribbean are also under hurricane watches or tornadoes.

We're already seeing flooding across those islands here. You can see here Kingston in Jamaica already a lot of rain in the streets. Chelsea Cook was supposed to be there today. Michael Holmes, she got married this weekend and can't be in Jamaica for her honeymoon. That's one example of so many people affected, not to mention those living on the island. How bad is it?

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You wouldn't want to be here for a honeymoon, Brooke, particularly in the hours ahead. There is a lot of apprehension here, but also a little bit of relief, the knowledge the latest is pointing at Jamaica escaping the worst of hurricane Matthew, but it is going to get slammed pretty good in the hours ahead. Western Haiti, they're not so fortunate. They're really going to get hit.

There's been heavy rain, winds in the last few hours, but it's going to get much worse in the hours ahead. It was interesting, yesterday, perhaps a picture of things to come, there was a 40-minute downpour that really flooded portions of downtown. Think of what hurricane Matthew can do. A shelter is open. We saw one today with a capacity of 300 people. There are only a few people there, to be honest, and a lot of people we spoke to said they're going to ignore the mandatory evacuation advice and stay put.

The prime minister said preparations are in hand. He's expecting a lot of flooding and damage to coffee plantations that are here. He thinks there are towns and villages that could be cut off. But you know what he said? Jamaica is a praying country and he feels that some prayers, at least, have been answered for Jamaica with the slight shift in the hurricane's direction. But I tell you what, if you're in Haiti, you don't think that your prayers have even been heard yet, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Michael Holmes, we will check back with the crew tomorrow, thank you so much. Thank for being with me "The Lead" with Jim Sciutto starts now.