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Eight Women Now Accuse Trump of Sexual Assault; Obama, Other Surrogates Campaign for Clinton; Peace Talks in Switzerland; Medical Miracle as Conjoined Twins Separated; Thailand Mourns Its King. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired October 15, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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


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[03:00:12] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: The number of alleged victims grows, eight women now say Donald Trump sexually assaulted them and it's getting the presidential candidate very fired up.

It could be the moment of truth for the Syrian war as leaders prepare to meet for peace talks in Switzerland.

And truly a medical miracle, twin born conjoined at the head are now sleeping in separate beds, but they have a long recovery to go here.

We got the story for you ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen, thank you so much for joining us.

There are now two more sexual assault accusations against U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump bringing the number to at least eight. One woman says Trump fondled her under her skirt at a New York nightclub in the '90s.

Another says Trump grabbed and aggressively kissed her after she was a contestant on "The Apprentice." Trump says the stories are not true and he is the victim of a smear campaign. Jim Acosta is on the Trump campaign trail. We warn you, the story has graphic language.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No apologies and no admissions of guilt from Donald Trump who is still angrily denying he is ever sexually assaulted women.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I look on television. I think it's a disgusting thing and it's being pushed. They have no witnesses. There's nobody around. They just come out. Some are doing it for probably a little fame. Phony accusers come out less than a month before one of the most important elections in the history of our country.

ACOSTA: But every day it seems Trump faces more accusations. The latest, Summer Zervos, who appeared at a news conference with Attorney Gloria Allred and say she was abused by the real-estate tycoon after she was featured on Trump's hits T.V. show, "The Apprentice." SUMMER ZERVOS, TRUMP ACCUSER, EX-"APPRENTICE" CONTESTANT: He came to me and started kissing me open mouthed as he was pulling me towards him. He put me in an embrace and I tried to push him away. I pushed his chest to put space between us and I said, "Come on, man, get real." He repeated my words back to me, "get real," as he began thrusting his genitals.

ACOSTA: Another accuser, Kristin Anderson, tells "The Washington Post," Trump reached up her skirt and groped her back in the '90s.

KRISTIN ANDERSON, TRUMP ACCUSER: He did touch my vagina through my underwear.

ACOSTA: Both women say they came forward after seeing Trump brag about grabbing women's genitals on a hot mike moment caught on camera.

TRUMP: You can do anything.

BILLY BUSH, T.V. HOST: Whatever you want.

TRUMP: Grab them by the pussy.

ACOSTA: And after other women surface to share their stories of alleged abuse as Jessica Leeds did on "AC360."

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Did he actually kiss you?

JESSICA LEEDS, TRUMP ACCUSER: Yeah, yeah.

COOPER: On the face, on the lips?

LEEDS: All -- wherever he could find a landing spot, yes.

ANDERSON: After that I was like, "OK, you know what, let me just back this girl up." You know, that's sound OK.

ACOSTA: Trump says Anderson's account is false.

TRUMP: One came out recently where I was sitting alone at some club. I really don't sit alone that much. Honestly, folks, I don't like sit alone. I go in with (inaudible) -- I was sitting alone by myself like this. And then I went, "Whoa." It's like unbelievable.

ACOSTA: And he casts doubts on Leeds' story by suggesting she wasn't attractive enough for him to assault her.

TRUMP: You know, I was with Donald Trump in 1980. I was sitting with him on an airplane and he went after me on the plane. Yeah, I'm going to go after her. Believe me, she would not be my first choice that I can tell you.

ACOSTA: Trump's running mate, Mike Pence says he has faith in the man at the top of the ticket.

GOV. MIKE PENCE, (R-IN) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump has asserted that all of these recent unsubstantiated allegations are categorically false and I do believe him.

ACOSTA: And Pence politely pushed back on first lady Michelle Obama who denounced Trump's behavior.

MICHELLE OBAMA, U.S. FIRST LADY: I can't believe that I'm saying that a candidate for president of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women.

PENCE: I have a lot of respect for the first lady and the job that she's done in the American people over the last seven and a half years, but I don't understand the basis of her claim.

ACOSTA: Despite the fact that the campaign promised reporters all day long that it would provide evidence proving Trump did not sexually assault any women, the campaign did not produce any such documentation. Instead, Trump told a rally here in Charlotte, the allegations against him are 100 percent false.

Jim Acosta, CNN, Charlotte.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Former Miss Utah, Temple Taggart, is another Trump accuser. She was a contestant in his Miss USA pageant in 1997 when she was 21. Taggart claims he embraced and kissed her twice -- once in front of her father. Trump had said that never happened and he doesn't even know her. Taggart first told her story last May and says Trump is lying.

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[03:05:05] TEMPLE TAGGART, TRUMP ACCUSER: I kept quiet because I thought, oh, my gosh. I just want this to go away. I'm a mom. I don't want this attention. I went into hiding, ignore all the media and within a few weeks I noticed that the "Daily Mail" had posted an article of him saying, "Oh, I do remember Miss Utah. She was a nice girl. She was with her parent. I met her before the pageant."

He acted like there was an audience there as I way I talk about and he's like, "She gave me a hug and I gave her a kiss on a cheek." And I would never hug somebody of his stature and his celebrity status. I would just never go up to a man and do that.

You know, I might do that to a friend of mine that I know or her-- like my best friend, her husband. I love them. And so he'll come up and give me a sideways hug, that's it. Sideways hug not a hug and direct kiss on the face.

So, yeah, I mean it -- so when I heard that and then I hear this -- him say he doesn't even know me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now he's saying he doesn't even know you, but you're saying months ago he's quoted saying you were nice girl and he knew you and giving circumstances of what happened, so completely just ...

TAGGART: He just flip-flops for sure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: As more women go public with sexual assault allegations against Trump, Hillary Clinton's allies including U.S. President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are campaigning for her in key battleground states. Clinton is also speaking out. Our Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny has that.

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HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hello, Seattle.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hillary Clinton seizing on Donald Trump's latest accusations of sexual assault.

CLINTON: The whole world has heard how Donald Trump brags about mistreating women, and the disturbing stories keep coming.

ZELENY: As she hits the west coast for one final fund-raising push, she's outsourcing her fight in battleground states to do two presidents.

BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: Donald Trump's closing argument is what do you have to lose? The answer is everything.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I simply do not believe the bleak picture of our future that Hillary's opponent has painted.

ZELENY: President Obama and former President Clinton both blanketing Ohio, part of an all-out push from Democrats to keep Trump from rising out of his downward spiral. But it's the speech from Michelle Obama that's still reverberating.

M. OBAMA: This isn't about politics. It's about basic human decency.

ZELENY: Secretary Clinton highlighting it again at a fund-raiser in Seattle.

CLINTON: And as our extraordinary first lady and my friend, Michelle Obama said so powerfully. When they go low, we go high.

ZELENY: The Clinton campaign believes Mrs. Obama makes the strongest and most authentic case against Trump. They've turned her speech into this campaign video.

M. OBAMA: It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn't have predicted.

ZELENY: As she looks ahead to our final debate with Trump next week, it couldn't appeared on Ellen still talking about her last encounter

CLINTON: And so he was really trying to dominate and then literally stalked me around the stage. And I would just feel this presence behind me. You know, I thought, "Whoa, this is really weird." And so, I was just trying to stay focused. ZELENY: In North Carolina, Trump put it this way.

TRUMP: I'm standing at my podium and she walks in front of me, right? She walks in front of me, you know? And when she walked in front of me, believe me, I wasn't impressed. But she walks in front of me.

ZELENY: Even as Clinton's path to 270 electoral votes is widening and she leads nationally, the race is deadlocked in Ohio. Trump 42, Clinton 41 according to an NBC news "Wall Street Journal" poll. President Obama who carried Ohio twice spent two days in the state. He had a message for skeptical liberals.

B. OBAMA: If you felt the burn in the primaries, you need to vote.

ZELENY: And the Republicans who are abandoning Trump.

B. OBAMA: All of that bio, all of the exaggeration, all of the stuff that was not grounded in fact just kind of bubbled up, started to surface him. They know better a lot of these folks who ran and they didn't say anything.

ZELENY: Before heading back home to New York, Hillary Clinton dropped by a campaign field office in Washington State. She said she takes no pleasure from anything that's happening in this election. She acknowledged that divisions are, in fact, growing deeper on both sides and she looked forward for one of the first times. She said her job continues after the election.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Seattle.

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ALLEN: Allan Litchtman is joining us now from Washington. He's a presidential historian and distinguished professor at American University. Hello, professor. Thanks for being with us.

ALLAN LICHTMAN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: My pleasure.

ALLEN: I want to point out just in case anyone doesn't know because we see you a lot in the state (ph), you've been at this a long time writing about history and elections.

[03:10:05] You wrote about the "Election of 1928" and just recently a book "White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement" with the finalist for a major award.

So, you've been doing this a long time and then we have 2016 and you have a model you have used key to the White House and have 100 percent success predicting who will win the presidency. You picked Donald Trump as you follow this along. What do this week's revelations do to the mix of -- or your keys to the White House? Are you giving it to someone else a key?

LICHTMAN: They mix it up, that's for sure.

ALLEN: Sure, oh my goodness. LICHTMAN: Although, like my system, of course, is based on history. I don't look at a crystal ball and historically this should be a change election. A generic Republican should win. But we have in Donald Trump anything but a generic Republican.

ALLEN: Right.

LICHTMAN: And I said this three weeks ago when I made my first interview to "The Washington Post" and Donald Trump had an opportunity to dampen down the fears, to convince the American people he's not a dangerous candidate in two debates and he only inflamed them and this was before the tape came out showing him bragging about sexually assaulting women.

And by the way, I'm 69 years old. I've been an athlete all of my life. I've been in thousands of locker rooms. I have never once heard a man bragging about sexually assaulting women.

ALLEN: So what is it about? Where our country is now and the -- just the anger over Washington and government that has gotten us in 2016 to this point of this kind of election?

LICHTMAN: I think there are several things. Number one the anger is legitimate. The problem with Washington is not so much that it's corrupt. It's less corrupt today than it has been at various other times in our history. It's the gridlock that, you know, the twain (ph) between never meet between the Republican and the Democratic parties.

Secondly, and I hate to say this, but I wrote this in my book "White Protestant Nation." There is always been the strain in American history that somehow our society, the real Americans are being corrupted by the other.

You know, we pass Anti-Alien Laws in 1798. Then the enemy was the French, then it was the Irish, then it was the Germans, the Jews, the Mexicans, the Muslims. There's always some other and there's always been a strain of racism within our society. And unfortunately, that strain, which is a minority, has been brought to the floor.

And thirdly, we have in Donald Trump an absolutely unique kind of candidate who has stoked all of these fears and all of these resentments.

ALLEN: I want to ask you a lot that you just pointed out that in history you have people that have always pointed to certain groups. They're the one who can it bring it down, they're problem with a tense of racism running through.

I want to talk to you about that. What we heard this week from the media saying ever since Donald Trump has blamed the media for these problems with the women and suing the media.

We have had reporters saying they feel somewhat unsafe at his rallies that it's gone that far. One woman who reluctantly came forward and allegedly said he groped her. Said she's not political. She's not voting for either. She really didn't want to come this. She feels like she sued and she's already getting hate mail. What is it about the fervor that we're seeing and also as we've seen sometimes the violence?

LICHTMAN: It's really sad but, you know, there has been a strain of violence running through our country. In the 1920s, there were 5 million members of the Ku Klux Klan. That would translate in to 25 million members by the population today. So there always has been the strain of folks.

She got only -- worried about the other who are worried about, you know, those who are of a different race, different religion, but those who feel that we need to, if necessary, violently defend our heritage violently defend the real Americans by demonizing the press, by demonizing his opponent saying, "You know, I'm going to put you in jail. Well, we do that in Putin's Russia. We don't do that here. Plus, he's tried to delegitimize the political process by saying, "If I lose, it is rigged."

ALLEN: Allan Lichtman, thank you so much.

LICHTMAN: Thank you.

ALLEN: Other stories we're following now, almost 200 countries have agreed on a major step, yet again, to reduce global warming. Delegates in Rwanda pledge to reduce the greenhouse gases use in refrigerator and air conditioners.

We're talking about the world fastest-growing greenhouse gasses. They're found in those products. They can be thousands of times were dangerous in carbon dioxide for the environment. This deal gets developing countries more time to make changes. The U.N. says this is the largest climate breakthrough since the Paris climate agreement last year.

[03:15:02] U.S. officials have wanted to put El Chapo on trial since his capture. How they may get their wish sooner than expected? Is he coming to America?

Plus, a grieving nation. This is farewell to its beloved king and begins a year of official mourning.

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ALLEN: After five years and countless deaths some top diplomats say this is the moment of truth for the brutal Syrian Civil War. During the past week we have seen even more horrific violent in and around Aleppo and in a few hours diplomats will try, again, to save thousands of more Syrians. Here's our Nic Robertson.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says he has no special hopes, no special expectations out of this meeting. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be there early in the week. Sergei Lavrov said they expect to the Turkish foreign ministers, Saudi foreign minister, Qatari foreign minister to be there. Some of the regional powers he said. Well, Sergei Lavrov has been saying recently is that he feels that the United States doesn't have enough sort of power cloud on the battlefield to have an influence over what he calls the terrorist groups, the opposition groups there inside Syria and that's why he says regional power should be present.

But these talks will be different to previous talks. Normally, you would have had perhaps the British foreign minister, French foreign minister, German foreign minister, lot more of Secretary of State John Kerry's European allies would have been there.

Now, just a couple of days ago the British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said the last time the meeting had that type of configuration there was a lot of accusations, a lot of beating up he said on Russia. It took Iran to step in and calm the situation down.

Not quite clear why Sergei Lavrov is calling for such a slimmed down meeting, if you will, but expectations at this stage, given the ratcheting up over extreme rhetoric between the United States and Russia over recently is a growing tensions between the two countries. Expectations at this meeting have to be at a relatively low level. Perhaps enough that the two men are meeting face to face after these current tensions.

But as far as bringing an end to the fighting inside Aleppo, as far as bringing humanitarian aid to Aleppo that seems very, very unlikely having heard what the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said in recent days in an interview to Russian journalist where he said they were going to use Aleppo as a springboard to finish off other terrorists in the country. That's the way he put it. He said no indication President Assad is going to back down militarily on Aleppo. No indication Russia is going to do that either. This will be a tough meeting.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Lausanne, Switzerland.

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ALLEN: Forces in Iraq meantime are gearing up for a major battle with ISIS pushing them back is the goal and out.

[03:20:07] Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the battle to liberate Hawija is imminent. The city is one of the last ISIS strongholds in Kirkuk province and then offensive there comes ahead of an expected operation to retake Mosul.

Abadi was in Kirkuk City on Friday to meet with civil and military leaders. CIA Paramilitary (ph) says government troops and Kurdish forces will join them in the battle for Hawija.

Mexico's national security commissioner says El Chapo could be extradited to the U.S. within the next few months. He told CNN affiliate (inaudible) that's a notorious accused drug lord real name Joaquin Guzman could be on American soil as early as January. Lawyers for Guzman say that would be difficult to make the transfer so quickly. El Chapo was recaptured in January after escaping from a Mexican prison six months earlier.

Many people in Thailand are still in disbelief over the passing of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. He spent 70 years on the thrown and he's the only monarch many Thai people have ever known.

CNN's Will Ripley joins us from Bangkok with more. He's been covering the story for us. So, Will, when I heard you say that this man is so beloved the country will be officially grieving for a year, you get how much they really love this man.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You do, Natalie. And when you walk around the streets of Bangkok, even though there is some sort of sense of normalcy returning, shops are back open, people are out, you see things like this, these black and white ribbons. These are the official mourning colors.

Black is the primary color, white the secondary color. And you also see a lot of residents. You see, of course, Buddhist monks out here celebrating as well, but you see the majority of citizens here in Bangkok wearing the colors black and white. And tourists who visit the city are asked to do the same out of respect for the royal family and also the Thai people.

If you're coming to Bangkok, expecting a wild party in the red light district, which of course this city is very famous for. This might not be the right time to come. But when you do come here what you will see is a historic moment for this country and you'll see how this society, which is actually very conservative, is mourning the loss of a king who not only served for 70 years, but was really a unifying force, a powerful healer for this country through some very tumultuous times, Natalie.

ALLEN: And, Will, let's talk about the fact that tourists might have to know what the country is going through and think about their time there.

RIPLEY: Will tourists, again, you know, I received a letter at my hotel this morning reminding guests of the country to wear somber colors. So if they're not going to wear black or white, the official mourning colors, they're asked to wear something more toned down, gray and what not.

And then just ask to be mindful that this is a somber time for most people living in this country, of 65 million residents. And so right now across the city, Natalie, you see these pictures of King Bhumibol that are up almost everywhere. These will remain up, but when a new king is announced, the heir to the throne is the Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, these portraits will at some point be taken down and portraits of the new king will go up.

There's a very important Buddhist bathing ritual, which is happening this weekend and will continue on for the next 100 days or so. And so when people are visiting here they need to be mindful of everything that's happening and respectful.

ALLEN: All right, thank you so much. Our Will Ripley there in Bangkok, Thailand. Thanks Will.

We're going to turn now to two storms. Derek Van Dam has got his eye on and, you know what, it's the same area that, you now, you keep seeing these double storms one after another.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It has, but it has been extremely active over the western pacific and now we have two storms lying up one after another. One that appears will impact Luzon in the Northern Philippines within the next 12 hours or so. So if you're in Manila or northward in the island of Luzon, listen up because you want to hear this information.

You got the graphics here showing up on the T.V. screen behind me and what you're looking at is a rapid scan Himawari satellite, this is the Japanese satellite. And what I brought this up is because what we're starting to notice is deep convection. You see those kind of plummeting, almost cauliflower like images around the center of the storm. That is the towering cumulonimbus clouds that are forming around the center of the typhoon indicating that the storm is strengthening. It is becoming more organize and an eye wall is starting to clear, which indicates meteorologist that strengthening is undergoing as we speak.

So this is the latest from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. It is still about 200 kilometers to the East of Manila. Its 150 kilometer per hour winds. That puts it at a Category 2 Atlantic hurricane equivalent. It is moving at a westerly direction.

[03:25:03] But what I want you to also note is that this storm could potentially strengthen over the next 12 hours before actually making landfall in Southern Luzon. It will go over some rugged terrain in this area, perhaps lose some of its organization then reintensify over the warmer waters of the South China Sea before impacting Hainan in Southern China and then near the Hanoi, Vietnam region as we head into the first part of next week.

So timing this out, conditions will really start to deteriorate late Saturday evening and into early Sunday morning across Manila, again, that's within the next 12 hours. And then you can see our computer model starting to depict that eye wall once, again. So reintensification is anticipated as it enters the South China Sea after exiting Luzon.

Now, the threats going forward, obviously the strong winds that will be a concern at a Category 2 or Category 3 equivalent is a major issue for the Northern Philippines even though this region does -- is more typhoon prone and know how to handle these types of storms. It doesn't belittle the fact that they have a serious system coming towards it at the moment. The big story here will be certainly the potential of flash flooding, landslides and mudslides as upwards of 200 to maybe 500 millimeters of rainfall locally could impact that region. Look at the significant wave heights with this as well, between 12 to 15 meters on the open ocean as that system continues to moves west ward and then there's our secondary storm system that is now just forming West of Guam. It hasn't even been named yet a still just an area of disturbing -- disturbed weather. But, nonetheless, it will intensify, rather quickly.

I want to take you to the other side of the world. This is actually the remnants of a previous typhoon that was across the Western Pacific. It raced to the other side of the world and is impacting western parts of the United States as a low pressure system. But that same low spawned off tornados along the Coast of Oregon and actually damaged over 120 structures.

You're looking at one of the land falling twisters there. You can see some of the circuit breakers just kind of sparking that distance, as well. That was a scary moment. By the way, they had 10 tornado warnings, which is a record for Oregon in one day.

ALLEN: All right, Derek, thank you very much.

VAN DAM: Absolutely.

ALLEN: Finally, here is an amazing, amazing success story. Conjoined baby boys are now beginning their new lives after a successful surgery in New York. This is how they were born. It took doctors 27 hours to separate Jadon and Anias McDonald.

The 13month-old boys were born joined at the head. Their parents had to make the tough decision, surgery or leave them this way? Both options carried big risks. The parents chose separation and look at that. (Inaudible) McDonald says that Jadon and Anias have a long recovery ahead. They are relieved to be reunited with their sons right now.

Their boys are now in separate beds. And you can see the full story at cnn.com. Dr. Sanjay Gupta was in the operating room, pretty remarkable. Our top stories are next.

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