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CNN NEWSROOM

Doris Kearns Goodwin Talks History Making Presidential Election; Chefs Pull Out of Restaurant Deal at Trump Hotel over Mexican Comments. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 26, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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


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[14:33:28] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN.

In a word, "unprecedented." That has been used many times to describe the 2016 presidential race. And with just 13 days until the country makes its choice, I can think about no better person to talk about the history that will be made on November 8th, and perhaps beyond, regardless of the winner.

She is among the country's most-respected presidential historians, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. She is Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Nice to have you back.

DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN & AUTHOR: Thank you. Glad to be with you.

BALDWIN: Let's begin with this, the nominees. His or her fate will be decided in 13 days, each has been dogged by controversy, be it hacked e-mails, sex assault accusations. Doris, how do you think this election cycle will forever change the course of presidential campaigns in the future?

KEARNS GOODWIN: Well, I hope it will. Most of us who have lived through it while it's been wild, crazy and perhaps fascinating feel like we didn't get at the critical questions about character and temperament which is what we should have learned about these leaders a long time ago. I'm hoping, for example, in the debates four years from now instead of questions about what are you promising, what will you do or breaking news and responding to it they'll ask about questions, give us an example of a time you made a mistake and it grew you, tell us about an adversity that you came through. Tell us about people on your staff that can question you and you're not feeling a backlash by doing this. Tell us about times that -- where you were mad at the press when they got after you and handled that better? We have to figure out ways to get at the underneath. Trump said he has the best temperament of anybody who's ever run for president because he wins all the time. History suggests just the opposite. FDR, Teddy Roosevelt, Lincoln, all went through adversity and came through stronger people. So that's the key we have to learn and I hope journalists and the debates take a different tact next time. [14:35:28] BALDWIN: Future debate moderators, I hope you're taking

notes. With regard to these campaigns, there's been such vitriol, hateful rhetoric on both sides, distrust in these candidates yet this is who -- these are our choices. So I'm wondering from you, after this election, do you think America needs to hold a mirror up, take a good long look at itself, and when we do, what do you think we would see?

KEARNS GOODWIN: I think in the old days the parties would choose the candidates at the convention and they tried to pick somebody they knew could be a consensus leader. Once the primaries came in 1912 and Teddy Roosevelt wanted to beat Taft, we had primaries, primaries are the main reason. You can't go back when you're in a democracy, the more people better, but in the early days I worry people are not paying attention. There's so many people running, they have a thought about it and party leaders have no more control. Especially on the Republican side, they cut down the number of super delegates, they had to vote the way their state voted. If the party leaders were choosing it seems like they would have chosen a different leader than Mr. Trump. Just to think about the primary system, think about parties, and we have to think about money in the elections. Still it's poison in the system. So there's a lot hopefully this election will make us think.

BALDWIN: Thinking is a good thing.

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BALDWIN: And with regard to thinking ahead we know that the Clinton team and the Trump team have transition teams, right? They're thinking ahead and we had reporting earlier in the week that apparently Hillary Clinton is picking up the phone or contacting folks on the hill, some folks she's worked with in the past as a Senator and especially she is reaching out to Republicans thinking ahead to I want to work with you, thinking ahead to the first 100 days. Do you think she's being a tad overconfident or do you think that's being prepared?

KEARNS GOODWIN: I don't think it's too early to start that. If she were to win, I would write away say she should have a whole series of meetings not just with Republicans but with Congressmen. LBJ had every Congressman to the White House over a period of time in groups of 30 and they'd have dinner and lady bird would take their wives on a tour. Those were the old days of the wives and the guys but given the polarization in this country trying to reach across the aisle so she should have Sunday night suppers. She should have sports parties, movie parties, start seeing them if they were to win. I think that's a critical think and you can't be too overconfident because that's where the country needs to see movement.

BALDWIN: What about President Obama? I know you wrote this piece for "Vanity Fair." They're calling it the ultimate exit interview. And he said, in part, let me read this, "I think part of the reason they have been successful is there is this whole other media ecology out there of the Internet and Instagram and memes and comedy and I'm pretty good at that." Say what you want about President Obama and his policies, this is a

man who has excited people, he can read mean tweets on the late night talk shows and I've had people on my show the last 18 months talking about this election. And Hillary Clinton's biggest fans say, you know, she's- maybe she's not as excitable especially in public, not relatable. Do you think she'll be able to change that?

KEARNS GOODWIN: Well, I think, you know, when she was secretary of state and when she was a Senator she seemed calmer without the defensiveness. The e-mail thing created a beginning. She I would say I have to have a better relationship with the press. FDR had press conferences twice a week. Can you imagine that?

BALDWIN: We'd love it.

KEARNS GOODWIN: And Teddy Roosevelt had a barber's hour everyday where the press could come while he was being shaved then he'd run around talking to them. He took criticism from the press. I think she'll have to have a different -- you need the press in this democracy as much as r6 your enemies.

BALDWIN: But beyond the press, who she is, enthusiasm, you're saying if it was e-mails that forced her to be defensive, if she were to win do you think we would see a different version of Hillary Clinton? A more likable Hillary Clinton?

KEARNS GOODWIN: I think -- I think something comes over you if you're president of the United States and if you're the first female ever to be president, that shores up the internal confidence. The thing Obama showed in that interview was that he was confident. He said I can do these other things, yet he also realized and yesterday what if I had the legislative acumen of an LBJ, the genius of a Lincoln, the communication skills of a Churchill, then maybe there would have something I could have done that I didn't do. So you need confidence but also you need some sort of awareness that you need strength of something you don't have. So hopefully, that strength can develop when the confidence develops inside of her.

[14:40:24] BALDWIN: What about just even seeing -- we'll call them the super surrogates -- President Obama and the first lady on the campaign trail stumping for Hillary Clinton? Can you think of any other example where you have seen something similar in trying to help the next nominee win the White House?

KEARNS GOODWIN: It hasn't happened in a century. Teddy Roosevelt chose William Howard Taft as his successor. He was his friend, gave him advice, he said, don't play golf, it's a rich man's game. Told him how to communicate, and then in the end, turned against him. But there's never been anything as close to. This, and for Obama, it means carrying out the programs he cares about. He knows Hillary. He trusts her. And he and Michelle have been more active than any president that I can imagine in their successor since old Teddy in 1908.

BALDWIN: Then you have to vice president, Doris, who has been out and about for Hillary Clinton. And I want to play sound. This is the vice president and it's also Donald Trump. Roll it.

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JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The press always asks me, don't I wish I were debating him. No, I wish we were in high school behind the gym. That's what I wish.

(LAUGHTER)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'd love that. I'd love that! Mr. Tough Guy. You know, he's Mr. Tough Guy. You know when he's Mr. Tough Guy? When he's standing behind a microphone by himself?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: They say it, and then you sort of see smiles. But, Doris Kearns Goodwin, this is the sitting vice president and Donald Trump challenging one another to a fistfight! What's going on?

KEARNS GOODWIN: I don't know. This there's an historical reference to this. When harry Truman's daughter was criticized by a piano critic for her playing, Truman said, "I'd like to punch the guy in the nose." I think that's why people like Joe Biden, because he speaks in ordinary language, it's what a lot of people might be feeling or thinking. We've gone so far where our course in dialogue, has been through in entire campaign, think of it compared to the other things that were said, this is pretty mild.

BALDWIN: Pretty mild, so says Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Always a pleasure. Come back any day. Thank you so, so much.

KEARNS GOODWIN: It's a deal. Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Coming up next on CNN, Donald Trump opened his new hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, the official ribbon cutting. My next guest was set to open a restaurant there, a mega restaurant, but he backed out after Trump decided to run for president and said something very specific about immigrants. Chef Jose Andres joins me live right after the break.

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[14:47:31] BALDWIN: 13 days until Election Day. Here's something we've never seen. Donald Trump taking a little time off the campaign trail, a ribbon opening there. It is his newest hotel, the old post office in Washington, D.C. The project, though, touted as being ahead of schedule, has been plagued with roadblocks. Case in point, celebrity chefs, Jose Andres and Geoffrey Zakarian, were set to open restaurants in the hotel, and not just any restaurant, but one was set to seat 212 people, a 9,000 square-foot restaurant cast in gold and marble, a nearly $7 million endeavor. Then Trump said this.

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TRUMP: When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.

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BALDWIN: The fallout, both Andres and Zakarian wanted out of the hotel deals.

Chef Jose Andres joins me now. He's been named one of "Time" magazine's most influential people and was awarded Outstanding Chef by the James Beard Foundation. He's there supporting Hillary at her event in Tampa.

Chef, welcome.

JOSE ANDRES, CHEF: Thank you very much.

BALDWIN: So let's begin with this event at Trump's new hotel in Washington, D.C. He was there as part of the ribbon cutting. This is the place you were supposed to be. You know the man. You worked with his family. Why do you think he stopped today?

ANDRES: Well, you know, about the hotel itself I am in litigation with the Trump organization, there's not much I can be saying. but, yes, I can tell you this, three years ago my wife and I we became American citizens and we became American citizens because we believed in that America stands for it stands for giving opportunity to everybody, American born or immigrant today what I did was do is stand up for those people, those Latinos, those Mexicans, who are not rapists, who are not bad people, are hard-working people and today are part of the DNA of what American represents.

BALDWIN: So because of what he said, the sound bite we just played, you said, no thanks, I want out. But chef you signed a contract. In reading the "Washington Post," it reports you signed a contract without a morality clause. What is your case?

[14:50:16] ANDRES: I'm not here to be about my case, I'm here precisely to be talking about we have in America 11 million undocumented immigrants. People that form part of the DNA what America stands for and I'm here to support a candidate that is going to fight to make sure that every one of those undocumented immigrants one day, one day, they will dream of being part of America the same way I became part. So here is I am in Tampa to support Hillary precisely because she is the person that has a message of inclusion where we all can dream of being part of the American dream.

BALDWIN: I understand, but a piece of the inclusion, "Washington Post" columnist, Dana Milbank, who stayed in Trump's D.C. hotel wrote about it. He said it wasn't cheap. It was $800. But the hotel offers, everything Trump claims to hate, according to Milbank. He asked for a Koran, he got one. Trump is a man who once suggested a ban on Muslims.

Chef Andres, is it possible that Donald Trump is quite liberal and accepting of other groups, accepting of immigrants, and he's just had to skew far right for the vote?

ANDRES: Well, I can only tell you one thing, I have three beautiful daughters, three American daughters. I am a citizen, I am a businessman, I am a father, I am a leader in my small community. I'm here opening restaurants, creating jobs and trying to make sure that the message that my daughters and every child in America. Here's is a good message, a message of lifting up people not bringing people down. That's the kind of people I want to be around. An America that is inclusive, an America that treats everybody with respect, every woman, anybody that is here in this country. And I'm here just to show support for the people that have that beautiful message of we all belong, we are stronger together.

BALDWIN: You said it. This is about respect.

Chef Jose Andres, thank you. We'll let you go so you can jump on the stage and be with Hillary Clinton in Tampa, Florida.

ANDRES: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

As Hillary Clinton gets ready to speak at the Florida event, just into CNN, the campaign is telling big donors to do something pretty dramatic. Those details next.

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[14:55:41] BALDWIN: Just in, as Hillary Clinton is going to be speaking live there in Tampa, Florida, CNN's Manu Raju reports she is calling on mega Democratic donors to shift their focus now to U.S. Senate races. They're telling them to send the cash to a super PAC that has gotten more than $7 million from top donors just the past couple of weeks.

Ahead here, Newt Gingrich tells Megyn Kelly on live TV that she is fascinated with sex. How did she respond to that? And why is Donald Trump today praising Newt Gingrich?

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