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Trump Backing Tester Opponent; Futures Point to Drop; Polio- like Illness under Investigation; Trump Stokes Fears Ahead of Election. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired October 23, 2018 - 08:30   ET

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


[08:30:00] MATT ROSENDALE, MONTANA SENATE CANDIDATE: Of President Trump because the work that he's doing really is making America great again.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST (voice over): The race is up for grabs because Montanans prides themselves on their voting independence. Mick Ringsack is a lifelong Republican who supports Trump.

MICK RINGSACK, TESTER SUPPORTER: If the election were today, I'd vote for him again.

BORGER: He also supports Tester, in a state with the second highest per capita veterans population in the country.

RINGSACK: Jon was working for veterans before he was even sworn in.

BORGER (on camera): You think there are a lot of people who will split their ticket?

RINGSACK: I do. Oh, Montana's got a history of splitting tickets. You know, we've got a Democratic governor and a Republican attorney general, one Democratic senator, one Republican senator.

BORGER: Donald Trump won the state of Montana by 20 points. So Tester walks a fine line, careful not to take on the president directly, and also point out how many of his bills the president has signed.

BORGER: He's been here three times. His son has been here. He tweeted about you and Dr. Ronny Jackson. Is he -- is he doing payback here? What do you think this is all about?

SEN. JON TESTER (D), MONTANA: No. I mean what I -- what I think it's about is him loving Montana.

BORGER (voice over): Tester is Montana born and bred, a third generation dirt farmer who still works the land on weekends. He's now asking for a third term.

Rosendale, who made a fortune in Maryland real estate, moved to Montana in 2002, became a state senator and is now the state auditor. But Tester says Rosendale is not Montana enough.

TESTER: Well, he's a coast developer from Maryland who came to this state and brought a ranch and claims to be a rancher but has no cows.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Montana will never fall for Matt Rosendale's load of bull.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was elected in his district as a Montana legislator. That proves he's got to be Montanan.

BORGER: But not on the issue, Tester says. Not on who controls public land, health care or veterans benefits, to name a few.

TESTER: If he runs on his record, he's going to get clobbered, and so he has to do something different.

BORGER: So Rosendale is charging that Tester is a D.C. liberal, out of touch with Montana.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When he does show up, Tester's like all the other liberals.

MATT ROSENDALE (R), MONTANA SENATE CANDIDATE: We need to send President Trump some conservative reinforcements.

BORGER: But unlike Trump, who lately is a chatty media seeking missile, Rosendale drives away from his own Trump rally, right past reporters and into the night.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Two observations here. The candidates go to the same barber. And --

BORGER: They do.

BERMAN: And number two -- number two --

BORGER: It would look good on you.

BERMAN: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Don't touch the moneymaker.

BORGER: OK.

BERMAN: But, number two, if there's any race that the president deserves credit for if it goes the Republican's way, it's this one, because he has single-handedly fought this when others said don't do it.

BORGER: Oh, well, three times, not to mention the fact that Don Junior, who's an avid hunter, who loves to go to Montana, it's hunting season, and he's been there -- he's been there numerous times. And Rosendale, you know, Tester is personality quite popular, but he's never won by more than a handful of points. It's a -- you know, it's a state that's kind of purple, but we did run into a lot of people who were Trump supporters and Tester supporters.

BERMAN: You are a reporter of many talents. You spoke to former White House scandal lawyer Ty Cobb yesterday. A fascinating discussion. Who, among other things, says that the Mueller investigation is not a witch hunt. But he even went further than that. Listen to what the president's former lawyer says about Bob Mueller.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORGER: He calls it a witch hunt. Do you think it's a witch hunt?

TY COBB, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don't think it's a witch hunt.

Bob Mueller is, you know, an American hero, in my -- in my view. He carried -- while he was injured, carried one of his fellow soldiers out of the -- out of harm's way in Vietnam. He was a very serious prosecutor. He and I first met in the 0-- in the mid-'80s. We were prosecuting in different places. And I've respected him throughout.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Mueller's an American hero. That's a little different than you hear from the president.

BORGER: You think, or from Rudy Giuliani for that matter.

I think when Ty Cobb was at the White House, and he's no longer there, there was a mutual respect between the team of Mueller and Ty Cobb, who had pre-existing relations. And they knew each other -- relationship. And they knew each other well as attorneys, as prosecutors. And so I think all of that has sort of gone out the window now. And what you see, and you saw Ty Cobb say, I don't think it's a witch hunt, what he did, when he was in the White House, was kept the president from tweeting all the time. And then Ty leaves and, boom, it's an onslaught of tweets about Bob Mueller.

CAMEROTA: Fascinating on every level, Gloria. Thank you very much.

BORGER: Thanks. Appreciate it.

BERMAN: It's a national holiday to have Gloria Borger here on set with us, not once but twice in the same show.

BORGER: Whoo-hoo. OK. Well, there you are.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BERMAN: Come back.

BORGER: I will.

[08:35:00] BERMAN: All right, doctors are dealing with new possible cases of a polio like illness that's leaving kids paralyzed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What makes it worse is not knowing what caused it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: What we know about this rare condition, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: OK, we do have some breaking news, that the market is about to open. The Dow is down sharply. Will it be another rough day on Wall Street?

Chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us with what she's seeing.

Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It looks like it will be. I mean when you look at futures markets this morning with just 50 minutes to the opening bell, it looks pretty soft.

I can show you what those numbers look like. It looks like the Dow down maybe about 400 points. This is actually off the worst of its levels. We've had some Dow components. The companies in the Dow 30 reporting their earnings.

And, in some cases, their earnings are fine. But what they're saying about the future is not as rosy as Wall Street analysts had expected. 3M in particular cutting its earnings outlook. You know, so things are great right now in terms of earnings and profit growth for S&P 500 companies. When you look at the big industrials, the housing, the autos, the things that have a real global reach, you're starting to see maybe some weakness in the future. Trade concerns, international concerns, rising costs.

I can show you world markets is really where this began, even before those American earnings reports came out. You had weakness across the board here. Again, that was trade concerns and also Saudi Arabia. The more you have Saudi Arabia and the Middle East in the headlines, the more nervous investors get just because of, you know, the risk for something to run amok there geopolitically.

[08:40:24] Over my right shoulder you can see where we are for the month so far for October. It's been pretty ugly. Turns out stocks don't just go up, folks, as we've been used to over the past several years. The Dow, even before these losses I'm telling you right now, down 4.5 percent. The Nasdaq down more than 7 percent. So we'll watch very closely.

As you know, over the past couple of weeks in this chaotic kind of October for markets, we've seen up and down within the day that have been pretty volatile. So watch this space, guys.

BERMAN: It's looking like a very tough opening today. I'm sure, Romans, you'll be back in about 50 minutes, 5-0 minutes, at the opening bell to tell us what's going on there.

ROMANS: That's right.

BERMAN: Thanks so much.

All right, we have a troubling health alert this morning. The CDC now says 155 patients are being looked at for a polio-like illness that can cause paralysis in children. The number of possible patients is up from 127 a week ago, though no new confirmed cases have been reported.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with the very latest.

Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: John, it's called acute flaccid myelitis, and it is horrific. A perfectly healthy children often paralyzed overnight. That's what happened to this little girl in Atlanta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Abigail Palocios was a healthy, active two-year-old. Then suddenly paralyzed from the neck down, a ventilator breathing for her.

ERICA PALOCIOS, ABIGAIL'S MOTHER: She had a double ear infection and a really high fever of 103. Then a few days went by and she woke up and her arm was completely paralyzed, randomly. And the night before -- she was using it just a few hours before.

COHEN: The diagnosis, acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM.

PALOCIOS: The first thing I said was, what is that?

COHEN: It's very similar to a disease from long ago, polio. Like polio, AFM is thought to be caused by a virus, but no one knows what virus and why it affects different children differently.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Push, push. Oh, such a good job! Can you get those stickers.

COHEN: For example, Abigail's siblings were sick at the same time she was, but they were never paralyzed. Across the country, the CDC reports 62 confirmed cases of AFM in 22 states and 93 possible cases. In an outbreak in 2014, there were 120 confirmed cases. In 2016, 149 cases.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just a little bit to make it easier for you to balance, OK?

PALOCIOS: It's really heart-breaking. No parent should ever have to experience that. And what makes it worse is not the tubes. It's not the treatments. What makes it worse is not knowing what caused it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Princess Snow White needs to be picked up.

COHEN: It's hard to know how Abigail will do in the future, if she'll ever be able to walk again on her own.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good job baby girl.

COHEN: And notice that she still doesn't use her left arm and her right arm is weak.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Reach for it. Thank you.

DR. LAURA JONES, CHILDREN'S HEALTHCARE OF ATLANTA: We don't know a lot about the long-term prognosis of AFM right now. That's something that we're still really learning about.

COHEN: Abigail's parents are grateful their child is making progress.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah! Good job!

COHEN: Against this horrific and mysterious illness.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: While Abigail has made great process against AFM, that's not true for all children. Some children are still in wheelchairs, paralyzed below the neck, a ventilator breathing for them.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Elizabeth, thanks very much.

CAMEROTA: All right, now to this story in Wisconsin.

A search is underway for two cars spotted near the home of that missing teenager Jayme Closs. Investigators are trying to track down, look at your screen, a 2008 to 2014 red or orange Dodge Challenger and a 2004 to 2010 black Acura MVX. Authorities say these vehicles were spotted near the home around the time that Closs' parents were shot dead in their home and the 13-year-old vanished. Police believe she is in danger. If you have any information, call 911.

BERMAN: All right, so will the politics of fear work for President Trump and the Republicans. What are insiders telling our very own political director? "The Bottom Line" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:48:49] CAMEROTA: Fear mongering and false claims now a key part of President Trump's midterm strategy.

Let's get "The Bottom Line" on this with CNN's political director David Chalian.

David, I think something has shifted, OK? And you can shoot me down if you want. But I think that this adherence to outlandish claims in rapid fire succession made up out of whole slaw (ph), not even a germ of truth anymore. There will be a new tax plan before the midterms. All of the caravan are criminals. I think that something has shifted. And you tell me, remember -- have the Republicans always been a party based on emotion and feelings, because that's what is happening now. This strategy is about feelings over facts.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, and I would not say that this is the Republican Party strategy. This is the Republican Party in the image of Donald Trump. I mean that is what we've been seeing take place over the last year and a half. We saw it throughout the entire primary system as every Republican candidate in a primary was running to be the most Trumpian possible. And you have the president leading his party, closing out with these outlandish claims. But just because they're outlandish and untrue doesn't mean that they're not working and energizing the base of the party.

BERMAN: Yes.

[08:50:00] CAMEROTA: But that's my point, but don't you think that now the Republicans are going -- we feel -- look, Newt Gingrich told me this. During the Republican National Convention he said that he'll take feelings over facts any day. That that's what works. So is that -- are the -- have the Republicans always been known for feelings over facts, or is something new happening?

CHALIAN: Well, I think feelings has always been dominant over facts and politics no matter what. It is an emotional experience to vote. And so they -- that, I think, has always been a truism in American politics. I just think that you see Donald Trump saying, I'm not going to campaign on feelings that are based in facts. I'm just going to campaign on feelings, damn the facts.

BERMAN: Yes. It doesn't have to necessarily be one or the other here.

CHALIAN: Right.

BERMAN: In this case, he's trying to use both. And I think the answer is, when he's not using facts or he's saying thing that are flat-out not true, it may not have any repercussions. In fact, the opposite. I mean, in fact, right now, David Chalian, if you ask strategists of both parties where this is headed, at least where it's trending, the Republicans have had a better few weeks.

CHALIAN: Right. I will say, in talking to both Democrats and Republicans, I think that the overall consensus among people working on these House races still think this day, two weeks out, it's probably more likely than not that the Democrats flip the House. But I will tell you this, on this day, I have never heard both parties so convinced about the possibility that Republicans could maintain control of the House. That is more true today, according to these strategists that work on the races, than at any day in the last year and a half of this cycle.

CAMEROTA: And what's that based on, the fact that the president's approval numbers have gone up or something else you're seeing?

CHALIAN: Well, I think it's the president's approval numbers have gone up and the economy, which is doing quite well, and people are giving the Republicans, voters, of course, big advantage on the economy. And with the economy top of mind for voters in many places and it doing well and the president benefitting from that, that all equals Republicans getting more enthusiastic and engaged.

BERMAN: So we had Jess McIntosh (ph) on earlier, our new CNN political analyst, coming from the Democratic side. Someone who worked on Hillary's campaign. And she said something which is interesting. But always when I hear it, like an alarm bell goes off. She said, well, what we don't know is how many new voters, how many new people will come to the polls. And these new voters may drive a Democratic surge. Well, the thing about new voters is, we've never seen them before and sometimes they don't actually come.

CHALIAN: Well, we saw them in Barack Obama's election in 2008. We saw some of them in 2006 when the Democrats won. But those were big, huge Democratic years. And that is true. You can see -- I'll take a couple examples. The Florida governor's race, Andrew Gillum, or Stacey Abrams in Georgia, these are candidates who are committed to trying to reship the electorate. As you're saying, bring in voters that normally don't show up in a midterm election season. All signs indicate, guys, there is massive enthusiasm and interest in this election beyond what a normal midterm is. This is -- this will look somewhere between, in terms of turnout, between a midterm and a presidential, not a normal midterm. That may bode well for Democrats if they are changing the makeup of the electorate with that increased turnout.

CAMEROTA: She was giving us an astounding statistic about how early voting has started yesterday and already the spike is like astronomical.

CHALIAN: Right. I'm always a little cautious about overinterpreting what that means after one date. Yes, election officials are saying they're seeing greater numbers of early voting on the first day of early voting. I just don't think we have any idea which party that benefits (INAUDIBLE) American politics. People -- more and more (INAUDIBLE) are voting early in elections.

BERMAN: Early voting numbers often are a sugar high too. They give you a sense and they fill you up right away. But you have to remember that if you vote early, you don't vote on Election Day. So it's unclear whether or not (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: I see, so that doesn't always translate to voter turnout, huge voter turnout numbers. It's just early voters.

CHALIAN: Not necessarily. It could be that -- right, exactly.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CHALIAN: They're banking those votes early. Yes.

BERMAN: David --

CHALIAN: Sorry, I'll just say one other thing I was saying about the economy.

Yesterday we had this conference here. Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago mayor, and Democratic strategist said something really interesting. If you look at all the other big wave elections, '94, 2006, 2010, for either party, it happened during a recession. That's not the case right now. We've got to watch the economy here because that does indeed impact elections in a big way.

BERMAN: Mayor Emanuel knows what he's talking about when it comes to elections.

David Chalian, great to have you here with us.

CHALIAN: Sure.

BERMAN: "The Good Stuff" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:58:39] BERMAN: It's time now for "The Good Stuff."

So he ripped the weapon from a gunman and ended a deadly mass shooting at a Tennessee Waffle House in April. Now James Shaw Junior is honoring the people he says he wished he could have saved.

Here he is placing flowers and balloons at the four crosses that now stand outside the Waffle House. The balloons spelling love.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES SHAW JUNIOR, TENNESSEE WAFFLE HOUSE SHOOTING HERO: Because there still are four individuals, unfortunately, that didn't go home that night. And we want to remember their legacy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Shaw Junior also created a foundation in honor of the victims to raise awareness and take actions against mass shootings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAW: Pray for their families and I just don't want to see this happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. What a hero on every level. I mean not just springing into action, but now still trying to help going forward.

BERMAN: Yes, he's not letting go of the moment and he's not letting go of, I think, the bigger meaning beyond just him and beyond just what happened there. Good on him.

CAMEROTA: That's a great story.

All right, the Turkish president says he has strong leads on Jamal Khashoggi's murder. More coverage after this quick break.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

And this morning Turkey's president rejecting the Saudi claim that journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death was an accident. President Erdogan calling it a pre-planned, quote, ferocious murder. In an interview months before his death, Khashoggi said that the U.S. was not doing enough to reign in Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. [09:00:11] Have a listen to these prescient words.