jeffrey lord, great to see you. 360 special report, unprecedented inside the trump campaign. good evening, tonight a 360 special report, unprecedented inside the trump campaign. the 2016 presidential race was certainly epic, like nothing we've seen before. a billionaire businessman and former reality tv star, rocking the political world with his promise to fix washington. tonight we're going to hear from cnn correspondents who had a front row seat to it all. they were there for every moment that shattered conventional wisdom, from the front lines of the campaign trail, they saw and heard what the rest of us con the. they'll take us inside the battle behind the scenes and beyond the images that made it on air. first, to set the scene, some of the most unforgettable moments from this extraordinary race.

>> they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, and some, i assume are good people. >> you call women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals. >> only rosie o'donnell. >> your twitter account -- >> it's really going to be a big debate, but i'm always ready. >> it's not just big, it's huge. >> very high energy donald. >> total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states. he referred to my hands, if they're small, something else must be small. i guarantee you, there's no problem. i guarantee you.

i am with you. i will fight for you. and i will win for you. >> president barack obama was born in the united states period. >> this was locker room talk. i'm not proud of it. i apologize to my family, i apologize to the american people. i've just received a call from secretary clinton. >> joining me now, five of the intrepid souls that covered this campaign. dana bash, jim acosta, jeremy diamond and sarah murray. dana, do you think donald trump planned to make it all the way to the white house when he first came down that escalator? >> i don't think he knew what to expect. but i really genuinely do not

think he had any notion of being the president-elect of the united states of america. that was pretty clear not just when he came down the escalator, but i think if you fast forward to the day that he was actually sitting in the oval office with president obama and the look on his face. i don't know about you, you spent a lot of time with him. i've never seen somebody look so humble that is known as -- to use his words, bragadocious. >> this is like, oh, wow, this happened. i didn't expect this to happen. >> when you first got assigned, you were actually bummed you got this assignment? >> yeah, i couldn't believe i was getting this call from my bosses saying, we need you to now be focusing full time on donald trump, it was a very crowded republican field. i thought to myself, this is going to put me so far behind where i need to be to get source on whoever is going to be the republican nominee. at that point we thought, it

would be a matter of weeks until he dropped out of the race, or he would sort of be the flavor through the summer and then he would fall in the polls. and it became increasingly clear that that wasn't going to happen. yeah, that's right, i was pretty bummed at the outset, i thought it was going to be a flash in the pan. >> in terms of covering donald trump, was it unlike anything you experienced? >> of course. my fourth presidential campaign. he committed a number of gaffes that would have sank any other presidential candidate, he kept on going, i think it goes to show you what donald trump tapped into. he tapped into this anger out there in in the voting public that ended up delivering him to the white house. >> i always thought he has incredible political antenna, able to sense a crowd, sense an individual, sense a weakness, a strength. do you think he had it mapped out in his mind, i'm going to embrace the anger that's out there?

do you think he knew about it or learn about it on the trail? >> to some extent yes. he's been talking about trade issues for a long time. as for immigration, i think he realizes there was a section of the conservative base that was going to respond very favorably to these anti-immigrant comments. calling mexicans rapists and criminals on the very first day of your campaign, we all thought, that's it, donald trump is not going to be the republican nominee and he's not going to be the president. inside the conservative base, it was not a dog whistle, it was a bull horn. >> there were so many of those moments where early on, a lot of people thought, we asked you for your pivotal moments. a lot of you picked the moment where he talked about john mccain in less than flattering terms. >> he hit me -- >> he's a war hero. >> he's not a war hero. he's a war hero because he was captured. i like people that weren't captured. i hate to tell you. >> anyone else, i think that

would have eliminated them. >> there were audible gasps when he said that. certainly, there were audible gasps throughout many newsrooms and from the other campaigns, seeing someone saying something like this, hearing those words, were so significant. and what it did for the next 48 hours is really suck up all of the oxygen in the room. that was just the first time, the first of many we would see him do that. >> it was a faith in values event? >> faith in iowa. >> i remember seeing, he can write off the ivevangelical vot. and that wasn't so. >> it seemed to embolden him. i was with frank luntz who did that interview, asked him the question about the campaign the day before in iowa. we were at a scott walk er even.

i remember luntz saying to me, i'm going to ask him about john mccain. i want to see what he's going to say. he got it. he knew that was going to happen. >> i think it was the iowa state fair you cited as the moment when you realized or saw the reception, the rock star reception that donald trump was getting? >> yeah, we were walking around the fair and you could see these throngs of people. is this just the celebrity appeal? are they coming to see donald trump or are these people here because they see something in this candidate that perhaps we in the media elite so to speak, don't. and there was a sign where i was walking around with him, and i had a chance to be close to him for much of it, as he was in the tent eating a pork chop. he would look to me and say, jeremy, have you ever seen a crowd like this. this is my first campaign i'm

thinking, i have no idea. i don't have any benchmark to compare this to. is this normal, how does this fit into a normal campaign but you quickly started to realize, especially those of us who were on the ground august, going into september, october, as this there was this talk of is the summer of trump coming to an end. >> since it was your first campaign, you could honestly tell him, no, i've never seen a crowd like that. >> i just said, yes, mr. trump, it seems like a lot. >> you noticed a point where the cruz people started to take trump seriously. >> they said, when did you finally take donald trump seriously. they all more or less said the same thing, it was when donald trump started talking about a 32-year-old woman who was murdered in san francisco. and all of a sudden, he started acting like someone -- like a typical candidate who would

take -- you would take a story, something that's a very poignant sad story and talk about it on the campaign trail, immigration. obviously one of his big issues. >> i remember early on it seems like so long ago, but when ted cruz embraced donald trump. remember he invited him to a big rally, an anti-iran nuclear deal rally. >> he tweeted out something attacking the media for trying to separate them. >> right, we did a whole thing about their bromance. i asked them about it, and they were gushing about one another. sort of privately, ted cruz said to me, this is hard, it's hard to run for re-election, it's hard to run for office. the closer we are when he drops out, i'll get his supporters. >> and they thought that for a long time. they waited and waited and waited. until mid january, he couldn't win any more. the cruz people were seeing the writing on the wall, we have to

do something. that's when he went nuclear in the debate. much more ahead. what a lot of the people at the table called nothing short of stunning. and the bare knuckle tactics donald used during the debates. plus personal reflections from the trail. here's what sarah murray had to say. >> any highlight comes with a lowlight. there was a moment in south carolina where he would call me out in front of a crowd of thousands of people by name. >> and then they have some woman, sarah murray -- >> those people would turn around and jeer at me, and my dad would call me and make me promise him i wasn't walking to my car alone. >> this is sarah murphy reporting for cnn. mr. trump made a speech tonight. >> it's been a campaign of highs and lows. the long brown path before me leading wherever i choose. the east and the west are mine.

the north and the south are mine. all seems beautiful to me.

only new alka-seltzer plus justfree of artificial dyes and preservatives liquid gels delivers the powerful cold symptom relief you need without the unnecessary additives you don't. store manager: clean up, aisle 4. alka-seltzer plus liquid gels.

welcome back to this special hour of 360. unprecedented inside the campaign one of the ways he changed the campaign was coming up with nicknames for people in politics and repeating them time after time after time. >> this guy's a choke artist and this guy's a liar. don't worry about it little marco. >> excuse me, one second. >> the simple fact is -- >> more energy tonight, i like that. >> i never attacked him on his look, and believe me there's

plenty of subject matter right there. >> back with cnn reporters who cover the campaign. there's a simplicity to what he was doing, and yet the genius behind it as well. it's so simple it all sticks. for a guy that knows branding, it worked. >> i thought, jeb bush is not going to be the secretary of energy, you know, the name calling, it's one of those things that we all looked at each other and thought, what the hell is going on, why is this presidential candidate giving nicknames to his rivals, little marco, lyin' ted and so forth. what happened when you get out on the campaign trail and you talk to people at these rallies, they would pick it up, crooked hillary, lyin' ted, little marco. it is sort of a genius way of branding, instead of branding himself, he was branding his rivals. rubio and cruz and bush did not know what to do with this. >> but it about the under their

skin. which is what he needed at that moment. they didn't quite know how to react to it on the campaign trail. you're talking to candidates, this other person is callin you lyin' ted, how do you respond? it's almost no response. >> and it was so personal. >> certainly we've seen personal attacks in politics galore. this took it to another level. >> there's always a colonel of truth. >> that's what's so interesting about donald trump. i remember doing a town hall with a number of candidates. the first thing donald trump sat down, what about that phony with those five second pauses. >> it's so false. the five second intermissions between sentences. >> there's many things you could say about ted cruz. but the way he talks is a little artificial. >> you hear him say it over and over again, that leads into people's psyche more than they realize.

the notion of little marco not being quite prepared for the presidency. lyin' ted cruz being a little too slick and polished. not necessarily saying what's on his mind. even if you talk to democrats who are despondent now. the notion of crooked hillary hammering that, that resonated with people even after we saw the various iterations of jim comey letters and her no longer facing criminal charges. >> it did lower the level of discourse of presidential campaigns to an unprecedented level. and i think the problem is, here on out, is that every candidate can do this now. he's going to create a nation of mini-mes running at the city council level all the way up. who think it's okay to call your rivals little marco and lyin' ted or crooked hillary or whatever variation that is in your jurisdiction. >> the question is, will it work for other people who try to

mimic it? >> one of the things we learned with donald trump, going back to the john mccain thing at the beginning, that's when we learned that donald trump would never back down, he would never apologize for anything. even when he ultimately later on in the campaign would say that he was sorry for some of the things that he may have said. he never backed down from anything, will other political candidates be able to with stand the heat and the glare of the media spotlight in the same way he did. >> what we heard constantly in the early days. what attracted them to come out and see donald trump at a rally and give them a chance is that he was authentic. he was uniquely himself for good or bad. i'm not sure that would work in the model of someone else. it's donald trump the authentic man. no one else is like him. >> there was another pivotal moment was the muslim man, which

he announced at a press conference. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. >> yet again, that was a moment when many people thought, he's gone too far. >> including and especially people in his own party. that was one of the first major scisms he had with republican leaders across the country. never mind the democrats, this is people in his own party who thought, this is not america. and in fact, paul ryan said, that's not being conservative, that's not what being a conservative is. you can't single out an entire religion and say you can't come to this country. it's not who we are. >> i remember being on the ground that day, and i went and interviewed his supporters and i said, what do you think of this idea of donald trump banning all muslims from the united states. and one after the other after

the other thought it was a good idea. one of them called islam a blood cult not a religion. i will never forget that day. it was shocking to see a presidential candidate who could go on and win the presidency, talking about banning people based solely on their religion. i think a week later that said 60% of republicans agreed with that. that's when you realize really, the media's belief and the understanding of the republican base was very off. i think this now gets to the question of what we get as donald trump president-elect and donald trump president. that may have been the beginning of a negotiation, of how you begin to secure our boarders. to a lot of people who are true donald trump believers they believe him when he talks about an entire religion being banned from this country.

subject that this entire religion is dangerous, i think that is one of the things maybe donald trump himself doesn't fully understand. >> there was an interview he did with jake tapper in which he was asked about support of david duke. >> i don't know anything about david duke, okay? i don't know anything about what you're even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. i don't know, did he endorse me or what's going on? because i know nothing about david duke. >> it's not as if this was the first time he ever heard of david duke. >> right. >> that is one of the four or five near fatal moments of this campaign, not knowing -- claiming not to know who david duke was, sounded like a lie. i mean, it sounded like a lie. and to not take that opportunity at that very moment to say, not only do i condemn david duke, but i condemn white

supremacists. it was a total miss. it sent a message to the republican party there was something to be nervous about. at the same time, this alt-right movement, it's not a dog whistle it's a bull horn, he was saying to this segment of the conservative base of the republican party, i will go this far, but i won't go all the way over here and condemn this movement. it was a -- it was just a real miss for him. >> one of the things that somebody close to him said to me once, which made so much sense is that he's in a bubble. i mean, a lot of politicians are, but he's in a bubble because he's also donald trump, the celebrity who became a politician. one of his only ways to sort of have contact with the outside world was his twitter feed. and what i mean by that is, not just what he would send out, but what he would take in, reading what the people were tweeting at him. those are the kinds of things he was getting. other things as well, but he got a lot of that.

given that that -- that became his reality, what he was reading on his twitter feed. >> you go on the ground and see these people who are tweeting as well. these aren't just people who hide behind a computer screen. donald trump brought these people out in a lot of ways. you would go to rallies, there was a rally early in the campaign where a black lives matter protester was shoved, kicked, and thrown to the ground. you hear donald trump saying later, maybe he should have been roughed up. melania trump was attacked with anti-semitic threats and donald trump would not tell his supporters to back off. it was just these instans, one after the other, where donald trump would not encourage or endorse necessarily these people who are coming from the alt-right or white supremacist circles. he would tacitly lend his approval through his silence. >> as president-elect. just on 60 minutes the other day, he seems to have gone

further than he did during the campaign. telling his supporters not to do things that are inappropriate? >> yeah, and there are people around him -- not many, but there are people who are becoming more of the sort of -- more establishment that will support the president-elect eventually the president who think it's time for him to do a lot more than just look into a camera and say, stop it, to actually say, to use the bully pulpit and say, we're all americans, enough already. >> there's a lot more memorable moments ahead, here's one from dana. >> to me, the best moments on the campaign trail is when you get to see a candidate in a way that really surprises you. >> i had a good father but i learned a lot. he said, and he would go like this with his hand. he said, you have to take the lumps. >> he didn't get emotional, but he was getting introspective. >> talking about something your father used to say to you. are you taking the lumps out. >> i feel very good about the

campaign. >> you don't think of donald trump as being introspective, you don't think of him taking a moment to reminisce about when he was little and how that applied now. >> i learned from my father, he was a great teacher. i learned, take the lumps out. but when (my) back pain got bad, i couldn't sleep. i had trouble getting there on time. then i found aleve pm. aleve pm is the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour strength of aleve. for pain relief that can last into the morning. ♪ look up at a new day... hey guys! now i'm back. aleve pm for a better am.

♪ ♪ ♪ is it a force of nature? or a sales event? the season of audi sales event is here.

audi will cover your first month's lease payment on select models during the season of audi sales event. (bing)

for me, the most memorable moment of the campaign happened in may. we were at trump tower gathered for a press conference. he immediately lashed out at the news media. >> i've watched you on television, you're a real beauty. >> it was the beginning of donald trump's intimidation of the news media that we saw throughout the course of the campaign. he called us the disgusting news media. people would khan the, cnn sucks. instead of donald trump saying don't do that, he would pause and let it continue. really, any presidential candidate can lash out at us innen frot of crowds and get away with it. all of that traces back to that press conference in may. >> shortly before that press conference, donald trump clinched the number of delegates needed. he started to criticize a

federal judge who he didn't think would be fair to him in the civil fraud lawsuits against trump university. >> i have a judge who is a hater of donald trump, a hater. he's a hater. his name is gonzolo curial. and he is not doing the right thing. so what happens is, the judge who happens to be -- we believe mexican, which is great, i think that's fine, you know what, i think the mexicans are going to end up loving donald trump, when i give all these jobs, okay? >> and the judge is american. back now with the cnn reporters who covered the campaign. what's so interesting about that, it happened at a time when he had just clinched the number of delegates needed to wing the nomination. which is a huge story for him, and yet he sort of would go off on these sidetracks. >> that's the exact moment he should have been trying to unite the republican party.

you had paul ryan at that moment saying this is the textbook definition of racism. it almost seemed donald trump was not aware of the situation he was in, the title he was holding as the nominee of the party. and didn't have a responsibility to make sure he tempers his words in anyway. it shows us he's not going to change as the nominee. >> it's an example we now know as students of donald trump, that when it's his business and his reputation in his business, that he feels is under attack, he can't -- that's when he really can't help himself. and that's from people close to him, i remember, realtime, we're saying, that's what that was about. he felt like this judge was being unfair to him, sullying his name, which is trump university. and trump is on all of the things he licenses. he felt like he wasn't getting a fair shake. that's when he lashes out, and lashes out, that was exhibit a

incredibly appropriate ways. >> this is a man who was used to a particular type of coverage given his status in new york, the realms he moved in. objective coverage of donald trump back when he was a social figure wasn't really something that anyone cared about, it was just, you're covering donald trump. when you're running for president. reporters care about trying to be -- at least here, as objective as possible, that doesn't mean being friendly at times. >> that gets to what you were talking about, donald trump has very specific criticisms when he is angry about something you've done. it's not just, i think you're very unfair to me. i think you're very unfair to me because you didn't show the line of people waiting to buy my book. that has nothing to do with the rally you were at or running for president or the state of your support in iowa or even what you said was factual or not. but he had a specific idea in his mind that you should be covering the line of people waiting to buy his book.

and that's one of the complaints. >> that reminds me, they never show the crowds. the cameras, they never show the crowds. >> they never show crowds like that, look at that, it goes all the way back. they never show crowds. >> that camera he's referring to is the camera that's supposed to be on the candidate for the duration of the speech. there are other news cameras around -- >> they didn't allow a cuts camera, right? >> you just explained what a cuts camera is, would have a separate raised platform where you could get shots of the crowd. see the crowd in a way where you can show people's faces, show them reacting. in the past people have set up ladders so you can be above the crowd. >> the campaigns have. >> so you can show the entire scope of the crowd. the trump campaign only did this if they were bringing in their own ad makers to show an event. they never did it so the journali

journalists covering it would get these shots fp. >> ted cruz speaking at the convention, the big question was whether he was going to give his endorsement to donald trump. >> stand and speak and vote for conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trauft to defend our freedom. and to be faithful to the constitution. >> and that incredible moment where -- the crowd is realizing he's not endorsing, and then donald trump comes in to steal -- and successfully kind of steal the light away from ted cruz. >> donald trump seemed very cooling and calm when he came down and waved. he was livid with ted cruz and then said, watch this, and marched down there to sort of give his waive. it was amazing to watch the way the energy in this convention changed day to day, because

monday there was a floor revolt. tuesday there was a failed effort to get ted cruz's name into nomination. donald trump was the nominee, the delegates had voted. by wednesday, it felt like a party. people were ready to swallow the pill, get over it, donald trump's the nominee, let's enjoy these last couple days. ted cruz missed that environment. >> that moment, i remember, i was standing with the texas delegation kind of watching them watch their senator. and then i could see the texas delegation wasn't that far from where the vip section was where donald trump came down. i recognized some of his security guards. i thought, is he coming in right now. we walked over there, you could feel the energy in the room literally shift. it was palpable from the podium to where donald trump was, and it was such a moment to witness and to feel you knew that he

understood the power of his celeb rit i it all he had to do was walk in and it would change everything. >> there are so many stories that ate up a week here or there of the campaign. i think of mr. khan speaking at the democratic convention. a story that perhaps would have gone away. donald trump made the story worse by his response to it. for a guy who's so in tuned and instinctu instinctual, it really did continue this story in a negative way. >> again, he couldn't help himself. he's very instinctual about other people's sort of pluses and minuses, and where their weaknesses are, but maybe not so much about his own. or that he knows and it's just not much he can do. the fact that he went after this gold star family, and specifically about his wife. the mother, whether or not she was not saying anything because she wasn't allowed to because of

her religion pp that's a five alarm fire right there, so many of his issues. one thing is -- i remember talking to a good friend of his, sort of again realtime. he would say, you know, i know, i know, i know i shouldn't do this, it wasn't even so much that he couldn't help himself. he also thought that that's what the people wanted. they wanted him to continue to do things that nobody expected. >> plenty more ahead, including the moments that made three general election debates unlike any that came before. as well as the october surprises that led to the biggest surprise in american political history. and saving so much money on their car insurance by switching to geico... well, just look at this setting. do you have the ring? oh, helzberg diamonds. another beautiful setting. i'm not crying. i've just got a bit of sand in my eyes, that's all. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

it's how adventure begins. credit card. and with the miles you can earn, it's always taking you closer to your next unforgettable experience. become a cardmember and start enjoying benefits built to take you further... like group 1 boarding... and no foreign transaction fees. plus, when you fly on american airlines, your first checked bag fee is waived for you and up to four companions. every purchase with the citi® / aadvantage® platinum select takes you closer to adventure... whether it's somewhere you can see your breath, or a place that takes it away. apply today for a limited time offer and earn 50,000 aadvantage® bonus miles after spending $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months. by using the citi® / aadvantage platinum select® card,

you can begin to pack more into your adventure. become a cardmember to enjoy these benefits. apply today. visit citi.com/travel, or call 877-359-2290. our mission is to produce for african women as they try to build their businesses and careers. my name is yasmin belo-osagie and i'm a co-founder at she leads africa. i definitely could not do my job without technology. this windows 10 device, the touchscreen allows you to kind of pinpoint what you're talking about. which makes communication much easier and faster than the old mac that i used to use. you can configure it in so many different ways, it just, i don't know, it feels really cool. i feel like i'm in the future.

welcome back to this special hour of 360, we're taking a look at the trump campaign with the people who covered it. the presidential debates between donald trump and hillary clinton were often explosive, the first face-off attracting 84 million viewers. the most watched ever. >> secretary clinton, but you were totally out of control. i said, there's a person with a temperament that's got a problem. >> secretary clinton. >> okay. >> i have tremendous respect for women. >> have you ever done those things. >> women have respect for me.

and i will tell you, no i have not. >> are you saying you're not prepared -- >> i will tell you at the time. i'll keep you in suspense. >> by most polls, hillary clinton again if you believe any of these polls, hillary clinton won those debates. donald trump liked to point to online polls that said he won. do you think the debates mattered in the end? >> i think they mattered. i think that for a while there, hillary clinton was on a role, i mean, they had just come out of the access hollywood controversy and went into these debates. >> the access hollywood tape was right before the second debate. >> he was a wounded animal in those debates. in the final stretch of this campaign, i think the fbi, you know, document -- a letter that went to congress saying we're relooking at this investigation, i think that was a key -- it was the super storm sandy of this

presidential campaign. that super storm and the 2012 race might have helped barack obama just a little bit here and there, i think this helped donald trump in the end. i think no question, hillary clinton won those debates. but donald trump was able to get into this final stretch and eventually have faith bail him out. >> let's talk about that comey letter. >> the system is rigged. but with what i've just announced previously, it might not be as rigged as i thought. right? right? the fbi -- i think they're going to right the ship, folks. i think they're going to right the ship. >> going back to the debates. the debates in the primary season had a big impact on the rise of donald trump.

do you think these three debates mattered? the same question i asked jim. >> i think it's too early to really know the answer to that. my initial reaction given the outcome of the election is no. is no, because at the end of the day his message of us versus them as you were saying, and more importantly, the substance of what he had been talking about, i'm going to make it better again, the trade deals are bad, you've lost your job because they don't know what they're doing in washington, look at me, i'm successful i can make things better, i'm not like them. that won the day. >> and also change. the whole notion of change. >> against someone like clinton. >> and by the way, who had a federal fbi investigation and who by the way, had an e-mail server problem. and by the way, someone who he called crooked hillary. >> i also think when we were in the midst of these debates, those looked like the last big

moments of the campaign those were the biggest moments of the biggest audience. your question to him about whether he had engaged in this kind of behavior then prompted something like a dozen women to come out and say they were the victims of unwanted sexual advances against who is now the president-elect. now eventually that was a story that somehow became second to the comey letter which is stunning to think about all of the twists and turns in this campaign. and i do think that voters were able to move past it, and even women who were concerned about that for a while, this letter renewed their concerns about hillary clinton. >> i think another key moment for the debates, and i almost forgot about this, when he suggested that it was smart that he didn't pay any federal income taxes. i remember he came into the spin roof after that debate, and we both asked him, are you paying any federal income taxes? and it was shortly after that, the new york times obtained that tax return from 18 years ago, because he took such a huge loss in his casino business, he was

able to avoid paying taxes for 18 years. this is a guy who became president without producing his tax returns, who said that he's still under audit, and, therefore, we're not going to see our tax returns any time soon. what's in those -- what is the irs finding. >> they haven't released tax returns in years where we knew the audits were complete. >> there were opportunities for transparency, and they were betting on the fact that voters wouldn't care, and they appear to be correct. when we come back, donald trump's election night promise to unite the country. first, a moment from the campaign trail. >> i was in maine covering the trump rally, this is the height of when trump was railing against the media. in the women's room, a trump sporter came up and said, i want you to know something, i don't like how he calls you out from the podium, it makes me feel comfortable as a supporter.

why do you support him, then. i think he's playing a role, i don't think he means what he says. >> we're going to build the wall and mexico's going to pay for the wall. >> many trump supporters were able to compartmentalize his rhetoric. i think we saw that reflected in election day results. >> god bless you, maine, god bless you. [ sneezes ]

i have a big meeting when we land, but i'm so stuffed up, i can't rest. nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? alka-seltzer plus night liquid gels fights your worst cold symptoms. plus, unstuffs your nose. oh, what a relief it is.

everything we've seen in this special hour of "360," has been leading to the moment few saw coming, as donald trump spoke for first time as president-election. >> for all independents and democrats and republicans across the nation, i say it is time for us to come together as one united people. it's time. i pledge to every citizen of our land that i will be president for all americans. >> that is the pledge he made. the question now and for years to come is what happens next. back with the panel. that night, i mean, an extraordinary night. do you think -- did the campaign itself -- there's been reporting that internals on the campaign, their own internal polls, the day of the election showed he wasn't going to win. >> i had a senior advisor come

up to me -- came up to me. i did not ask the question -- and said it's going to take a miracle for us to win, quote/unquote. they did not think they were going to win but the thing that stands out to me. i was in pennsylvania the sunday night before the election and at the pittsburgh airport and there was a line that zig-zaged for a mile and a half outside this airport hangar and a trump operative was saying how does this look like a losing campaign. and anderson, the thing i'll come back to you time, and time again, when i've looked around tru rallies and saw the manhattan billionaire, all of these folks in flannel shirts, work boots and i would think to myself, these are democrats. >> they're democrats. >> what are they doing at a trump rally. he totally stole away a segment of -- and stole is the wrong word. he went out there and grabbed a

segment of the democratic party that should have been supporting hillary clinton that they completely abandoned. completely surrendered. >> and he said he would do that. he said he would make end roads in these blue states with exactly these kind of voters and he went out and did it and went to places he thought were crazy like wisconsin and michigan and pennsylvania, where republicans told me there's no chance donald trump is going to win these states. >> and not as turned off by the cultural stuff that the media always held on to. >> you've covered him so much. when people and me, you know, friends, whatever i run into, what's he like, what's it like interviewing him, i would say i enjoy interviewing him, like first of all, you can and him pretty much any question, and he'll answer it. >> that's his problem, as a politician. for us, it's good. >> it's refreshing at least -- >> when you talk about the public versus the private donald trump, i don't know that all of

us know the private donald trump completely because he did not spend a lot of time with reporters, especially those who traveled on the press plane chasing him around the country. >> and even those who work in his campaign my sense don't know much about the private donald trump. >> there was a press conference in the spring where i asked him a question about trade and you want to erect these tariffs on other countries, what do you say to the american consume who are is going to see goods rise by 25, 35%. he told me, jeremy, nobody listens to you. a few days later we were at a cnn debate in miami, and i was in -- you know, the area where donald trump was and i went up to him and i said hello, jeremy, good to see you. meet my wife, melania. it was as if nothing had happened that's where you realize so much is a strategy, a way to try and gain more favorable coverage, and for a long time, wasn't -- the art of

the deal, spells it all out. >> like everyone says, you know, you cover this candidate forever, or you've gotten -- tell us what the real donald trump is like. and maybe this is like -- this is the reason he was able to resinate some of these voters. he likes to be at home and like a cheeseburger at dinner and likes to spend time with his family and yes, he probably reads too many twitter mentions, but he really has kept the life that is in many ways insulated from his top aides. >> the thing that i come back to is at the very end of the campaign, how much time did he spend, grand rapids, his plane, trump force one, parked right next to each other, they did not take the time to take that picture with the press that follows him every day of the campaign. and something that candidates do traditionally going back how long. we had to take that picture with

the cardboard of donald trump. and that's the picture right there. >> that's what we're dealing with. >> fascinating for the next eight years. appreciate it. we'll see. thank you very much. great work. cnn has been working for two years behind the scenes of this campaign to produce a book titled the election unprecedented, thank you for watching this special edition of "360," inside the trump campaign, good night. sounds) oooh! when your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops. (sighs sadly) try this. only aleve can stop pain for 12 hours. plus, aleve is recommended by more doctors than any other brand for minor arthritis pain. aleve. live whole. not part.

won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry about replacing your car because you'll get the full value back including depreciation. and if you have more than one liberty mutual policy, you qualify for a multi-policy discount, saving you money on your car and home coverage. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. breaking news, president-elect offering the job of national security advisor to army lieutenant general michael flynn. this is "cnn tonight," i'm don lemon. general flynn a top military advisor to trump during the campaign. also tonight trump holding his first meeting with a world leader and announcing he'll meet with one of his bitterist rival this is weekend, mitt romney, 2012 republican nominee, famous for calling trump a conman, tony, and a fraud. a source telling cnn, romney is letting it be known he's interested in becoming trump's secretary of state, and tonight, a top