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Train Safety after Crash; Students Work for Clinton; Funeral of Shimon Peres. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 30, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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


[09:30:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Melissa Young - Melissa Young, I want to thank you for joining me this morning.

MELISSA YOUNG, FORMER MISS WISCONSIN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: And I wish you all the best. Thank you so much.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

The National Transportation Safety Board officials are now one step closer to understanding exactly what caused a packed commuter train to crash in New Jersey killing one woman and injuring more than 100 others. Just two hours ago, officials recovering the train's event recorder from the wreckage, a device that's quite similar to an airplane's black box. This, as the focus of the investigation now shifts to rail safety and, of course, the train's engineer.

CNN's Rene Marsh joins us with much more this morning.

[09:35:02] Good morning.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good morning, Carol.

You know, as you said off the top, the NTSB investigators, they now have the event recorder from this New Jersey Transit train. It records critical details like the speed, the use of brakes, the position of the throttle. Investigators are downloading that information this morning, right there on site, and then we will know exactly how fast this train was traveling. We do know the speed limit as the train is approaching the terminal is ten miles per hour. But witnesses say they thought that the train was traveling much faster.

The other priority for NTSB, Carol, is interviewing the train's engineer. A source close to the investigation tells me that the NTSB has made contact with the engineer, but they have not yet interviewed him. He was heavily medicated, but when they do interview him, they'll want to know what was happening in the final seconds before the crash, were all of the systems functioning, what was his sleep schedule and was he rested and, of course, toxicology tests will be done.

Of course, all of that information, coupled with the data from the recorder, as well as a review of the mechanics of the train and the signals will all help investigators pin down a cause. But, Carol, unfortunately, that is not a speedy process.

COSTELLO: Yes, no, it's not. Rene Marsh reporting live from Washington, thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, fighting for young voters. Hillary Clinton dispatches high-powered surrogates, but can they make Clinton cool with millennials?

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[09:40:38] COSTELLO: Hillary Clinton is pulling out all the stops, trying to make inroads with younger voters. That demographic has been a challenge for her going back to her bruising primary fight with Bernie Sanders. Now, in the homestretch of this election, are her efforts paying off? CNN's chief political correspondent Dana Bash hit the road to find out.

Good morning.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

That's right, I went to North Carolina, which is the swingiest of swing states. President Obama won there in 2008, but lost in 2012. And this year the Clinton campaign hopes to win North Carolina back. But the challenge there, and in battleground states across the country, is convincing reluctant young voters that Hillary Clinton is their candidate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a volunteer with Hillary from North Carolina here in Pitt (ph) County.

BASH (voice-over): At field offices and 280 college campuses, millennials work the phones for Hillary Clinton.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was wondering if you'd like to come out and do some voter registration or a phone bank with us this weekend.

BASH: Young voters fueled President Obama's wins. He got 60 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds in 2012. A demo that was nearly 20 percent of the vote, and now could be growing

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Young people could represent 25 percent of the vote.

BASH: Team Clinton is putting such a premium on millennials, they hired youth directors in key battleground states. Lillie Catlin runs North Carolina and says social media is key.

LILLIE CATLIN, NC YOUTH VOTE DIRECTOR, CLINTON CAMPAIGN: You know, we can't necessarily knock on every dorm, or students vote every - move every year. And so it's, you know, having those kinds of conversations, but through our text lists or through Twitter.

BASH: Still, polls show Clinton is under performing with millennials, so the campaign is deploying high profile surrogates. Bernie Sanders is lobbying his army of young supporters.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is imperative that we elect Hillary Clinton as our next president.

BASH: Chelsea Clinton is hopscotching college towns.

BASH (on camera): Why has it been so hard for your mom to do that, to get people your age to get behind her?

CHELSEA CLINTON, HILLARY CLINTON'S DAUGHTER: Well, Dana, thank you for including me in the millennial demographic. I'm just at the older end.

If we think about the younger millennials, we think only about 55 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds were even registered to vote at the beginning of 2016. So that says to me, we just need to be doing a better job collectively on making the case of what's at stake in this election.

BASH (voice-over): At East Carolina University in North Carolina, we heard why it's been so hard.

BASH (on camera): What is your experience in getting your friends on the Hillary Clinton train?

ANNIKEN WILLIAMS, VICE PRESIDENT OF COLLEGE DEMOCRATS OF NC: Well, it's been pretty difficult, especially because a lot of young people, especially at ECU, were for Bernie Sanders.

BASH (voice-over): One Sanders supporter challenged Chelsea directly, saying the primary was rigged for Clinton.

ZACHARY PATE, STUDENT, EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY: What moral ground does Hillary Clinton have to stand on to continue running as the Democratic nominee?

C. CLINTON: I would hope, as someone who clearly is a passionate supporter of Senator Sanders, that you'll listen to him directly and not rely on me to make the case.

BASH: He really came to protest and walked out holding a sign for Green Party Candidate Jill Stein.

BASH (on camera): You don't really think Jill Stein can win, do you?

PATE: I think that we're going to establish party power and relevance for the Green Party by doing what we're doing.

BASH (voice-over): Losing millennials to third party candidates is a dire concern for Clinton. MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: If you vote for someone other than

Hillary, or if you don't vote at all, then you are helping to elect Hillary's opponent.

BASH: For some, that's working. Erick Jenkins was a Sanders delegate who told us Clinton's college affordability plan convinced him.

ERICK JENKINS, STUDENT, EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY: Leveling out the cuts in colleges and states and also making the federal government match it fourfold.

BASH: But stroll through campus, it's clear Clinton has work to do.

BASH (on camera): Who are you going to vote for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jill Stein.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary Clinton.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm undecided.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And to give a sense of how big a Clinton concern that third party poll is for young voters, a poll earlier this month showed 44 percent of voters age 18 to 34 said they would vote for Green Party Candidate Jill Stein or Libertarian Gary Johnson. If that actually happens, Carol, on Election Day, it really could be the difference between winning and losing for Hillary Clinton.

COSTELLO: Dana Bash, thanks so much.

[09:44:55] Coming up next in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump strutted his stuff with an "SNL" rendition of hot line bling. But there's a new Trump on Saturday night.

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COSTELLO: This morning, Shimon Peres, the last of Israel's founding fathers, was laid to rest. The country's ninth president was interred a short time ago at a cemetery in Mount Herzl. Attending the funeral service, dozens of dignitaries and world leaders, including President Obama.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We gather here in the knowledge that Shimon never saw his dream of peace fulfilled. The region is going through a chaotic time. Threats are ever present. And yet he did not stop dreaming and he did not stop working.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:50:23] COSTELLO: Before the service, a poignant moment between the current Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas. Their handshake, recalling the year Shimon Peres spent working for peace in this region. CNN's Oren Liebermann live in Jerusalem with more.

Good morning.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

And that is very much the legacy of the ninth president of Israel, Shimon Peres. He was the man who stood for peace, who carried forward the torch of peace, even if today's Middle East made that seem rather unlikely.

To get an idea of how much he meant to this country and how much he was in the public service, he worked with ten different U.S. presidents in more than a half a century. In fact, nearly 70 years in public office, holding nearly every position in the Israeli government, from prime minister, to president, to defense minister, and a number of others. It was that career and his ability to evolve to change and yet stay positive, to dream that everyone here remembers, especially President Bill Clinton, who considered him a dear friend.

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BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: He started off life as Israel's brightest student, became its best teacher, and ended up its biggest dreamer. He lived 93 years in a state of constant wonder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: So many powerful moments as they eulogized Shimon Peres. The words "vision" and "dream" were used very often because he was a visionary. He was a dreamer. He believed in that power and he also believed in the power of small gestures to start big changes. That's why I think he would have smiled knowing that Abbas and Netanyahu shook hands. I don't think anyone here expects it to start a major peace progress or to make any progress towards a two-state solution, but that moment, small though it was, few words, though it was, would have meant a lot to Shimon Peres as he tried to carry on that legacy of peace that he now passes on to others, hoping they will fulfill the dream that he had, an Israeli state next to a Palestinian one.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Oren Liebermann reporting live for us from Jerusalem.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, next hour, what were you doing at 3:39 this morning? Because Donald Trump was up tweeting, lashing out at the media, Hillary Clinton and the former Miss Universe. I'll ask one of his camp's senior advisers about that.

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[09:56:52] COSTELLO: Checking some top stories for you at 56 minutes past. At least two men have been arrested as protests continue over a fatal police shooting in El Cajon, California. Police say they had to pepper spray protesters after they threw bottles and smashed car windows at an intersection. Thirty-eight-year-old Alfred Olango was shot and killed Tuesday after police say he pointed a vaping device at them and they say it looked like a gun.

After 14 years, two stolen paintings by Vincent van Gogh could be returning to their home in the Netherlands. The paintings were apparently found in Naples, Italy, in the home of an alleged drug broker linked to the mafia. The van Gogh museum says the paintings are still in good shape, but they're missing their frames.

Oh, it's official, Lady Gaga will be the halftime headliner at Super Bowl VI in February. The rumors have been swirling online and then the singer confirmed it herself on Twitter. She's stepping up to the main stage after performing the national anthem at this year's Super Bowl.

A new season and a new Donald Trump for "Saturday Night Live." Here's Jeanne Moos.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Expect Alec Baldwin to come down with a case of the sniffles Saturday night as he begins his gig opposite Kate McKinnon, as "SNL's" new Donald Trump, even if he's no fan of The Donald's.

ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR: We don't really want a president who looks like he's been dipped in movie popcorn butter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tangerine tornado.

MOOS: Baldwin follows impersonators like Phil Hartman and Darrell Hammond.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Love thy neighbor as thyself, and like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

MOOS: Baldwin has been there, hosting "SNL" 16 times, but he's never played Trump. We've seen him do everyone from Tony Bennett to a guy name Pete Schweating (ph) selling balls of treats.

BALDWIN: No one can resist my schweatty (ph) balls.

MOOS: But will Baldwin have a ball with Kate McKinnon?

KATE MCKINNON, COMEDIAN: All anyone wants to talk about is Donald Trump.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Donald Trump? Isn't he the one that's like, ugh, you're all losers?

MOOS: The Donald himself is no stranger to "SNL," dancing with chickens -

(SINGING): Trump, you know hot wings will make it happen.

MOOS: Advertising Trump's House of Wings in 2004 and the hotline bling last year.

TRUMP: Call me on the cell phone. MOOS: This isn't the first time "SNL" hired someone to play a

politician during an election year.

SARAH PALIN, FORMER GOVERNOR OF ALASKA: You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.

MOOS: Tina Fey twisted that line.

TINA FEY, COMEDIAN: And I can see Russia from my house.

MOOS: How deeply can "SNL" impersonations infiltrate our minds?

MOOS (on camera): Who said, "I can see Russia from my house"?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sarah Palin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sarah Palin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, that was Palin.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sarah Palin.

MOOS: Tina Fey, actually.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tina Fey. She didn't say that.

MOOS (voice-over): Will Alec Baldwin's lines be mistaken for Trump's? Mimicking The Donald is nothing to -

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: (sniffing).

MOOS: At.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aye, yi, yi (ph).

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

[10:00:05] Happening now in the NEWSROOM, sex, money and presidential politics.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The Clintons are a distorted past.

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COSTELLO: No topic off limits.

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