Interview with Congressman Tom Cole of Oklahoma
BURNETT: Tonight, President Obama slamming Donald Trump for saying the election is rigged, calling Trump's charges unprecedented and irresponsible.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If whenever things are going badly for you and you lose, you start blaming somebody else? Then you don't have what it takes to be in this job. There is no evidence that that has happened in the past, or that there are instances in which that will happen this time. And so, I'd advise Mr. Trump stop whining and try and make his case for votes.</s>BURNETT: Trump is stepping up his warning tonight, though, alleging there is voter fraud in multiple cities. Jason Carroll is OUTFRONT.</s>JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump is escalating his talk that the election is being rigged against him.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is an election about truth. And you are not going to get it from the dishonest media.</s>CARROLL: The GOP nominee is blaming the media for playing a role in the rigging process by reporting on sexual misconduct allegations against the GOP nominee, which he continues to assert are all false.</s>TRUMP: They have rigged it from the beginning by telling totally false stories, most recently about phony allegations where I have been under constant attack.</s>CARROLL: All as Trump digs in his heels, charging without evidence that there is a conspiracy to undermine the electoral process by allowing dead people and undocumented immigrants to cast ballots.</s>TRUMP: People that have died ten years ago are still voting. Illegal immigrants are voting. I mean, where are the street smarts of some of these politicians? They don't have any is right. So many cities are corrupt and voter fraud is very, very common.</s>CARROLL: Some of Trump's fellow Republicans are strongly revoking his unfounded claims, including former primary opponent Marco Rubio.</s>SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: There's no evidence behind any of this. And so, this should not continue to be said.</s>CARROLL: As the campaign enters its final weeks, Trump looking to go back on offense against Hillary Clinton by seizing on her latest e- mail controversy after newly released documents by the FBI raise questions as to whether a State Department official sought to have the bureau declassify the contents of an e-mail from Clinton's private server.</s>TRUMP: This is worse than Watergate.</s>CARROLL: While he takes aim at Clinton, Trump is still feuding with House Speaker Paul Ryan, suggesting the top Republican in Congress is not defending Trump because he has his eyes on the White House in 2020.</s>TRUMP: Maybe he wants to run in four years. Or maybe he doesn't know how to win.</s>CARROLL: So, Erin, despite a number of GOP leaders who want Trump to sort of move off this unfounded claim that the electoral system is somehow rigged, Trump continues to push it when he's out here on the campaign. And when he was here, he named three cities that people should look out for. He said Chicago, Philadelphia and St. Louis, although provided no evidence suggesting why people should look out for those cities. He continued also, Erin, to lash out at the media saying the media has been, quote, "lying, cheating and stealing". And he went on to stay that at this point, he feels as though the media is worse than Hillary Clinton -- Erin.</s>BURNETT: All right. Jason Carroll, thank you. And OUTFRONT now, Republican Congressman Tom Cole of Oklahoma. He's the deputy majority whip and a supporter of Donald Trump. Congressman Cole, good to have you on the show again. Donald Trump raising new allegations tonight. We just heard them. The election is rigged against them. He's been saying this again and again. There is no evidence of this. He says there is large scale voter fraud going on. Do you agree with him?</s>REP. TOM COLE (R), OKLAHOMA: Well, if he wants to make the point that the medias uneven in scrutiny and unfair, I do agree with that. If he wants to make the point that a lot of the elites in the country have mobilized against him to an unprecedented degree, I agree with that as well. If you're talking about the actual election process, I don't agree. Frankly, I've been involved in elections my whole life. I was involved in the 2000 presidential elections as chief of staff of the Republican National Committee in probably the most disputed outcome in the long time. But there's never any evidence of voter fraud. There were mechanical malfunctions. I'm not going to naive enough to tell you that it never occurs. But it doesn't occur on a scale vast enough to change the outcome of a presidential election. So, this system broadly renders the opinion of the American people. It's done so consistently for literally hundreds of years. I think it will do it again in three weeks.</s>BURNETT: And Trump's words though, Congressman, of course, have impact for some of his supporters. You know, he's been constantly saying the election is rigged. I mean, he says it again and again and again, you know that. We talked to some of them yesterday at one of his rallies about what would happen if Hillary Clinton won. And here is what two of them said.</s>DAN BOWMAN, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I feel like Hillary needs to be taken out. If she gets into government, I'll do everything in my power to take her out of power.</s>REPORTER: Is that a physical threat?</s>BOWMAN: I don't know, is it?</s>DEBBIE HOYT, TRUMP SUPPORTER: There will be a civil war. And I don't know.</s>REPORTER: Do you think it will come to that?</s>HOYT: Absolutely. You don't understand the passion in this country. I'm just one voice. There's a lot of people like me.</s>BURNETT: Congressman, are you worried when you hear words like those?</s>COLE: I am. And I'm worried any time somebody delegitimizes the election process. Look, the majority of secretaries of state in the United States who are responsible for this are Republicans. And, obviously, Mr. Trump was very successful in Republican primaries. Nobody tried to manipulate the results there. I think the same thing will be true in the general election. Look, we've got a very intense, hard fought campaign. It's highly negative. It's highly charged. I get that. But at the end of the day, the people at the precincts are usually volunteers. They are your friends and neighbors. I don't know a single secretary of state in the United States, Republican or Democrat, that does not do everything possible to make sure the election is open, fair and transparent. And again, I say it as a guy that used to be secretary of state. I know these folks. The last people in the world that want to see anything go wrong with the election is a secretary of state or the respective state or the chief election official in these states.</s>BURNETT: So, look, you are being pretty clear and adamant here, that the system is not rigged when it comes to the electoral process itself. You also just heard Trump talk about Paul Ryan, Speaker Ryan, a man you know very well. He said Paul Ryan may want Trump lose so that Ryan will be able to run for the White House next time around, and then he went on to say maybe Paul Ryan doesn't know how to win. You have worked with Paul Ryan for years. What is your response to Donald Trump on that?</s>COLE: Well, frankly, he doesn't know Paul. And the reality is Paul didn't want to be speaker. So, the idea that he'd be maneuvering to be president right now strikes me as farfetched. Look, he's a person of absolute moral integrity. He's the thought leader in the Republican Party. He's a first class person in every way. He's led with distinction in the House of Representatives. He's not trying to undermine anything. What he's trying to do is save the Republican majority in the House. That's his job honestly. That's his number one job. I think he'll pull that off in three weeks.</s>BURNETT: Congressman, just because, you know, you are saying here Donald Trump's wrong on Paul Ryan, he's wrong on the electoral process being rigged. You called his comments on the "Access Hollywood" tape, disgusting, crude and vile. Yet you are still technically supporting him. You know, John McCain, Rob Portman, Jason Chaffetz, they've all said no way. They just can't do it anymore. What makes --</s>COLE: Well, I'm not going to be -- first of all, the alternative. I'm not going to be for someone who systematically lied to the American people as Secretary Clinton has about her server and about her own actions with regard to that server, who casually put the country at risk for her personal and political convenience, who presided over a series of foreign policy disasters, who if she win says I'm going to raise taxes, expand the size of government and increase regulations. That to me is a pretty unacceptable alternative.</s>BURNETT: Right. Well, Congressman, thank you. Appreciate your time.</s>COLE: Hey, thank you.</s>BURNETT: And next, we're standing by for Donald Trump. He's about to arrive in Las Vegas any moment now for this crucial final debate. Everything on the line for him. Plus, a "People" magazine writer says Trump sexually assaulted her, pinning her to the wall, forcing his tongue down her throat. Her story coming up. And like father like son. Donald Trump Jr. on tape today talking about sexual harassment in the work place.</s>DONALD TRUMP, JR., SON OF DONALD TRUMP: If you can't handle some of the basic stuff that's become a problem in the workforce today, like, you don't belong in the workforce.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.</s>TRUMP: Like you should go, you know, maybe teach kindergarten.