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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Harris Delivers Closing Argument of 2024 Election; Will Latinos In Nevada Spurn Trump Over Comic's "Floating Island Of Garbage" Comments?; Latest CNN Poll: Harris And Trump Locked In Close Races In Arizona And Nevada; Black Voters In Critical GA County On Why They're Undecided. Aired: 8-9p ET
Aired October 29, 2024 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00]
KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Donald Trump is an easy mark, easy to manipulate with flattery or favor, and you can believe that autocrats like Putin and Kim Jong-un are rooting for him in this election.
I will always uphold our security, advance our national interest and ensure that the United States of America remains as we must forever be a champion of liberty around the world.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
America, we know what Donald Trump has in mind -- more chaos, more division and policies that help those at the very top and hurt everyone else.
I offer a different path, and I ask for your vote.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
And here is my pledge to you: I pledge to seek common ground and common sense solutions to make your life better. I am not looking to score political points. I am looking to make progress.
I pledge to listen to experts, to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make, and to people who disagree with me. Unlike Donald Trump, I don't believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail. I'll give them a seat at the table.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
I pledge to you to approach my work with the joy and optimism that comes from making a difference in people's lives, and I pledge to be a president for all Americans.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
And to always put country above party and self.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
I love our country with all my heart --
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
And I believe in its promise because I've lived it.
I grew up as a child of the Civil Rights movement. My parents would take me to marches in a stroller where crowds of people of all races, faiths, and walks of life came together to fight for the ideals of freedom and opportunity.
I've lived the promise of America. I saw how hard our mother worked to give her daughters the same chances this country gave her.
Growing up, I was blessed to have family by blood and family by love, who instilled in me the values of community, compassion, and faith that have always defined our nation at its best.
I've lived the promise of America. I've spent my life fighting for the people who have been hurt and counted out, but never stopped believing that in our country, anything is possible.
I have lived the promise of America, and I see the promise of America in all of you, in all of you, I see it.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
I see it in the young people who are voting for the first time --
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
-- who are determined to live free from gun violence and to protect our planet and to shape the world they inherit.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
I see it in the women who refuse to accept a future without reproductive freedom --
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
-- and the men who support them.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
I see it in Republicans who have never voted for a Democrat before, but have put the Constitution of the United States over party.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
I've seen it in Americans, different in many respects, but united in our pursuit of freedom, our belief in fairness and decency and our faith in a better future.
America, I know the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us, I know it. And that's why I am in this race to fight for the people, just like I always have. [20:05:14]
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
Nearly 250 years ago, America was born when we wrested freedom from a petty tyrant.
Across the generations, Americans have preserved that freedom, expanded it, and in so doing, proved to the world that a government of, by, and for the people is strong and can endure.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
And those who came before us, the Patriots at Normandy and Selma, Seneca Falls and Stonewall --
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
-- on farmlands and factory floors, they did not struggle, sacrifice, and lay down their lives only to see us cede our fundamental freedoms.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
They didn't do that only to see us submit to the will of another petty tyrant.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
These United States of America we are not a vessel for the schemes of wannabe dictators.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised, a nation big enough to encompass all our dreams, strong enough to withstand any fracture or fissure between us and fearless enough to imagine a future of possibilities.
So America, let us reach for that future. Let us fight for this beautiful country we love, and in seven days, we have the power.
Each of you has the power to turn the page and start writing the next chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.
I thank you all. God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
Thank you.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening, thanks for joining us.
That is Vice President Kamala Harris, who just made a closing argument to voters from the Ellipse in Washington, DC. A capacity crowd, these are live pictures. The overflow being diverted onto the National Mall nearby.
You see her on stage with her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, the vice president, speaking from very same spot, where almost four years ago, her opponent encouraged his followers, some of whom he knew were armed according to sworn testimony to march on the Capitol.
The former president is speaking in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a city with a large Puerto Rican population, two days after speaker at his Madison Square Garden rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage and used graphic sexual language to demean Latinos, all Latinos.
We begin right now with the vice president joining us is republican strategist and media consultant, Brad Todd; CNN anchor and chief political correspondent, Dana Bash; CNN political commentator, Jamal Simmons; also, Gretchen Carlson, journalist, and co-founder of Lift Our Voices.
Dana, I mean, clearly Vice President Harris picking that spot for a very obvious reasons with a huge crowd, was that a win for her tonight?
DANA BASH, CNN HOST: I mean, this is exactly what the Harris campaign hoped that they were going to deliver, that she was going to deliver in the setting, it was unmistakable, not just January 6th, but with the White House behind her and most importantly, of course, what she said and how she said it.
To me, the takeaway sort of umbrella lines, this is not who we are, it doesn't have to be this way. It is the contrast that the Harris campaign has been trying to make for the hundred days or so that they have been in there that Donald Trump you have to remember what it was like.
And he has provided that memory because of the Madison Square Garden, a lot of his speeches, but especially the Madison Square Garden rally a couple of nights ago. I mean, compare that to this. That was his closing event. This is her closing event.
[20:10:05]
And then once she tried to remind people of the feeling of the chaos and the uncertainty and the anxiety. She then laid out all of the reasons why she's the person who can deliver and who can be the president.
And when I say feeling, I say that intentionally and we've talked about this before and that is one of the most important things that a Republican strategist has said to me that I have kind of used as a North Star is, as important as policies are and as important as proposals are, it is how a candidate makes people feel, that is among the most important.
We know how Donald Trump made people feel and what she did tonight was remember that feeling and think about what I can bring you.
COOPER: Jamal, what do you make of the comments?
JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The comments are great. The setting was also great. You know, for those of us who came of age, kind of beginning in the Clinton administration, Michael Deaver was like the image master that all of us are trying to emulate, right? We're all copying Michael Deaver's images.
COOPER: He was Reagan's PR guru.
SIMMONS: He was Reagan's PR guru, so from a decade or so earlier but we kind of cut away from that with Trump because Trump did everything in a room with flags and -- this was a great event. It was a great setting. The White House was behind her. She looked good. The people who are there looked like a cross-section of America.
This is what she's been arguing. And now, what we're seeing is Trump and Harris are living out the contrast. The Harris campaign was the highlight. Trump is kind of cruel. It's course, he's got people all standing there jostling against each other and against other Americans. She's talking about bringing Americans together and looking forward. So if we're going to have a change election, this is going to be about change.
The Harris campaign wants this to be about the change from Trump to the future, not about Joe Biden which is where the Trump campaign was.
COOPER: And the former president has certainly helped out with the rally he had. Gretchen, I just want to play something that the vice president said tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: America, for too long, we have been consumed with too much division, chaos, and mutual distrust. And it can be easy then to forget a simple truth, it doesn't have to be this way, it doesn't have to be this way.
It is time to stop pointing fingers. We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms. It is time to turn the page on the drama and the conflict, the fear and division.
It is time for a new generation of leadership in America.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
And I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of United States of America.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Gretchen, how do you think it played?
GRETCHEN CARLSON, JOURNALIST: Look, this was the antithesis of division. This was about contrast from division, common ground, common sense solutions, compromise, a lot of 'C' words there but they all add up to the fact that she's extending an olive branch to those undecided voters out there saying I am the person that will make you feel comfortable, another C-word and I think that this was incredibly important because a lot of people think that Kamala Harris, herself as a divider.
They had an impression that she's too far to the left. This entire speech was about bringing people together, and I think one of the most powerful lines was even if you disagree with me and she said this twice, even if you disagree with me, I'm not going to jail you. I'm not going to send you off into oblivion as she's alleging Trump might do to his enemies. I'm going to embrace you and I'm going to have conversations with people that I disagree with.
I think that that was one of the most important things she has said in the last 90 days for those people out there who are hesitant to pull the trigger first.
COOPER: She said about that she would give them a seat at the table, I mean, was her phrase, Brad, as a Republican, what do you think?
BRAD TODD, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST AND MEDIA CONSULTANT: I hate to be the skunk at the garden party but I think, you know, I plan political events for a living. And I think this was political malpractice to put her in front of this White House.
Sixty-eight percent of Americans think that the country is on the wrong track and they blamed Joe Biden and increasingly, they are blaming Kamala Harris. By standing in front of the White House tonight, she is going to own all 68 percent of that disapproval.
And, you know, I think it's a comfort reason. I think Northwest Washington, DC is about her best precinct in America. Everybody likes her there, she should have been in the Union Lodge in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh tonight, that would have done her a lot more good.
And I also don't think that she did a lot for Nikki Haley voters. They've talked a lot this week about that they were going after Haley voters and I think the Haley voters had to be looking at this as like a Christmas present they opened up was socks, you know, they got nothing new from her, nothing that wasn't in her convention speech, frankly, and I don't think this moves the ball for her here at the end.
[20:15:18]
COOPER: I actually -- talking about Nikki Haley, I just want to play something that Nikki Haley said on Fox earlier tonight about the last time she spoke to Trump. Because there was a lot of talk about, you know, she made it clear she wanted to campaign for him, was willing to -- here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIKKI HALEY, FORMER UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: The last time I talked to him was back in June, and they're very aware that were on standby. They know that we would be there to help. I've helped with some fundraising letters and text messages and those types of things. So, we've done that, but look, were on the same team. It is their campaign's decision on what he needs and these last final days, it does not bother me at all.
They also need to look at how they're talking about women. I mean, this bromance and this masculinity stuff, I mean, it borders on edgy to the point that it's going to make women uncomfortable. You've got affiliated PACs that are doing commercials about calling Kamala the C- word, or you had speakers at Madison Square Garden referring to her and her pimps. That is not the way to win women.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: By the way we should point out, none of the C-words that Gretchen was talking about --
CARLSON: Please, thank you for that clarification, Anderson.
COOPER: That Elon Musk's PAC has put out a commercial using very --
BASH: Which they pulled back.
COOPER: Oh, well, okay.
BASH: Yes.
CARLSON: With Nikki Haley not -- this will go down, if Trump loses this election, that will go down as one of his greatest mistakes, is not getting Nikki Haley out on the campaign trail.
She's actually the one who's putting herself out there saying she would do it, which I know surprised a lot of people, and he won't do it.
SIMMONS: Well, the first mistake was he's probably could have made her vice presidential nominee. I think that would have helped him a lot, but that would have been a different Donald Trump, right?
Listen, to Brad's point about the White House, at the end of the day, she is a woman of color and she needs people to envision her in the White House. They need to see her as president the United States.
And I think, I get what you're saying. The Union Hall and some place like that. But for her, she's got two different task as she's got to first get over as a hurdle, which is mentally and then right now, people are starting to pay attention again,
I think this campaign has the rationale that all the things that we think people know about Trump in the last few years, they believe they have forgotten or as Dana was saying, they're just now, clicking back into. So, they want to make sure everybody's focused on that part --
TODD: I think people see her in the White House, they see here in this White House and they see that she says she would do nothing different from Joe Biden. She told Anderson in your townhall, she said she couldn't think of mistakes she'd made in this last four years.
I think the problem she has and the reason that she's in trouble right now is because she can't get past this administration's failure.
BASH: I think that you say malpractice and hearing Nikki Haley say that, that is malpractice and there's only one reason that Donald Trump has not used Nikki Haley, the way that she said she's willing to be used politically and that is because he can't get past his grievances with her because she was his opponent and she was winning a sizable amount of the vote even when she was not in the race.
And those are the exact voters that the Harris campaign believes are gettable with the C-words like common ground and common sense. We don't know, but they believe that they have about three to five percent of undecided or gettable voters. And that this is the kind of message that those Haley voters, many of them are probably Haley voters will actually be open to whether or not they'll get -- she'll get them, we don't know. But at least --
TODD: I think it's a gamble, though. She's asking them to come on vibes and she's asking him to come on style. She's making them do most of the work on policy. Their hesitation with Kamala is -- they have hesitations about Donald Trump. But if you're a Haley voter, you got a hesitation about him. But their hesitations with Kamala Harris are on ideology.
BASH: But objectively, you did -- now, listen, I, don't want to -- this is your job to debate him, but she gave a lot of policy there.
TODD: She did, but nothing on ideology. She's not -- that home health care is not an ideological --
SIMMONS: No, her ideology is America, right? Her ideology was, I am like a story of how you proceed in America, how you can achieve in America and I think that's something that she was really trying to --
COOPER: It's also, I mean -- she is talking about giving Republicans. I mean, listening to Republicans. I mean, she's trying to make it a table where Republicans are welcome, whether that's true or not, I mean, who knows?
But that is certainly what she is saying. She is giving permit -- as Liz Cheney was trying to give a permission structure -- Liz Cheney was trying to give permission structure for Republicans to vote for her, she is certainly trying to keep that door open.
CARLSON: Well, just look at Pennsylvania if you want to drill down there, 42,000 people still voted for Nikki Haley, even when she was a month out of the election. And Trump only won by 44,000 votes in Pennsylvania. I mean, that alone could turn it. So even if some of those disaffected Republicans --
[20:20:10]
COOPER: Let's just play something she said trying to draw a contrast between how she views her political opponent, how Trump, views it. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: ... and to people who disagree with me, unlike Donald Trump, I don't believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail, I'll give them a seat at the table.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:20:37]
CARLSON: That was Olive branch. I mean in my mind that was Olive -- whether or not it works, who knows, but that was an Olive branch to those disaffected Trump voters who maybe will vote not on policy, but on saving America.
COOPER: In terms of like ground games, you know, there's been a lot of talk that the Trump campaign has outsourced a lot of it to other groups. Do we know, I mean, is there a sense of who has the more effective ground games? Does it depend state by state?
TODD: Well now we don't have to imagine it. We can look at early voting stats and the Republicans are out up performing Republican performance in each of the last three election cycles in all seven targets states.
In Nevada, for instance, you can see a 20 point swing right now, toward Republicans among Hispanic voters. You can see who's showing up at the polls.
I mean CNN's poll today said Donald Trump has won one the people who vote as early by five points in a state that Republicans haven't carried since forever. So I think that the ground game proof is in the pudding and who shows up and I think Republicans are doing okay.
BASH: Just to clarify real quick, that is true, but it's also because Republicans might be culturally voting differently earlier, rather than on election day, which is why they are --
TODD: It's a part of that.
COOPER: Brad Todd, Dana Bash, Jamal Simmons, thank you, Gretchen Carlson as well. Thank you so much.
Now, the former president is speaking in Allentown Pennsylvania, which according to the mayor is home to more than 35,000 Puerto Ricans. Two nights ago at Madison Square Garden, one of his warm-up speakers likened Puerto Rico to his words and island of garbage.
The so called comedian also aimed racist slurs at Latinos, Black Americans and Jews. Today, the former president told ABC News, "I don't know him. Someone put him up there. I don't know who he is," which by the way is what he always says about people he's desperately trying to distance himself from. And about the rally, which saw their speakers as well spewing out hateful messages. Listen to what he said just moments ago in Allentown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The other day, Madison Square Garden on Sunday night, we had a ball. That was the greatest evening anyone seen politically. I mean, Madison Square Garden is really big. Its big, and it's beautiful.
The thing went all the way back to the river.
The love was unbelievable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well it wasn't the love, just to remind you, here are some of it with a warning, it's offensive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SID ROSENBERG, AMERICAN RADIO PERSONALITY: You got homeless and veterans, Americans -- Americans sleeping on their own feces on a bench in Central Park but the (bleep) illegals, they get whatever they want, don't they?
GRANT CARDONE, AMERICAN ENTREPRENEUR: She's a fake, I'm not in here to invalidate her. She's a fake, a fraud, she's a pretender, her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.
TONY HINCHCLIFFE, AMERICAN COMEDIAN: Who, Black guy with a thing on his head, what the hell is that a lamp shade. Look at this guy. Oh my goodness, wow, I'm just kidding. That's one of my buddies, he had a Halloween party last night. We had fun we carved watermelons together.
These Latinos they love making babies too, just know that, they do, they do. There's no pulling out, they don't do that. They come inside just like they do to our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And of course the Puerto Rico slur.
Late today, late today outside Philadelphia, the former president said, "No president has done more for Puerto Rico than I have."
Joining us now is Victor Martinez. He lives in Allentown, where he owns a Spanish-language radio station, La Mega. Mr. Martinez, appreciate you being with us. What are you hearing from your listeners about Sunday's rally?
VICTOR MARTINEZ, LA MEGA RADIO ALLENTOWN, MORNING SHOW HOST: Listen, let me tell you there's no doubt the Puerto Rican community here in Pennsylvania is pissed off. They are not happy, they are expressing their anger towards what happened on Sunday. They can't believe that this was actually said in a major political event especially in New York City where over a million Puerto Ricans live and in New York, that has a rich Puerto Rican history with the Puerto Rican community.
COOPER: As we mentioned earlier, the former president claim he didn't know the comedian, didn't hear the comments. Do you think voters buy that?
MARTINEZ: Absolutely not, I mean, one of the things that we discussed this morning on the air was the fact that some people might have been willing to give him a pass because he didn't say it himself and you can't blame people for what other people say.
But the fact that on Sunday night, on Monday morning, on Monday afternoon, on Tuesday morning, he still hadn't posted any messages that distanced himself from what was said or even apologize, that I think has angered even more, the Puerto Rican community.
[20:25:22]
COOPER: I mean if he had any guts or concern about what was said, he could have come out that night, these speakers were all before him. He could have come out and said, you know what, I just want to take a moment and say, I don't approve of what was just said. We have -- and said whatever you were going to say, he chose not to do that. He still hasn't done that.
How much do you think, the so-called joke about Puerto Rico, the refusal to condemn it. How much do you think that might hurt him on election day in Pennsylvania or elsewhere?
MARTINEZ: I think it will definitely will hurt him. I mean, you have about half a million Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania, about 300,000 of them are registered to vote. If one or two percent of those Puerto Rican decide to come out and vote or change their mind on who they're voting, that could cost him the election. But listen, this is not just about Pennsylvania. We have we have about 100,000 Puerto Ricans that live in North Carolina.
We have about 50,000 to 60,000 Puerto Ricans that live in Arizona. We've got Wisconsin. We've got Puerto Ricans living all over this country.
COOPER: JD Vance has tried to kind of downplay this. He said that Americans have to "Stop getting so offended at every little thing." What do you say to that?
MARTINEZ: Listen, more important, what I have to say, my audience was again, mad at the fact that these people can't acknowledge that that wasn't right, that that was completely out of bounds. You don't just call any country. And then for us, Puerto Ricans, you don't called Puerto Rico trash or garbage?
There are still things that, I mean, Puerto Ricans, we are proud people. There are still things that for us are sacred, that is the island and the flag. If you mess with any of those things we'll come back hard on you.
And just to give you example of how deep this situation has gotten, the Puerto Rico representative in Washington, Jenniffer Gonzalez which is a very strong Trump supporter and right now the candidate for governor to Puerto Rico said this afternoon in live television in Puerto Rico, that she acknowledged that this situation will cause Donald Trump in those states where Puerto Ricans live.
So a strong supporter running for governor in Puerto Rico, acknowledging that this will definitely cost Donald Trump.
COOPER: President Biden spoke about the former president tonight and I just want to play a quick clip of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- from Puerto Rico, where I am -- my home state at Delaware, they are good decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization is unconscionable and it's un- American.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: I'm wondering what you made of the president's choice of words there.
MARTINEZ: Well, listen again, those were strong words and I don't agree that we should call Trump supporters trash either. That's not right. I do appreciate the president supporting our community and supporting Puerto Rico but obviously, you know, calling his supporter trash is not something that it should have been said.
Going back to the Puerto Rico situation, I mean, a lot of people have now been talking about what happened during Hurricane Maria and the fact that Donald Trump went to Puerto Rico and threw paper towels and the fact that Puerto Rico, he called Puerto Rico dirty and poor, and the fact that he wanted to trade in Puerto Rico, like if it was a used car.
All of those things were said, you know, five or six years ago and people were mad then. But time heals all wounds and I think people kind of put it aside, it's okay.
COOPER: Yes, it brings you back.
MARTINEZ: What happened on Sunday brought all of those feelings back. What happened on Sunday, revived that anger that we had five years ago.
I was speaking to people in my audience and they were like, oh, that's right, that's the guy that threw paper towels, that's the guy that withheld funding when we need it. Oh and now, he's participant of us being called trash.
COOPER: Victor Martinez. I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you. MARTINEZ: Thank you.
COOPER: Coming up next, John King, All Over The Map, five states in five days talking to Latino voters in Nevada about Trump's comments and seeing how they are playing there.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:33:38]
COOPER: More now in the backlash surrounding the man selected to speak at the Trump rally called Puerto Rico floating island of garbage. The Harris campaign announced today that singer and actress Jennifer Lopez, whose parents were born in Puerto Rico, will join the Vice President at her rally in Las Vegas Thursday.
Tonight, our John King is there.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
JOHN KING, CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dawn in battleground Nevada. The Vegas morning rush. One week to Election Day.
ANTONIO MUNOZ, NEVADA VOTER: So it's very, very tense, you know. It's nerve wracking because you just don't know what's going to happen.
KING (voice-over): Antonio Munoz owns the 911 taco bar. He's a veteran and a retired Las Vegas police officer. Undecided and unhappy with his choices when we first visited 11 months ago. Meeting Kamala Harris when we returned six weeks ago. Now definitely Harris. Trump's weekend rally in New York removed any doubt.
MUNOZ: That was very, very upsetting, you know. They spoke about Mexicans and having kids like nothing is like, you know, where do you come up with this stuff? Why would you say something like that in an atmosphere like that? And that's very troubling.
KING (voice-over): Munoz is betting on a narrow Harris win here, but says the Latino community is more evenly split than in past campaigns because of housing and grocery costs.
MUNOZ: Inflation, it's affected a lot of people here in our community.
[20:35:00]
And they don't see their dollar going the way it used to go, you know? I think they really think Trump's going to make it better, which, you know, one person can come in and just inflation is going down. It's a process.
KING (voice-over): Early voting here runs through Friday and more than seven in 10 Nevada voters live here in Clark County. That's Las Vegas and it's fast growing suburbs. One big difference, this cycle is the Republican embrace of early voting. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton on hand in Vegas for a veterans for Trump event to kick off the final week. One in five Nevada voters is Latino, and a big election year focus at Fiesta 98.1 is urging listeners to flex their political muscle.
Rafael Cerros Jr. is one of the owners. Six weeks ago, he told us he was undecided, and that Trump was running strong among Latinos here.
KING: Anything different from the last time we were here?
RAFAEL CERROS JR., NEVADA VOTER: A lot, a lot.
KING (voice-over): Cerros is now voting Harris, and he says the racist insults at the weekend Trump event exploded on social media, triggered listener calls, texts, emails.
CERROS: That alone fluked a lot of people that were going to go for Trump. Now, saying, hey maybe I'm not too sure, and maybe I'm going, you know, with Harris. You know, the rhetoric, whether directly from, you know, the candidate or not, it's kind of scary, especially, you know, for Latinos here in Vegas specifically, you know, my Mexican people.
KING: He says, oh, he don't know -- he doesn't know who allowed those speakers to speak at his rally.
CERROS: Oh, that's BS.
KING: That's BS.
CERROS: That's BS.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COOPER: John, I mean, this is your third trip to Nevada. It seems like from the people you talk to that those racist remarks from Trump's Madison Square Garden, you know, rally, or at least among them shifting the landscape.
KING (on-camera): It sure feels that way. Again, two voters, so you don't want to overproject. You don't want to draw sweeping conclusions. But we've known Antonio and we've known Rafael for months now. Our first visit here was 11 months ago, then six weeks ago. And we know they're plugged into the Latino community, so we take what they say seriously.
And a reminder here, I just had my friend on the trip with me here, the Mini Magic Wall. Let's bring up the population. Look at this. This is the Latino population nationwide. The deeper the shading, the higher the population of Latinos. So let's zoom in on battleground Nevada here. And zoom in, you look at Clark County where I am in Las Vegas. 75 percent of the votes just shy of that will be cast here in Clark County.
So, Anderson, our polling here shows a dead heat. If this only impacts Trump a little bit, a little bit can make a big difference in a battleground state. And both of these voters who we've been in touch with say that it just exploded on social media and that the reaction continues days later.
The question is, Trump and Harris both do here this week. Can Trump stop the bleeding or does it hurt him just a little? Because hurting just a little when it's so close can matter a lot.
COOPER: Yes. John King, thanks so much.
More perspective now from CNN Political Director David Chalian. What does the latest polling tell us about Latino voters, David?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. We have two brand new polls out at CNN today in Arizona and Nevada, two of the battleground states with a high -- a big number of Latino voters in this race that could swing those states. Take a look at what we found in both of these states with Latino likely voters.
You see 56 percent for Harris, 38 percent for Trump in Arizona. That is an 18-point lead for her in Arizona. And you see it nearly dead, even in Nevada. Now, Anderson, I want to compare where Harris stands with the Latino vote in these two states to what Joe Biden did in the exit polls in the 2020 election.
Take a look, that 18 percentage point lead in our poll, and that's a poll different from the exit poll of actual voters four years ago. Four years ago, Joe Biden won Latino voters in Nevada by 24 points in Arizona, sorry. In Nevada, Harris near tied with Latino voters with Trump right now in our poll.
Biden won Latino voters in Nevada by 26 points in the election four years ago. So there's clearly been a narrowing of the gap here that Trump has produced thus far if these polls are where the election turns out next week.
COOPER: So with early voting underway in Arizona, and by the way, those polls, I assume, were taken before the rally comments, whether or not the rally comments had a big impact?
CHALIAN: Yes, good question, Anderson. The surveys were basically completed at -- by the time that the MSG rally took place.
COOPER: And with early voting underway in Arizona and Nevada, how does the breakdown -- the vote breakdown so far look?
CHALIAN: Yes. So when I was on last night, Anderson, we were talking about how Republicans are participating in early vote. We looked at these two states in greater numbers than they were four years ago, but we actually asked in our survey of people likely voters in the state. Have you already voted?
And in Arizona, a majority of people 55 percent or so say they had and they split 53 percent Harris, 44 percent Trump. So she's winning those that tell us they've already voted by a big margin. But in Nevada, it's a totally different story. It's about 40 percent to 45 percent who say they've already cast ballots in Nevada. But Trump is winning that group of voters, 52 percent to 46 percent in our survey.
[20:40:02]
COOPER: All right, David Chalian, thanks very much.
It was the most --
CHALIAN: Sure.
COOPER: -- pro-Biden county among all the swing states of 2020. So the question now is, why are many of the votes there saying they are still undecided? Well, ahead -- that's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:45:00]
COOPER: Earlier this month, our Elle Reeve reported from the most pro- Trump county among all the swing states on why there's still immense support for the former president there. That county was in Georgia, coincidentally also the home of the most pro-Biden swing state county.
Elle recently visited that area as well. There she found many undecideds in the black majority community as well as discussions about whether a woman can serve effectively as president. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
BRUCE WRIGHT, PET STORE OWNER: This is probably the hardest election decision I've ever had to make because I'm basing it off of not my personal self, but just my core belief of who Trump is inside, is what's driving me towards Kamala.
ELLE REEVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Clayton County, Georgia, just south of Atlanta, where more than 84 percent of voters picked Biden in 2020. That makes Clayton the most Democratic county in all this year's swing states.
HERMAN "DREW" ANDREWS, CLAYTON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY: 2020 when Biden won. It was Clayton County who turned Georgia blue and got Biden the presidency.
REEVE: How so?
ANDREWS: Our people turned out. Clayton County turns out. We expect the same for Kamala Harris.
REEVE (voice-over): Almost 300,000 people live here, and nearly 70 percent are black. The campaigns are fighting hard for these voters. Kamala Harris was just here with Stevie Wonder.
We spoke to people at black owned businesses about what they were thinking in the last weeks before the election.
CHAI RICHARDSON, BARBER IN CLAYTON COUNTY, GEORGIA: I'm really not into politics, but Kamala Harris, her movement, I will say, I support two things that she said and is doing. The $20,000 loan thing for the black entrepreneurs, I really liked that because it gives us a chance to, you know, get our businesses up off the ground.
And another thing is she's trying to legalize marijuana because, you know, a lot of us get locked up just for our cars smelling like weed. It's a lot of synthetic weed out here. A lot of fake weed that's, you know, bad for us.
REEVE: You want it to be legalized and regulated.
RICHARDSON: Yes. And what gets me the most is, it's bad in the south where it's mostly African Americans or black people down here. But up in the other states, the union states, the blue states, whatever you want to call them, it's legalized.
REEVE: Well, who would you vote for if you do decide to vote?
VALERIE BURKS, HAIR STYLIST IN CLAYTON COUNTY, GEORGIA: I don't know, maybe Harris.
REEVE: And why?
BURKS: Just listening to some of the stuff that she's said so far, as far as, like, helping people. I'm big on helping.
REEVE: So why would you be undecided right now, then?
BURKS: I would have to say because this will be my first time.
REEVE: Yes.
BURKS: First time, like, woo. OK. My mom, none of them, they've never done it, so.
REEVE (voice-over): We found a little more ambivalence about Harris than we expected based on past voting here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not decisive. I'm going to be straight up with you.
REEVE: That's OK. Tell me more. Why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because it's two of the lesser evils. They're all bashing each other and saying this and saying that. Then I take that and I go do research. When I research it, I'm like, but I do know one thing, Trump is so bold that if the aliens is coming, he going to tell you.
REEVE: Yes. So in an Independence Day scenario --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
REEVE: -- he would tell you to evacuate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He would tell, so I mean, he just -- he can't keep his mouth shut. REEVE: What are your constituents saying about the election?
ERIC BELL (D), GEORGIA STATE HOUSE: You get a mixed bag of peanuts. You get a lot of people that say, Go Kamala. You get a lot of people that say, I'm not into politics. And then you even have voices say that, I'm voting for Donald Trump.
REEVE: Early voting numbers were really high. What do you think that means? I think that means people have something to vote for. I think that people are impassioned, emboldened. They're excited to vote for something. I'm just hoping they're voting for Kamala Harris, honestly.
BRITTNEY TUCKER, REGISTERED VOTER: We are house divided at this time. My husband, he's more leaning towards the Trump side and I'm leaning more towards the Harris side, but I'm still trying to persuade him to come to the other side.
REEVE: And what is his objections?
TUCKER: Well, he just doesn't feel that like a woman is fit for the job, so to speak.
JAMAL SIMS, BARBER IN CLAYTON COUNTY, GEORGIA: What you getting? 10 of 8?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
SIMS: And then we bring the top down. I'm going to be honest with you. During his time in presidency, a lot of money was flowing around.
REEVE: Yes.
SIMS: You know what I mean?
REEVE: Yes. So that was kind of like my reason for being like, hey, if you're going to do that again, you know, you run that back. He does a lot of stuff for shock value. Just to get you to look at him, you know what I mean?
So I don't really be taking none of that stuff seriously. I'm going to take my time with it because, you know, it's like the lesser of the two evils type of thing.
REEVE: One topic of conversation has been the idea that some men don't want to vote for a woman president. Do you think that's a factor?
"CRICK THE BARBER", CLAYTON COUNTY, GEORGIA RESIDENT: A I hear that a lot.
REEVE: Yes. What do they say?
"CRICK THE BARBER": Women are too emotional to run a country.
REEVE: What do you think of that?
"CRICK THE BARBER": What do I think of that? I'm married. You think I'm about to answer that?
REEVE: But what do you say to them?
"CRICK THE BARBER": What do I say to them?
REEVE: Yes, when they say that.
"CRICK THE BARBER": I'll tell them the same thing I told you, I'm married, so. And my wife run my household, so.
[20:50:04]
You know what? If they run a household like that, they could -- I believe they can do it. I just thought about it. I believe a woman could run the presidency. I believe that.
SHARESE BING, VOTER FOR HARRIS: I never seen a president tweet so much out of emotions. So to say a female cannot run the country because of emotions, and then the person she's running against stay on Twitter all day reacting because of emotions, doesn't make sense.
There are some men that are very much emotional. Their emotions might come out in different ways. Anger, rage, but it's still an emotion. If you all say a woman can't run the country because she's emotional, well then he can't run the country because he's emotional. And that's all we got.
It ain't like we got 10 candidates to pick. We got one and two. So it's, you want the emotional female, so to speak, when I say, and I'm quoting it, emotional female since women are emotional, or do you want the emotional male?
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COOPER: And Elle Reeve joins us now. I -- it's such -- you were in a county in Georgia where there was the most Trump, pro-Trump county, what stood out to you as contrast?
REEVE (on-camera): The enthusiasm level is very different. And for some Trump supporters, it's almost like he's a lifestyle brand. I mean they really feel like he cares about them. We didn't find that so much in Clayton County, people were a lot more ambivalent. That lesser of two evils line came up a lot.
And several people said that they resented how national politicians from both parties reached out to black people. That Democrats took their vote for granted, but that Trump spoke down to them or spoke disrespectfully like they were stupid for voting for Democrats.
COOPER: Elle Reeve, thanks so much. Fascinating.
Still to come, a preview of my -- a new episode of my podcast about grief called All There Is. In a moment, you'll hear from 93-year-old Irene Weiss, who was only 13 when she and her family were sent to Auschwitz by the Nazis. How she lives with the grief over what happened all those years ago. We'll be right back..
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:56:15]
COOPER: Brand new episode from season three of my podcast, All There Is, just got posted. It's available wherever you get your podcasts. You can also point your cell phone camera at the QR code that you see on the bottom of your screen right now.
This is an excerpt from my conversation with 93-year-old survivor of Auschwitz named Irene Weiss, who I originally interviewed for CBS's 60 Minutes. They kindly let me use the interview for the podcast. Irene was 13 when she arrived at the extermination camp with her parents and five siblings.
Only Irene and one sister, Serena, survived. I talked with her about survival and living with unimaginable and overwhelming grief.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
IRENE WEISS, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: There's a lot written about Auschwitz, and it can never be fully described. Somebody labeled it a metropolis of death, and that's what it was. It was a metropolis of death. It worked like an assembly line factory, and it just ground up people, mainly families, mainly children.
COOPER: How do you live with this?
WEISS: Well, you see, I am 93. There hasn't been a day that I have not lived with it. It's very difficult because to reconcile that, that man can be so cruel, so like an animal, really changes your way of thinking of mankind and life daily. I know that people can turn on you, can turn on you because of a label.
COOPER: The 13-year-old girl that you were, do you still feel that little girl at times? Or did you bury her early on in Auschwitz?
WEISS: No, that's a good question. That's really a very good question. I'm stuck there. I am really stuck there. That's really the biggest fight. And that's where all the grief is.
COOPER: Have you been able to cry in subsequent years?
WEISS: Still not. Still not. You know, people say broken heart. The heart keeps working, but the soul never forgets. There is a soul that does not forget any of it. It's imprinted on the soul that keeps the memory, the pain, the grief. It's just always there.
COOPER: Having seen those things and knowing what man is capable of, even on a beautiful almost spring day, like today, in this nice, quiet neighborhood, do you still see everything through that lens?
WEISS: Yes.
COOPER: That all of this can change very quickly.
WEISS: Well, it's subtly, and maybe not so subtly, changing as we watch it in this country. Who is the enemy? Who is to be hated? Who is to be excluded? It's happening all the time.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: You can see more of Irene Weiss, new episode of my grief podcast, All There Is, is available wherever you get your podcasts. You can point the camera right now at the QR code on the screen and click on the link. You can also access it going to our online grief community cnn.com/allthereisonline.
You can leave comments there, watch a full video of that interview. You can also watch it on YouTube, on the CNN channel there. I hope it makes you feel a little less lonely in your grief.
The news continues right now. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now. I'll see you tomorrow.
