Trump Not Impressed by 2.9 Percent Economic Growth; What Trump Would Face if Challenging Election Results
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Just in to CNN, does this qualify as another October surprise like we haven't had enough? U.S. economy has grown 2.9 percent, the fastest growth in two years.</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: But Donald Trump is not impressed. He released this statement moments ago. It says, "America can do better than the modest growth of 2.9 percent recorded for the third quarter and the dismal growth of 1.5 percent for the past year. Growth hasn't risen above 3 percent for any full year in any year of the Obama presidency." Let us talk about this with Christine Romans, chief business correspondent and star of "Early Start." 2.9 is better than economists expected.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's definitely a big improvement from earlier in the year. Let's talk about where we are. 2.9 percent, double the growth in the beginning part of the year, and relief because a lot of other economic signs have been turning up. What this tells us is after a soft spot, the economy is still continuing to crawl out of the hole that happened seven years ago. It's still moving forward here. We look inside this number, we see consumer spending, we see business investment, not as bad as we expected. We see all kinds of cylinders of the American economy moving forward. Donald Trump has said 4 percent is the number. 4 percent is the number he could get. 4 percent is a number we have not seen since 1998 when Bill Clinton was the president. Look at this trend. You go back to this 4 percent, look at how long it's been since we have been able to manage that. More recently, this is the Trump complaint, more recently you had a really hard time staying en above 2 percent for economic growth. There's a big economic discussion about why that might be. Is it productivity, is it a change in the fabric of the economy, how we measure things? But what we know about this number right here is that one of the most important pieces of economic data heading into the election and it tells us the economy is moving forward on trade, on immigration. Ironically, these are things adding to the economy according to many economists we talked to, business investment and consumers, things are looking better. I will give you one last piece of news here. This might be why we are seeing numbers like this. The CNN/ORC poll we just took, how are things going in the country, 54 percent say well or very well. We are starting to see indicators that maybe, maybe, people are starting to believe seven years into the recovery that we are in one.</s>BERMAN: Interesting. You see the president's approval rating over 50 percent, 54 percent of people saying things are going well. Other people saying it's a change election. Sometimes those things aren't always in agreement.</s>ROMANS: That's right.</s>BERMAN: Christine Romans, thanks so much.</s>BOLDUAN: Thanks, Christine.</s>BERMAN: With early voting under way, Donald Trump is now suggesting the voting machines are rigged against him, and that the media is being rigged and the media polls being rigged.</s>BOLDUAN: Trump's campaign hasn't offered proof of this voting fraud. But is this setting him up to challenge the election results after the fact? Stephen Zack represented Al Gore in Bush v. Gore back in 2000 and joins us now. Stephen, thank you for joining us.</s>STEPHEN ZACK, ATTORNEY & FORMER PRESIDENT, AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION: Pleasure.</s>BOLDUAN: So every election, presidential campaigns put out armies of lawyers to watch, monitor the polls to make sure everything is working as well as it can. What, in general -- because this has absolutely become a focus. What in general are lawyers looking for when they are in the polls?</s>ZACK: Well, there are two things they are looking for. One, before the election and election. Florida has a statute that controls the electoral process, and it requires an automatic recount if the vote is less than half a percent between the two candidates. And then after that recount, which is an automatic recount, and done by machine, there has to be a manual recount if it's less than a quarter percent. So lawyers are looking to see what the actual vote looks like and whether or not the Florida statute is going to come into play.</s>BERMAN: What about all this talk -- Trump is calling on people to watch the polls, keep your eye on the polls? What is allowed there? What does that mean exactly?</s>ZACK: Well, there's poll watchers in all elections, and both parties have poll watchers. And there are allowed to stand a certain distance from the voting place. They are not allowed to attack the person going to decide on their vote. They have to act in a very proper manner. If not, they are ejected. But they are looking to see whether or not there's any kind of weird thing going on. What I mean by that is that somebody's trying to vote and being kept from voting. That is something that is critical to make sure that people know that they have the right to vote. Another thing that has happened in the past is that the polls have shut down with people in line wanting to vote. I will tell you something else that happened in an election in Florida, not so long ago, is it just so happened, in a black neighborhood, they decided to do some sewage cleaning at the time the people were standing in line, and obviously, the smell from that cleaning was horrific. And what you have is an opportunity to call into the election supervisor. I was active also in the Kerry campaign. We learned from the previous Gore campaign, every person had a cell phone, so they could immediately -- every person who was a poll watcher had the cell phone so they could immediately contact the election supervisor. And you want to make sure there were enough lines available into the election supervisor to deal with any problem that might come up during the election.</s>BOLDUAN: And with the rhetoric in this election so far, there are a lot more people watching these polls very, very closely, but learning what the rules are and what's allowed at these polling stations is a very important thing and will be very important going forward. Stephen Zack, thanks so much.</s>ZACK: Thank you.</s>BOLDUAN: Soon we will hear from Donald Trump. He is live. Live pictures right there in Manchester, New Hampshire. The not-so- humongous state, though, could have a humongous impact on this election. It will for Donald Trump. He needs New Hampshire. We will take you there when he speaks live.</s>BERMAN: A little state with a big heart, and four electoral votes that matter a lot.</s>BOLDUAN: Seriously.</s>BERMAN: Plus, WikiLeaks and Clinton Foundation and Obamacare -- how do down-ballot Democrats feel right now about Hillary Clinton?