Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Late Night Picks a Side in Presidential Race; Clinton Eyes Big Red State Arizona with Big Surrogates; CNN Uncovers Crass Comments from Trump Jr. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 18, 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] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, you're watching CNN, I'm Brooke Baldwin. Make no mistake, it's a good time to be a comedian in this country. Late night TV mercilessly mocking this 2016 race and primarily they're mocking Donald Trump. And this week, this weekend, no different.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH MYERS, ENTERTAINER, NBC LATE NIGHT: You would think at this point Hillary could just kick back with a glass of chardonnay and her laptop and keep refreshing 538.com until election day. After all, she's running against a lying racist buffoon who doubles as Billy Bush's wing man.

On Friday, Mr. Trump made what he called a major announcement.

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period.

MYERS: That's what's called a firm grasp of the obvious. next I assume he'll announce water is wet, bears poop in the woods and that Donald Trump is not qualified to be president.

SAMANTHA BEE, ENTERTAINER, FULL FRONTAL: Trump's comments are not wrong because you have female relatives, guess what? A surprising number of Americans have at least one female relative. Trump's comments were wrong because women are human and if you hadn't stood brazenly by while he insulted them for a year you wouldn't be in the pile of elephant (bleep) you're in today.

MYERS: These new bombshells would very well bury Trump for good which means at the very least we probably already know what the third debate between Trump and Hillary will look like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: It's funny, these guys are laughing. Bill Carter, the author of "The War for Late Night" and Emmy and Peabody award comedian Paul Mercurio who's worked on "The Daily Show", "The Colbert Report" and "The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert. He has a podcast on iTunes called two chairs and a microphone.

Bill, let me begin with you, bill, why do you think this year is so different when it comes to these hosts and politics? BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA CONTRIBUTOR: Trump is a character you can't

make up. He kind of generates his own humor. You can see the jokes sort of flow naturally from some of the outrageous things he said.

But also I do think the comedians have reacted differently. There's no doubt about it. I talked to Colbert and he was saying if Trump is elected it's the greatest gift for comedy ever. Which is great for comedians but bad -- if you're a citizen. We have to separate those two things now and I think you see all of the comics are making it that sort of a mission that they're going after Trump.

PAUL MERCURIO, EMMY AWARD WINNING COMEDIAN: But I don't think it's a conscious -- where people are sitting in a writer's room saying "we're going destroy Trump today and prop up Hillary." I don't think that's happening in news organizations. There is going to be material that is going to give another point of view to the viewer.

[15:35:00] Because right now --

CARTER: They were editorializing, they were directly editorializing and you see that.

BALDWIN: Versus a Carson or a Leno.

CARTER: They look really straight at the camera, this is what I think. He's calling him a buffoon, he's coming out and giving his point of view. And that is pretty different I think.

BALDWIN: And it's resonating, isn't Seth doing well?

CARTER: He is doing very well, and I think Stephen Colbert, Stephen will be Stephen, he's way better, way stronger.

MERCURIO: To Bill's point about -- Trump material is more digestible for a comedian. It's easier to turn that stuff around.

BALDWIN: You can't explain WikiLeaks --

MERCURIO: Well, wonky, it's e-mail, a server, you can get there but there's quantity. He's fertilizer for comedy. He really is so I don't think people are -- you know, look, I think the consequences are dire in this election because what could happen here is frightening to a lot of people. So I think it's a different election in that sense as well but I think comedians try to straddle that line but when it's a lot of food on the plate from one candidate --

BALDWIN: With your fertilizer line I would jump in and say "SNL" has done a fantastic job in trying to poke fun of Hillary Clinton. Kate McKinnon. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATE MCKINNON, ENTERTAINER, SNL: Thank you for having me. I'd like to begin tonight by attempting a casual lean. Got it!

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: What I'll be watching for the next couple weekends and Lorne Michaels would never say is whether we'll see a Trump or Clinton cameo in these final weekends ahead of election day, to both of you this is millennial -- they're all tuning in.

MERCURIO: Yes.

BALDWIN: How will that affect how they feel election day?

CARTER: Well, if you watch or like these shows you probably agree with the point of view. It used to be interesting that when Stewart would have a non-Democrat on and the audience was against him, they would have to calm them down.

MERCURIO: We'd have to say "please be respectful."

CARTER: So the audience is there with that. The question is, are they going to be more active because of this? Will they vote because these guys are saying this is critically important? That could be a factor.

MERCURIO: What we found with "The Daily Show", I'd have so many young people come up to me going "I only get my news from The Daily Show."

That meant that is not a smart idea to just come to us. First of all, we are bunch of buffoons who happen to luck into a great job. But you should go to different sources and that is the problem with our society, if you are liberal you should be reading conservative papers, and vice versa. And getting all points of view and making your own decision.

BALDWIN: You tell -- I have to go, but tell Jon Stewart we miss him. Is he throwing things at the television as he's kicking it with his family.

CARTER: I'm sure he is.

BALDWIN: Bill and Paul, thank you so much. That was a great conversation.

Coming up next, talk about top level surrogates on the left side, Michelle Obama, Chelsea Clinton, Bernie Sanders all spending time in Arizona over the next couple days. But can Hillary Clinton turn a solid red state blue? We'll ask a woman running against long-time incumbent senator John McCain.

[15:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Hillary Clinton is sending her daughter Chelsea, she is sending the first lady and Bernie Sanders to Arizona. All of them to Arizona to try and flip one of America's reddest states. That is just the start. We know the Clinton campaign is buying up $2 million in ads there.

So let me bring in congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, she is a Democrat from Arizona who would love to unseat Republican veteran senator John McCain. Congresswoman, welcome back.

ANN KIRKPATRICK, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR ARIZONA SENATOR: Thank you so much, thanks for having me.

BALDWIN: Lots of eyeballs on Arizona. We know Hillary Clinton debated in her campaign whether they really hone in on those swing states or expand the map like it looks like they've chosen to do and Arizona is one of those states. Do you think that that is the right strategy?

KIRKPATRICK: Yes, we here in Arizona have known Arizona's competitive for quite some time. I flipped two congressional districts from red to blue, and we know when voters turn out that Democrats win. So this election is all about getting people out to the polls. We have early voting, it started October 12 and runs through November 4 so people right now have their ballots at home filling them out and turning them in.

BALDWIN: I want to ask you something this we just heard about from Donald Trump today, he's pledging that if he were to win the White House that he would -- his phrase -- drain the swamp in Washington and call for term limits from congress. I think some Americans would agree with him on that, congresswoman, would you?

KIRKPATRICK: I do agree with him on that. My idea is -- and look people that have been asking me for years how do we break the gridlock in Washington. My idea is term limits. Three six-year terms in the house -- excuse me, three two year terms in the house for six years and two six year terms in the senate for a total of 12 years. If you did those back to back it's 18 years in Washington. That's enough.

BALDWIN: So yes to that. What about his claims that the election is rigged? That there's widespread voter fraud? Your own state you have a Republican governor so that's been inferring that Republican officials would be implicit in rigging this thing. What would you say to Donald Trump?

KIRKPATRICK: I don't think it's rigged. I know people are voting but we do need to restore the Voting Rights Act. So we saw what happened with the first election after the Supreme Court decision and we had chaos in Phoenix during that presidential preference primary in March. But I'm all over the state of Arizona and I will tell you the most common thing I hear is that people can't believe John McCain didn't stand up for himself when Trump insulted him. They're just saying to me if he won't stand up for himself he's not going to stand up for us. He's changed after 33 years in Washington.

[15:45:00] BALDWIN: Well, he has now stood up for himself and has said now no to Donald Trump in the wake of headlines.

KIRKPATRICK: For the past year and for over 60 times he's said he supports Trump. It's pretty amazing to me that when the gold star family, the Khans, were insulted by Donald Trump they actually called on John McCain to denounce Trump and he wouldn't do it.

BALDWIN: Again, though, just on the John McCain side, he did have a pretty vociferous statement in the wake of what Mr. Trump said about the Khan family but let me ask you this because the last time I asked you whether you thought Hillary Clinton was trustworthy, you didn't explicitly answer so congress woman Kirkpatrick, three weeks out from the election and this other controversy involving Clinton and her e- mails. Let many ask you, do you think Hillary Clinton is trustworthy?

KIRKPATRICK: I do. I tell you who I don't think is trustworthy and that is Donald Trump. And you know I just did an hour of Spanish media this morning and to our Latinos in Arizona, Trump is dangerous. And I was down at the border visiting Nogales, the business people down there told me, you know, a wall like Donald Trump wants to build at the Arizona border is bad for business. You talk about deporting 12 million people, that's personal.

BALDWIN: What about Melania Trump? His wife talked to Anderson yesterday, let me play a clip of the interview in case you haven't seen it, I want to ask you about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: I was surprised, of course, but I was not surprised that the tape came out. I was not surprised about that.

MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: Why? As I said, this many people from the opposite side that they want to damage the campaign and why now, why after so many years? Why three weeks before the election?

COOPER: Your husband has said he felt Clintons had something to do with it or the media. What do you think?

MELANIA TRUMP: Well, it was the media. It was NBC, it was "Access Hollywood", it was left wing and -- left wing media and you could see that and the way it comes out was everything was organized.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So with her husband's behavior, here she was, she was blaming Democrats, congresswoman, she was blaming left wing media, how would you respond to Melania Trump?

KIRKPATRICK: You know, the level of discourse at the presidential level is so disappointing to me and to many Arizonans.

BALDWIN: But this is his wife.

KIRKPATRICK: I'm a grandmother, I don't want my grandchildren listening to that kind of talk on the television about the top leadership in the world. Presidency of the United States but you know it just shows how we've got to have campaign finance reform.

John McCain used to be for eliminating the corrupting influence of money in politics and now he's given Wall Street a bailout and he's taken more money from Wall Street than any other sitting senator. He's changed. He's not the maverick and the straight talker he once was and Arizonans want new principled leadership in the senate. BALDWIN: OK. I asked you about Melania but congresswoman

Kirkpatrick, good luck to you. Three weeks away. Thank you so much.

Next, Donald Trump is not the only one getting some heat for the vulgar comments caught on tape. Wait until you hear what his son Donald, Jr., told some shock jock radio hosts.

[15:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Donald Trump has been embroiled in controversy after controversy, but now it's his son and name sake who is making headlines. CNN has uncovered some comments Donald Trump Jr. Has made during an interview with some shock jocks. Listen to what he said in 2012 after radio host Opie and Anthony played the audio of a witness describing the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything was going good until we saw gas and sparks and fireworks. And you just hear people yelling. Actually just a few rows away from me a girl gets up holding her jaw. I guess she had got shot.

DONALD TRUMP JR., SON OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Overall I give the movie two thumbs up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE RADIO ANNOUNCER: Yes. That was extraordinary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let me bring in CNN k-files Andrew Kaczynski who uncovered these recordings, and so tell me more about the comments, what, on people who are over-weight?

ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN K-FILES: He made these comments in a period between 2011 and --

BALDWIN: Don Jr.

KACZYNSKI: Yes. He was promoting "Celebrity Apprentice". He went on the show in 2011. A bunch of times in 2012 all the way up till, actually, 2016. These comments, he mocked overweight people. There were comments where he talked about beauty pageant contestants who were children and even made this voice kind of mocking the children when they're taking about, like, children who are, like, being abused by their parents. So, you know, the stuff that he did was very much sort of in line with a lot of the stuff his dad said. When he was on Howard Stern.

BALDWIN: And so these are the comments he made. This was in January of 2012.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP JR.: Aretha franklin called off her wedding. I said don't worry, there is plenty more fried fish in the sea. UNIDENTIFIED MALE RADIO ANNOUNCER: That's good.

TRUMP JR.: What's wrong with that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE RADIO ANNOUNCER: Nothing wrong. They said because she's black.

TRUMP JR.: I said. No it's because she is fat. See fat before black.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE RADIO ANNOUNCER: Yes. Me too.

TRUMP JR.: By the way -- you can't even make fat jokes now without like -- there is a whole segment of people that, like, that's almost the worst one. It's easier to do a racial thing than it is a fat one. Everyone knows they're fat and they get offended.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE RADIO ANNOUNCER: It's a disease.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE RADIO ANNOUNCER: Everything is a disease.

TRUMP JR.: Laziness is a disease too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So you did your due diligence and reached out to the Trump camp if they'd like to comment on the radio clips. And --

KACZYNSKI: The Trump campaign has not responded. It's a go for retweeting his old tweets that are actually very similar to the comments he made on Opie and Anthony radio. So we just have not heard back.

BALDWIN: OK, let us know if you do.

Coming up next, Trump's running mate moments ago touring the Republican field office in North Carolina that was fire-bombed over the weekend. We will show you what exactly happened.

[15:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Donald Trump's running mate, governor Mike Pence, made a stop at the Republican national office in North Carolina that was fire-bombed just over this past weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR VICE PRESIDENT: Today is also evidence of that, ladies and gentlemen. I mean, I am here to call attention to an act of political terrorism on the Orange county Republican headquarters in North Carolina.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Hillary Clinton condemned the attack. Trump blasted on Clinton, his word, animals, or supporters. So there you have it. Mike Pence in Hillsboro, North Carolina. I'm Brooke Baldwin. See you tomorrow from Las Vegas. "The Lead" with Jake Tapper starts right now.