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Melania Trump Defends Her Husband; Obama Blasts Trump as Whiner. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired October 18, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:45]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: We continue on, top of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

Just in a matter of moments, Donald Trump will be speaking there, flanked by the flag, Colorado Springs, Colorado, battleground state, where, by the way, polls show he has been slipping now behind Hillary Clinton. No doubt we will hear him go against her.

But just how much time Trump will take going after President Obama, especially after his news conference today, is also anyone's guest. The president just ripped apart Trump's claims that the election is rigged, calling Trump a whiner, calling Trump's rhetoric unprecedented.

Here he is, the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have never seen in my lifetime or in modern political history any presidential candidate in history trying to discredit the elections and the election process before votes have even taken place.

It's unprecedented. It happens to be based on no facts. That is both irresponsible -- and, by the way, it doesn't really show the kind of leadership and toughness that you want out of a president. You start whining before the game is even over?

If wherever things are going badly for you and you lose, you start blaming somebody else, then you don't have what it takes to be in this job, because there are a lot of times when things don't go our way, or my way.

There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even -- you could even rig America's elections, in part because they're so decentralized and the numbers of votes involved. There's no evidence that that has happened in the past or that there are instances in which that will happen this time.

And so I would advise Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try and make his case to get votes. And if he got the most votes, then it would be my expectation of Hillary Clinton to offer a gracious concession speech and pledge to work with him in order to make sure that the American people benefit from an effective government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Senior White House correspondent Jim at the Trump event in Colorado Springs.

Jim Acosta, what are you -- what sort of intel do you have as far as what Trump will say in a matter of minutes?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think what he's going to do, Brooke, he's continue this railing against Washington we have been hearing over the last couple of days.

He did this last night in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he talked about how he wants to bring about lobbying reforms. Of course, he was talking about Hillary Clinton's e-mail practices. He is continuing to suggest that there's going to be a rigged election coming up on November 8, as he's just taken the stage right now here in Colorado.

He's talking about how he wants the crowd here to make sure that they vote early, if they can, make sure they get their ballots in, if they can, as soon a possible.

But make no mistake, Brooke. What Donald Trump has been doing over the last 48, 72 hours, he is calling into question the integrity of the election process. He is -- he was saying last night in Green Bay, Wisconsin, that he believes voting fraud will occur, that people, whether it's the undocumented, undocumented immigrants, or people who are dead being able to vote, that people will actually use the identities of people who are deceased and try to cast fraudulent ballots.

Brooke, we can tell you, because we have looked at this, cases of voter fraud are very rare. There was a Loyola Law School study that found that out of a billion votes cast between the year 2000 and 2014, only 31 cases of voter fraud were found. So this is extremely rare, but it's not stopping Donald Trump from talking about it, even though, and you just heard the president of the United States is saying, that this really just challenges the credibility of this process, and unjustifiably so.

[15:05:08]

But I can tell you, Brooke, from being at these rallies, we have been hearing chants of all sorts of things. "Tell the truth" to the news media would be the kinder things that is said to us at these rallies. That message revs up these crowds. They absolutely eat it up.

So I would assume and guess from here on forward that Donald Trump is going to continue to talk about this as long as he can -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: All right, Jim, thank you so much, Jim Acosta there.

Obviously, Trump there speaking now in Colorado Springs. He's speaking.

Let's continue, much to discuss.

With me now, CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash, Brahm Resnik, political reporter for KPNX in Arizona, and CNN political commentator Lanhee Chen, who once served as public policy director for Mitt Romney.

So, welcome to all of you.

I don't think I heard Jim Acosta -- he mentioned how we will continue hearing on a rigged election. I couldn't quite make out, Dana, if he said what we just saw in our e-mail, so let me just relay this to everyone, that apparently from the Trump camp, there's another major announcement that Trump will make today as part of his pledge to -- quote -- "drain the swamp" -- we keep hearing drain the swamp -- in Washington.

He says, "If I'm elected president, I will push for a constitutional amendment to term limits on all members of Congress."

Correct me. There are already term limits, so what does he mean?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. There are term limits on the presidency, of course.

And one of the big debates for some time has been whether or not the fact that there are no term limits in Congress, whether that helps to breed corruption, because it breeds a whole industry, which we see every day, those of us who live in Washington, of lobbyists who are paid by corporations and groups to influence Congress.

And they also give money to the congresspeople's campaigns and so on and so forth. So, this is right in keeping with what we have been seeing and hearing from Donald Trump, which really is, on its very, very core level, Brooke, back to basics. The system doesn't work. I'm an outsider. She's an insider. I'm going to help to fix it. There's no way you can send somebody who is a creature of Washington back and think that things are going to be different.

So this is another policy prescription for that. The problem, in talking to Republican sources, many of them who are so frustrated with the fact that he is taking that so many steps further and really personally going after the Republican House speaker, is that that's vintage Trump.

Instead of saying that the Washington establishment is terrible, he's making it personal, because he feels that Ryan has personally not attacked, but has not been supportive of Mr. Trump, and he kind of can't help himself.

But I think that this term limits thing -- and I know this from talking to Trump's sources, Brooke -- that they believe this is the closing argument they hope will really resonate with the voters. Of course, the Hillary campaign and others are hoping that people pay attention to some of the other, more controversial and scandalous allegations going on right now. BALDWIN: And also it appears it's the birth of a new Trumpism, which

is drain the swamp, which Lanhee just mentioned to me a moment ago is actually a line stolen from Jeb Bush, of all people.

So, Lanhee, let me just turn to you. And you can marinate on that for a second, if you want.

But I really also just want to get to seeing the president of the United States today with the prime minister of Italy. He's asked about Trump's allegations of it's a rigged system and do you worry about violence, and he essentially says Trump rarely surprises me. He puts it on the Republicans. And then he says he needs to stop whining and go out and make his case.

What do you think the president is trying to do with that kind of language?

LANHEE CHEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is Barack Obama unplugged.

This is exactly what where he wants to be at this phase of the election. He's a great campaigner. He always has been a great campaigner. This is his strength, I would argue, over governing. But he's a great campaigner.

And he's demonstrating that, with just these sort of quippy lines that you know they will get under Donald Trump's skin. And Trump is sure to respond to it.

BALDWIN: You think he will today?

CHEN: Oh, I'm almost positive he will say something about it.

But what the president is doing is he's basically trying to expose the underlying behavior. And it's a behavior that is fundamentally based on someone who I think is pretty thin-skinned and who is looking for excuses should he lose this election. And I think that's what this has become about.

BALDWIN: Do you think, though -- Brahm, let me ask you off of Lanhee's point, if Trump takes the bait, takes the line from the president today and runs with it, I imagine, just as railing on the Clintons unifies Republicans, couldn't railing on the president also unify Republicans as well and he could add some folks under the tent in addition to his base?

BRAHM RESNIK, KPNX-TV REPORTER: I think there's a real question about how many people he can add with that line.

I think Hillary Clinton would actually welcome him trying to punch back with that and probably let him punch himself out over the course of the debate tomorrow night.

[15:10:06]

What she wants to do is, number one, ask him if he can pronounce Nevada, since they're there, see if he gets it right.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: And forgive. I'm pronouncing -- it's Brahm. Let me just throw myself under the bus. I apologize. Brahm, go ahead.

RESNIK: That's OK. I know how Nevada feels. I know how Nevada feels.

BALDWIN: Nevada. Nevada. Nevada.

(CROSSTALK)

RESNIK: Well, I think she would happy to see himself punch himself out like that, and then go to immigration. You're in the Southwest.

BALDWIN: Yes.

RESNIK: Call me foolish, but I think they are actually going to talk about some issues tomorrow night. And they haven't touched in immigration.

She's going to remind of the deportation force and the Mexican comments.

BALDWIN: Dana, what about the comments, though, from Trump to Tom Llamas on how he thinks. Well, you mentioned this a second ago, but let's just listen to what Trump Tom and then we will talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM LLAMAS, ABC NEWS: It is Paul Ryan hurting you or helping you?

TRUMP: Well, I don't want to be knocking Paul Ryan. I think he could be more supportive to the Republican nominee. We're doing well. I think we're going to win the election.

LLAMAS: Do you think he wants you to win?

TRUMP: Well, maybe not, because maybe he wants to run in four years or maybe he doesn't know how to win. Maybe he just doesn't know how to win. Who can really know?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I don't mean to knock him, but -- Dana, what do you think of that? And does Trump have any sort of point though on 20/20?

BASH: But here's my right hook and then here's my left hook. But I'm not knocking him.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Look, that was -- if this were a week-and-a-half ago, we would be going, huh. And now it's like, OK, he's saying something else about Paul Ryan. But it's worth remembering that this is three weeks from Election Day,

the Republican presidential nominee saying these things about the Republican speaker of the House, and that Paul Ryan is trying very hard not to engage sort of in the public tit for tat.

But there's no question that when Ryan through his spokeswoman this weekend, Brooke, made very clear that he disagrees with what Trump has been saying over and over again over the past several days, that the system is rigged, that he said I believe that these are going to be free and fair elections and we will accept the outcome, something along those lines, that was a clear shot across Donald Trump's bow, which he doesn't take very well, particularly when it's from somebody who is in his home party who he thinks should be more supportive and who, just sort of by way of background, the RNC chair, Reince Priebus, is an old, close friend of Paul Ryan, has been the person who has been trying to be a Trump whisperer and try to kind of bring him along with the establishment.

And so he's been hearing from Reince Priebus, just take it easy on him and so on and so forth for the past several months. Now all bets are off.

BALDWIN: Brahm, what about Hillary Clinton? She's been running 17 months, or you could argue much longer than that. She's wanted to be president. She's still struggling with the e-mail question. We have heard her say over and over she made a mistake, she made a mistake.

How does she in this final debate really answer that question?

RESNIK: I think she can parry it pretty effectively, the whole quid pro quo issue.

Well, channeling Hillary here, number one, there's some ambiguity about that. There are a few people involved in that with differing opinions of exactly what happened. A lot of the e-mails, she can say they just show the inner workings of campaigns. A Democratic campaign would be no different from a Republican campaign. What is there in those e-mails that really indicts her beyond what's out there already?

She showed last time, last debate she can answer that fairly effectively with a nice, short, to-the-point answer and move on. And, of course, what she wants to move on to are the 10 or 12 women who have come out since the leak a few weeks ago, the Trump video leak a few weeks ago who have now seemed to confirm his behavior. That's where she wants to go in this debate.

BALDWIN: All right, Brahm, Lanhee...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: OK. Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick.

BASH: Just real quick, the other thing that her communications director made clear that she wants to pivot to is Russia.

When that's brought up, she's going to talk about how she believes Russia is behind it and sort of cede the floor to Donald Trump, suggesting that he's potentially colluding with Vladimir Putin.

BALDWIN: Will there be a pre-debate handshake? We will be watching. We will be in Vegas.

Brahm, Lanhee, Dana, thank you so much.

And speaking of now these accusers in double digits, we are now hearing more on this breaking story involving the former "People" magazine writer who has come forth and accused her of sexually assaulting her down at his Palm Beach home. The magazine now rolling out some people supporting her story.

Also, Melania Trump weighs in on this, telling Anderson Cooper what she thinks happened and who she believes.

You're watching CNN. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:18:38]

BALDWIN: And we're back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Six witnesses now backing up this "People" magazine reporter who says she was attacked by Donald Trump during an interview down at Mar-a- Lago in Palm Beach. She is Natasha Stoynoff. She says Trump forced himself on her at his Mar-a-Lago estate back in 2005, the very same year that video came without Mr. Trump and Billy Bush on the bus.

She says he pushed her against a wall, that he kissed her, unwanted kissed her. Trump called these claims -- quote -- "outright lies." His wife, Melania Trump, is defending her husband.

She sat down with Anderson Cooper just yesterday and she says she doesn't belief that incident happened. She says that is not the man she knows and married.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: I said to my husband that the language is inappropriate. It's not acceptable.

And I was surprised, because that is not the man that I know. And, as you can see from the tape, the cameras were not on. It was only a mike. And I wonder if they even knew that the mike was on, because it was kind of boy talk, and he was led on, like egged on from the host to say dirty and bad stuff.

[15:20:10]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Is that what it is to you, just locker room talk?

M. TRUMP: Yes, it's kind of two teenage boys. Actually, they should behave better, right?

COOPER: He was 59.

M. TRUMP: Correct. And, sometimes, I said I have two boys at home. I have my young son and I have my husband.

COOPER: So, a number of women have come forward. They have made allegations against your husband. Some of them go back more than 30 years.

He's said they're lying. Do you believe him?

M. TRUMP: I believe my husband. I believe my husband.

This was all organized from the opposition. And with the details that they go -- did they ever -- did they ever check the background of these women? They don't have any facts.

And even the story that came out in "People" magazine, the writer that she said that my husband took her to the room and start kissing her. She wrote in the same story about me that she saw me on Fifth Avenue, and I said to her, "Natasha, how come we don't see you anymore?"

I was never friend with her. I would not recognize her.

COOPER: That never happened?

M. TRUMP: Never happened.

That's why I send them the letter, because it discredited the story.

COOPER: Right. Your lawyer has sent a letter to "People" magazine saying they have to retract.

M. TRUMP: Of course, yes, because it was not true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now, Nancy Collins. She interviewed Trump and his second wife, Marla Maples, back in 1994, when she was a reporter for ABC News.

So, nice to meet you.

NANCY COLLINS, FORMER ABC NEWS REPORTER: Thank you. Same.

BALDWIN: We will talk about your interview with Mr. Trump in a second.

COLLINS: OK.

BALDWIN: Just listening to Melania, what were you thinking?

COLLINS: Well, she's drunk the Kool-Aid, hasn't she?

But, by the way, I know Natasha. And I remember Natasha telling me that story, not concurrently, but in telling stories to each other. So she's real stand-up woman, so I would believe her, actually. But, you know, when I went down to Mar-a-Lago, he was really a

chauvinist in training, because he was incredibly respectful to me, professional, very cooperative. Nobody -- of course, nobody beats their dog in front of us, but I couldn't have asked for a better subject.

BALDWIN: But you're intuitive, and you can sense things. And I guess, as a journalist, he gave you four hours, which, by the way, if you're not in television, four hours is like an eternity that he sat and talked to a reporter, and the whole time respectful.

(CROSSTALK)

COLLINS: Very respectful, very respectful. But he was thrilled to have prime time there.

So I think he was on his best behavior, too. And the four hours -- we were there to shoot a story, so I interviewed him and I interviewed her separately. And then I interviewed them together. And so we had a day at Mar-a-Lago, which he had just bought not so long ago. He was so thrilled, Brooke.

When he showed me, it was like a boy with his toy, and he wanted me to like it. He wanted to impress me. So, when I see the Donald now, I have to tell you, there's a bitterness and an anger that I didn't see that day.

BALDWIN: We have some sound when he spoke to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: A softness disappeared. There was a great softness to Ivana, and she still has that softness. But during this period of time, she became an executive, not a wife.

COLLINS: Well, you now are married to a woman and you -- who would like to continue her career. Marla says she does want to have a career.

TRUMP: There's a difference between having a career and working for me.

COLLINS: You have said you don't want Marla to work. You actually said that.

TRUMP: No.

COLLINS: Yes, on the day of the wedding, actually.

TRUMP: I think I'm probably mixed. I have days where I think it's great. And then I have days where, if I come home and -- you know, I don't want to sound too much like a chauvinist, but when I come home and dinner is not ready, I will go through the roof.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Can you a little bit talk about that piece of the interview?

COLLINS: Well, he put her to work.

She was -- for the first eight years of her marriage, she stayed home. She was a mother. And then, one day, he said, I'm going to give her something really fun to do. And he put her in charge of one of his casinos.

And she did a really good job, until he came home at night and, all of a sudden, she was showing him numbers from the casino. And that's when he said she wasn't a wife anymore. And he told me then, he said, putting your wife to work is a very dangerous thing, not knowing what he was saying.

He makes these remarks, Brooke, without having any insight into how dangerous they are.

BALDWIN: I want to read a little bit more from your interview where you asked him about his relationship with women. We have the full- screen graphic for you.

He says: "I have great relationships with women, my mother, Ivana, Marla. My female executives are better than the men, tougher, smarter."

You ask, "So why in '92 did you tell a writer for 'New York Magazine' that, Marie Brenner, that you have to treat women like bleep?'"

[15:25:03]

He says: "I didn't say that. That woman is a liar, extremely unattractive, lots of problems because of her looks."

And there's more and more with the back and forth.

It's interesting, too, though, even hearing these accusers come forward, and if you take Trump at his word that none of them are telling the truth, he still talks about their looks, they are not attractive.

(CROSSTALK)

COLLINS: Right. Right. He always goes to their looks.

BALDWIN: Why?

COLLINS: They're either unattractive, well, or they're fat. Fat is the big deal with him.

BALDWIN: Why?

COLLINS: Have you seen his stomach lately?

BALDWIN: Nancy Collins.

COLLINS: It's true. The thing is, is that I think, with him, psychologically speaking,

there's an 8-year-old boy crying for attention.

I just he had arrested development at some point.

BALDWIN: It's so interesting you say that.

I had Tim O'Brien, just quickly, who was on last week. And he spent a lot of time with Mr. Trump and he wrote "TrumpNation." And he said, Brooke, all of the ups, the downs, the good, the bad publicity, this is the highlight of Donald Trump's life.

COLLINS: Absolutely. Absolutely.

He will no more quit this race. He's never had this much attention. He loves the attention. Again, one of the reason we got four hours, and we were paying attention to him for eight.

And so of course he wasn't going to kick us out. With Marla -- I think these women really loved him. I think Marla really loved him. But he wouldn't marry her, and even after she got pregnant and they had the baby. And she said to me, "I said to Donald you have ruined my reputation just loving you and now having a baby and not being married?"

Well, he did marry her two months afterwards. But he calls all the shots in these relationships.

BALDWIN: Did you ever think this 1994 interview, that we would be sitting on CNN and talking about all this?

COLLINS: No. No.

BALDWIN: Nancy Collins, nice to meet you. Thank you so much.

COLLINS: Thank you, Brooke. Thanks. Thank you very much.

BALDWIN: Coming up next here, back to comedy and politics, late-night comedians picking a side in the 2016 election. They're decidedly anti-Trump. We will talk to a late-night veteran live about what happened to the nonpartisan days of Carson and Leno.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH")

TREVOR NOAH, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH": Oh, Donald Trump, the media is not rigged against you. They're just recording what you say and playing it back.

(LAUGHTER)

NOAH: That's all it is.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)