Trump on Clinton: "She Lies About Everything; Cruz Strikes Trump-Like Tone on the Campaign Trail; " Donald Trump Holding Campaign Rally in Michigan Miss Universe Mix-Up: Steven Harvey Apologizes After Announcing Wrong Winner
BURNETT: This is a live picture of a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Donald Trump is going to be taking to the stage there at that podium at any moment. We anticipate. He's on time which means that sometimes you hear all of the phones going up so he may be walking out. We anticipate -- we're going to bring this to you live. We'll see what he says about Hillary Clinton as well as Ted Cruz. This rally coming as several of the establishment Republicans went to New Hampshire to convinced voters they are the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump including Jeb Bush.</s>JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, it's not funny anymore just for me, to be honest with you, when he says as he did two months ago that ISIS was not a threat to the United States, just leave it alone. And then he said that, let Russia take care of ISIS. That's not their intention. Now he's praising Putin. He's praising Putin who is an enemy of the United States. Who has repressed the Russian people and is acting in their own national interests against the interests of the United States. This is not a serious man.</s>BURNETT: Sunlen Serfaty is OUTFRONT at that rally in Grand Rapids where Donald Trump is going to be on the stage I know behind you at any moment, Sunlen. Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie all in New Hampshire tonight. Donald Trump is in Michigan. Interesting choice. How well is he doing in New Hampshire?</s>SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting, Erin. You know, Donald Trump has been very careful to avoid declaring that he has any state locked up. But the Trump campaign certainly feeling a level of confidence in the early state. The pinned that on the latest polling. The latest CNN/ORC poll out of New Hampshire showing that Donald Trump is 18 points ahead of any other candidate. Marco Rubio, the closest opponent behind him in the second spot. Donald Trump will hit New Hampshire and Iowa after a brief pause over the Christmas holiday. But interesting and something we'll likely hear more from in those final weeks before the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary. Donald Trump recently has been really urging and pleading with voters that they have to show out to vote. And certainly I think that's a big sign that the Trump campaign has an awareness that they need these supporters that come to all of these big rallies to actually mobilize and vote -- Erin.</s>BURNETT: All right. Sunlen, for the past few days, Trump has been hitting hard against Hillary Clinton, also against Jeb Bush. What do you expect in terms of the tone? In terms of who he talks about tonight?</s>SERFATY: That's right. I do expect him to bring the heat again tonight here, Erin. He has been going after Jeb Bush hard, calling him in recent days, "dumb as rocks," say that he's an embarrassment to the Bush family, and similarly, the latest dustup with Hillary Clinton over this ISIS recruitment videos. I think Donald Trump feels that it's given him an opening to go from Hillary Clinton as his biggest foe. Certainly, I think this sort of argument works well in a crowd sort of like this, where it's full of supporters and really fires up his base. I think we'll see Donald Trump repeat those arguments and bring the heat here in Michigan tonight -- Erin.</s>BURNETT: All right. Sunlen, thank you very much. As you can hear, Donald Trump is going to be appearing behind Sunlen. We're going to be monitoring that for you and bring you live as he starts to talk about Hillary Clinton. OUTFRONT now, Wes Moss, Donald Trump supporter and host of "The Money Matters", WSB Atlanta radio show, and Amanda Carpenter, our political commentator and former communications director for Senator Ted Cruz. All right. Wes, let me start with you. Trump's lead right now, huge, 21 points in the latest national poll. Are the other Republican candidates running out of time to stop him? Do you buy this national polling?</s>WES MOSS, RADIO HOST, "MONEY MATTERS": I do. This polling is very indicative of the tide in America. Erin, there's an unmistakable tide in America, and if you go back -- and the tide is anti- establishment. And that's exactly what Trump is. Quite frankly, it's what Cruz is as well. But you see who is leading the GOP and they are taking advantage of it and the establishment tide. You go back to June, July when Trump just got into the race, it was a fad candidate, a fad candidate. It turns out that it's too late for a lot of the other GOP field to make sort of -- make up any ground on Trump at this point.</s>BURNETT: Amanda, do you accept Trump as inevitable?</s>AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. I think he's very vulnerable and I think we're going to see him get notched down a few places like Iowa. But I want to focus on where he's at right now in Michigan. I find this fascinating, because I have long believed that Trump is speaking to a different kind of Republican, even Democrat-leaning voter. This trip to Michigan, earlier this year he went to an area where I grew up and these are disaffected union workers that the Democratic Party has abandoned. That speaks very clearly to their hearts. And so, I think this is part of his national presence. He's nationally speaking to that kind of voter. I don't think that's going to win him an Iowa caucus, maybe not even New Hampshire. But that speaks to his national lead in the polling.</s>BURNETT: Which is an interesting point. The voters that have been left behind. I mean, Wes, you have Jeb Bush really now stepping it up on his attacks against Trump and he called Trump a jerk. So, he's now using words he didn't used to use. He used to be more intellectual about it. Now he's not. He's more emotional and raw. Are you worried this could pose a real challenge, whether it's Bush or someone else, like a Cruz or a Rubio or a Christie?</s>MOSS: Yes. Jeb Bush is really playing right into Donald Trump's hands. He's doing exactly what Trump wants him to do and it's not making Jeb Bush look like a very smart candidate. The fascinating thing about Trump, I know he's about to get started here, the fascinating thing about Trump is that for the college-educated group, he's still in the lead but he's tied with Cruz and Rubio, effectively. For non-college educated, let's call that potentially disenfranchised voter all around America. He leads by 2 1/2 times his closest competitor. So, he's got a formula and it's working and it's not that different of what happened with Barack Obama when he got out to vote with a younger vote and what allowed him to win. If Trump can get that group, which is two-thirds of the population to vote, he has a real chance at the whole election, not just the</s>GOP. BURNETT: All right, we're going to dip in here just for a moment. Listen to him. He's talking about the Democratic debate and Hillary Clinton.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Right here, you see the name Trump on that? But every single poll that they took for the debate, who won the debate? Who won? And it's sort of interesting because the FOX poll, which came out -- and it's a big one and a good one -- which came out three or four nights after the debate, had me up 11 points, 11. And I was already leading. And then I said, I guess I won the debate, right, folks? You know, so they had 11 polls, and they had Drudge, who's a great guy, 46 percent. That is 46 percent of the vote, out of 50 people. That's a lot. I would honestly take right now 46 percent of three people. But this is 15 people. By the way, sadly, I guess you heard, Lindsey Graham left the race today. Sad, very sad, extremely sad. He was nasty to me, wasn't he? You see how everybody that goes against me is like x, x. So, we started off with 17, I won't say how many left, but a lot people starting to leave, they're going to start to leave, but everybody -- wouldn't that be nice? That should happen with our country. Everybody goes against us, down the tubes. Sort of interesting, right? Sort of interesting. So, I -- this is on the debate and the night of the debate, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people voted. Who was number one in the debate? I was. I love you, too. So who is number one? Trump, Drudge, 41 percent. "TIME" magazine, hey, they didn't even give me person of the year. They should have. That's why it's heading down the tubes, folks. They gave it to a woman who has not done the right thing in Germany. It's not doing too well over there. Nice woman. I like her. I better like her. I may have to deal with her. Look, hey, Putin likes me. I want her to like me, too, right? You know, it's sort of funny, so Putin, out of nowhere, I never meet Putin, but we were on "60 Minutes" together, not together but together. Meaning, I had a segment, he had a segment. We got tremendous ratings on that show. I took full credit. I said, if it weren't for me, they wouldn't. But we didn't meet. So, we were stable mate sort of sense, right? It was he and I on "60 Minutes" like five or six weeks ago and it was great. And he came out of nowhere two days ago and he said, "Trump is brilliant. He's great. He's the leader. He's the leader of the parties." And he said nice things. I don't know. I had never met him, so I didn't know. He said nice things. All of a sudden, I'm hearing things like, oh, isn't it terrible that Putin is saying that? That's not terrible. That's good. That's like a good thing, not bad. He can't stand Obama. Obama can't stand him. Wouldn't it be nice if we could get along with people, you know? It's unbelievable. You know it's Russia, after all. Somebody said, are you at all offended that he said nice things about you? I said, no. No. They said, Trump should have been much nastier. That's terrible. And then they said, you know, he's killed reporters and I don't like that. I'm totally against that. By the way, I hate some of these people but I'd never kill them. I hate them. No. These people, honestly -- I'll be honest. I'll be honest. I would never kill them. I would never do that. Let's see. No, I wouldn't. I would never kill them. But I do hate them. And some of them are such lying, disgusting people. It's true, it's true. But I would never kill them and anybody that does, I think it would be despicable. But, you know, nobody said he killed -- he says he didn't. Other people say he didn't. Who did he kill? Well, we don't know but we hear that. I say, tell me, who did he kill? It would be so great if we could get Russia on our side and other countries on our side and knock the hell out of ISIS and the knock it. Right? Right?</s>HECKLER: Donald Trump is a racist. You're a bigot!</s>TRUMP: Bye-bye! Bye-bye!</s>BURNETT: All right. You're hearing Donald Trump talking about the polls after the last Republican debate and also doubling down on the Vladimir Putin compliment, Vladimir Putin calling Donald Trump brilliant. Donald Trump saying he's not ashamed of that at all and also doubling down on his defense of Putin killing reporters. Let's go back here to our panel, Amanda Carpenter. Amanda, what's your take on this? I mean, you know, one of the things when you watch Donald Trump is, he speaks to the people who are in the room, to your point. He is speaking to the people on the room. He does not care about the fact that this is televised and he may not be speaking to a lot of others around the country.</s>CARPENTER: Yes, I think that's a point that struck me most, just listening to the audio, is that the crowd sounds very intense. I mean, these are people that showed up to stand up and cheer because they are with Donald Trump and with his gut instinct. So, that kind of speaks to the greater anxiety and the greater fear in the electorate that many candidates fail to recognize and it's a mistake to just make -- have a focus and taking on Donald Trump. They really need to recognize what he's speaking to and find a way to tap into that feeling.</s>BURNETT: Wes Moss, as a Donald Trump supporter, do you worry that he could go too far saying, look, Vladimir Putin, I get along with the guy. I'm flattered by his compliments. I've never seen proof of him killing journalists. I mean, some of these things to experts in the foreign policy community are pretty shocking.</s>MOSS: Erin, I think what we just saw there is something that we -- we have never seen from a modern day political candidate, ever. Donald Trump's communication is directly with the people where -- who he's talking with and it's very rare to see the ability for somebody like that, especially on the political stage, to come close. I mean, he's more of a rock star to that audience there, as you can see, than he is a candidate. So, in order to make change as a president, you have to first get elected president, and I don't know of anybody else that has ever approached it this way. Trump has always been wonderfully known for his brand as a business person. Now, he is his own brand as a political candidate, and he's purging his own path, and it's working and working tremendously well.</s>BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you both very much. I appreciate your time. We'll continue to monitor this rally, which we'll be bringing you live as appropriate? OUTFRONT next, a gigantic mistake at the Miss Universe pageant. Donald Trump capitalizing off of that today. What really happened here? We're going to show and tell you. And a woman barreling her car down the sidewalk in the Vegas Strip, killing one, mowing down dozens, her 3-year-old child in the car. Why did she do it?</s>BURNETT: It's the epic mistake that has folks across the globe, including Donald Trump talking. Comedian Steve Harvey declaring Miss Columbia the winner of the Miss Universe contest, a title -- well, he had to take back just moments later on live television. So, what happened and what is Donald Trump saying? Brian Stelter is OUTFRONT.</s>STEE HARVEY, HOST: Miss Universe 2015 is Colombia!</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Put yourself in Miss Colombia's high-heeled shoes. She was wearing the crown thinking she was the new Miss Universe, smiling in front of a worldwide audience when less than two minutes after being declared the winner, host Steve Harvey walked back on stage and announced this --</s>HARVEY: I have to apologize. The first runner-up is Colombia!</s>STELTER: It is a moment that will live in TV infamy. The host of "Family Feud" mistakenly reading the first runner-up's name, then correcting himself with the whole world watching. You could see his discomfort.</s>HARVEY: This is exactly what's on the card. I will take responsibility for this. It was my mistake. It was on the card.</s>STELTER: The real winner, Miss Philippines, printed in small type on the card, showing the perils of live television. Harvey tweeted an apology saying, "I feel terrible". And suddenly, Miss Universe was trending like never before. Donald Trump pounced on the opportunity, claiming that if he were in charge, this would have never happened, he tweeted. Trump sold his stake in Miss Universe to the talent agency WME/IMG just three months ago after NBC and Univision wanted to get out of business with him. That was during the protests against Trump's comments about Mexican immigrants. The networks have refused to televise Miss USA back in July. But now, Trump is turning Harvey's gaffe into a positive, even offering a solution.</s>TRUMP: I think I'd make them a co-winner. It would be very cool. I would recommend that they go have a beautiful ceremony, which is good for the brand and good for Miss Universe and do a co-winner.</s>STELTER: And just like that, Miss Universe became part of our presidential pageant.</s>STELTER: Tonight, Erin, lots of conspiracy theories and ideas out there. Was this a stunt to get attention for Miss Universe? I say no for one simple reason. There is no amount of money to make that embarrassment worth it for Steve Harvey.</s>BURNETT: I think you're right about that. OUTFRONT now, Fraser Seitel, a crisis communications manager. I have to say, Fraser, I like Donald Trump's idea, you have a mistake that horrific, you make them both a winner.</s>FRASER SEITEL, CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER: No.</s>BURNETT: No?</s>SEITEL: Terrible idea. If anybody Donald Trump should know there is only one winner. My goodness. Does she want to share the title with Hillary? No, terrible idea.</s>BURNETT: All right. Some people said this is a publicity stunt to get attention for the pageant, which lost a lot of carriage on networks when Donald Trump sold it. What do you say?</s>SEITEL: No, I mean, I agree with Brian. I mean, they would have to pay Steve Harvey and Miss Colombia a lot of money if they had staged this. But this was the best thing ever to happen to the Miss Universe pageant. Before this happened, people forgot it was on. The audience was down a million from last year. Now, it's headline news all over the country. It's a publicity bonanza. It's -- they couldn't have -- they asked for better publicity.</s>BURNETT: So, a video emerged this morning from behind the scenes that shows Harvey blaming the teleprompter. Here he is.</s>HARVEY: So, obviously, there blaming the teleprompter. But now, he's saying he misread the card and he's taking full responsibility for it. What do you think happened?</s>SEITEL: Well, teleprompters are hard to read. I'm having trouble reading that one. The answer is that he handled it immediately with the people back stage in a proper manner. He came out. He took responsibility. He should continue to take responsibility. This is going to boost the audience next year. You know, I'm reminded of the Golden Globes where Ricky Gervais bad mouthed everybody who organized and so on. People loved it. They watched the Golden Globes have invited Ricky Gervais back to host it again. If I were Miss Universe, I would think seriously about inviting Steve Harvey back next year. I guarantee you, it will increase the audience.</s>BURNETT: That's a pretty interesting idea and sounds probably right. All right. Fraser, thank you.</s>SEITEL: Thank you.</s>BURNETT: And OUTFRONT next, a night of bloodshed, chaos, men, women, children mowed down by a car in Las Vegas.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was mayhem and it was very intentional.