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The Lead with Jake Tapper
More Than 49 Million Have Already Voted; Tonight: Harris' Address Features White House As Backdrop; Israel Launches Deadly Airstrikes Across Northern Gaza. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired October 29, 2024 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Plus, the minions, which are Halloween staple.
[16:00:04]
And I'll give you this hint about what mine is --
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Uh-oh, uh-oh.
KEILAR: Here we go.
SANCHEZ: Every time her pictures come up, I'm just inspired. I'm just full of inspiration.
KEILAR: It's really, because you -- we just do this and everyone is going to know -- immediately. I got to go home though and make a skibidi toilet costume, skip it for a little one.
What are you going to be?
SANCHEZ: Can I borrow that skibidi toilet costume?
KEILAR: No. You know what?
SANCHEZ: We got to go.
KEILAR: Pitbull, Pitbull.
SANCHEZ: Oh, you spoiled it.
THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER right now.
(MUSIC)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Two quite different closing messages, one week to go.
THE LEAD starts right now.
Major messages just hours away from Kamala Harris on the ellipse, the scene, obviously, of Donald Trump's January 6 rally before the U.S. Capitol attack, striking site. But can this moment help her win over those many crucial undecided voters? Then there's Donald Trump today. After that comedian and his New York
rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage. Trump saying he didn't hear that comment, but defending the rally as a whole.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Nobody's ever had love like that. That was love in the room. And it was love for our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: What might Mr. Trump say tonight when he takes his message to Allentown in Pennsylvania, the battleground state with the biggest Puerto Rican population in the United States?
And overseas, a scene described as utterly catastrophic. An Israeli airstrike on a multi-story building in Gaza, nearly 100 people killed. CNN has in the region with the aftermath.
(MUSIC)
TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.
Let's start with what might be the most satisfying part of my workday the CNN election jam. Cue it.
(MUSIC)
TAPPER: One week from today, we're going to be just hours away from the first polls closing in the 2024 election. As of now, more than 49 million of you beautiful people have already voted.
And tonight, Vice President Kamala Harris will, her campaign says, try to harken back to her days as a prosecutor to deliver closing arguments this time, not from a courtroom, of course, but from the ellipse here in Washington, D.C. with the White House as her backdrop. She plans to make the case as to why voters should make her the next U.S. president, looking to strike a balance between telling her own attributes and policies and warning against what she sees as the dangers of a second Donald Trump presidency.
Earlier today at Trump's Mar-a-Lago, meanwhile, Mr. Trump delivered what was considered something of a prebuttal to Vice President Harris's speech, claiming that Harris is running a divisive campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: She's running on a campaign of demoralization and really a campaign of destruction, but really perhaps more than anything else, it's a campaign of hate, campaign of absolute hate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: This comes two days after comments mocking Puerto Rico, comments at a Trump rally that proved so divisive, even his campaign distanced itself from the comments, which is a rather rare occurrence.
Mr. Trump also continued to make immigration and border security a top focus today, announcing a new initiative on seizing the assets of cartels and gangs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're seeing the assets of criminal gangs and drug cartels and we will use those assets to create a compensation fund to provide restitution for the victims of migrant crime, and the government will help in the rest of it. The government will help in the restitution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Tonight, Mr. Trump heads to Allentown, Pennsylvania, immortalized in that Billy Joel song about the decimation of the manufacturing base in the United States.
The majority of people who are living here in Allentown today happened to be Latino, roughly 54 percent of Allentown's population identifies as Hispanic. Let's go to this campaign.
CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is in the nation's capital ahead of the vice president's speech on the ellipse. Kristen Holmes is covering the Trump campaign living there in Allentown.
Kristen, let's start with you. So, former President Trump spoke from Mar-a-Lago this morning ahead of his event this evening in Allentown. He referenced his Sunday rally in Madison Square Garden. What did he say? How might that go over in Allentown this evening?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, how it goes over in Allentown will likely depend on what kind of crowd shows up for Donald Trump's rally. We're about to head in there after this. As you mentioned, if the demographics of the rally or anything like demographics of the area, those comments are probably not going to go over well, 54 percent of this area is Latino. On top of that, there's roughly 35,000 Puerto Rican voters in this area.
Part of the reason that I know that is because the Trump campaign who I spent a lot of time talking to you about these Puerto Rican comments, gave me those statistics, as they were talking about planning this event, they are keenly aware of those comments and how those comments on Puerto Rico could affect this election.
Now, here's what Donald Trump said about that Madison Square Garden rally when he was speaking at Mar-a-Lago earlier today.
[16:05:06]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't think anybody has ever seen anything like what happened the other night at Madison square garden, the love -- the love -- the love in that room. There's never been an event so beautiful. It was like a love fest, an
absolute love fest. That was love in the room. And it was love for our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: So you could see comments might not go over well with the Puerto Rican community who is expecting some kind of potential apology or at least combination of the remarks that were made out of Madison Square Garden rally that is not what you heard there, and I do want to quickly note that Donald Trump, before getting those remarks, talk to an ABC the reporter who specifically asked him about those remarks.
And here's what he said. I want to read you the quote, said, I don't know him. Someone put him up there. I don't know who he is, referring to the comedian, who made those remarks. And then when asked about them further, he said he hadn't heard them and then still did not condemn the remarks.
I was told by the campaign this was supposed what's to be him directly responding to those Puerto Rico comments that were made before he took the stage at Madison Square Garden. You can be the judge or viewers can be the judge of if that is a direct response, I can tell you, speaking to Puerto Rican voters and Puerto Rican leaders in the communities, they are looking for much more of a stronger condemnation or an apology even for those remarks as clearly not what this was. We'll see if he addresses it when he takes the stage later tonight, Jake.
TAPPER: All right. And, Priscilla, Vice President Harris will, of course, have more campaign events before next Tuesday. But this speech tonight as being billed in some ways as her closing message. What are we expecting to hear?
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Jake, and the sources telling me the vice president has spent the day making final edits and revisions to what is likely going to be her last major opportunity to address Americans both here the nations capital, but also tuning into her remarks tonight. Now we are getting some speech excerpts from the campaign.
Let me read at two of these excerpts to you, and one of them, the vice president is expected to say the following, quote, Donald Trump has told us his priorities for a second term. He has an enemies list of people he intends to prosecute. She's also expected to say the following, quote. He says, one of its highest priorities is to free the violent extremists who assaulted those lines enforcement officers on January 6, you can already see here at the vice presidents going to be leaning in on former president that she says its consumed with revenge, where she is working for the American people.
Of course, the location where she's going to make those remarks is significant because former President Donald Trump, of course, deliver that fiery address on January 6, here where the -- which sparked his supporters going and attacking the U.S. Capitol but her advisers also pick this location because they wanted the gravity of the moment to come through and also the visual as you can see, the White House is right behind me.
In fact, the oval office, which is what the vice president is seeking is 500 yards from here. So they are trying to paint that contrast, and also a broader vision. She's expected to talk about, for example, her proposals on the economy, on reproductive rights, on immigration as her campaign is tries to target those undecided voters. They think that these remarks, if present that vision and bring those voters to support her -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Priscilla Alvarez in Washington, Kristen Holmes in Allentown, thanks to both you.
And Democratic Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina joins me now. He is also a national co-chair for the Harris-Walz campaign.
Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.
So you've told me before that you're not worried about Vice President Kamala Harris having a particular problem with the Black male vote.
This morning, during a Kamala Harris interview with Charlamagne Tha God, a listener asked her what she was doing to push back on Black men who say she is not doing enough for them.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The brothers aren't saying that. The Black men in particular, who are at the rallies, have recently been saying to me, don't you listen to that? And they got to stop with all that noise. We support you.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
TAPPER: The vice president also noted that she recently talked to black men at a barbershop in the great city of Philadelphia.
Do you worry that she could be missing something here? Obviously, Black men at her rallies support her, but that's not really the question.
REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Well, thank you very much for having me, Jake.
I don't believe that. I've been saying for some time now those people who believe that Donald Trump is pulling over, yet but these polls indicate from Black men, I've got a bridge Ellis (ph) Island that I'll gladly sell you.
That's not happening. I go to barbershop. I talked to people at 10 African-American churches. I walked the streets in my district and I get nothing but solid support for Kamala Harris.
TAPPER: I want you to take a listen to what former President Trump had to say today about Vice President Harris on a specific a couple of issues. [16:10:02]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Who wants to defund the police? She's wanted her whole career to defund the police. She only changed it recently.
She changed on 15 different items. Fracking -- she was against fracking at the highest level, wouldn't even think about it. Now, all of a sudden, oh, I'd like fracking very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: So, to be clear, Vice President Harris has never specifically called for defunding the police, but in 2020, when the movement was big, she did praise the defund the police movement for questioning police budgets.
And I wonder if you fear at all that these nuanced abstractions make her vulnerable to people not knowing exactly where she stands on issues. For example, in June 2020, I ask you about the defund, the police movement, and you said, quote, nobody is going to defund the police, unquote, a pretty explicit position that she did not take.
CLYBURN: Well, that's right because very strongly in the police. I also believe very strong incentives. And also I note that we have (INAUDIBLE) and we have ministers that need to be (INAUDIBLE).
We have these in all profession. There are lawyers that get disbarred, and when this happens, we don't get rid of the profession. We get rid of those who will perform -- factions from it, or in some way, there's something untoward.
So, the same thing going with police. We believe in the police, we support the police. We want to call upon them when we need them, and we will fund them for that purpose. But that doesn't mean we're not going to hold them accountable like we hold all other professionals are accountable.
TAPPER: But that's my point. You're kind of proving my point because that is a very clear policy statement. And that's not what Kamala Harris was saying in 2019, 2020, when she was talking about -- well, it's good that they're bringing attention to police budgets, et cetera. And that gives Trump the room to say she's all over the map on this issue, just like she is with fracking and others.
CLYBURN: Well, I understand why we put so much emphasis on that, and when we see the other side of the accusing her of over policing. When she was a district attorney, I've heard people use her of being too forceful in that job. She was attorney general. She has been accused in that regard as well.
So we all have these detractors no matter what you do, very same people will really admit to wrongdoing. And so when you pursue your profession, sometimes people tend to misrepresent exactly what the real facts off. So I think she has done it tremendous job in all of professions she's
had, none of us are perfect. But all of us are in pursuit of perfection.
TAPPER: Before Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee, you said that you would support a mini-primary to decide who the new Democratic Party nominee was after Biden. Obviously, that did not happen. Vice President Harris was quickly made the nomination.
He secured enough delegates support. Biden supported her. All the other potential candidates supported her.
Do you think that at the end of the day that was a mistake because primaries tend to make candidates better?
CLYBURN: Well, look, you may have forgotten, but I haven't because it was my birthday. The morning of my 84th birthday, I was on your show.
TAPPER: Oh, I remember, I remember.
CLYBURN: Yes. Well, you asked me about that and I said, I'm riding with Biden, as long as he is in, but if he were to get out all in for Kamala, I said that that morning, and I had said prior to that that I thought that the rules about party were sufficient and they lend themselves well to a process that could be it taken as in many primary. Now, that wasn't endorsing anything outside of the room. I thought the rules didn't (INAUDIBLE) from that.
And if you look at exactly what happened after Biden withdrew, she can in. I was one of the first to announce my support for her. Others had the opportunity to get in if they wanted to or announce for the office or support for somebody else. But people began to lie up because most peoples saw in her what the country is now seeing in her. There's someone who was well-prepared to be president for these United States, and if given the opportunity will have put herself in that job very, very well.
[16:15:00]
TAPPER: I remember. And you have a mind like a steel trap.
Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn, appreciate it. Always good to see you, sir.
CLYBURN: Thank you very much for having me.
TAPPER: Comedian Jon Stewart weighed in on that controversial joke about Puerto Rico at the Trump rally Sunday night, where a speaker called the Puerto Rico floating island of garbage.
We're going to get reaction to Jon Stewart's take.
Plus, CNN's exclusive access in battleground Michigan. What's happening right now to bring another chaotic scene like those after the 2020 election?
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: In our 2024 lead, with Election Day one week out, national polls and battleground state polls continue to show the presidential race so close that it's within the margin of error, could go either way. And that's why I'm not going to do polls from now through Election Day because just come on, it's tight. We have no idea what's going to happen. Let's just watch the people vote.
Trump's allies are reportedly feeling confident about a victory, however, according to "Axios". According to "Axios", a longtime member of Trump's inner circle, reportedly said, quote, we've never had data that looks this good, unquote.
Lets bring in the panel and let me just say, like I believe it because it's never been this close in polling 2016 or 2020.
[16:20:03]
So I don't doubt it, but how much is the Trump team actually truly confident versus trying to project confidence. So it seems like an inevitability either to pave the way for the election or to pave the way for challenges to the election.
: The latter.
TAPPER: You think it's the latter?
JOE WALSH (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: I think it's part of this 39-piece program that if he loses, they will shout and scream like they did in 2020 and challenge and say it was stolen and rigged.
Jake, my perspective is different. As part of Republicans for Harris, I'm out there every day in a battleground state and I think the opposite. I think there's like a quiet movement of Republicans and independents who aren't saying anything, but they're supporting her.
TAPPER: Uh-huh, it's a theory.
WALSH: I'm encouraged by that.
TAPPER: It's a theory.
WALSH: Yes.
TAPPER: Maria, earlier today, Trump asked about the disparaging joke about Puerto Rico that was made. He said -- he told ABC News, I don't know him about the comedian. Someone put them up there and then he described the rally as a, quote, love fest.
Obviously, not everyone agrees. I've heard anecdotally from many Puerto Rican friends, including those who I have no idea what their political views are, that this really is the talk of the Latino community and Bad Bunny posted an eight-minute long video, basically a love -- an ode to Puerto Rico -- to his 45 million followers. I know that Democrats want this to be a thing, but just like truth serum, or is this really a thing?
MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is certainly -- from what I'm seeing, I've never seen anything like this, and I've never seen any anything like this, this close to an election.
So if anything is ever going to matter about Donald Trump's racism and xenophobia. This can be it because, Jake, Pennsylvania and especially because of where it is, Pennsylvania, right? Almost 500,000 Puerto Ricans live there in addition to other Latinos, because this does offensive not just to Puerto Ricans, but to all Latinos. And I think a lot of sensible Americans as well.
I have heard so many anecdotal conversations and call-in shows. I've been listening to Puerto Rican radio. People are calling in and they are fired up.
TAPPER: Right.
CARDONA: They are mad as hell. I've heard a lot of Trump's supporting Puerto Ricans who are saying, I am not going to vote for this guy and I'm going to tell all of my friends and family to vote for Kamala.
WALSH: Jake, just to add to that, I was at a rally in Pennsylvania this morning with President Bill Clinton.
TAPPER: Where in Pennsylvania?
WALSH: In Johnstown.
TAPPER: Okay.
WALSH: In northwest. But after the rally with Clinton, I had four people come up to me and tell me they weren't going to vote, but now they are -- just four of them.
ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I was in Philly. I mean, again, anecdotally, I was in West Philly all day yesterday, canvassing the streets and it was, you know --
TAPPER: You should have told me. I would have told you where to get a cheesesteak.
ALLISON: We don't have time to eat. We were -- having to pay me, Jake, working, we were working, convincing voters. No, but we -- lot of students, right? Lot from Penn and Drexel, but -- and just community members and what they were saying was this guy is wild, we know he's wild, but this guy is wild after the rally.
But also they were saying we weren't going to vote early, now we are because of the events. So I think it is having an impact.
TAPPER: So, a motivator as it were, at least anecdotally. The comedian Tony Hinchcliffe is one that I had seen before, not, not in a comedy club, but he was -- if anybody wants Tom Brady roast, he participated in that. And Jon Stewart, progressive icon, I think its fair to call last night on his show, defended him to a degree. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": To be fair, the guy's really just doing what he does here. He is at the Tom Brady roast a few months ago.
TONY HINCHCLIFFE, COMEDIAN: The great Jeff Ross, ladies gentlemen. Jeff is so Jewish, she only watches football for the coin toss.
Kevin is so small that when his ancestors picked cotton, they called it dead lifting.
STEWART: There's something wrong with me. I find that guy very funny.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Okay. So that -- that's -- just to be honest, that's the best defense I've seen of the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, because he's saying he's a roast comedian. What do you expect?
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Uh-huh.
TAPPER: I'm not -- please out there. I'm not defending anything, but I'm just saying that is -- that is a defense.
SINGLETON: I just don't think I would have gone with that comedian or heck, maybe even a comedian at all. I mean, I'm just looking at how close this race is going to be. You opened up. It's so close. We're just going to forget the polls at this point.
TAPPER: Well, that's just me.
SINGLETON: But I think -- but I think most would agree with that, Jake. I mean, as a strategist, when I worked on campaigns, I wasn't a comms guy, nothing against a comms. I was a data guy, I dealt with numbers.
And when I'm looking at microtargeting, I'm looking at very key precincts, where when I need to turn people out based on very specific issues, it becomes that much more challenging in a place like Pennsylvania, when you have these folks knocking on doors turning out, communities that may not have necessarily been as engaged before this.
[16:25:01]
Now you've given your opponents something to engage them around, or about. And I think that's what we sort of given to the Harris campaign. Does this mean the race is over? I don't think so. It just makes it that much more harder and more challenging from a micro perspective to potentially win such a close state.
CARDONA: But, you know, on the comedian piece, I agree with Jon Stewart. This is what he does, which is why people are not really directing their fury at him. They're directing their fury at Trump and the campaign because they're the ones who decided to bring him on. They knew what he was like. They saw that roast. They've seen his
shows. They're the ones who decided to bring him on, to pay him, to vet his jokes and to say this is okay because this represents what we want to represent.
TAPPER: I know when I turned on the Tom Brady roast or anything that Jeff Ross does -- Jeff, how are you doing out there? God bless you like, I can't be offended. I know what I'm getting myself into.
ALLISON: Yeah, exactly.
CARDONA: Yes.
ALLISON: Go to a roast, not at a rally like they're -- I don't have a problem with shot comedians. They all aren't my cup of tea, this guy is not my cup of tea.
TAPPER: Right.
ALLISON: But not appropriate for the leader of the free world to host this person and then not condemn it.
TAPPER: Yeah.
Everyone, stick around. We got a lot more to talk about coming up. Steve Bannon, fresh out of prison. I don't know if fresh out of prison. Why he says he feels empowered with one week left in the 2024 race.
And a CNN exclusive, see inside the new operation trying to safeguard the vote and prevent ballot challenges we saw in 2020.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:30:23]
TAPPER: In our law and justice lead today, a defiant Steve Bannon is out of federal prison and a free man. His message, quote, I'm not broken. I'm empowered, unquote.
CNN's Sara Murray is following his release.
Sara, so Mr. Bannon spoke a short time ago. What did he have to say?
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: He is out. He wants people to know he's out. He's back to his podcast war room. He is holding a press conference. He's already spreading claims that Democrats are trying to steal the election, and frankly, he's bragging a little bit about what he accomplished when he was behind bars.
Take a listen to what he said at his press conference today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE BANNON, FORMER TRUMP CHIEF STRATEGIST: I'm far from broken. I've been in empowered by my four months at Danbury federal prison. Why was I empowered? Because I was able to listen, to observe and to learn from working class minorities -- young African American men and Hispanic men, and yes, Puerto Rican men, about what their lives are in what the queen of mass incarcerations, which is what they believe that Kamala Harris is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MURRAY: So, you already hear him there essentially trying to clean up the mess the Trump campaign is found themselves in with the Puerto Rican community, trying to turn the tables around on Kamala Harris.
Look, this has kind of the watered down version of Steve Bannon. He's going to ramp up this rhetoric as we get closer to Election Day. And when you talk to people well monitor this conservative media ecosystem, they're not just worried about what he's going to do between now and Election Day, but they're really worried about his incendiary rhetoric, if it looks like Donald Trump is coming up short on election day.
Bannon, of course, was one of the very early, very vocal voices in the Stop the Steal movement in 2020. And he's had, you know, sort of this fill in roster of hosts since he's been behind bars, spreading election lies, and we're going to hear a lot of that from analysts.
TAPPER: Yeah, and there's that audio that "Mother Jones" broke a few years ago of him before Donald Trump denied the election and announced that he had won, which he hadn't, saying that that was the plan, he was going to declare victory even though he hadn't won.
MURRAY: Right. So, now, Bannon is running GOTV. And if that comes up short, it's going to be more lies about cheating.
TAPPER: What could go wrong. That's -- what could go wrong.
Sara Murray, thanks so much.
Now in battleground Michigan, you might recall Detroit was the epicenter of stop the count in 2020, with pro-Trump protesters outside the center were balance retaliate this time, election officials are taking no chances. They put in place a number of guardrails to try to prevent chaos and speed up the count.
CNN's Marshall Cohen has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): What if I told you this could help prevent this?
CROWD: Stop the count! Stop the count!
REPORTER: The scene here is incredibly tense.
COHEN: For election officials in Detroit, that's the hope.
JANICE WINFREY (D), DETROIT CITY CLERK: Laws have changed. We have pre-processing now. That's helpful.
COHEN: That could speed up the results.
WINFREY: That certainly will speed up the results.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: It's election night in America continued --
COHEN: In 2020, vote counting dragged on past election night as Joe Biden overtook Donald Trump on his way to winning Michigan, chaos erupted at the convention center where they were tallying mail ballots.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're trying to steal the election.
TRUMP: In Detroit, there were hours of unexplained delay in delivering.
COHEN: This year, Michigan's new election laws could help avoid a repeat of the chaos.
We have been granted exclusive access to the election center in Detroit where today right behind me, they are processing about 10,000 mail ballots, so the ballots in this room very wealth, could decide the election.
DANIEL BAXTER, DETROIT ELECTIONS CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: So today after we received the ballots, my staff go through all of the mail.
COHEN: Signed ballots and envelopes are fed into a new million dollars sorting machine that Detroit bought after 2020.
It snaps a picture of each document so clerks can compare the signatures to those on file.
Can't get counted without a signature.
BAXTER: Can't get counted without a signature.
COHEN: Now why does that signature important?
BAXTER: The signature authenticates the actual ballot.
COHEN: When people out there say there's no verification, your response to that?
BAXTER: They're wrong.
COHEN: CNN blurred personal information for the sake of privacy.
ANTHONY MILLER, DETROIT ELECTIONS SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER: This part is the most human part of the process. Now this one --
COHEN: This one looks pretty different.
MILLER: Pretty different. This one is a full name and this one is to initials.
COHEN: So what -- what happens here?
MILLER: So at this point, returned ballot is rejected for further review.
COHEN: But even with these safeguards and reforms, some Michigan Republicans still don't have faith in the process like here in neighboring Macomb County, which Trump carried twice.
So, you're no fan of vote by mail.
MARK FORTON, MACOMB COUNTY GOP CHAIRMAN: No, I hate it.
[16:35:01]
The drop boxes are terrible because people just stuffed anything of the drop boxes. They voted by mail last time not because I had a big family thing going on. So --
COHEN: You voted by mail?
FORTON: Once.
COHEN: You've just told me, I thought you said you don't trust.
FORTON: I don't. I took it to the township and put it inside the building at the clerk's office right to the bottom.
COHEN: You saw it going.
FORTON: I saw it going.
CROWD: Stop the count! Stop the count!
COHEN: Four years ago, this was a very hotspot.
BAXTER: Yes, it was. Someone posted on social media asking for every Republican in the state of Michigan. They've come to Detroit. It was so crowded to the point where we had to stop people from coming in.
COHEN: Federal prosecutors recently suggested that Trump campaign tried to incite a riot that day.
BAXTER: All of a sudden, we heard the walls and the windows rattling, and then people began to chant "stop the count, stop the count" and --
COHEN: Did you stop the count?
BAXTER: Absolutely not.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Look at your screen, at one site, workers put cardboard over the windows of a vote counting station, so no one can see in.
BAXTER: These three windows were boarded up -- COHEN: Yeah, that's right there.
BAXTER: And they were trying to board these up. But before they could, that's when I came over and I said take all those cardboards down. I hated this. I hate it when that happened. Why?
COHEN: Why?
BAXTER: Because this is all designed for transparency. This is democracy.
COHEN: Do you regret that those papers were put up on the window?
WINFREY: I don't. I don't regret anything we did to keep our poll workers focus and feeling safe. And if that's what it took for that to happen, I'll do it again.
You know, I'm a government employee, you know? I signed my name for a living and swear people in. That's what it used to be. But now I've truly feel like the protector of democracy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN: Jake more than 75,000 mail ballots have already been returned to Detroit. Across the whole state of Michigan, 2 million ballots cast so far. Everyone is expecting this to be a razor thin election. But because of these new procedures, hopefully, it will go a lot smoother this year.
TAPPER: Marshall Cohen, with his first ever spot. Fantastic work, Marshall, you and your team. Congratulations.
COHEN: Thanks, Jake.
TAPPER: Of all the TV ads flooding the airwaves these days, one particular issue is getting a lot of attention. We're going to have a take on the tone coming up.
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[16:41:34]
TAPPER: And we're back with our 2024 lead.
Pro-Trump and pro-Harris ads have been flooding the TV airwaves in the first half of October alone, Trump and his allies have spent more than $21 million on one specific series of ads, ads that seemed to be intentionally played during NFL games and college football and baseball.
I've seen these ads a million times, especially in critical battleground states. Here's one of them that I've seen a lot because I've watched a lot of Phillies and Eagles games.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Surgery --
MODERATOR: For prisoners?
HARRIS: For prisoners. Every transgender inmate in the prison system would have access.
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD, RADIO HOST: Yeah. No, I don't want my taxpayer dollars go into that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kamala support transgender sex changes in jails with our money.
AD NARRATOR: Kamala even supports letting biological men compete against our girls in their sports. Kamala is for they/them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: So -- and, by the way, we should note, Charlamagne tha God, seen and heard in that ad, has issued a cease-and-desist letter to the Trump campaign for using him in that ad.
But let's talk about the impact of these ads, such as this with Parker Molloy. She's a Chicago-based writer, author of the newsletter, "The Present Age" to which I subscribe.
So, Parker, you've been outspoken about a range of issues including politics and how trans individuals are often not only marginalized, but demonize. So what was your reaction when you saw this Trump anti- trans ad? And I know you're a baseball fan. You must have seen it a lot.
PARKER MOLLOY, AUTHOR, "THE PRESENT AGE": Oh, I've seen it at a time. It's been -- it's been pretty wild to watch that. It's -- it is dehumanizing. It is frustrating because it takes an issue which is the health care for inmates, for prisoners, something that gets -- that goes to every single person who is in prison or is in -- being detained. It's an Eighth Amendment issue and it treats it like its some outrageous position to take.
And, yeah, its been frustrating to watch, especially since, you know, at Trump's -- Trump's rallies, he'll have -- he'll put pictures of random trans people on the screen, of Rachel Levine, who's the assistant secretary of health, and just the crowd will boo. It's -- it's a little scary.
TAPPER: But what do you hear from trans individuals who maybe aren't as outspoken as you are but see ads like this during the 2024 election cycle, because we should note, this isn't just a one-off. I think this is one of the main ads the Trump campaign airs.
MOLLOY: Yeah. I mean, they've -- they've spent tens of millions of dollars doing this and its not just the Trump campaign, it's -- it's Republicans across the country have been running ads, making these similar points.
They see trans people as a small group of just 1 percent of the population who's easy to demonize and in talking to trans people, they're -- they've been very, very frustrated to deal with this. It's made a lot of people I know scared. It's -- one thing that people are worried about is if the election does go to Trump, the trans people will be blamed for this outcome.
TAPPER: Vice President Harris was asked about this ad on the Breakfast Club Radio Show. Take a listen to her response.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
HARRIS: He has spent tens of millions of dollars trying to hit me with a bunch of disinformation and misinformation on this. And he's living in a glass house because the policies he's speaking about in terms of those surgeries were also his policies.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
[16:45:08]
TAPPER: What did you make of Vice President Harris's response?
MOLLOY: Sure. Well, I think the point that she's making there is that this is not what the American people want to focus on. There -- there was a recent survey done by Data for Progress that found that 80 percent of Americans, including 85 percent of Republicans, think that politicians should spend less time on trans issues.
So I think she's really just highlighting the fact that most people would rather talk about the economy and inflation than talk about where someone uses the bathroom or whether an under 12 girls soccer team includes a trans girl or not.
TAPPER: According to ad impact tracking data, zero dollars in Democratic broadcast TV ad spending, zero went to ads mentioning LGBTQ rights during the first two weeks of October. Why do you think that is? Does that frustrate you? Because there aren't Democrats defending trans rights?
MOLLOY: Sure. Well, I mean, a little bit. It's -- in one sense, I understand the position that they're taking because really when it comes down to it, Republicans are the party of talking about trans people. Democrats, by and large, do not bring up trans issues. This is something that if -- if Republican politicians did not, -- did not talk about it, there would be no problem.
But they do. And I think it would be nice to have a little more support, a little more vocal support. However, I again, understand the position that Democratic politicians are taking.
TAPPER: There's -- there's one Republican talking point in that ad that then I wonder what you think about which is has to do with keeping trans women and trans girls out of women and girls sports.
What do you say to somebody who loves and supports the trans community says, trans individuals should be protected, should be loved, but do have questions about the sports issue because of whether or not it's fair for girls and women, sees girls and women in sports?
MOLLOY: Sure and I understand that point. I think that what -- what's important to remember here is that in every Republican state, this issue is essentially been taken off the table. Every Republican state has passed bills, has passed laws to ban trans girls from participating in school sports. But then what has happened is they've then gone a step further in almost every one of those states to then banned health care for trans kids, to then restrict health care for trans adults, to then affect how trans people as a whole can exist in society.
So it's clear that this is more of a Trojan horse issue than actually Republicans pretending to care about fairness in sports. And one other point on that is that, you know, when -- when you're talking to girl -- about trans girls participating in grade school and high school sports, for the most part, sports is where people come together to form a community, to play with her friends and these -- these laws, the pushing to divide, divide trans people out of this is essentially saying you don't belong, you're okay to bully. You're okay to exclude. And I think that that's shameful.
TAPPER: All right. I want you to come back and I want to dive more into the trans girls and trans women in sports issue next time a big issue comes out because I'd love to dive more into that one specifically as somebody who supports women sports, girls sports.
Parker Molloy, thank you so much for coming on. We really appreciate it.
MOLLOY: Thanks so much. Jake.
TAPPER: Up next, that tragic scene in Gaza and nearly 100 people killed by an Israeli airstrike today. New video of the aftermath inside Gaza. That's next.
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[16:52:45]
TAPPER: In our world lead now, the death toll is rising in Gaza after an Israeli airstrike. The IDF says it was targeting Hamas militants or terrorists.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more from Israel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These men aren't looking for survivors. Amid a rubble of another Israeli airstrike, they are here for the bodies.
After all, how could anyone survived destruction on this scale?
More than 90 people were killed in this Israeli strike in northern Gaza early Tuesday morning, including 25 children, according to the Palestinian ministry of health an Israeli military spokesman said the military was targeting a suspected terrorists in the area and did not intend to collapse the building. But the bodies have not yet all been counted as this man can attest.
Here's a body, and here's another and another he says, pointing out there locations. And then there are the bodies of this boy's uncle and cousin, wedged between two slabs of concrete. Her feet is all that is visible.
Gaza's rescue workers cannot reach this part of northern Gaza which has been besieged by the Israeli military for nearly a month. That means no heavy machinery, just bare hands sifting through the rubble.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya is one of just two doctors here, and he's growing desperate, calling for a humanitarian corridor to bring surgical teams to his hospital.
There are children with bones protruding from their bodies needing orthopedic surgery. There are brain injuries that require neurosurgeons he says.
But Israel's parliaments may make matters worse. In an overwhelming vote, Israeli lawmakers move to ban UNRWA, the main U.N. agency aiding Palestinians from operating in Israel or engaging with Israeli officials. Israel accuses UNRWA of ties to Hamas after linking a handful of its thousands of employees to the October 7th attacks, a blanket charge UNRWA vehemently denies.
It's a move the U.S. says could not come at a worse time.
MATTHEW MILLER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: There's nobody that can replace them right now in the middle of the crisis. So we continue to urge the government of Israel to pause the implementation of this legislation.
[16:55:07]
DIAMOND: In Gaza, that urgency is all too real.
If UNRWA is gone, who is going to feed us? Who will provide security, this young man asks. Who is going to take us in?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DIAMOND (on camera): And, Jake, this suffering could stop, of course, with a ceasefire deal today.
Qatari officials met with Hamas negotiators to see if they would accept a new proposal for a month-long ceasefire -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv, thanks so much.
A live look near the ellipse here in D.C. where Kamala Harris would give that major speech this evening at the site of Trump's January 6 rally. What we expect her to say, that's next.
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