[John Vause, Cnn Anchor:] You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour, new claims of sexual misconduct against Donald Trump. One accuser says the republican candidate was on her like an octopus. Back to diplomacy, the U.S. and Russia say they're willing to give the Syrian ceasefire another chance. And later, Janet Jackson expecting her first child at 50. Hello, everybody, thank you for being with us. I'm John Vause. The second hour of NEWSROOM L.A. starts now. Donald Trump is firing back against explosive new claims that he touched women inappropriately. Two women tell The New York Times, Trump groped and kissed them without their permission. Trump's campaign says the entire article is a work of fiction. His attorneys are drafting a lawsuit. A short time ago, they sent a letter to the Times demanding a retraction. CNN has not independently confirmed the claims reported by The New York Times.
[Jessica Leeds, Claims Donald Trump Groped Her:] I started telling my story about a year and a half ago when it became apparent that Trump was actually running for president. And I started telling my friends, "Let me tell you what this guy is all about." I would like to think that sharing this story would make a difference both in the election and the society's view of women to change some of the behavior, the sexual behavior between men and women in both directions.
[Vause:] Joining me now, Mo'Kelly, host of the Mo'Kelly Show, the Mo'Kelly Experience radio show. Also, Lisa Bloom, a victim's right attorney and legal analyst. And in San Diego, Gina Loudoun, a Trump supporter, and a behavioral and psychology expert and host of America Trends with Dr. Gina. Thank you all for being with us and sticking around for another hour. The latest news that we have is this demand coming from Trump's attorneys that they want this retraction, they've written to the New York Times, this is what they've said, "Your article was reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel per se. It is apparent from the timing of the article that it is nothing more than a politically motivated effort to defeat Mr. Trump's candidacy. We hereby demand that you immediately cease any further publication of this article and remove it from your website and issue a full and immediate retraction and apology." Lisa, from a legal standpoint, do they have much of a chance of making this happen, and where does this go from here?
[Lisa Bloom, Nbc Legal Analyst:] So, I handle a lot of defamation cases, including a case against Bill Cosby right now in behalf of Janice Dickinson. That's defamation case. And this is a prerequisite to filing the case, the demand for the retraction. So, that's what they're doing. Anybody can file a lawsuit. They certainly can file it if they want against the New York Times, but this is an unwinnable case for Donald Trump.
[Vause:] Why?
[Bloom:] And that's because he's a public figure, which means that he would have to show malice, he would have to show that The New York Times knew that this was a false story and they published it anyway. In fact, The New York Times says that for each of these women, there are several people who corroborates the story that is that these women told in the past, years ago in some cases, that Donald Trump had groped them. That's clearly enough for them to get past any defamation case.
[Vause:] OK. Let's hear a little bit more from Jessica Leeds who is one of the women who spoke to The New York Times about her experience with Donald Trump. This happened about 30-something years ago.
[Leeds:] It was a real shock when all of a sudden his hands were all over me. He started encroaching on my space. And I hesitate to use this expression, but I'm going to. And that is, he was like an octopus. It was like he had six arms. He was all over the place. If he had stocked with the upper part of the body, I might not have gotten I might not have gotten that upset. So, when he started putting his hand up my skirt, and that was it.
[Vause:] So, Gina, to you on this, when you when you hear her story and you read the other accounts, and it's not just New York Times, it's something like eight separate stories which have emerged just today alone of women accusing Donald Trump of some kind of sexual misconduct. Do you start thinking twice about the man that you support for the presidency?
[Gina Loudon, Behavioral & Psychology Expert:] I tell you, I can't get past her saying that if he would have just if whoever this person was on the plane next to her would have just groped the top part of her, she'd have been hunky-dory with that.
[Vause:] Yeah.
[Loudon:] But I guess I this is weird, mixed messages for whoever the guy was, and the
[Vause:] OK. Mo, that's obviously the opinion of Gina and a lot of other Trump supporters who say they weren't swayed by the "Access Hollywood" tape. And obviously Gina isn't too concerned about this.
[Mo'kelly, Host Of The Mo'kelly Show:] Yeah. But this is not about right or left, this is about right and wrong. And these women are answering Donald Trump. When Donald Trump said to Anderson Cooper, "No, I did not kiss any women without their consent," that was a call out for other women to say, "Yes, you did, Donald Trump." And these women are answering that call specifically. So, if you ask, why didn't this happen a year ago? We weren't here a year ago, and that's why you're hearing from them now.
[Vause:] And to the question of timing, there's a lot of people are saying why now? One reason is because of the debate on Sunday. But these allegations have been out there for a while made by other women, and you represent one.
[Bloom:] Right. Yes, I represent Jill Harth who filed a lawsuit in 1997 for sexual harassment and sexual assault, Donald Trump immediately wanted to settle that lawsuit with her, and did settle it with her. She laid low all these years, she was turned the page, you know, put it behind her, moved on with her life. She didn't want to think about it. He was running for president, and 2015 news organizations started calling her, she still didn't want to talk about it. Ultimately, they ran pieces about her lawsuit anyway, and then he called her a liar. And that was a point where she said, "You know what, I was willing to keep my mouth shut, but when you call me a liar, all bets are off," and she has given interviews and talked publicly about her allegations which are completely corroborated by the tape. And I ask people who don't believe these allegations, what more do you need than a taped confession from the perpetrator, because we all heard it.
[Kelly:] And John, this is about power or lack thereof. If you're a woman and you're trying to take on Donald Trump in the public forum a year ago, no one is going to listen to you, much less believe you. But a month before election when people are going to listen, pay attention, willing to take your viewpoint and what happened, then you have a little more leverage and there's also strength in numbers. You'll see more women coming out, tomorrow and the next day.
[Vause:] OK. Gina's response to that, essentially with the timing, Gina, you know?
[Loudon:] Yeah. We're 26 days from an election. This is when a smear campaign starts. Mr. Trump has taken on the entire establishment, the entire elite, and you know, he whiffed the side of public opinion here. There are a lot of people that don't like the republicans or the democrats, and a lot of them unfortunately for us, perhaps don't like the media. And so, the fact that Mr. Trump has taken on all three, he's going to get attack 26 days out. This is no surprise. This is an attempt at a smear campaign and an attempt by Clintons to capitalize on a smear campaign 26 days before an election. It's a distraction of things that they're really serious off, that has proven that it's factual that Hillary Clinton has done, such as all the WikiLeaks stuff and the 33,000 missing e-mails and all the rest of it.
[Vause:] Well, as we've been saying, this all came out from the "Access Hollywood" tape which was recorded 11 years ago where Trump admitted that he, you know, groped and kissed women because he's a star. And I want to play that bit when Anderson Cooper specifically asked him about that during Sunday's Presidential Debate.
[Cooper:] So, for the record, you're saying you've never did that.
[Trump:] I said I said things that frankly you hear these things are said. And I was embarrassed by it, but I have tremendous respect to women.
[Cooper:] Have you ever done those things?
[Trump:] And the women have respect for me. And I will tell you, no, I have not.
[Vause:] OK. So, with that in mind, the Clinton campaign put out a statement tonight, "This disturbing story sadly fits everything we know about the way Donald Trump has treated women. These reports suggest that he lied on the debate stage, and that the disgusting behavior he bragged about in the tape is more than just words. Liza, this is the question. This has now gone beyond locker-room talk.
[Bloom:] Yeah, it never was locker-room talk, unless we're talking about what he said about going into the locker room where teenage girls are naked or half naked, and that's what the real Donald Trump locker-room talk bragging about ogling under aged girls as they're changing clothes. This has always been about actions, and he was talking about actions even on the Access Hollywood tape. Remember, he's putting a Tic Tac in his mouth, because he's thinking there's a realistic chance that he's going to go kiss some woman who has he hasn't even met yet, right? So, he's talking about actions, my client Jill Harth has been talking about actions that he took against her allegedly since 1997. There's eight women today, there may be eight more tomorrow and the day after. And at what point do we just decide to believe women. How many women have to come forward? I mean, do you believe Bill Cosby for example, now that 60 women have come forward, and if so, how many how did you come forward before you did believe the accusers against Bill Cosby.
[Vause:] Gina?
[Loudon:] But Bill Cosby wasn't running for president. And I'll tell you what I do believe, I believe for women like Juanita Broaddrick
[Kelly:] I agree.
[Loudon:] that were victimized by Hillary Clinton when she spent $100,000 on private investigators just to smear her. When Hillary Clinton called the victims of her husband, "bimbos"
[Bloom:] She never did that.
[Loudon:] She has never she has never come yes, she did she has never come to their defense, not ever. And when Hillary Clinton blamed a 12-year-old rape victim, saying that she probably did something to bring it on herself, a 12-year-old rape victim when Hillary Clinton defended a child sexual predator against that little girl who's still damaged today.
[Bloom:] That didn't happen either. She was assigned as a young lawyer to represent a point.
[Loudon:] Have you not heard the tape? I have all the sympathy in the world
[Vause:] We had the little tape and
[Tasha Dixon, Former Miss Arizona:] He just came strolling right in. There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless, other girls were naked. To have to owner come waltzing in when we're naked or half naked in a very physically vulnerable position, and then to have the pressure of the, you know, the people that worked for him telling us to go fawn all over him, go walk up to him, talk to him, get his attention.
[Vause:] And this is a story from Miss Arizona which appears to be supported by Donald Trump himself. Listen to this.
[Trump:] I'll go backstage before a show, and everyone is getting dressed and ready, and everything else. And you know, no men are anywhere, and I'm allowed to go in, because I'm the owner of the pageant and therefore I'm inspecting it. You know, I'm inspecting. I want to make sure that everything is good.
[Unidentified Male:] You're like the doctor. You're there.
[Trump:] Yeah, the dresses. Is everyone OK? You know, they're standing there with no clothes. Is everybody OK? And you see these incredible-looking women. And so, I sort of get away with things like that.
[Vause:] So, Gina, regardless if you want to believe in that, Donald Trump would fall on Miss Arizona, would you say that appropriate that that behavior rather, is appropriate?
[Loudon:] I think what's really important about the tape with Miss Arizona is that just prior to the part where you started the video, she actually said it was announced over a loudspeaker that Mr. Trump was going to come in. And so, that was people's cue, I'm assuming, to get dressed, which I would have thought she did. If she didn't, I don't know why she wouldn't. Again, I think that we if Mr. Trump were really this monster that the Clinton campaign and the media are trying to make him out to be, don't you think that somewhere, there would be some actual evidence more than words, more than allegations, more than more than hearsay. In that moment, I think a lot of opinions would change. But right now, the only real evidence we have is about Hillary Clinton victimizing women, and I don't understand why we're not having that conversation simultaneously.
[Vause:] I want to get to the legal point, because that's actually a good point
[Bloom:] Well, in the case of Jill Harth who I represent, we have her now ex-husband who corroborates all the important parts of her story that he was there for some of the incidents of sexual harassment and assault. And other times, she told him about it immediately. And the fact, they got out of Mar-a-Lago even though they're supposed to stay longer after one of the incidents. Some of the women in the New York or the two women in the New York Times today, both have people that they told contemporaneously, Donald Trump admits to bragging about sexual assaults on the "Access Hollywood" tape. That's about as good evidence that you're going to get in court.
[Kelly:] I mean, you know, we just heard the audio of what he will want to do or does do when he goes backstage. Can't we just go ahead and believe Donald Trump?
[Vause:] OK. OK. One last point which I want to raise because a lot of people are talking about the timing, because it was it was curiously almost simultaneously the New York Times story broke, there was a report which came out on Bloomberg, according to Trump advisors who say, campaign CEO Steven Bannon had told staffers, they're about to ramp up the attacks on Bill Cosby oh, Bill Clinton, sorry, former president Bill Clinton. They're going to make him into Bill Cosby. This is what they said, this is what Steve Bannon reportedly said to staffers, "This has nothing to do with consensual sexual affairs and infidelities. This is Bill, we're going to turn him into Bill Cosby. He's a violent sexual predator who physically abuses women who he assaults. And she takes the lead on the intimidation of the victims. That she, of course, is being Hillary Clinton. So, Mo, when you look at the timing of this story with all the New York Time story, we are
[Kelly:] You can't have it both ways. If you want to say that we that unsubstantiated allegations are insufficient and a dirty-pool type way of playing, then you can't try to bring in Bill Clinton who is not running for president, and then tried to introduce his history as somehow sort of shaming element of Hillary Clinton who is the actually candidate for president.
[Vause:] Gina, what's your take on that? How do you respond?
[Loudon:] But you can win Hillary Clinton then followed up by shaming these women by hiring a private investigators, spending $100,000 to try and defame these women, who'd already been hurt by her husband. I would love to see Hillary Clinton today come out and apologize for the things she did to these women, for the things she called these women, for vowing to take them down, for going into their home and threatening their livelihood, their homes, their children, even their pets.
[Bloom:] She didn't threaten anyone's pets. That's ridiculous.
[Loudon:] Yes, she absolutely did.
[Bloom:] I mean, I hate to I hate to interrupt you with the facts, but this is not sure, and as somebody who's been a litigator for 30 years, we hire private investigators in every case, the mere hiring of a private investigator is not anywhere close to defamation. Certainly, there's no facts that Hillary Clinton threatened anyone's pets
[Loudon:] But it was supposed to believed
[Bloom:] or anything else. I mean And by the way, she is not responsible for everything that her husband ever did. This is why we need more women in office.
[Loudon:] Why women make an accusation and why does
[Bloom:] Apply also to Hillary.
[Vause:] OK. OK. We'll leave it there. Thanks.
[Loudon:] If it were supposed to be all allegations, then why doesn't that apply to Hillary, too? Especially
[Bloom:] Nobody said that But when you've got somebody's taped confession, we tend to believe them.
[Vause:] OK. And we'll leave it at that. Gina London there in Loudon in San Diego. Thank you so much, Mo'Kelly.
[Kelly:] Thank you.
[Vause:] Lisa Bloom, we appreciate it. To leave this, you know, 20 what, 6, 7 days to go, God help us. OK.
[Bloom:] Just a little bit just less than a month now.
[Vause:] Thank you. OK. Well, we go to democrats' side of politics now. Hillary Clinton's campaign is scrambling to deal with WikiLeaks, the site released more stolen e-mails and is promising to release more. Jeff Zeleny explains the impact on the presidential race.
[Jeff Zeleny, Cnn Senior Correspondent:] Tonight, Hillary Clinton heading west, trying to keep democrats fired up and focused on the finish line.
[Hillary Clinton, Democratic Presidential Candidate:] Now, I want to give you something to vote for, not just something to vote against.
[Zeleny:] The Clinton campaign directly accusing Donald Trump of trying to turn off democrats with the scorched-earth campaign.
[Clinton:] That's all they have left, pure negativity, pessimism, and we're not going to let Donald Trump get away with it, are we?
[Zeleny:] But as she rallied, supporters in Colorado, another batch of stolen e-mails published today by WikiLeaks, offering an even deeper look at the calibrations of the Clinton campaign. It's a drip, drip, drip of distraction with Campaign Chair John Podesta's hacked e-mails now being released on a daily schedule by Julian Assange, trying to meddle with the U.S. Election. No bombshells but a revealing look at Clinton's strategy. Top aid Huma Abedin, trying to keep reporters away from Clinton, prompting the review glass chair from Podesta, he wrote, "If she thinks we can get to Labor Day without taking press questions, I think that's suicidal. We have to find some mechanism to let the steam out of the pressure cooker." Podesta is accusing Donald Trump of trying to turn off voters into press democratic turnout.
[John Podesta, Clinton Campaign Chairman:] I think that this seems to be their strategy to disgust everyone with you know, sort of democratic dialogues, so they won't come out to the polls.
[Zeleny:] Another top Clinton aid, Jennifer Palmieri, under fire from some Catholic groups for how she responded to another Clinton-allied mocking Catholics for being severly backwards. Palmieri wrote, "Their rich friends won't understand if they become evangelicals." Palmieri dismissed the criticism today, telling reporters, she is Catholic. As the Republican Civil War intensifies, the Clinton campaign is pushing to keep democrats engaged. One of the biggest worries, a false sense of complacency in the wake of Trump's spiral. So, Clinton visiting Colorado for the first time since August, she's leading in most polls but trying to remind democrats she's still needs them.
[Clinton:] To reject the dark and divisive and hateful campaign that is being run by my opponent.
[Zeleny:] Now, there are 27 days left before Election Day, democrats are increasingly growing confident but some Clinton advisers are also worried about complacency in the ranks of democrats. One of the reasons Secretary Clinton campaigning in places like Pueblo, Colorado right here, trying to urge voters to vote early. This is the first year that voters in Colorado can vote entirely by mail. She said simply today, "Send them in now." Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Pueblo, Colorado.
[Vause:] We'll take a short break. When we come back, the U.S. says it has retaliated in self-defense, after American warship is targeted for the second time this week in the Red Sea. Also, pressure building on Moscow to end the offensive in Aleppo, coming up, what Russia's foreign minister had to say with Christiane Amanpour.