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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump, Obama Trade Blows 4 Days Before Midterms; Michael Cohen Claims Trump Made Repeated Racist References; Messages Show Stone Attacking Randy Credico; U.S. Added 250,000 Jobs in October; Interview with Elissa Slotkin. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired November 02, 2018 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:11] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: OUTFRONT next, Trump versus Obama, the former president calling out the current one for lying and misleading Americans for political gain and tonight Trump is hitting back.
Plus, stunning new accusations from Michael Cohen, the president's former fixer claiming Trump repeatedly made racist remarks and a surprising admission from the president. Why he is suggesting Republicans could be in for a rough election night. Let's go OUTFRONT.
Good evening, everyone, I'm Kate Baldwin in for Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, president versus president, Trump and Obama trading blows today on the campaign trail just four days before the mid-term election. Trump just a short time ago, slamming Obama. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I had to listen. I was in the plane, I had nothing else to do. 28 times he said you can keep your doctor if you like your doctor. You can keep your plan if you like your plan. They were all lies. Lie after lie, broken promise after broken promise. That's what he did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Lie after lie, he says. What's that say again about those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones? This from the same man who claimed today he never suggested that if migrants throw rocks at troops at the U.S. border that they could be shot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I didn't say shoot. I didn't say shoot. If our soldiers or border patrol or ICE are going to be hit in the face with rocks, we're going to arrest those people. That doesn't mean shoot them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Here is President Trump, what he said yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back. We're going to consider it. I told them consider it a rifle. When they throw rocks like they did at the Mexico military and police, I say, consider it a rifle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: President Obama today unleashing on President Trump as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: What we have not seen the way we're seeing right now is politicians just blatantly, repeatedly, boldly shamelessly lying. Just making stuff up. That's what they're doing right now. All the time. Don't be bamboozled. Don't be hood winked.
When words stop meaning anything, when truth doesn't matter, when people can just lie with abandon, democracy can't work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Jim Acosta is out front for us now in Indianapolis, Indiana where our President Trump is about to be speaking at a rally there. Jim, is Trump going to make this all about Obama again tonight?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I do think he will go back after President Obama as we heard earlier today when he did that in West Virginia, talked to a source close to the White House short while ago, he said, yes, you should expect the president to continue to go after Barack Obama. Keep in mind, this is a president who likes to say when he gets hit, he gets hit back 10 times harder.
Now, Kate, one thing we should also expect later on this evening and this is going to get started pretty shortly here the president not letting up whatsoever when it comes to delivering falsehoods to the American people on a while range of issues from immigration to the media. You played that sound byte just a short while ago when he claimed earlier today he didn't say that soldiers could be shooting migrants at the border with Mexico. Obviously, that's in contrast with what he said yesterday.
But, Kate, there's also -- what might be the whopper of the day when the president said earlier today that the media are causing violence. That's obviously absurd.
Kate, as you know, all day long, we've been hearing reports about how the president has been coming under withering criticism from fact checkers, a Washington Post fact check team found that he told or made false, misleading claims over a thousand times just in the month of October.
I asked a source close to the White House about this earlier this evening. He said the American people don't care about fact checkers, thus, we don't either. It's a pretty starking acknowledgement that yes they are playing fast and losing the facts and in some cases, Kate, faster than the fact checkers can keep up. Kate?
BOLDUAN: Thirty times a day in the past month.
ACOSTA: Absolutely.
BOLDUAN: But it doesn't matter as long as you win. I guess that's the moral of the story at this moment. Let's talk about it though. I appreciate it. Thank you so much Jim. Jim is going to bring us in the headline. We're going to be watching the rally see what the president says we'll bring it to you.
OUTFRONT with me now, though, independent senator from Vermont, former presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders. He's also on the ballot. He's up for re-election next Tuesday. Senator, thanks for coming in.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: My pleasure.
BOLDUAN: Is this what this election all comes down to in the final days, Trump versus Obama, one slamming the other. Are they helping anyone with this?
[19:05:00] SANDERS: No. No. What this campaign comes down about is whether or not we want to end one party rule in Washington led as you've just indicated by a pathological liar. Whether we want to allow a party to retain control who gave a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top 1% and tried to throw 32 million people off of the healthcare that they happened. Whether we want to continue having a president who refuses to even acknowledge the reality of climate change let alone do anything about it.
So what this election is about is the American people standing up and electing people to office who will put a check on a president now who is moving us in many ways in a very, very bad direction.
BOLDUAN: The president's focus, though, has been very clear. His message is one of be afraid. His focus with that is on immigration. The way he has been talking about the caravan in the final days of this campaign, it does sound a lot like what he also did in 2016. And he won. He convinced voters of. How do you convince voters now that he's wrong this time in 2018?
SANDERS: Kate, I can only tell you that by Sunday night, I will have been to 13 states throughout this country, holding close to 35 different rallies and meetings filling with just that issue.
Yes, we should be afraid in this country. We should be afraid that we have 30 million people living without any health insurance. We pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs and that if Republicans retain control of the House and the Senate after giving tax breaks to billionaires, they're going to come back and cut social security, Medicaid, Medicare and education. That's a lot to be afraid of.
But I think what we need to do right now is to remember that four years ago, Kate, we had the lowest voter turnout since World War II. And right now, it is my view that if we can have a high voter turnout, you are going to see Democrats regain control over the House, have a shot to win the Senate and win a number of governor's chairs all over this country and I'm especially talking to young people.
And young people have got to understand that as the most progressive generation in the history of this country, they're going to have to come up, come out, stand up and fight for what they believe in. And that is not going to happen unless they vote in significantly higher numbers than in past mid-term elections.
BOLDUAN: Well, if you take a look at, there was CNN polling in some key states. In Arizona and Florida. Immigration is now on the rise in some, in one state the most important issue when it comes to Republican voters. Yes, you are talking about progressive young voters. But you also need to appeal to those who might be Republican voter who might be disenchanted with what they hear from the president.
But when you see those poll numbers, the fact that immigration is now on the rise is an important issue. Are you concerned, even though you obviously disagree with him, that the president's message on immigration is sticking.
SANDERS: Well, it may or may not. I don't know. We'll find out soon enough. But I would say to those older people, for example, who support the president, remember that two years ago when he ran for office, Trump is a candidate told you that he would not cut social security Medicare and Medicaid. Take a look at his last budget a trillion dollar cut in Medicaid, 500 billion in Medicare, 72 billion in the social security trust fund.
So I think the time is for us to be afraid of the real problems that we face in this country, which is the possible loss of protections for pre-existing condition, young people not being able to afford to go to college, not get sucked into Trump's views.
BOLDUAN: Let me ask you about health care. Because Republicans this cycle are running ads on protecting pre-existing conditions. Let me play for you what --
SANDERS: But they're lying. I do know that, Kate.
BOLDUAN: But let me ask -- they let -- we know how they voted in the past. What they are pledging now, let me first play for you what former President Obama had to say about that today while campaigning in Florida. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: On that vote, not a single Republican joined. Not one. Zero. Nada. Zilch. None, goose egg. None. None of them supported us. Now suddenly it's election season and what happens? You got Republicans out there saying, oh, well we will protect pre-existing conditions.
(END VIDEO CLIP) [19:10:06] BOLDUAN: And they are running on pledging to protect pre- existing conditions. We've seen the ad, by doing so, no matter how they voted in the past, if they're pledging to do it now, are they taking some of the fire out of the Democratic message?
SANDERS: Look, one of the challenges that we face, which is unprecedented, Kate, is we are running against a president who you just said not me before I got on, who is a pathological liar. He lies every day and he sets the tone for the Republican parties that they lie. So here he is a party right now working to go to the Supreme Court.
BOLDUAN: You're saying don't believe that.
SANDERS: Of course, I'm saying don't believe that. They're right now going to the Supreme Court to have the Affordable Care Act ruled unconstitutional, which means that all of the protections that now exist for people with pre-existing conditions will be gone. That's how as Obama mentioned they have voted in the past.
Yes, I understand that there's an election in four days.
BOLDUAN: Right.
SANDERS: They will say anything that they can in order to win votes. But I think people have got to look at their history and their record.
BOLDUAN: Senator, we are out of time. But I do want to ask you. There is a really strong jobs report that came out today. Does the president deserve credit for the strong economy?
SANDERS: All over the world what we have seen a significant rebound from the 2008 crash. You are seeing that in Germany, you're seeing that in Japan, you're seeing that in United States. That's the good news. The fact that unemployment is low in America is great.
But on the other hand, on the other hand, you got millions of people today who are working for $8 or $9 or $10 bucks an hour, and they can't afford to put food on the table. And you got the Trump Administration saying, no, we're not going to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, maybe we'll even abolish the concept of the minimum wage. You got a Trump Administration trying to throw 32 million people off of the health care that they have. I think that's the reality of today.
BOLDUAN: Kudlow, though, saying he does applaud that Amazon is raising their minimum wage. He just thinks in a classic kind of difference of theory, he thinks that the government should be out of the business of setting wages. But the debate will continue. That's what he says.
SANDERS: Yes, that's right.
BOLDUAN: Senator, thank you for coming in.
SANDERS: Yes, I know that. BOLDUAN: Thanks for coming in senator. We'll see what happens Tuesday.
OUTFRONT for us next. New charges of repeated racism leveled against the president. The man who said he take a bullet for Trump, he's talking. Should Michael Cohen be believed? Plus, that CNN is learning tonight about Robert Mueller, Roger Stone and possible witness tampering and the Trump economy is on a tear after a strong jobs report. But the president says, tonight he doesn't want to talk about it. Why?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:16:33] BOLDUAN: Tonight, more allegations of racism leveled against President Trump. His former personal attorney and long-time fixer Michael Cohen telling "Vanity Fair" about multiple racist remarks. He says he heard Trump make.
According to Cohen, during the 2016 campaign, he once told Trump that his crowd "looked vanilla on television" and Trump's response was this, "That's because black people are too stupid to vote for me." Cohen also said that years earlier after Nelson Mandela died, Trump said to him this, "Name one country run by a black person that's not a shit hole, name one city." Inflammatory, absolutely. Sound familiar? Well, yes,
OUTFRONT now, April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks and author of " Under Fire: Reporting from the Frontlines of the Trump White House ". Steve Cortez is here. Member of President Trump's 2020 reelected Advisory Council, he like everyone else in the campaign has signed and NDA with the campaign and Joan Walsh, national correspondent for The Nation. Thank you all so much for being here.
April, do you believe Michael Cohen here?
APRIL RYAN, AMERICAN URBAN RADIO NETWORKS' WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: What I will say is that we have to listen to what he says and compare it to what we've already heard, when it comes to s-holes and s-hole nations, you know, that cropped up just before the King Holiday this year in January. And that's when I asked the president, Mr. President, are you a racist? And there was a firestorm for me asking that question from those who support the president.
But it kind of falls along the lines that we've already heard. And, you know, when it comes to the issues of blacks being stupid? Well, 8% of black America voted for them. And this White House and Republicans are hopeful for 25 percentage point I guess win with the black community when it comes to 2020. If these things are true and they're trickling out like they are, I don't think that's going to happen. And this could be indicative of what we have been hearing. And it could very well be true.
BOLDUAN: If it is true. I mean, Joan, asked by "Vanity Fair" in this conversation, why Cohen was coming forward now with this? He said that he wanted to make sure that voters basically heard this before the mid-terms. I mean, he's looking to influence voters.
JOAN WALSH, THE NATION'S NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Right, and why he came forward.
BOLDUAN: I mean is he credible on this?
WALSH: Well, no, in a way. He personally is not credible because we can pull up tape of him saying Donald Trump is not a racist. So that's a real problem for him. However, I will just continue what April was saying. This is very consistent with what things we have heard with our own ears Donald Trump say about back people. I mean the comment about name one country s-holes, name one city, he had a long rant during his campaign where he would say to black America, what the hell do you got to lose? He would describe the cities as, again, s-holes of crime and arson and desperation and, you know, it was really distopic view of black America that shows he has no familiarity with black America.
We also saw him very early on in the campaign, he tweeted out a graphic about black crime statistics, all false, all lies, from a Neo- Nazi site. I think he had to take that down. So he's orient -- this sound -- what Michael Cohen said, although I don't trust Michael Cohen sound very much like what we heard the president say.
BOLDUAN: Steve, you hear this. And do you think what?
[19:20:05] STEVE CORTES, MEMBER OF PRESIDENT TRUMP'S 2020 RE-ELECT ADVISORY COUNCIL: Right. Also, Kate, I just want to point out, because you mentioned me signing a non-disclosure. I never signed one for 2016 just to be clear. And for 20202, it's not a disclosure of confidential information I criticize the president, plenty. I am free to speak my mind and I do so on your airways. By anyway --
BOLDUAN: That's great to here.
CORTES: -- in this I just to clear that up.
BOLDUAN: No, that's just disclosure that we offer. And I love your disclosures as well. Now, if you would like to continue.
CORTES: OK. Now, regarding this issue, Michael Cohen is a confessed, not my opinion, he's a confessed felon, a confessed liar. So, I don't believe him. He's not credible. What makes him more unbelievable in this particular case is that during our 2016 campaign he was actually the leader of the Trump National Diversity Council. So he wasn't just tangential to it, he was front and center saying to minority community, the blacks and Hispanics, other communities, that at times are marginalized in our society.
This president or this candidate, excuse me, should be your president. So, he was either an absolutely bald faced liar then and really reprehensibly advocating for a known bigot, known to him as a bigot, or he's completely lying now. You know, there's no other reasonable explanation.
I assume think he is lying now. And also I think this trope of calling Trump a racist again and again everyday by the left and main stream media. It's lazy. It's not accurate and it's where the opposition goes when they don't want to talk policy. Because if he a racist, he's the worst racist in history. Because the lives of minorities in America are getting better and better by every measure, particularly economically so.
WALSH: You always say that.
CORTES: Well, it's because true.
WALSH: African-Americans deserve to have good jobs, they deserve to have pay that is equal to white Americans with which they do not and they also deserve to have a president who speaks about them respectfully. And the reason, you know, one thing I agree with you, he is either lying then or lying now. But we have all this evidence that this is the way Donald Trump speaks. His go-to things for African-Americans are dumb.
CORTES: How do you know he say they're dumb?
BOLDUAN: Well he calls Maxine Waters low I.Q. I mean that's just one example and that's the --
(CROSSTALK)
CORTES: Maxine Waters is dumb because she's black. She's just dumb.
WALSH: Oh really? Oh really Steve Cortes?
(CROSSALK)
CORTES: You think that's really. But it has nothing to do with the color of her skin.
(CROSSTALK)
CORTES: And it's not because I'm a minority either, if I am dumb. If I am dumb it's not because I'm Hispanic. And she's not dumb because she is black.
BOLDUAN: Go ahead, April.
RYAN: Steve, it's not -- number one, let's have some decorum. It's not right to call a woman that, OK? Let's start there. But let's go to a tweet that the president had that we all saw. He called Andrew Gillum a thief. Now, Andrew Gillum is, and I asked Sarah the other day in the Briefing Room, what was the definition of a thief? She says, oh, because there is an FBI investigation on him. There's not an FBI investigation on him. It's his colleague.
And then on top of that, if the president wants to say that he's a thief, you know, he has the worst city, he's downing him why. And he also talked about the fact that oh, DeSantis comes from Harvard. That's great. But he put down where basically without saying it indirectly where Gillum comes from SAMU (ph), an HBCU that the president vowed at the beginning of 2017, remember that picture was all the president and Kellyanne with her feet in the sofa, he vow to help the HBCU. And in this tweet, he just basically said later for you. And I'm going for the Harvard man versus who you are. Come one, Steve, you can't have it both ways.
CORTES: April, I might shock you here.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every president calls, I mean people call people unqualified all the time.
CORTES: I agree.
BOLDUAN: Go ahead, Steve.
CORTES: I agree he should not have used the word thief. Because I think he should be aware there is a connotation you call a public black man, a public black man a thief.
RYAN: Yes. Thank you.
CORTES: You don't want to imply criminality.
RYAN: Thank you.
CORTES: I think that was inappropriate. I do. I think what he meant and what I would criticize him on, I would not call him a thief, I would say he support socialism which is public policy theft which appropriates wealth and distorts wealth of the country. I think that's what he was going. Say that. Say that. Let's see.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's a capitalist. He doesn't support socialism.
WALSH: Bernie Sanders was just on, he support socialism.
BOLDUAN: I will end it this way, though, no matter what is being said, no matter what is credible or not coming from Michael Cohen in what we discussed, I do wonder after 2016 where we are sitting right now, I think there is a real question if it impacts voters at this point. And I think four days out, no matter what Michael Cohen was trying to do, I would venture to guess no that's just the way it is.
WALSH: We'll see.
BOLDUAN: And we will see, we'll leave it there. Thanks guys. Appreciate it. OUTFRONT next, Robert Mueller investigating threatening messages from a Trump ally to a key witness.
And a Texas Republican in election trouble. Could clashing with Donald Trump cost him his job?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:28:23] BOLDUAN: Tonight CNN has learned the special counsel is investigating messages that show controversial long-time Trump confident Robert Stone threatening an associate. CNN obtained the messages between Stone and Randy Credico. He's a radio host Stone claimed was a back channel to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. It's a claim Credico denies. Sara Murray is OUTFRONT with me right now.
Sarah, you got these messages. What's in them that Mueller is so interested in?
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, the special counsel has these now and the big question about these messages is whether the special counsel will look at them and decide this looks like some kind effort to obstruct justice to tamper with a witness, to intimidate a witness.
And, you know, Roger Stone and Randy Credico has been friends for years, but this Mueller investigation has really delivered a blow to their friendship after Roger Stone and Randy Credico back channel. So here's one of the txt messages Credico says got a subpoena from Mueller. And Stone says waste of your time, tell him to go F himself. Credico says, who? And Stone says Mueller. Now, Stone didn't really believe that Credico would actually been subpoenaed.
But if you look at some of their other exchanges, they can be just as caustic. In one e-mail, Roger Stone has essentially threatening to do something to Randy Credico's dog, Bianca, who's actually accompanied Randy Credico when he testified before the grand jury.
And here's what those messages say. Stone said, you back stab your friends, you run your mouth, my lawyers are dying to rip you to shreds. I'm going to take that dog away from you. Credico says, you don't have a constitutional right to threaten me and especially not threaten my dog. You crossed a red line, to which Stone implies, rot in hell.
[19:30:01] Now, Roger Stone sent me a pretty lengthy statement responding to all of these messages. He basically said, look, we're a bunch of grumpy old men. You have to look at this message in their totality, to see -- he said, our text and e-mail messages have to be seen in their totality. You see there, there's no serious effort to intimidate or pressure Randy to do anything other than fess up to the truth.
I also got a message from one of Roger Stone's attorney, which says essentially the same thing. He says, you know, we looked at the totality of these images. You couldn't see obstruction here. You would completely misunderstand the nature of their relationship.
And, you know, Kate, we'll see if special counsel Mueller agrees with them.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Agreed, these are characters, at the very beginning of it. Will they get in trouble with Robert Mueller because of it? Well, we will see.
Thank you, Sara. Great to see you.
MURRAY: Thanks. OUTFRONT with me, to give me some perspective, Michael Zeldin, Robert Mueller's former special assistant at the Justice Department, and Laura Coates, a former federal prosecutor.
It's great to see you, guys.
So, Michael, does this what Sara is laying out? Does this look like -- I don't know -- witness tampering to you?
MICHAEL ZELDIN, ROBERT MUELLER'S FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: Maybe. And I think the context does matter.
MURRAY: Yes.
ZELDIN: I think Sara is correct to say that if this is just conversations between two friends who are no longer friends because one may be cooperating with the special counsel in a way that the other one doesn't like, that in and of itself might not give rise to witness tampering or obstruction of justice.
If, however, Roger Stone is trying to intimidate anyone into not cooperating or to change their testimony, similar to what we saw in the Manafort indictment. Remember, Mueller charged Manafort for reaching out to two perspective witnesses saying to them, remember, this is how I want you to testify. That for Mueller crossed between benign communications and witness tampering.
So, we have to look at it in that broad context, and Mueller will decide whether or not these are, in fact, grumpy old men or one witness trying to intimidate another, obstruct justice and save that poor dog for a better fate.
BOLDUAN: No, and that -- and Randy Credico, that dog, his pet, as many people's pets are, is very important to him. So, that is like a trigger for him to say the least.
Laura, Roger Stone says, as Sara is laying, that he was just trying to encourage Credico to tell the truth. Is that what you see? I mean, is that what this could be?
LAURA COATES, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Funny thing is you didn't actually see those words, did you, Kate?
BOLDUAN: Yes, I know.
COATES: Please tell the truth --
(CROSSTALK)
COATES: Right, easy in retrospect to say, well, now, the walls are closing in, what I meant is something totally benign, especially given that you have more than, in fact, multiple associates of Roger Stone were being brought Mueller and his team and as well as perhaps the grand jury to talk about these issues, who is not going there? Roger Stone. Who is Mueller not interested in hearing his own interpretation, or his support for his statements? Roger Stone. Which means that they are relying on contextual clues and the
testimony of other people to try to understand Roger Stone's intent. And given all the cumulative evidence, all the statements he's made over time and statements that does not have anything to do with telling the truth, one could conclude that Mueller continues to be interested in Roger Stone largely because his own words that are now being used against him.
BOLDUAN: Yes. And what Laura is talking about Michael is, if you have reported last night with Steve Bannon, then the chief adviser of the Trump campaign, e-mailed with Steve about WikiLeaks three days before the group released stolen e-mails from the Clinton campaign chairman.
And then have you this. I mean, does this give you, I don't know, any -- speaking of context, some context where the special counsel's investigation is when we talk about Stone so much?
ZELDIN: Yes. So, Kate, it clearly seems as if Mueller is looking at Stone and others in respect to their communications with WikiLeaks. But not only WikiLeaks, but the people who are identified in the Russian hacking indictment, Guccifer 2.0, and DC Leaks, because the communications with those organizations may be way more problematic legally than the communications with WikiLeaks.
The thing we have to remember about WikiLeaks is how do we define them? Our intelligence agencies has called them a hostile non-state intelligence service. Others called them a First Amendment protected news organization. And so, it's very complicated if you're going to charge someone with dealing with an organization that has a First Amendment right. And so, it could be that these tampering, obstructionist charges may prove to be far more problematic legally for Stone than the coordination.
BOLDUAN: Do you think Roger Stone should be worried, Laura?
COATES: Yes. And precisely because in all my time as a prosecutor, everyone I know who has been a prosecutor, when you brought witnesses before the grand jury, you didn't bring the defendant in the grand jury.
BOLDUAN: Right.
COATES: You didn't interview that person. You never sought to hear from them because you waited for them to have the opportunity to have due process in a criminal trial court. The fact that he knows, all the things he has been talking about and even his own bravado at times and puffery that he has said, no, no, I exaggerate and make hyperbolic statements about those things -- all of those things are questioned.
[19:35:05] But never actually hearing from that person leads me to conclude that he, in fact, is either a target or a defendant. And in his own words tell you, he's a part of that particular Russian hacking indictment.
BOLDUAN: All right. Guys, thank you so much. And for our viewers, a programming note, Roger Stone will be joining Chris Cuomo on Cuomo tonight at 9:00 p.m. So probably you definitely don't want to miss that one.
OUTFRONT for us next, the good news for Trump's economy keeps coming. So then why does the president not want to talk about it?
Plus, a surprising admission before the election, is he giving up on Republicans keeping the House?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOLDUAN: Tonight, President Trump has something to celebrate. The latest jobs numbers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We had tremendous job numbers today. We just released 250,000 new jobs created in the month of October. That was shocking for a lot of people. That was a tremendous number by any standard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: In addition to the better-than-expected jobs numbers, wages were up 3.1 percent. That's the biggest gain since 2009.
So, OUTFRONT now Stephen Moore, an informal White House adviser and also author of "Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy", and Robert Reich, former labor secretary under President Clinton, and also author of "The Common Good".
[19:40:04] Gentlemen, it's great to see you guys.
Robert, a strong report today. Do you give the president credit?
ROBERT REICH, FORMER LABOR SECRETARY UNDER PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, I give the credit to the president for not getting in the way of the momentum created by President Obama. I mean, look, Kate, this is the 97th consecutive month of growth in terms of the economy and also of unemployment growth of unemployment growth -- of employment growth.
This is a very, very strong economy and not withstanding the trade wars and the hate speech or the hateful speech, I should say and all of the uncertainty the attack on Democratic institutions, all of the attacks on the press, not withstanding all of that, the market has kept on humming for 97 consecutive months. And I give some credit also to the Fed for not screwing it up.
BOLDUAN: So, Steve -- that's so optimistic, Robert.
Steve, you need to thank Obama for this.
STEPHEN MOORE, INFORMAL WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: Hardly, I don't know if are you a baseball fan this economy is like the Boston red sox, we're having a hell of a year with the economy. It's picked up considerably.
The problem with this argument -- and, by the way, Barack Obama made this argument today in Miami that this is really his economy. But people like my friend Robert Reich and Barack Obama are the people that said Donald Trump was going to cause the second Great Depression if he was elected and destroy the economy.
You can't have it both ways, Bob. You know if the economy were terrible, you would be blaming it on Trump. And now that the economy is good, you say it's the Obama effect. So, it's like heads you win, tails Trump loses.
This has -- this has been a big pickup, Kate. The economy was only growing at 1.5 percent growth rate in Barack Obama's last year in office. Now, it's growing close to 4 percent. That's a big deal. That's going 50 miles an hour down the highway and 40 miles down the highway and Robert Reich, I wonder if you can point to anything, anything that wasn't good in this report today? We had higher wages, more labor participation force, more manufacturing jobs and 250,000 jobs.
BOLDUAN: Robert.
REICH: Well, Kate, if I may respond to my good friend Steve. I think one of the major reasons that President Trump is not talking about the economy is he knows and his pollsters were advising him, most people's lives were not that much better. Trump promised a tax cut that would raise their wages $4,000. They didn't get it. Most people are still worried about their health care, and the cost of housing.
Everything else that are, we know right now 80 percent of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck. This is not great sunny times. The president also knows that fear and hate are much more powerful motivators than economic statistics. I mean, fear and hate go back to Willie Horton. Go back into American politics. Go back to Lee Atwater and Roger Ailes, the godfathers of --
MOORE: All you're doing is changing the subject. You don't want to talk about. The subject here is the economy.
(CROSSTALK)
REICH: Trump has changed.
BOLDUAN: I do want to ask you both about that. Donald Trump does not always talk about the economy. It may be a mention. His closing argument has definitely not been about the economy. It has very clearly been about be afraid and in talking about immigration and division.
That is just what he has laid out. He thinks that's winning.
That is what won in in 2016 and he thinks it will win him again. And on the question on, why not talking about the economy? Well, you don't have to wonder. He answered to that this afternoon.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They all say speak about the economy. Speak about the economy. Well, we have the greatest economy in the history of our country. But sometimes it's not as exciting to talk about the economy, right? Because we have a lot of other things to talk about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(CROSSTALK)
REICH: Ah, there it is, Kate. Not as exciting to talk about the economy. That's it in a nut shell.
MOORE: Look, first of all, Bob, on this issue about the condition of American workers, look, obviously from the first day -- the first day I started working with Donald Trump, the first time I met him, he said, I want to cause power -- I want policies that will help elevate the wages and salaries and conditions of middle class and working class workers.
Bob, that's why that number on wages is an exciting one, because you are now finally seeing wages rise after ten years when they didn't rise, second of all, how about the consumer confidence numbers, have you the highest in 18 years, Americans are feeling good about things. They're not feeling about their pocketbooks. I don't have an explanation for why the Republicans don't want to talk about it.
REICH: The reason he's not talking about it is that most people don't feel it. Most people don't feel.
BOLDUAN: It's not exciting, says Donald Trump.
MOORE: It is exciting. I'm excitable. I love those numbers.
REICH: Well, you may vote for him. Go ahead, go vote for him, Steve.
(CROSSTALK)
REICH: You may be excited. I'm not. I'm not going to vote for him.
[19:45:00] MOORE: You know what, I will make a prediction. I have been pessimistic as a Republican, I always thought the Democrats would win a big election on Tuesday, but because of these new numbers on consumer confidence and more jobs, you know, I think things are looking up, Bob, for the Republican party. I hate to tell you.
REICH: I don't at all. We'll find out soon.
BOLDUAN: Do you think this job number is going to save Republicans from losing the House? You think this report?
MOORE: No, I think they probably will still lose. But, look, it's back in play. People don't vote people out when they feel like things are going well in the country. They do, Bob. BOLDUAN: I'm just saying. If you got to stick your neck out, stick
out, Stephen Moore.
Great to see you, guys. I appreciate it. Thank you, Bob, I really appreciate it.
OUFRONT next, President Obama on the campaign trail. But can he get supporters to the polls? I'll talk to one woman running for Congress who is banking on it.
And long lines this Sabbath evening, as people are paying their respects once again for those who were killed at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, paying their respects on Shabbat.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOLDUAN: Tonight, Republicans are worried that a congressman in Texas who disagrees with many of President Trump's immigration policies, that that Republican could be in trouble.
Ed Lavandera has our race of the day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you live in the 23rd congressional district of Texas, you probably prefer life served up scenic and slow. It is a massive district that sits own roughly 800 miles of the Texas/Mexico border and stretches from San Antonio to the edge of El Paso. It is about the size of Georgia with less than a million people.
For weeks, an endless cycle of campaign ads have jammed the air waves from the incumbent Republican congressman, Will Hurd, and Democratic challenger Gina Ortiz Jones.
A recent "New York Times" poll shows Hurd with a comfortable lead, but in the last few weeks of the campaign, the national Republican congressional committee suddenly dropped $600,000 into the race and President Trump isn't doing Hurd any favors in this majority Hispanic district by describing the migrant caravan as invaders and threatening to do away with birth right citizenship.
ALFONSO "PONCHO" NEVAREZ (D), TEXAS STATE HOUSE: I'd find a rock to hide under and just there.
LAVANDERA (on camera): Do you think Will should hide under a rock?
NEVAREZ: If I were him, I'd do that.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Poncho Nevarez is a Democratic state representative from Eagle Pass. We talked about the race from his porch, overlooking the Rio Grande into Mexico. He considers Will Hurd a friend and says the congressman is hoping to run out the clock on this election. (on camera): When Congressman Hurd hears the things that President Trump is saying what do you think is going through his mind?
NEVAREZ: I'm sure he is cringing. If you know Will, Will is -- he is a decent, he's a good dude.
[19:50:01] There's no doubt about that. I mean I can't speak for the guy, but I'm sure that he don't like it.
LAVANDERA: We found Congressman Hurd greeting voters outside this polling location in the town of Uvalde.
(on camera): What do you say to the voter who says I want to vote for you but you are in the president's party and the way he talks about these things just rubs me the wrong way?
REP. WILL HURD (R), TEXAS: Look, I think people know that I'm going to agree when I agree and disagree when I disagree. I'm the only person in this race, my race that has proven ability to work across the aisle and also stand up to both parties.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): In Washington, Hurd has carved out an image as a moderate who occasionally breaks from President Trump and the Republican Party. He doesn't support the border wall and the former CIA officer has said Trump is being manipulated by Russia.
GINA ORTIZ-JONES (D), CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I am Gina.
LAVANDERA: Democrat Gina OrtizJones is an Iraq war veteran and former Air Force intelligence officer. She likes to say Hurd's image as someone who stands up to Trump is overblown and that he's best consumed as a silent film.
ORTIZ-JONES: You can't be outraged on CNN and complicit in Congress. That is not how this works. So, we unfortunately, Will Hurd says one thing in the district, votes a completely different way in Washington.
LAVANDERA: Lupe Ruiz lives in the border town of Eagle Pass. She says she hasn't voted since 2008 but plans to vote for Ortiz-Jones because of President Trump's cruel rhetoric.
Is the way president Trump is talking about immigration making you want to go out and vote again?
LUPE RUIZ, TEXAS VOTER: It's -- yes, in a way, yes, it is, because there is like a lot of racist there for me. That's what I see. The way he talks.
LAVANDERA: Roseanne Gonzalez is a life long Republican and Trump supporter. She worries his tone is alienating much needed voters in this district.
ROSEANNE GONZALES, TEXAS VOTER: A harder stance is a good thing. I don't think that the way that president Trump is saying it is relating well. But I think that his message that he wants to get across is good. Just not the way that he is sending it. (END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: And, Kate, it might be an old political cliche. Every vote counts. And that is truly truer in no other district in Texas. The congressional district is truly one of the only swing districts in this state. The last two elections were decided by 2,500 and 3,000 votes. Will Hurd won both of those elections.
So, this really comes down to a handful of votes across this district. And that's why every little thing here especially this the last few days this campaign matters so much -- Kate.
BOLDUAN: People say that for a lot of race. For Will Hurd, it really does seem to be true.
Great to see you, Ed. Thanks so much.
President Obama has endorsed Ortiz-Jones who was in that fees. And also right now, the former president is on the trail again, in Georgia, stumping for Democrats, part of his final push before the midterms.
Earlier today in Florida, he had this to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: I can't tell you how encouraged I have been to see sow many people getting involved for the first time. Record numbers of women who are running for office. You know we need more women.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: OUTFRONT now, one woman running for the first time, who President Obama has endorsed, who he rallied for last week, Elissa Slotkin. She's running for Congress in Michigan's eighth district.
Thanks so much for coming in.
ELISSA SLOTKIN (D), MICHIGAN CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Thanks for having me.
BOLDUAN: Four days away. The latest polling has you three points behind your opponent, Congressman Mike Bishop. It's within the margin error. How are you feeling today? What are you hearing out there?
SLOTKIN: Yes. I mean, we feel great. We've got 1,500 volunteers pounding the pavement. Half of our volunteers have never done anything political in their entire life. So, they are really energized. And we're just hitting the pavement. I still believe that neighbor talking to neighbor, friend talking to friend is the way that you win tight elections. That's what we are doing.
BOLDUAN: President Obama, he campaigned for you last week. His track record kind of over time has been he is great at turning out the vote when he is on the ballot. He is not great at turning out people for other Democrats. Do you think you need Obama to win?
SLOTKIN: I don't think it's about any one individual, to be honest. I think that people want to hear from people who are talking about actual issues. At least here in Michigan, people are sick of just the polarization.
We are a very purple state. You know, I grew up. My das was a Republican, my mom was a Democrat. We never used to fight about politics here.
So, it's tone and tenor that's imported from Washington that people can't stand. And they want to just get to work. That's what Michiganders do.
So, it's not about any one person that's going to turn this election for anyone. It's about who is talking positively about changing the tone and tenor in Washington and about issues like health care and prescriptions drugs.
BOLDUAN: Yes, the issues matter absolutely. And definitely have been drowned out by the rhetoric that we've been hearing. But folks think anger turns people out to the polls is at least one theory. President Trump acknowledged for the first time today at a rally that Republicans could lose the House.
[19:55:04] Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: But if Chuck Schumer, Cryin' Chuck, and Nancy Pelosi, and the legendary Maxine Waters take power, they will try to erase our gains and eradicate our progress. That's what's going to happen. They are going the work hard, and we will be fighting.
Oh, it will be -- it will be ridiculous, frankly. It will be bad for our country. The Democrats -- and it could happen. Could happen. We are doing very well, and we are doing really well in the Senate. But could happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Add to that this week, Nancy Pelosi, top Democrat in the House, she stopped kind of couching her predictions. She went all in and says Democrats are going to win the majority.
When it's all about turning out voters, when you talk about people to people, neighbor to neighbor, motivating people to take time to show up and vote, do those kinds of predictions help you?
SLOTKIN: No. They don't. I'm sorry, on neither side. I mean, I just -- I just feel like people have just got the sense that Washington is broken. Kind of -- people I talk to here, there is a lot of people who proudly tell me they don't vote. I knock on doors and there will be someone who is proud about that.
And we'll say, what do you mean, come on. They say, you know, both parties are broken. The system is corrupt. I'll out. These are often young people, people bowing out of their first and second election. And someone who's a national security professional by training that is a threat the our democracy.
I don't think it helps to have senior politicians saying we are going to win or we are going to lose. I think what matters, how are you helping people's pocketbooks or their kids? If you can't speak to that as a candidate, you don't deserve their vote, period.
BOLDUAN: Elissa Slotkin, thank you so much. We will be watching it very closely to see what happens on Tuesday. Thank you.
SLOTKIN: Thanks so much.
BOLDUAN: And if you want to know, we did invite Elissa's opponent, Congressman Mike Bishop, on the show and he has not accepted our invitation. It still stands.
Coming up next, the first Sabbath services since the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue. They are underway across the United States. We will honor them next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOLDUAN: Tonight marks the first Sabbath, Shabbat, since the murders of 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Shabbat services for all three congregations that are housed there are being held this evening, and also tomorrow at a nearby synagogue, of course. As that community mourns and continues to remember those lives lost.
"The Pittsburgh Gazette's" front page today, truly moving, honoring the dead by putting the lead headline in Hebrew, which is the first words, the opening words of the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning, magnified and sanctified is God's holy name.
The last of the victims' funerals was held today, 97-year-old Rose Mallinger, a mother, grandmother, great grandmother. She was laid the rest. She was the oldest of the victims killed. Her family says the synagogue was, quote, center of her very active life. Our sincerest condolences to her family and all of those grieving this week.
"AC360" starts now.
