Trump To Speak in North Carolina; Trump Accusations; Ex- Apprentice Star Speaks About Trump.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: "Newsroom" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Here we go. Top of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me. This is CNN. Any moment now, Donald Trump will be speaking there from Greensboro, North Carolina. We'll see how he responds to these new accusations. These are in addition to what we first saw printed yesterday. New attacks from Hillary Clinton's most powerful surrogates as well, including the president of the United States. Just a short time ago, President Obama savaged the Republican nominee, along with Republicans and lawmakers in general, essentially saying that when they failed for years to quash rhetoric about himself and his allies, they helped seed the Trump candidacy.</s>JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, a couple of things. First of all, you know, when we listen to what Donald Trump had to say yesterday in terms of defense, we heard it at one point at a rally. He came out basically calling some of these allegations pure fiction. But then at a follow-up rally, there was no mention of it at all. What I can tell you is that we are hearing that at certain - at a certain point that the campaign will be pushing back on these allegations. But in terms of how they will push back, will it be in a form of a statement, will it be in a form of a tweet, as we know Donald Trump likes to do? Or will it be here in Greensboro? That remains to be seen. I can tell you that earlier Mike Pence has been out on the - has been out on the campaign trail and speaking in defense of Donald Trump, saying that in short time there will be some information that is released that he says will back up Trump's claims that these are false claims that are out there. I can also tell you that, as we go forward, and there are more allegations, like this new allegation that we're seeing, this one now being reported by "The Washington Post." A woman reporting that back in the '90s, telling "The Washington Post," that she was groped by Donald Trump. The Trump campaign speaking to "The Washington Post" and saying, Brooke, that this is just an attempt at publicity, that this, like the other claims, is a false claim. But what all of this does is, Brooke, it takes the campaign off message. The campaign wants to get out there, wants to talk about Hillary Clinton, talk about e-mails, talk about the economy, trade, and jobs. But what all of this does is, as all of these allegations come out, it takes the campaign off message and what it does is it continues to make GOP leaders, some of the GOP leaders who have already pulled back on the campaign, have really pulled back on Donald Trump in many ways, it makes them more nervous. So this recent allegation now that we're hearing about that "The Washington Post" is reporting is just one more - just - it's just another block that the campaign has that they now have to deal with. There's just no other way of saying it. Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: We're about to talk to Karen Tumulty, who broke the story there on "The Post" momentarily. Jason, thank you so much, again, watching and waiting to hear from Donald Trump, how does he handle this and also just where is the evidence here for these multiple accusers who are coming forward? Specifically, back to this story out of "The Post" here, is this former model, she talked to "The Washington Post," said that Trump had - had - sitting next to her at a club and essentially reached up and touched her genitals. An eerily similar scenario to what we heard in the hot mic video that caught the Republican nominee bragging about what he could get away with because he's a celebrity, he said. CNN has not been able to independently confirm this woman's claims from "The Washington Post" story. So we just want to warn you, though, the details from this are graphic.</s>KRISTIN ANDERSON, ALLEGED DONALD TRUMP SEXUALLY ASSAULTED HER: And I'm talking to my friend, who I'm sitting to and across from on my left side. I'm very clear on this. This is the vivid part for me. So the person on my right, who, unbeknownst to me at that time, was Donald Trump, put their hand up my skirt. He did touch my vagina through my underwear.</s>BALDWIN: And the woman who just broke this story, Karen Tumulty with "The Washington Post." Karen, thank you so much for coming on. Here we have yet another accuser. And before we get into more of the details, how - how did she come to you or how did you come to know her story?</s>KAREN TUMULTY, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WASHINGTON POST": After the video came out last Friday where Trump had said on the hot mic that he felt entitled by his celebrity, that you could get away with doing this, we got a tip from a third party who said that they knew someone to whom almost this exact thing had happened. So we reached out to Kristin. She was sort of not eager to come forward. We talked to her for days. We confirmed that, you know, she had been telling this story to friends for years and we have a couple of them on the record in the story. And then, finally, she read the accounts night before last in "The New York Times" of two women who wrote about being groped and in "People" magazine and she said, I think it's important that I talk. She said, what happened to me was relatively - you know, I brushed it off as minor at the time, but that now I realized that I need to have these women's backs and that these minor things are - she described them as a gateway to more serious behavior.</s>BALDWIN: Tell me more, Karen, about what she shared with you.</s>TUMULTY: Well, she said that she was at this nightclub and she was deeply - it was very, very crowded, very, very hectic. People sitting, you know, on sofas, in - on the arms of sofas. And so she was deeply engaged in conversation with friends on her left. She didn't notice who was on her right until she felt the hand go up her skirt. Now, this is her version of events, but she says - she - as the hand gets closer and touches her vagina through her underwear, she brushes the hand away, jumps up off the couch and turns around and recognizes Donald Trump, who she said she - in the early 1990s, when this happened, when Kristin was 22, he was all over the tabloids. Everybody in New York knew what he looked like and who he was.</s>BALDWIN: Did she, at the time, did she say she told him to stop, that what he was doing, even for just 30 seconds, was wrong?</s>TUMULTY: She said there was no conversation at all. She said she just, you know, hit his hand away and essentially fled from the couch. And so she and her friends just sort of decided that this was just really creepy and disgusting, but in their, you know, in their understanding of things, which she now describes as naive, they decided, you know, move on.</s>BALDWIN: So you mentioned off the top sort of why she came out now. Then comes the question how - you mentioned you talked to other friends to corroborate. Is that how you vetted this?</s>TUMULTY: That is how we vetted it. We also - we talked to her a little bit about the fact that, you know, if she comes forward like this, she is certain to find her private life under great scrutiny.</s>BALDWIN: Under scrutiny.</s>TUMULTY: And she said she was ready to accept that. She provided us, you know, everything that we asked for. We double checked to make sure that she was not some kind of political partisan. In fact, she says she can't decide who she wants to vote for in this election, that she doesn't like Trump or Hillary Clinton and that she wishes she could just maybe write in Mitt Romney or Oprah Winfrey. She, in May, changed her voter registration from Democrat to no party declared.</s>BALDWIN: Write in Romney or Oprah.</s>TUMULTY: Right.</s>BALDWIN: Final question. Yes, final question, Karen. How did Donald Trump respond to this particular story?</s>TUMULTY: They - the campaign, in a statement through spokeswoman Hope Hicks, denied that this had ever happened and accused her of essentially seeking publicity, which, of course, I would like to repeat, once again, "The Washington Post" went to her, she did not come to us.</s>BALDWIN: OK. Karen Tumulty breaking just this latest story of accusations of groping from the '90s. Karen, thank you so much, with "The Washington Post."</s>TUMULTY: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: I appreciate it. Thank you. Again, we're watching and waiting to hear from Donald Trump himself speaking there in Greensboro, North Carolina. We'll take it live as soon as we see him. Meantime, Ari Fleischer is back with us today. He was the White House press secretary for George W. Bush. Good to see you, sir. So, here's the deal. With all these different accusers coming forward, Donald Trump, and even listening to Mike Pence this morning on the "Today" show saying false and we have proof. We have evidence. Do you believe them or do you think they're bluffing?</s>ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, I don't know how anybody knows who to believe. How do you know? How do you - can you believe the accusers at face value? Yes? No? I don't think any of us are in a position to know. I do know from working on campaigns, this is terrible timing for Donald Trump. And all the other issues in this campaign, the press doesn't want to talk about them, the public is gravitating to this. This is our sex journalism publicity entertainment culture. It's all blended now.</s>BALDWIN: I would like to be talking about the issues, can I just say that, but it's - this is - this is what -</s>FLEISCHER: Well, let's do that.</s>BALDWIN: This is what he has been talking about. And listening to Donald Trump on the attack yesterday, this is what he continues to bring up. We'll see if he brings up the issues later this hour in North Carolina. But do you think, though, 25 days from Election Day, I talk to Republican Trump surrogates who want him to talk about the issues, the economy, terror. Do you think it's too late at this point?</s>FLEISCHER: Well, I think Donald Trump is - his path to victory is extraordinarily slim right now. He has to count on just a massive turnout of people who have previously never participated in the political process but who already registered and they have to really be a group of voters that are not college educated, because he's losing the college educated vote so badly. I don't see how the math can work out for him, but this has been a cycle none of us could predict.</s>BALDWIN: Hillary Clinton, meantime, has been laying low. She has let Donald Trump do the speaking sort of for her and sucking all this oxygen up. I mean, from a campaign perspective, do you think that this is smart calculus?</s>FLEISCHER: Oh, of course it is. But she's also knowing that by doing that she doesn't have to answer the questions about the WikiLeaks, asking her questions about her support for open borders and open trade, things that she denied, of course, in the campaign against Bernie Sanders.</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>FLEISCHER: You know, what we've seen here is Donald Trump, a lot of issues are being raised about his morality, his personal behavior, but Hillary, we still have a lot of questions about her public behavior and her public policies. How could she say these things against Sanders when the proof comes out she was against them all the time, reinforcing whether she's duplicitous or not.</s>BALDWIN: She's laying low, and to your point, not having to then answer those questions.</s>FLEISCHER: Right.</s>BALDWIN: But she's got some pretty powerful surrogates who are out fighting for her. We saw the first lady yesterday. We've seen her husband. And now the president of the United States, last night in Columbus, Ohio, and again today on the attack. And I just wanted to play this because he's speaking not to Donald Trump in this soundbite, he's speaking to Republicans like you.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They know better, a lot of these folks who ran, and they didn't say anything. And so they don't get credit for at the very last minute, when finally the guy that they nominated and they endorsed and they supported is caught on tape saying things that no decent person would even think, much less say, much less brag about, much less laugh about or joke about, much less act on. You can't wait until that finally happens and then say, oh, that's too much. That's enough, and think that somehow you are showing any kind of leadership and deserve to be elected to the United States Senate.</s>BALDWIN: How would you respond to the president?</s>FLEISCHER: Well, number one, I'd like to see that same moral condemnation made about Bill Clinton and his behavior. Has Barack Obama done that? I don't know. But I'd also point out, one of the reasons they created - one of the reasons that created Donald -</s>BALDWIN: But I understand - I understand why Republicans are bringing that up. But, again, it's not Bill Clinton who's running.</s>FLEISCHER: I understand, but he's making a moral statement. He's making a moral condemnation. If this moral condemnation applies, it should apply broadly.</s>BALDWIN: Fair and square, you say?</s>FLEISCHER: He's making it a partisan, political issue because he wants Trump defeated. But if there's a real reason you can point to the rise of Donald Trump, you can also talk about the failures of Barack Obama. You know, Trump has scored because he talks about make America great again, and I'm saying this as an analyst, not as an advocate.</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>FLEISCHER: And the reason people want to make America great again is because they think we've failed under President Obama. Our economy's growing at 1.2 percent. You look abroad and you see America is in decline, Russia is taking advantage of everywhere, including interfering now in our own election. And what's President Obama done about it? Nothing. And then you look at the Middle East melting down on his watch and a singular domestic accomplishment, Obamacare, is falling apart. So there's a reason most Americans think the country's on the wrong track. A lot of the rise of Donald Trump is attributed to Barack Obama more than anything Barack Obama will acknowledge.</s>BALDWIN: Off of that on to you as press secretary. I mean I'm sure you heard Trump yesterday on the attack. He was he - he was talking about liberals, banking industry -</s>FLEISCHER: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: The Clintons, Republicans colluding.</s>FLEISCHER: You.</s>BALDWIN: He was talking about collusions out to get him. Isn't that dangerous?</s>FLEISCHER: It is -</s>BALDWIN: He's dealt with the media every single day.</s>FLEISCHER: It's - it's dangerous. It's a political mistake. What he's doing here, at the end of his campaign, is narrowing his appeal instead of broadening his appeal. And that's why his only hope for victory is to have an extraordinary turnout of people who didn't previously participate. The fed up. People who just think it doesn't make a difference what I do. Maybe Donald Trump can get enough of a turnout there. I just mathematically don't see it. But also I just don't like this conspiratorial approach to government. This is not what we should be about. You know, when Al Gore lost in 2000, the Supreme Court said -</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>FLEISCHER: George Bush won, Al Gore accepted it.</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>FLEISCHER: And this is how you keep the American institutions together. So if Donald Trump loses, he needs to accept it and not make this conspiratorial attack.</s>BALDWIN: If he does, then what?</s>FLEISCHER: Well, I'll continue to condemn him if he does that. But I just think, if people believe that this election wasn't legitimate, it's very harmful for democracy. I didn't like it when there were certain Democrats who said George Bush was not legitimate. They were doing great harm to our democracy. And I'll condemn it if any Republicans do that if Hillary Clinton wins.</s>BALDWIN: What about - I was talking to Randy Evans this week. He's an RNC committee member. He's got Reince Priebus on speed dial.</s>FLEISCHER: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: And he was saying to me, I said - because he was sort of saying, Brooke, I told you so, you know, this is what we'd be talking about. I told you four months ago. And I said, OK, Randy, well, what will we be talking about in four months from now. And he said, here's the deal. I think we'll be talking about three parties, Democrats, Republicans, and some sort of Trump party. What do you think we'll be talking about on November 9th?</s>FLEISCHER: Yes, you know, I've spent a little bit of time thinking about what will life be like for Republicans the day after the election if Donald Trump loses.</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>FLEISCHER: And it really depends on what Donald Trump does. If he returns to Fifth Avenue and leave politics, I think the party will largely reset.</s>BALDWIN: Come back together?</s>FLEISCHER: Yes. We've lost elections before. We lost in '64 and came back in a landslide four years later in '68. Democrats lost in an unprecedented way in 2002 in George Bush's first term and they came back four years later. This is politics. This is government. We're self-correcting. It happens. But if Trump decides to stay involved, the Republican splits are just going to grow deeper, because this is the fissure. The Republican Party is split. Donald Trump has split it. I've said from the beginning, he's much more of an independent. He's temporarily borrowed the name Republican. He's not really a Republican. He never has been. He ran as a Republican. So if Donald Trump goes back to Fifth Avenue, I think</s>BALDWIN: So interesting because we keep talking about Election Day and what happens the evening of November 8th, but to me November 9th, that's the story.</s>FLEISCHER: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: Ari Fleischer, happy birthday.</s>FLEISCHER: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: Thirty-eight looks good, my friend. Thirty-eight looks good. Ari Fleischer. By the way, just a reminder, Donald Trump is getting ready to speak in North Carolina. All of this as these - this latest accusation of groping from the '90s has been broken now in "The Washington Post." We'll see if he responds to that. Also ahead, I'll talk live with one of his former "Apprentice" contestants to react to these allegations. What did he see? What did he hear in conversations with Donald Trump and his relationship with him for basically a decade? I'm Brooke Baldwin. This is CNN's special live coverage.