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Candidates Make Final Play for Battleground States; Hispanics Break Nevada Record for Early Voting; Donald Trump Speaks in North Carolina. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired November 7, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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


[14:30:00] KYUNG LAH, CNN, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the culinary union 226. And we're going to walk you through what is their phone banks.

So, it's the early voting numbers that they're looking at and then they're individually going through that list, figuring out who hasn't voted. And if you look through each one of these booths, they're calling voters individually and asking them, 'Have you voted?' It says the Secretary of State shows you haven't voted yet. We're hearing languages like Tagalog, Spanish, what this union says they can do is they can bring out the Latino vote.

The Latino vote here in Nevada, absolutely critical. There are record numbers and democrat-leaning Clark County. They are saying that the people who have not voted in early vote, they're going to take them to the polls on Tuesday and physically book, pick them up and drive them. They made 25,000 calls from this phone bank. They've also 400 people out on the road right now.

They're going through the numbers here still, trying to make sure they can get as many to the polls as possible on Tuesday. Brooke?

BROOK BALDWIN, CNN, ANCHOR: Look at those volunteers. Kyung, thank you. Kyung in Vegas. On the Utah, Mitt Romney was an easy winner in 2012. This go around and independent candidate is creating Utah into a three-way battle ground. Let's go to Stephanie Elam in South Lake City. Hey, Stephanie.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brooke. Yes. When you take a look at the election here in Utah, it's different than others because here, Evan McMullen, he is really giving the two candidates from the big parties, a run for the money that is because he is a native son here. And so, when you look at one poll, a local poll have done here that came out on Friday, he's in second place. So it really is a very tight race here.

So, here is what the situation looks like in Salt Lake County, which is one of the most densely populated counties here in Utah. They're processing ballots. This is the only county in Utah that has this machine here. They have 245,000 ballots back by mail as of Saturday here in this county, Salt Lake County. And then 15,000, just under that took advantage of early voting which wrapped up on Friday And now, if you look at the big picture, 510,000 people are actively registered to vote here in Salt Lake County. They say they're sort of preparing for a tsunami. They just don't know in which way because they have to figure out whether or not more people will are going to show up to vote or more of these ballots are going to come back. They've got drop boxes throughout the county.

After they finish with this process here, they take them, they count them, they bring them over here and after they verify the voter information, they slice them open and then they drop them. You can see she's doing that back here. They slice them open, drop off the information, that IDs, whose ballot it belongs to and then they start opening up the ballots to see what they -- these people are voting for.

I can tell already, just taking a sampling vote on the other side of the room. There are a lot of people writing in Mitt Romney. Here's the problem with that.

While in 2012, he came away with 87 percent -- there's 87 percent of the voter turnout in this county, very different this time. A lot of people writing in Mitt Romney's name. He did not say he wanted to be a candidate. He had to do that by September 9th. So a lot of people writing a lot of different names, Mickey Mouse, different things that we're seeing on the ballot. Still not clear what's going to happen here but also just pointing to the fact that a lot of people just looking for different ways to vote this time around, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Stephanie, thank you for the behind the scenes look there in Sat Lake. Let's go to Arizona, another state in the west turned into a surprising battleground. Trump holds a narrow lead in the polls there as Hillary Clinton hopes for a boost from Hispanic voters. Dan Simon is live in Phoenix. Dan, what are you seeing?

DAN SIMON, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Hey, Brooke, we are at the Arizona democratic headquarters and all of these people behind me, these are all volunteers calling supporters, trying to get out the vote. They also just got their boxes of KFC, so it's all good. But this is a reliably red state.

Only one democrat in the past 64 years has carried the state of Arizona. In case you're wondering, it was Bill Clinton in 1996. But they think they have a legitimate shot this year with Hillary. And one reason why is the Hispanic vote.

They think if they can get large numbers of Latinos to come out and vote, that they can actually carry the state and they say they're seeing some positive evidence. When you look at the early vote, they're seeing a surge of Latinos casting their ballots early, more than double in terms of what they saw in 2012. But if you look at the entire landscape in Arizona, early voting has really been off the charts. More than half the folks here have already cast their ballots.

A lot of people are saying that this is a must win state for Donald Trump. He is ahead right now by that five points. He's been here seven times. He's put a lot of resources into this state. But once again, the Democrats think they have a shot.

There's a reason why Tim Kaine was here last week, speaking to voters entirely in Spanish. We will wait to see what happens. The nation will be watching to see which way Arizona goes. Brooke, we'll send it back to you.

BALDWIN: Dan, thank you so much, for the look at Arizona, fried chicken makes everything better? Doesn't it. Coming up next, Donald Trump speaking at any moment along with his own daughter, then President Obama and Hillary Clinton will appear. Plus, both candidates within a mile of one another night, tomorrow night in New York. Did you realize that? Same city, mile apart.

What will they be doing up until then? How will they be spending Election Day? We have some new insight into that. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We are waiting for Donald Trump to take the stage at the stair fairground in Raleigh, North Carolina. The event is wedged between south and other battleground states today, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Hampshire. He is busy, busy. And so she, on the left-hand side of your screen is President Obama, will be speaking shortly in New Hampshire. Zerlina Maxwell, Director of Progressive Media for the Clinton joins me as does Matt Schlapp, Trump Surrogate in the former political director for George W. Bush. Nice to have both of you on. Happy election eve.

Zerlina Let me just begin with you because we know that the Clinton plane is in route to Michigan. President will be speaking in Ann Arbor. Why this 11th hour stop in Michigan? Is it nerves for the Democrats?

ZERLINA MAXWELL, CLINTON CAMPAIGN, DIRECTOR OF PROGRESSIVE MEDIA: No, it's not nerves. I think that what we're talking about in these last 48 hours before the election are states that vote on Election Day.

You saw Hillary Clinton and her powerful surrogates even beyond, say, in Ohio the other night. I'm still can't get over that. But you saw surrogates that went to states that had early voting. And so now in these last few days here, you see are going to Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Hampshire, states that vote actually on Election Day, to ensure that our ground gamer, field operation has all of the volunteers, enthusiasm and organization to get out the vote tomorrow.

BALDWIN: All right, and team Matt Schlapp, the Trump Campaign. Five states, I mean it's incredible I think how they've all managed to zigzag up until the last moments, including even potentially stops tomorrow. We know they're voting in New York.

Is there anywhere you wish you'd more of Mr. Trump, anything he should be saying message wise the last 24 hours?

MATT SCHLAPP, TRUMP SURROGATE: You know what? He has been so on message. You know, I think that's been the most shocking thing, is that he has been scripted -- BALDWIN: Stay on point, Donald. Stay on point.

SCHLAPP: He even channeled out loud that's what he wants to do. I think that's why his poll numbers have been so healthy. I love the fact we're playing in these states that six months ago Democrats would have said they had in the bag.

I love the fact he's in Michigan, talking about Wisconsin, spending so much time in Pennsylvania. I think he's actually going win. I think he's actually going to win New Hampshire. And then we have these closed states like Florida and North Carolina. I love the fact we're playing on their turf. And I love the fact that they're also playing on their turf.

What's strange is you don't see her going to Arizona. They even got a little cocky and talk about Texas. That's not where race is.

This race is in these blue to purple states. And if Donald Trump picks off one, just one that's outside the states we normally get, he could win.

BALDWIN: What could hurt him, though, is the Hispanic turnout.

SHCLAPP: Sure.

BALDWIN: I mean that sure is like the finals Zerlina. That has been the surprise I think for a lot of folks, even looking just the State of Florida, for example. Hispanic turnout is up 103 percent this year over, say, 2008.

That said, what hasn't been as high as been the African-American vote. We know the President. We know the First Lady will be stumping in Philadelphia and certainly reaching out to black voters. Why do you think those numbers are down?

MAXWELL: Look, I think that when you're comparing yourself to the first black President, that's an uphill battle for anyone, any candidate. And I think that when you look at North Carolina, the last day of early voting in north Carolina, African American turnout actually exceeded 2012 levels. And so, what we're seeing now is African Americans getting mobilized, getting organized in order to go t| the polls tomorrow. And I think that things are looking good.

I was just in Philadelphia this weekend. The line for volunteers was out of the door and around the block. I think that when you're talking about enthusiasm, certainly, with early voting, folks are coming around, making sure they have all their documentation. They know where their polling location is. They're being directly contacted by our 1 million strong army of volunteers all around the country to ensure that folks are showing up tomorrow on Election Day.

And so, hopefully we'll be successful. But I think when you're comparing yourself to the first black President, I think that's going to be a little tough for anybody involved. Maybe not Beyonce, but anybody else it's going to be a little hard.

BALDWIN: All right. I feel Beyonce love from you today, Zerlina. I feel it. I feel it. But there is also --

MAXWELL: I just have to keep saying Beyonce. OK.

BALDWIN: There is also the doubt. Listen, I know. I know. You know, she's awesome, but she may not translate to as many votes as you hope for. We're going to find that out tomorrow night. But when you look at the DOW, I mean it's gang busters. Look at all the green on the screen. You might find question to you.

You know, we were talking last week how city group came out and said, if Donald Trump wins the presidency, see they think that stocks will go down. Then you have you know, the DOW up so incredibly perhaps because of, you know, Comey's announcement yesterday clearing Hillary Clinton. What say you.

SCHLAPP: This town behind me, Washington, D.C., and Manhattan wants Hillary Clinton to be president. There's no question about it. That Donald Trump is taking on both those cities. And it doesn't surprise me that all those folks, all those institutional investors on Wall Street are feeling confident that, you know, they see some polls, it may feel confident and the stock market goes up. That should be a message to voters.

If you want to change the way New York City does business and the way Wall Street does business, so if you want to change the way Washington does business, there's only one way to do that. And that's to vote for Donald Trump. And that's why these undecided voters in these polls, even to see an end poll, there's still a few percentage of voters who have not made up their mind.

I think they break for Donald Trump for that very reason. They want to change things. They don't like the direction the countries is in.

BALDWIN: You hope he's out and about campaigning tomorrow. Zerlina, let me ask you, do you know what Hillary Clinton's plans are for tomorrow, for Election Day?

MAXWELL: I don't know exactly what her plans are for Election Day. But I do know that we're going to be making sure that we're making as many as direct voter contacts as possible.

And so, it's not necessarily about what Hillary Clinton is doing but it's about what our million strong army of volunteers are doing to ensure that we're making sure everybody's getting to the polls. So that's where our focus is. So anything you hear Hillary Clinton say from now until tomorrow night is all going to be about making sure that we're getting people to the polls because that is what this is about.

BALDWIN: All right, Zerlina and Matt, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Want to get to this. We're getting news into CNN here. The Clinton Campaign is responding to ads claiming she is under investigation.

The campaign has now issued a legal warning. Let's go straight to our Justice Correspondent, Evan Perez. Evan, what is this about? What are you hearing?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN, JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brooke. What's happening is the campaign has sent letters, legal letters to broadcasters say they shouldn't any longer air the ads from pro-Trump Super PACs that claim that Hillary Clinton is still under investigation by the FBI. The letters from Marc Elias who's the General Counsel for Hillary for America Campaign and essentially once the broadcasters that the claims in these ads are no longer true. They're demonstrably falls according, to a provably false rather is the language they used in this letter.

The letter list some of the pro-Trump PACs including rebuilding America now and Future 45 and lists the titles of these ads. And these are some pretty tough ads that basically say that Clinton when she comes into the White House if she is elected, essentially is going to bring not only her baggage but actively under investigation by the FBI. Obviously, everything changed in that respect after the Director of the FBI, James Comey, sent a letter yesterday saying essentially the investigation was over and that they were sticking by their determination back in July. That there should be no charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private server while she was Secretary of State.

What's interesting about this, Brooke, is that obviously we're talking about hours left in the campaign, just over a day now. And the campaign wants to make sure that those voters who are still there, trying to make their decision, aren't getting bombarded by these ads that are pretty tough that say that Clinton is still under investigation.

Last night, by the way, Kellyanne Conway, the Campaign Manager told Anderson Cooper, that I guess, now that Comey has made his announcement, they're going to have to remove some of those claims from those ads, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. See your point. Evan, thank you so much. Even Perez.

Do you to want have a chance to be featured in CNN's Election Day coverage? Tag your voting Instagram post with the #myvote. Let us know who you voted for and where. And we will show them throughout the day here on CNN. Again, #myvote.

We are keeping tabs on all these candidates and the surrogates today. Live pictures. Donald Trump set to speak in the key battleground state of North Carolina. We will take that live.

I'm Brooke Baldwin and this is CNN Special Live Coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. We're live in Washington, D.C. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Let me throw this out at you. Tens of millions of voters, they have already cast their ballot but it's the surge in Latino early voting that could signal trouble for Donald Trump's campaign for president. Hispanics have turned out in record numbers compared with 2012 and 2008. And if those voters largely are supporting Hillary Clinton, as several of these polls suggest, they could make Donald Trump's path to 2270 quite difficult.

So, let me bring in Mark Preston, our CNN Politics Executive Editor of the CNN Decision Task. Maeve Reston is here with me, CNN National Political Reporter. But Mark, let me go to you first.

The numbers are so key, especially in the battleground states, Florida and North Carolina.

MARK PRESTON, CNN, POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Yes, let's take a look at those right now. You know, overall, Brooke, in 39 states, more than 37.5 million people have already cast an early ballot. Now, that's a conservative estimate.

We actually expect that number to be higher now than the latest data we have seen. But as you said, let's go into the State of Florida right now. 6.4 million people, more that have actually cast early ballots in the State of Florida. What is the breakdown in the end? Well, let's see what the increase is.

We saw 41 percent increase amongst white voters, 13 percent increase amongst black voters. And look at that bottom line right here. 103 percent increase in ballots cast by Hispanics from 2008 to 2016, which is significant. Let us now go down to North Carolina.

We look at North Carolina. About 2.6 million people have cast ballots. Again that number could be a little higher. We go a little into the weeds a little bit and a little into the numbers. And we look at what the percentage change is from 2012 to 2016. 24 percent increase amongst white voters. Negative 0.5 percent amongst African Americans and plus 85 percent amongst Hispanics and ballot to cast.

Now there's a lot of talk Brooke about the drop-off in the African American vote. A lot of Democrats are hoping that the Hispanic vote fills that void.

BALDWIN: And that said, if these -- you know, this historic sort of turnout of Latino votes do spell good things for Hillary Clinton, my question to you, Maeve, is then would Donald Trump, how would he have a path to victory? Would he?

MAEVE RESTON, CNN, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTED: I mean, it's just -- it's really difficult to see when you look at those numbers in Nevada and Florida and North Carolina. Although, CNN analysis we did of early voting showed that she was underperforming where President Obama was a little bit in North Carolina. So maybe he'll have an edge there.

But this may be the year, everyone talks about the Hispanic vote as being the sleeping giant. You know, that they -- they have a much larger share of the eligible vote population than turnout. And this may be the year that Donald Trump galvanized voters for Hillary Clinton. So this is bad news for his campaign and --

BALDWIN: Why do you think it was it because what Donald Trump said after he descended the escalator and made those comments about Mexicans? Do you think that's what galvanized Latinos in this country or is it more than that?

RESTON: I think it started at that moment but, you know, having gone to citizenship workshops and you know, places where they're registering voters all year, it was -- it was just sort of a repeated series of assaults that people felt like we're an assault on their heritage, particularly with the Judge Curiel, for example, that was almost like the straw that Brooke that camel's back because it was viewed as going after Mexican Americans at that point.

And Trump has never really done much to undo that damage. And clearly he has galvanized voters. And that may be the big story tomorrow night.

BALDWIN: Speaking of, let's dip in and hear. Some of his final pitch. Here he is speaking to a crowd in Raleigh, North Carolina. Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So, we have thousands of people outside trying to get in but we should start. Do we agree? We should start so they'll come in. They will come in.

First of all, I want to thank you, special, special place. It's a special place with incredible people. In one day, do you believe this, one day, we are going to win the great State of North Carolina and we are going to win back the White House. This election will decide whether we are ruled by a corrupt political class, you're seeing what's happening. Everybody's watching. Or whether we are ruled by the people. We're going to be ruled by the people, folks.

That is going to be the choice. Our failed political establishment has delivered nothing but poverty, nothing but problems, nothing but losses. Nothing but losses. We don't win as a country anymore. We're going to start winning again.

They get rich by making America poor, in many cases. It's time to reject the media and political elite that has bled our country dry. This is among the most dishonest people. They don't give you the truth folks. They don't give you the truth. They rarely give you the truth. You know it and they know it. That's the scary part, they know it.

It's time to fight for America. I'm not a politician, I can say proudly. My only special interest is you. It's you.

We're going to bring back the jobs that have been stolen from you. We're going to bring back the wealth that has been taken from our country. We're going to bring back the miners and factory workers and steel workers. We're going to put them back to work.

The economic policies of Bill and Hillary Clinton have destroyed manufacturing in your state and throughout the entire country. The corrupt Clintons gave us NAFTA. China's too horrible entry into the World Trade Organization, one of the disasters. The job-killing deal with South Korea. That was a Hillary Clinton beauty and the transpacific partnership, which will be a total disaster. That Hillary Clinton said, this is the gold standard. And you know, it is -- she lied. She lied during the debate. She said -- hey, by the way, who won that debate? Did we win that debate?

But she lied during the debate. She lied during the debate. She said it was the gold standard and then she said she never said it. Don't worry about coal. We're bringing back coal. He's holding a top left. Clean coal, clean coal, right? We're going to do clean coal.

The miners. The miners are going to be back. Not in Hillary Clinton gets in. The miners -- I guess you got to start thinking about something else, but the miners are going to be back. Clean coal. Clean coal.

You know thinking about it, though, also people -- the press doesn't talk about it. Donna Brazile gets the questions to a debate. But then it turns out to be a number of debates. Who cares about Donna Brazile? She's turned out to be not what people thought.

She gets illegally. Illegally. She gets the questions to the debate.