Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

A Year Of Anguish For Mothers In Israel And Gaza; Harris Talks Abortion On Popular Podcast; Supreme Court Lets A Texas Ban On Emergency Abortion Stand. Aired 5:00-6p ET

Aired October 07, 2024 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[17:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to "The Lead." I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, the world marks one year since the horrific Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel. And amidst the moving tributes is a renewed push to bring home the dozens of hostages still being held by the terrorist group. Is there any hope of a deal on the horizon? Any hope of relief for the innocent civilians in Gaza and Lebanon being subjected to the horrors of war? I'm going to ask the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. coming up.

Plus, the Harris-Walz campaign tries out a new strategy with just over one month until the presidential election, but will it be enough to reach the voters on the fence who have not decided which candidate to support or if they'll even get up off the couch and cast a ballot this November?

But we start this hour with breaking news, a brand new forecast just in moments ago for Hurricane Milton, which is heading right towards Florida as an extremely dangerous Category Five hurricane. Today Milton became the strongest storm anywhere on the planet this year. Meteorologist Chad Myers is in CNN's Hurricane Headquarters. Chad, where is Milton set to make landfall and what is your best assessment as to when?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, the models are really in very good agreement and it's very, very close to what we would call the clearwater area anywhere from just north, let's call it, I don't want to call it Dunedin, but Pinellas County, maybe as far south as Anna Maria Island, but here's what happened at this hour. The 5:00 advisory is now in up to 180 miles per hour. Now there is a hurricane hunter aircraft on the way to make sure, but it was 175 when they last left and the storm hasn't lost any intensity.

And in fact it's forecast, Jake, to get to 185 after midnight tonight. And then make landfall either as a Category Four or a Category Three very close to Tampa. When Helene hit the area, I know it went north of there. But the surge in Tampa Bay was six to seven feet. The forecast surge in Tampa itself is now 10 to 15 feet. So I talked to a guy today and said, hey man, I had six feet of water in my house. And I went, ugh, that's not good because six is now gonna be 10 or 15. So that house may not be there anymore. Dude, this is really, really a deadly storm that people are going to

need to get away. If your local county emergency manager says you need to evacuate, now is the time. Unlike the storm that kind of -- Ian, that kind of turned into Fort Myers, we have time this time. You have time to find some place to shelter. And it is going to be one, obviously for the record books, but we've never had a stronger storm. Obviously in the Gulf of Mexico in the past couple of decades, the last storm that make landfall close to Tampa was a 102 years ago, the last major hurricane didn't have a name, but that was 1921.

This is a devastating event. People need to take precautions. You need to tell your relatives, hey, Uncle Joe, you need to get out of there. They told you to leave, it's time. You have to go somewhere. You don't have to go to North Carolina. You have to go somewhere away from that surge, away from that water, Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Chad Myers, thank you so much. I hope anybody in the path listens to you. Joining us now, the Mayor of Treasure Island, Florida, Tyler Payne. Mayor Payne, just to let people know, for those who don't, Treasure Island is located just west of St. Petersburg on the Gulf Coast. Mr. Mayor, what's your message to the citizens of Treasure Island?

TYLER PAYNE, MAYOR, TREASURE ISLAND, FLORIDA: Yeah, that's correct. We just hit really hard with Helene. Like you guys were saying, we weren't a direct hit, but it grazed us right along the coast and brought in seven feet of storm surge here in the Tampa Bay area and our barrier islands were just devastated by that. So we still have significant amount of debris cleanup to do across the barrier islands to make sure that doesn't become projectiles in this coming hurricane.

[17:05:03]

So, the governor has done a great job to send in extra reinforcements can try to get that done, but it's just -- it's a lot. So we really need to make sure that people are taking this extremely seriously. This is a potential direct hit, could be even more dangerous than what we just went through.

TAPPER: Are you telling people on Treasure Island to leave, to go to the mainland, to get as far away from the storm's path as possible?

PAYNE: Yes, absolutely. The county, Pinellas County, just issued a mandatory evacuation for Zones A, B, and C, which includes all of my city, all of the barrier islands in the Tampa Bay area. So, everyone needs to heed those warnings immediately and especially after we're recovering from Helene, like I just mentioned, there's still a lot of debris out there that could become really dangerous in these wind conditions. We didn't have the wind conditions with Helene, just the storm surge. So this is gonna be both things, a potential threat to us.

TAPPER: How well prepared is your town?

PAYNE: As best as we can after coming off of the recovery efforts of this, it's been a whirlwind and a roller coaster. Our staff is exhausted. We have about 6,000 residents in Treasure Island and a staff of about 150 people. So we are better prepared now because we've just gone through it. We know what needs to be done, but we're just -- we're running on fumes here and I still have confidence that our staff is going to be able to carry us through this as well our residents have been very cooperative and understanding that we're trying to do everything that we can to support them, but -- and I know that our residents are tired too. So we got to buckle down and carry ourselves through this.

TAPPER: I know debris is a real problem during a storm. Debris thrown by the wind, thrown by water, it can be deadly. And you have debris already there from Hurricane Helene. That must be a real concern.

PAYNE: Yeah, like I said, we've been -- the city had a pre-existing contract with a debris hauler in the case of an emergency like this that they would come in and pick up all the trash and debris from everyone's curbside. And then we have a dedicated -- designated debris management site, which is overseen by that contractor to make sure that we're only collecting things that can be reimbursed by FEMA so that the city doesn't have to take that hit for that removal.

So we have that going on. It basically looks like a dump in our beautiful park in the middle of our little beach community. So that is very nerve-wracking and that is again why really important for people to heed these evacuation notices because we're not -- these aren't normal times. We don't have the pleasure of having clear roads and all the garbage picked up in time to weather the storm. So it's even more important to get out.

TAPPER: All right. Mayor Tyler Payne, thank you so much. Best of luck to you. Please stay in touch with my team to highlight anything you might need as the storm approaches and then recedes. Now to Western North Carolina, still dealing with what happened during Hurricane Helene. Many people are still missing more than a week after that hurricane hit. "The Lead" obtained this video from Jay Paul Tebow as he and a friend were surrounded by quickly rising floodwaters in Burnsville, North Carolina.

To get up to that roof and escape the flood, they had to literally cut their way through the ceiling of this fire station near his house. Thankfully they were okay, but he did lose his home and the bridge to his home and the road to his home and this is what is left of his pickup truck. CNN's Miguel Marquez is near that area in Ramseytown, North Carolina. Miguel, what are you seeing where you are?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it is so understandable why it is difficult to find people in this situation. You know, Asheville city officials just announced today that they now have located or found 85 percent of the missing. They found nine more bodies today. This is the Cane River. We were trying to get up to Bloody Fork. We're in Ramseytown now. It is impassable. You can get through on ATVs and horseback, but it is impassable.

There's also a cemetery up that way that residents say they saw coffins floating down the river. So at some point we saw a lot of cadaver dogs going down downriver today trying to locate bodies as well. This has become sadly a recovery mission in large part. There are still people holding out hope, but it would be hard to imagine that people survived all this. I want to show you one thing as well that is just one of the more amazing things.

It's a very steep hill that comes down here into Ramseytown. There was a car, a truck, bringing -- with a trailer bringing supplies down here.

[17:09:59]

It lost its brakes. They completely went out. It hit this ramp and then ended up 70 maybe 80 feet into the Cane River and amazingly Jake, the two people who were in that truck survived, just --

TAPPER: All right Miguel Marcos, thank you so much, appreciate it.

MARQUEZ: -- just how tough it is.

TAPPER: Vice President Harris is speaking now about Hurricane Milton as she departs for New York. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN LIVE VIDEO)

KAMALA HARRIS, DEMCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- I know a lot of folks out there have survived these hurricanes before. This one is going to be very, very serious. And I urge you to please just grab whatever you need; listen to the orders you're getting clear local officials. They know what they're telling you and they know what Milton is about to be. So, please do that.

The other point I'd make is that there is a lot of mis and disinformation being pushed out there by the former president about what is available, in particular to the survivors of Helene. And first of all, it's extraordinarily irresponsible. It's about him, it's not about you. And the reality is that FEMA has so many resources that are available to folks who desperately need them now, and resources that are about helping people get back on their feet and rebuild and have places to go.

You are entitled to these resources. People are entitled to these resources and it is critically important that people apply for the help that is there to support. That all of those resources were created for just these kinds of moments in an emergency situation knowing that folks are entitled to have the relief that they so rightly need at this moment in time.

So, listen to your sheriffs around the places that have been impacted by Helene, listen to your local sheriff who's going to tell you straight about what's available to you and how for so many reasons and ways there are no conditions attached to the relief that's available to you.

UNKNOWN: Madama Vice President, Governor DeSantis, NBC is reporting Governor DeSantis is ignoring your calls on hurricanes resources and help. How does that hurt the situation here? HARRIS: You know, moments of crisis, if nothing else, should really

be the moment that anyone who calls themselves a leader says they're going to put politics aside and put the people first. People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games with this moment in these crisis situations. These are the height of emergency situations. It's just utterly irresponsible and it is selfish. And it is about political gamesmanship. It's that it's doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first.

UNKNOWN: Madam Vice President, Milton's arrival, what does it mean for resources --

(END LIVE VIDEO)

TAPPER: All right, Vice President Harris speaking on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews in Maryland about Hurricane Milton as that Category Five hurricane heads right towards the west coast of Florida. We're going to keep following every detail of the story.

As Israel marks one year since the horrific Hamas terrorist attacks, hostage families are staging their own ceremony with a very stark message for the Israeli government. But will that message get through to Prime Minister Netanyahu? I will ask the Israeli ambassador to the United States next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:15:00]

TAPPER: Back with our other top story in our "World Lead." Today marks one year since Hamas terrorists brutally murdered 1,200 people in Israel and took roughly 250 individuals, including babies, hostage. And now Israel is locked into a multi-front war with Iran's terrorist proxies in the West and in the North and to the East. CNN's Jim Scioto is live in Tel Aviv. And Jim, you just saw and heard some interceptions. Tell us more.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That's right. I mean on this day of remembrance, the residents of Israel, they don't even have to remember because right before their eyes again today, they saw the threat in very clear form in the last hour. Several explosions rocked Tel Aviv and there was the air raid siren once again. We've learned since that these were projectiles fired from the north, from Hezbollah in Lebanon, but they were not the only ones today.

Earlier today, I was in a memorial for the survivors of the massacre at the Nova Music Festival. And while I was there, it was evacuated for several minutes because there was an interception then. We could see the smoke trail in the sky from the interceptor. That one, a missile the IDF later said fired from Yemen. It gives you a sense of how this is very much still a multi-front war and expanding, multi- front war with fighting in Gaza where this all began, but now an expanding war in Lebanon, strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

And this sense of anticipation right now, Jake, about exactly how and when Israel will respond to that enormous missile barrage we saw several days ago here. And I'll say, there are a lot of disagreements in this country on some things, including a hostage deal. I don't hear a lot of disagreement in this country about striking back at Iran. There's a lot of unity on that even the midst of all those ceremonies we saw today.

TAPPER: All right, Jim Sciutto in Tel Aviv, thank you and stay safe please. Joining us now is the Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog. He's also a retired IDF brigadier general. So, Mr. Ambassador, what's your message to the Israelis who will remain angry with the Netanyahu government because there are still nearly a hundred hostages in Hamas captivity and they think that Netanyahu has not been sufficiently willing to strike a ceasefire deal?

MICAHEL HERZOG, ISRAELI AMBASSSADOR TO THE U.S.: The fact that there are still 101 hostages, unfortunately, not all of them are alive, is an open wound in our society and will not heal until we return back home.

[17:20:01]

Yes, there are some debates in Israel about that, but the basic fact is that since President Biden came out with his framework for a hostage deal late May, Israel accepted it. And when the U.S. administration put forward the bridging proposal in mid-August, we accepted it. But unfortunately, Hamas has not accepted any of this, and they are not a partner to the deal right now. So, notwithstanding debates in Israel, we still don't have a partner that is in the zone of a possible agreement. That is very tragic.

TAPPER: Speaking of partners, Vice President Kamala Harris sat down for an interview with "60 Minutes" this weekend, and I want to play part of that and get your reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL WHITAKER, HOST, CBS 60 MINUTES: Do we have a real close ally in Prime Minister Netanyahu?

HARRIS: I think with all due respect, the better question is do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people? And the answer to that question is yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Vice President Harris not answering the question about whether or not Prime Minister Netanyahu is a close ally of the United States.

HERZOG: So I would say that one of the lessons of the last year since October 7th is that our alliance is strong. It withstood the storm of this war. The U.S. played an important role in supporting the state of Israel. Our alliance is very close. We have very close consultations on everything. We do not necessarily agree on everything. And part of it is because we are fighting a war that we consider an existential war. So we see it differently. There are times that we do not agree, but all in all, if you look at the last year, this alliance has been very strong.

TAPPER: I'm sure you understand the sense of hopelessness that people watching who want the hostages to get out feel, watching ceasefire deal after ceasefire deal crumble. What do you say to critics who say that Netanyahu doesn't want a ceasefire deal because he wants to stay in power and the longer the war goes on, the easier it is for him to stay in power? And he knows that the moment the war is over, he might be vulnerable to a snap election and a challenge to his leadership.

HERZOG: So I disagree with that. I don't want to go into internal Israeli politics, but I think we have a framework for a hostage deal, which is a phased framework. Namely, we do phase one and we still, if we don't come to terms about how to bring about a permanent ceasefire, we are within our rights to continue pressuring Hamas. And it is our intention to remove Hamas from power. So whoever contends that the deal that was on the table ends the war, and because of that Mr. Netanyahu rejected it, that is not the case.

TAPPER: So I want to ask you a question about empathy. What happened to the Israeli people on October 7th and since has been horrific? And I can certainly understand the sense of grief and the sense of mourning. I wonder if that pain prevents the Israeli government from seeing the pain of innocent Palestinians and innocent Lebanese, not Hamas, not Hezbollah, but the innocent victims. Do you think that pain that we experienced in this country after 9-11, do you think that that is putting up a barrier, a wall, so that there is an inability to see the humanity of the people who live next to you who are not the enemy?

HERZOG: So, first, let it be said on this Sunday that we are a nation of trauma. What happened on October 7th is something that deeply wounded and scarred Israeli society. That being said, we recognize that there is suffering and there is loss of life of innocent people on the other side as well. We have said time and again that that is tragic. In Jewish tradition, every person was made in the image of God, and we value that.

But let me remind everybody that these people are not our enemies. Our enemies are the bloodthirsty terrorist organizations that started this war. We did not start this war and turned these people into human shields. Let's not forget that.

We are fighting for our lives, but we are not targeting civilians. We are not doing that. We are targeting the terrorists, but they nested themselves within civilian populated areas.

[17:24:59]

And yes, I recognize and we think that every loss of life is tragic on all sides of the equation.

TAPPER: All right, Ambassador Michael Herzog, thank you so much and our thoughts and our prayers go to the people of Israel on this horrible anniversary. Thank you for being here.

HERZOG: Thank you very much. TAPPER: Coming up next, a tale of two mothers that gets at the heart

of the suffering since October 7th. It's a heart-wrenching report you don't want to miss. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Back with our "World Lead." You're listening to sirens outside Prime Minister Netanyahu's home in Israel one year after the horrific October 7th Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

[17:29:58]

A symbol of anguish and frustration from families of hostages, roughly 100 still in Hamas captivity. CNN's Jeremy Diamond brings us now a story that captures the pain of both Israelis and Palestinians. We must warn our viewers, you may find parts of this report disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIMONA STEINBRECHER, DAUGHTER KIDNAPPED BY HAMAS: I want her back alive, not in a bag. I want her alive that -- that I can hold her.

FATEN MERAISH, MOTHER OF CHILDREN KILLED IN GAZA (through audio translation): At night, I wish to hug my son Jude. I always hug his pillow all night. This is all I have left of him.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Words alone cannot capture a mother's pain, but the anguish on their faces paints a devastating picture of the countless lives upended by Hamas's October 7th attack and Israel's war in Gaza one year later.

Faten Meraish is still grieving the loss of her two sons killed in an Israeli airstrike this summer. Simona Steinbrecher doesn't know her daughter's fate. She is being held hostage by Hamas. Stepping inside the home where she was abducted is like going back in time.

S. STEINBRECHER: They broke the windows. They come from the window.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Shards of glass still crunch underfoot. And in the bedroom, a mother recounts her daughter's abduction.

S. STEINBRECHER: She was very afraid, because you can hear from the voice that she said, they take me, they take me. She was really afraid.

DIAMOND: She was on the phone with you when she was being taken?

S. STEINBRECHER: Yes. And we don't know nothing about her. What happened with her. We don't know if she -- she's alive. We don't know nothing.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Doron Steinbrecher's cry for help captured in one final voice note.

DORON STEINBRECHER, KIDNAPPED BY HAMAS (through audio translation): They've caught me. They've caught me. They've caught me. They've caught --

DIAMOND (voice-over): She was one of 251 people taken hostage on October 7th, 2023, after Hamas militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel's history, carried out at a music festival in people's homes and against those who fled into bomb shelters.

DIAMOND: Did you ever imagine that you would be sitting here a year later?

S. STEINBRECHER: No.

DIAMOND: And she would still be in Gaza?

S. STEINBRECHER: No, never. But, now we see that there's another day, another week, another month, and nothing.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The first sign of life came nearly four months later. Doron, gaunt and pale, appears in a Hamas hostage video.

S. STEINBRECHER: I was happy that I can see that she's alive. But then I can -- I look at her and I can see the difference.

DIAMOND: What does the government tell you?

S. STEINBRECHER: They tell us, the family, that they make everything, that they will come back. But, they are still there. So something is wrong. Something is not working.

DIAMOND (voice-over): For nearly ten months, Faten managed to keep her family safe, fleeing from one place to another as Israel pummeled the Gaza Strip with bombs and missiles, a school, a relative's home, a tent.

MERAISH (through audio translation): We tried as much as possible to create an atmosphere in which there was no terror, no bombing. Whenever there were safe areas, I would take the children there.

DIAMOND (voice-over): But nowhere in Gaza is truly safe. CPR cannot bring her five year old son, Jude, back to life. But Faten cannot believe it. She had only just left the tent they were living in to buy Jude Ndomi (sp?) his favorite instant noodles. But as she cradles her youngest, her eldest son's body arrives at the morgue. Mohammed (sp?) is dead, too, his mother and father in agony. Amid their unspeakable grief, there is also anger --

MERAISH: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

DIAMOND (voice-over): -- at Israel, at Hamas, and at a world she feels has abandoned them.

This is all that is left of the tent where Mohammed (sp?) and Jude were staying when a missile is dropped just a few feet away, where their mother now asks what her children did to deserve this fate.

MERAISH (through audio translation): They are more precious to me than the light of my eyes. I lost a piece of my heart.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Jude would have turned six years old last month.

MERAISH (through audio translation): We used to celebrate his birthday every year with a cake, and invite the loved ones, because he is the youngest one in the family. But this time Jude was not with us. There was only a box of Indomie that I was handing to children his age.

[17:35:19]

DIAMOND (voice-over): More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military over the last year, and at least 11,000 are children like Jude and Mohammed (ph), according to Oxfam, making it the deadliest conflict for children in a single year this century. But for two mothers at the heart of this painful conflict, a plea for it all to end.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Kfar Aza, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Our thanks to Jeremy Diamond for that report.

And as the world marks one year since the October 7th attack, hundreds of pro-Palestinian Columbia university students in New York staged a walkout. Listen to what some chanted. Let me tell you the words either going to say resistance is glorious. We will be victorious. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Resistance is glorious.

CROWD: Resistance is glorious.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will be victorious.

CROWD: We will be victorious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Resistance is what Hamas thinks it does, resistance.

In Bloomfield, Michigan, just north of Detroit, someone spray painted the words free Palestine and intifada on the offices of the Jewish Federation. Police in that area are investigating. According to FBI data, anti-Semitic hate crimes rose 63 percent last year. And despite Jews accounting for only about 2 percent of the U.S. population, the data shows anti-Semitic incidents made up 68 percent of all religion based hate crimes in the United States last year.

The Harris-Walz campaign is out with a new strategy. Our political panel weighs in, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:40:52]

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, you might be seeing a lot more of Vice President Harris and Governor Tim Walz this week as the Democratic ticket is moving from the campaign trail to the media circuit. Sitting down for interviews, not necessarily news interviews, but interviews in a way we have not yet seen in this campaign.

Let's jump right in with our panel. So let's start with the fact that Vice President Harris is first sitting down with one of the most popular podcasts around. It's called Call Her Daddy. She talked about abortion rights on that. Here's a little excerpt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And that's what's so outrageous about it is a bunch of these guys up in these state capitals are writing these decisions because they somehow have decided that they're in a better position to tell you what's in your best interest than you are to know what's in your own best interest. It's outrageous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What do you think?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, first of all, I think this is actually an interesting strategy on part of Harris, and it's something that Donald Trump and his campaign have been doing for several months.

TAPPER: Yes, alternative media.

TREENE: Exactly. And trying to find voters, particularly voters who are not necessarily -- necessarily overtly political, and find them where they are. And I think it's a smart strategy. I mean, Alex Cooper has a massive following. She has the number two podcast just behind Joe Rogan. And Harris going on and joining is probably reaching a lot of young women, obviously a key demographic that the campaign recognizes could be very valuable come November.

I've always thought, and I know when I talk to the Trump campaign, at least, that that's a strategy that they really think could be helpful, particularly on the margins in an election that is supposed to be very close.

TAPPER: And abortion is front and center. The Georgia Supreme Court just reinstated the six-week abortion ban in that state after a lower court put it on hold.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Now, reproductive rights is the issue perhaps where she feels most comfortable. And so that provided a platform for her to talk about that issue. But also what struck me about this is she was able to characterize herself as a longtime champion of women more broadly.

She talked about her career in law enforcement and going up against predators of sexual violence. And so this was a very unique space to make that argument. But, you know, there has been some pushback. But I would argue this conversation that they normally have on that podcast about sex and relationships, you know, an outgrowth of that is talking about reproductive health. So to me, it made a lot of sense.

TAPPER: Well, how do you see this as a -- as a polling issue? Because obviously, since Roe v. Wade was overturned, anytime that the issue of abortion rights has been put on a ballot, the people who support abortion rights have voted for it, whether in Kentucky or Ohio or Montana.

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: For sure. And this is why I think Republicans do feel like they're on the back foot on this issue. That's why you've had Donald Trump be a little bit more reluctant to talk about it. He doesn't like getting sort of pinned down on the issue. I do think that there's a risk for Kamala Harris in this being kind of the only issue that she is known for insofar as she's very comfortable talking about it.

But the number one issues that a lot of voters still have are things like the economy. They are things like immigration. And when it comes to the specific podcast, I do think that was probably the right topic. And I think it is very smart that she's going on these alternative podcasts.

And by alternative, you know, non-political. Right now, if you care about politics at all, you've decided how you're voting in this election. But if you are somebody who really just does not want to be a part of this, thinks, being reached by something that is ostensibly non-political is kind of the only way you're going to get breached by these campaigns right now. I think it's smart.

TAPPER: And a lot of these voters, it's not about whether they vote for Harris or Trump, it's about whether they vote.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Exactly. And that's why I agree. I think it's really smart of her because it talks about the issues that are really important to young women of color, young women all across the board, independent suburban women. We saw this was a mobilizing issue in 2022.

And even though the economy continues to be what people say is the number one issue in polling, what we saw in 2022, and what I'm seeing in focus groups and from data that is coming back, either early registration or even early vote, is that the issue of reproductive rights is still an issue that drives votes. I have spoken to many Republican women who have said, you know what, Maria, the economy, yes, I worry about it.

[17:45:14]

But Kamala Harris is actually closing that gap. The economy is going to come back. My rights, if Trump becomes president, they will not come back. So the issue of reproductive rights for women, a lot of times it's misread as not being an economic issue. And it absolutely is an economic issue for women. TAPPER: So the other thing that she weighed in that was notable was she talked about Sarah Sanders, the governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the governor of Arkansas, made a comment at a Trump rally. I'm going to misquote here, but it was something along the lines of she is kept humble by her children, something that Kamala Harris is not kept humble from. The implication being Kamala Harris doesn't have biological children, even though she is a stepmom. Here is what Harris said in response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I don't think she understands that there are a whole lot of women out here who, one, are not aspiring to be humble. Two, a whole lot of women out here who have a lot of love in their life, family in their life, and children in their life. And I think it's really important for women to lift each other up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: This comes, we should note, in tandem with the issue of the childless cat lady thing that J.D. Vance has put out there, although he's trying to said it was just a joke he made, ultimately, he -- he has said it several times, berating people who do not have natural born children. Does this matter in terms of votes?

ANDERSON: I mean, I think to the extent that you've had young women in poll after poll that I've seen are a very Democratic group at this point, there's a pretty sizable gender gap among young voters. I think it does have an effect. I think it's -- it's not something that's new or only about this issue, but I certainly think it doesn't help.

But I do think, on the other hand, it is valuable that Republicans, at least, even if not in messaging that I would have recommended, have been talking about the importance of at least having policies that are more family friendly, which is actually not a place Republicans, maybe ten years would have been as much wanting to talk about things like paid leave, childcare, tax credit, et cetera.

So it's kind of interesting at the same time that they're moving to a place that is more kind of pro-family policy. It's coming with this messaging that I would never have recommended.

TAPPER: Yes. The -- the punitive for people who don't have biological children. Lastly, quickly, tomorrow Harris is going to be on The View and on Howard Stern's show on SiriusXM and then on the Late show with Stephen Colbert.

MCKEND: Yes, I think these are places that she wants to be to get her message out there. I think there's a lot of hope that she'll answer some tough questions and answer some of her evolution on key policy stances. But right now, I think the campaign has decided that she's where she needs to be.

TAPPER: All right, thanks one and all. Appreciate it.

The U.S. Supreme Court returned to work today with an agenda that includes cases on abortion and guns and quite possibly some post- election fights. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:52:11]

TAPPER: In our Law and Justice Lead, the U.S. Supreme Court today kicked off a brand new term by delivering a body blow to the Biden administration over the abortion law in Texas. The justices left in place a court order that prevents the Biden administration from stripping federal funding from Texas hospitals that refused to provide emergency abortion care.

CNN's Joan Biskupic joins us. Joan, tell us more about this move and what it means for abortion access in Texas, even if a woman is at risk of losing her life if the abortion is not performed.

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SENIOR SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Yes, big day at the Supreme Court, Jake, with oral arguments and a series of orders the most eye catching of which was this case from Texas, where the justices let stand a lower court ruling against the Biden administration. There was a clash between the Biden administration trying to enforce a 1986 law that requires treatment in emergency rooms to stabilize patients, even patients who might come in with pregnancy complications and could need an abortion.

Now, states that have passed abortion bans have challenged the -- the Biden administration on this. And you probably remember last year the justices dismissed an Idaho case after hearing it, saying that there needed to be more fact finding and legal issue resolution below. But here now in Texas, they decided not to take up the case.

The Biden administration, in fact, said, you don't need to take this case, but please get rid of that lower court ruling from the appellate court in the Texas matter because it's going to hurt women in Texas. The justices, with no reasoning explained, just said no. And there was no recorded vote or dissent.

But I should say, Jake, that this only applies in Texas, that throughout the rest of the country, the Biden administration guidance about emergency room abortions will still hold. And I think the big takeaway here is the justices are not, even though there's still going to be conflict between states with abortion bans and the administration wanting this emergency room guidance to be able to help women who face pregnancy complications, that's not going to be resolved, at least not in this election year. Jake?

TAPPER: All right, Joan Biskupic, thanks so much.

BISKUPIC: Sure.

[17:54:27]

TAPPER: New video shows rows of cars evacuating in Tampa as Hurricane Milton, which is already a category five storm, keeps gaining strength and headed towards the west coast of Florida. We'll have an update on this monstrous storm, coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Quick update on our breaking news. This is brand new video shared by hurricane hunters as they fly into the dangerous category five Hurricane Milton. Evacuations are now underway as meteorologists warn this storm could do unprecedented damage to Florida's west coast.

In the Politics Lead, yet another top New York City official has abruptly resigned, part of the continued fallout from a historic federal indictment of New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Plus, separate federal investigations. Today, Mayor Adams confirms he accepted the resignation of his close friend and advisor, Philip Banks III, this after New York Governor Kathy Hochul told Adams to get rid of anyone in his administration who has been involved in any federal investigations. Quite a standard there.

Today, chaotic gridlock at the world's biggest -- biggest busiest airport. Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson International Airport saw a sea of passengers scrambling to get to their gates this morning after a computer problem briefly disrupted its plane train. That's the shuttle train that takes people between concourses. The airport said, the plane train service returned to a normal schedule shortly after noon eastern.

[18:00:04]

You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, formerly known as Twitter, and on the TikTok at JakeTapper. You can follow the show on X at TheLeadCNN. If you ever miss an episode of The Lead, you can listen to the show once you get your podcasts, all 2 hours just sitting there waiting for you to listen.

The news continues on CNN with Wolf Blitzer in The Situation Room. I'll see you tomorrow.