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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip

Trump Under Fire Over Remarks About Women in Final Days; Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) Confronted by Rogan Over Roe v. Wade's End; LeBron Endorses Harris in Video, Uses Segregation Footage. "NewsNight" Panelists Discuss Presidential Election 2024; Financial Paper Warns of Economic Turmoil If Trump Wins. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired October 31, 2024 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Tonight, the choice --

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I want to protect the women of our country. I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not.

PHILLIP: -- isn't yours. Kamala Harris tells voters --

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It actually is, I think, very offensive.

PHILLIP: -- Donald Trump doesn't respect women.

Plus, a boom and a bonus, the Wall Street Journal says the next president will inherit an economy in the black, as The Economist warns Donald Trump will put America back in the red.

Also, LeBron James dunks on Donald Trump, endorsing Harris with a video that marries the worst of Trump's rhetoric with the worst of American hate.

And low tee and low blows. J.D. Vance gets the Joe Rogan experience and connects testosterone to politics.

Live at the table, Shermichael Singleton, Geoff Duncan, Coleman Hughes and Ana Navarro.

With five days to go, Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here they do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIP (on camera): Good evening, I'm Abby Phillip in New York.

Let's get right to what America is talking about. What does it really mean? Donald Trump maybe, just maybe, alienated the largest bloc of voters in the United States of America with just five days until you vote. That's women.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: About four weeks ago, I was saying, no, I want to protect the people. I want to protect the women of our country. I want to protect the women. Sir, please don't say that. Why? They said, we think it's -- we think it's very inappropriate for you to say. I said, why? I'm president. I want to protect the women of our country. They said, sir, I just think it's inappropriate for you to say. I pay these guys a lot of money. Can you believe it? I said, well, I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. I'm going to protect them. I'm going to protect them from migrants coming in. I'm going to protect them from foreign countries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Kamala Harris says that when women hear those words, they should hear a clear warning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: It's just -- it actually is, I think, very offensive to women in terms of not understanding their agency, their authority, their right, and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies. And this is just the latest on a series of reveals by the former president of how he thinks about women.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Joanna Coles is with us in our fifth seat. She is the chief content officer at The Daily Beast. That is quite the closing message to women, whether you like it or not.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, if you ask, all the women who have accused him of sexual harassment, if you ask the women who have accused him of rape, if you listen to what he said on that Access Hollywood tape, you realize that Donald Trump is a man who has a long history of doing things whether women like it or not.

I find it offensive too. Women don't want to be protected by Trump. They want to be protected from Trump. Because no matter how much he tries, he cannot run away from having handpicked those three Supreme Court justices that overturned Roe and have meant that women all over this country are having a very hard time getting the reproductive health they need.

Some of them have died. Some of them have had to almost die in order to get treatment. Doctors are petrified of treating them. That's not protection. That's threatening our lives.

PHILLIP: Whoever on his staff said, sir, don't say that, they might've been right, because, obviously, this is the battleground, right? I mean, let's look at where the persuadable women are in this race. They're in two of perhaps the most hotly contested of these battlegrounds, Pennsylvania and Michigan, 9 percent in Michigan, 7 percent still persuadable in this race. And Trump is talking to them, but talking to them in ways that it's incomprehensible.

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, look, the advisers that he's referencing that he pays a lot of money to, he probably should listen to.

[22:05:04]

There's a reason you don't want your candidate to speak towards the negatives because it gives an opportunity, strategically speaking, for the opponent to use those words or platform against them. You saw that with the vice president with her statement.

I think the closing message for Trump needs to be the economy and immigration. That's where he's strong. I would imagine Susie and Chris are probably advising him, sort of stick here, this is what our internals are showcasing our strengths are.

For Harris ,if you're looking at a place like Pennsylvania where Geoff has been a whole lot, you I can imagine them in the final days spending a ton of money on ads, radio ads in their door knockers, knocking on doors, reminding some of those suburban, former Republican ladies that, hey, we need you all to turn out, these are some of the things the former president is saying. I don't think it helps his candidacy, which is why, again, the adviser was likely saying, sir, stay away from the women talk.

PHILLIP: If that sir story is true, but, you know, sir stories are kind of a tell for Trump.

Geoff, you know one of the things that is happening the Harris campaign and their surrogates are putting out these ads that are basically talking to women and they're saying to them, hey, you don't have to tell your husband what you're doing in the ballot box. You don't have to say anything at all. You can just go in there and do what's right for you and yourself and your daughter and your mother, whoever. And here is the response from Charlie Kirk who is a pretty loud voice in conservative circles to that line of commentary toward women in this race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLIE KIRK, POLITICAL ACTIVIST AND AUTHOR: She needs people to basically lie to their husbands, which they are promoting by the way, which I find that entire advertising campaign so repulsive, this wife is wearing the -- you'll show it, wearing the American hat. She's coming in with her sweet husband who probably works his tail off to make sure that she can go, you know, and have a nice life and provides for the family, and then she lies to him saying, oh, yes, I'm going to vote for Trump and then she votes for Kamala Harris as her little secret in the voting booth.

Kamala Harris and her team believe that there'll be millions of women that undermine their husbands and do so in a way that it's not detectable in the polling.

(END VIDEO CLIP) GEOFF DUNCAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't even know what I just listened to. I mean, that's just so cringe worthy to hear that. And this notion of Donald Trump being chief protector of women is like trying to pitch to a crowd one plus one equals five. I mean, he does not have a life story that says he's been very good to women across his lifespan.

This whisper caucus that you speak of, I'm running into in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Georgia, this whisper caucus that consists of Republican women, that are sick and tired of listening to this, sick and tired of being felt less than, sick and tired of being talked down to by Donald Trump and other Republican supporters of Donald Trump. And so I think you're going to see this whisper caucus show up.

And they're not whispering. Hopefully, they're not whispering because they don't want their husbands to hear, certainly they should have adult conversations with anybody they want to have them with. But they're having a whisper caucus because -- they're part of the whisper caucus because they just know in their core what the right thing to do is. It's not to send Donald Trump back for another four years.

NAVAROO: Why do they have to have conversations at all? None of us have to have conversations. If we want to keep our vote private, we can. And this idea that voting your conscience is undermining your husband, it's like, what century, what decade, what leave it to beaver (ph) are they stuck in?

DUNCAN: It's cringe worthy.

COLEMAN HUGHES, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I've heard people on the other side say the same thing, that you're going to see men voting for Trump and not telling their wives.

NAVARRO: And that's fine.

HUGHES: It's all fine. Everyone has a right to do that.

I want to make two points though in defense of what Trump is saying here. One is that if you play the full clip at the end, he says and I'm going to defend men children and everybody. And to me, of all the crazy things Trump has said, this just strikes me as such an innocuous comment when viewed in its full context.

JOANNA COLES, CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER, THE DAILY BEAST: But you're not defending men or children when you take back the healthcare rights of their wives, of their sisters, of their mothers. The people that have abortions in America are largely mothers who've already got children. It's not feckless teenagers.

And if you take back their rights, which Ana was correct at the beginning of the show to say has actually happened, the people you are hurting are American families, the very people that the Republicans are claiming to support.

HUGHES: That's a fine and separate point, but it's not a justification for twisting what he's saying here.

COLES: But you're not -- but my point is you're not protecting brothers or sons by failing to protect their mothers, their sisters, their wives.

PHILLIP: I mean, Shermichael --

SINGLETON: But how are you -- can I interject?

PHILLIP: I'm just curious. I mean, I hear you saying that he was talking generally about protecting everybody in America, but it is also about the way that he was saying it. It was -- it came across as patronizing and it almost seemed like he knew that. That's why he himself -- you know, he said what was in his head, which is like it's -- this is going to sound bad, but I'm going to say it anyway.

HUGHES: I mean, it may be farcical.

COLES: He says, regardless of whether or not women want it.

HUGHES: It may be silly.

[22:10:00]

I don't see how it's, it reflects a hatred of women, which is what I take misogyny is.

NAVARRO: What women is respect, equality, opportunity.

COLES: Healthcare.

NAVARRO: We want healthcare. We want the ability to decide our lives and our bodies for ourselves, not to be imposed by Donald Trump.

HUGHES: These are all fine points, but I don't think it justifies twisting what he said here.

NAVARRO: I'm not twisting it.

DUNCAN: I'm not certain it twisted the part of the quote, as I remember it, where he said, even if they don't want me to, right? I think that's the part that just stepped on that.

HUGHES: What do you think he meant by that?

DUNCAN: I think he said -- I think he meant exactly what he said, even if they don't want. Why should somebody have to accept Donald Trump's protection if they don't want to, if they don't see him as being their protector, if they don't see them align with themselves?

NAVARRO: You don't get to create a problem and then pretend you come out like a knight in shining armor with a solution. He made the problem of Dobbs. Women are dying. We're not making this up. Women are afraid. Doctors are afraid to treat them. This is happening all over America. It's happening in Texas. It's happening in my state of Florida. It's happening in so many different states. And so you are not protecting women when you are putting their lives at risk, when women have died because of what you did.

HUGHES: All good points. If people care about protecting women, why doesn't someone ask Kamala Harris about the accusations against her husband of physically assaulting his ex-girlfriend?

NAVARRO: Oh, for the love of God. I'm not even going -- I'm not -- honestly, I'm not even going to answer that.

HUGHES: Why? It's not a legitimate question? We're talking about protecting women.

NAVARRO: Why don't we ask Donald Trump about the accusations that came for sexual assault and rape?

PHILLIP: Here's what I'll say about it.

NAVARRO: And who's running?

PHILLIP: Doug Emhoff and the campaign have categorically denied it. The accuser also is not named, so we don't know who this person is. So, there's that as well.

But on the issue of abortion, this did come up in a recent interview with J.D. Vance. He was with Joe Rogan on the podcast, and Rogan asked him about, you know, the idea of abortion laws punishing women for going across state lines to seek abortions, and here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE ROGAN, HOST, THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE: I'm concerned with this idea that you could be prosecuted for it in your state for doing something that's legal somewhere else.

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I don't like the idea, to be clear. I've not heard of this, maybe as like a possibility, but not as something that actually exists in the law. But I've not heard of somebody being arrested. And I don't like the idea of arresting people for moving around the country.

ROGAN: I haven't heard of them doing it either. I've heard of the discussion.

VANCE: I've heard it as a threat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: The reason he's heard of it as a threat is because he himself raised the possibility. He's right, there are no laws that actually do that yet. But here's what he said just a couple years ago about this very topic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: Let's say Roe vs. Wade is overruled, Ohio bans abortion, you know, in 2022, let's say 2024 and then, you know, every day, George Soros sends a 747 to Columbus to load up disproportionately black women to get them to go have abortions in California.

And it's like, if that happens, do you need some federal response to prevent it from happening, because it's really creepy. And, you know, I'm pretty sympathetic to that, actually.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: I mean, once again, it's J.D. Vance versus J.D. Vance on this. But this is why abortion is a central issue in this campaign.

SINGLETON: Yes, sure. But, look, it's not a strong suit for Republicans. Again, we've lost the suburbs, reliably strong red, whether it's the women there or some of the men, more business guys, sort of Chamber of Commerce, as we used to refer to them. It's going to make it harder, right? And I think Trump is seeing some benefit, however, with sort of low propensity voters.

Now, the jury's still out on whether or not his campaign can turn those folks out next week. If he can, then perhaps the strategy overall for the party will ultimately shift. But until I see the evidence of that, I do think we're going to need some of those voters. And the party has to figure out a way to pivot somewhat. And I do think the question becomes, if you do say you have exceptions, life incest. rape, et cetera, at what point will Republicans feel comfortable saying, is it 15 weeks, 14 weeks, 13 weeks? I'm not certain, but that's something that the party's going to have to deal with.

PHILLIP: Is it the question also whether you can actually trust that, you know, what they're saying they want to do on abortion is what they're actually going to do, or is it what J.D. Vance was saying just a couple years ago?

COLES: Well, you can't trust anything that they're saying, right? I mean, we're in the delirium stage of the campaign now, where Donald Trump in particular is just talking whatever literally words fall out of his mouth that don't really make any sense. We know that his advisers are telling him, don't talk about this, but he can't stop himself because he's the only person he listens to.

Michael Wolff, the author who writes very authoritatively about him, has just come out this evening talking about all these pictures that there are of Donald Trump with Jeffrey Epstein and the whole Epstein- Donald Trump relationship, which really has gone largely unexplored is coming to the fore again.

[22:15:11]

This is a man who has women's interests furthest away from women themselves. And the idea that we're really paying it much logic is kind of scary at this point.

PHILLIP: All right. Joanna Coles, thank you very much for joining us. Everyone else stick around for me.

Coming up next, speaking of gender, J.D. Vance says conservative men have more testosterone than liberals. We'll discuss that.

Plus, new tonight, LeBron James endorses Harris by splicing together videos of civil rights protests and segregation with Donald Trump's own remarks.

And another special guest is going to join us in our fifth seat. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:20:00]

PHILLIP: The King's vote tonight. LeBron James is chalking up for Kamala Harris. The most famous basketball player on the entire planet is still playing that -- and he's still playing, says that the choice in this election is very clear. It is about how you want your children to grow up. And the video that he paired with this endorsement, well, it leaves absolutely no doubt that, to LeBron, Donald Trump's future is filled with hate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Troublemaker, these are troublemakers. Look.

I love the old days, you know? Do you know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They'd be carried out on a stretcher, folks.

I like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you.

Now, if you had one really violent day, like one rough hour, and I mean real rough, the word will get out and it will end immediately.

Of course I hate these people, and let's all hate these people, because maybe hate is what we need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Tavis Smiley is here and he joins us in our fifth seat at the table. He is a nationally syndicated legendary radio host and author of The Covenant with Black America 20 Years Later.

Tavis, what a way for this endorsement to land. That video was not holding anything back, not mincing any words and he didn't say a word.

TAVIS SMILEY, HOST OF NATIONALLY SYNDICATED RADIO PROGRAM, TAVIS SMILEY: Yes.

PHILLIP: It was really a lot of Donald Trump, just Donald Trump.

SMILEY: Yes. Well, Donald Trump can hang himself with his own words, number one. Number two, let's recall it wasn't that long ago when somebody told LeBron to shut up and dribble. I'm glad he rejected that advice then. I'm glad he's rejected that advice now. These personalities, these celebrities, these stars have their own agency. They are indeed fellow citizens and I celebrate them speaking out. I'm not so sure what it actually does. I'm not sure people vote a particular way because LeBron said do this or do that. And I'm also concerned, Abby, about whether or not this, this string of celebrity endorsements plays into that narrative that Kamala is an elitist candidate. That does concern me.

But at the end of the day, every one of us ought to be engaged in this process, and that includes celebrities like LeBron James.

PHILLIP: Yes, it is a fair concern because I mean, nobody is surprised when a celebrity comes out for a Democrat. But I don't know that that's what she needs right now.

HUGHES: Look, I thought that this wasn't very effective because it was such an exercise in hyperbole and selective edits and putting it together with, you know, videos from the civil rights movement and stuff, you know, again, twisting Trump's words in ways that weren't meant from a president that, for some strange reason, made funding for black colleges automatic, right, not exactly the kind of thing a white supremacist would do.

I thought that we were actually chatting before about Arnold Schwarzenegger's. Endorsement of Kamala, which was much more effective because, what he didn't do was implicitly judge Trump supporters, say, you're racist, essentially, which is the subtext of this edit. He actually went a long way to kind of agreeing with them in certain ways and saying, I get it. I'm actually, you know, conservative in these ways, but I'm still voting for Kamala, and I don't judge you for having your opinion. I thought that was way more effective than that.

NAVARRO: You talk about twisting people's words, and you are twisting LeBron James' endorsement right now by saying he's calling all of you racist. He's not. He's saying Donald Trump is racist. Here's the proof. Here are his words, there are people who fought really hard for me to have the right to exercise my right to vote, I will do so, and I'm going to do so publicly.

Now, I will tell you, there were a lot of celebrities who, for a long time, did not want to get involved. I think that Trump amnesia that we were talking about earlier in the year has been cured. I think that Madison Square Garden rally was a catalyst for those who had forgotten, who had still forgotten, to pay attention and remember the division, the hostility, the misogyny, the racism, just the horrible chaos that comes with this guy. It was a fiasco.

SMILEY: And I didn't see -- Coleman, respectfully, I didn't see any of Donald Trump's words being twisted in the video that LeBron posted, number one.

PHILLIP: I am curious about what words --

SMILEY: I didn't see any twist, number one. And, number two, it's okay for campaigns to edit video to make their commercials, but it's not okay for LeBron to do that?

PHILLIP: I'm also curious, what are the words that you say are being twisted?

NAVARRO: He actually has a production company, so it might -- it could have been his --

HUGHES: I know, but not him himself. That is beside the point. I think --

NAVARRO: You think he didn't okay? You think he didn't approve what he put out?

PHILLIP: Tell us what you think is being taken out of context.

HUGHES: I think, so when you cobble together videos from the 50s and 60s of the civil rights movement, and you have Donald Trump saying essentially, these people are terrible, what you're implying is that he is like the white segregationists of the 50s and 60s who thought black people were lesser human beings, should not deserve to vote --

[22:25:11]

PHILLIP: I think that's exactly --

SMILEY: That's exactly what he meant. That's exactly what he meant.

HUGHES: Okay, but that's not anything Trump has ever said.

PHILLIP: Well, I think --

HUGHES: So, that is twisting his words.

PHILLIP: You're saying that he's taking Trump's words out of context. I think Trump's words were in context. It's just that they were put alongside things that you objected to.

NAVARRO: But you think asking for the death penalty for five young men of color, black and Latino, and then never apologizing, never acknowledging that he was wrong, do you think that's not otherizing?

PHILLIP: I mean, what Ana's about is --

HUGHES: It was popular in the early 90s. Most of the congressional black caucus voted for the crime bill. It was a different time.

NAVARRO: He was investigated for not renting to black people.

PHILLIP: That the sound that you hear of Trump at the end of the video, we have that full video, the context, right? He was on Larry King, this was in 1989, talking about the Central Park Five.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: A reporter asked me whether or not I had any compassion or feeling for the people that did it. Do I have hatred for them? And I said, look, this woman was raped, mugged, and thrown off a building, thrown off a building. On top of everything else, she's virtually young and she's got some major problems, to put it mildly. I said, of course, I hate these people. And let's all hate these people, because maybe hate is what we need if we're going to get something done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Maybe hate is what we need is the part that was used in the video, but it was used to make the point that Trump at that time took out a full page ad in The New York Times proclaiming the guilt of these five black and brown men largely because they were black and brown.

SINGLETON: Sure. I don't want to debate what happened with the Central Park Fire. I think we all know the story there.

The question for me as a strategist is whether or not this is going to be effective. Most celebrities support Democrats. That's not a big surprise for me. That's been the case for a very long time. I think if you are going to lean on celebrities with the expectation or the hope that an endorsement will potentially move some of their followers, then I think you want the endorsement to speak to some of the trials and tribulations that people are experiencing.

LeBron James grew up very humbly. He can certainly speak to poverty. He could have mentioned that in his endorsement. He could have talked about what it takes to accomplish certain things, and he could have said, and I'm supporting Kamala Harris because all the things I've accomplished, I believe her policies will help a lot of other African Americans that Trump --

PHILLIP: I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I just -- I wonder --

SINGLETON: I just thought -- I didn't think it was effective. That's all.

PHILLIP: Do you acknowledge that there are some voters for whom that very idea of hate being a driving force of our politics is a central core issue for them? There are a lot of --

SINGLETON: I don't know if that ad -- I think people's opinions on Trump are already cemented.

PHILLIP: Do you concede that there might be some voters who might look at that ad and say, yes, I don't want us to go back to a time when hate was driving the leaders of our country?

SINGLETON: I would love to see some data, whether it's quantitatively or qualitatively, that would lead me to believe that someone saw that ad and all of a sudden said, oh my God, I already disliked Trump, and all of a sudden I dislike him more. I don't think that's the case again.

SMILEY: But, Shermichael, the data, respectfully, the data is already there and it's been there for --

SINGLETON: But that's the point that I'm making about.

SMILEY: But the data is there. It's been there for decades now. And we cannot deny at this table that racism is still the most intractable issue in this country.

SINGLETON: That's not what I'm saying.

SMILEY: And what LeBron is drawing attention to in this race, that race, in fact, does matter, we have a choice in this race between hate and love. We will see if love wins. But what's wrong with LeBron reminding us that race has been central to the campaign that Donald Trump is running?

SINGLETON: I'm not arguing that. What I'm arguing is if you're going to use a celebrity endorsement, I personally think there is a far more effective way to potentially move voters than you may need.

SMILEY: But you're not his audience. It may work with his audience. Just because it doesn't work with you doesn't mean it doesn't resonate with the voters.

DUNCAN: I think that's -- to the point, I think it was effective. I think the endorsement does move the needle slightly, subtly. We're late in the game, I think, for two reasons. One, the message was powerful. It reminded folks above Donald Trump's rhetoric what the real situations are.

I think, secondly, if you're looking at the polling data, there is not as much support with black men that we're seeing pop up in the polling for Harris. I don't know if you could pick a better person, better spokesman for that audience to say, hey, look, don't sit at home. Don't sit this one out. Come vote. But I think he speaks directly to those folks, whether it be on social media, whether it be in television appearances, whatever the story you like.

SINGLETON: But the endorsement didn't speak to black men there is all of a sudden going to be new economic opportunities for you if you vote for Vice President Harris. That would have been a more effective endorsement, from my perspective.

NAVARRO: Shermichael, who does Mark Holden's endorsement speak to? Who does Amber Rose's endorsement speak to? I mean, Donald Trump is parading out whatever celebrity he's got. It's just they're not as big a name as the ones that Kamala has.

SINGLETON: You've been a lifelong Republican. You know, Republicans have never had a large pool of celebrities to sort of bring out.

[22:30:02]

NAVARRO: Yes, but these are like the dregs, right?

SINGLETON: So, you got to pool wherever you can get. My point here simply is -- and I'm not saying that LeBron doesn't have a right to endorse whomever he wants. Of course, he does. He's a great athlete.

I'm simply saying, if LeBron called me, if I were a Democrat, and said, Shermichael, what is the best way for me to put forth a message to encourage young black men to vote for Vice President Harris? I would have said talk about economics, talk about potential academic attainment ideals that we would like for black men to ascertain if they vote for her. Those things -- if I'm a young black guy sitting on the couch --wait a minute here--

NAVARRO: Wait, can I tell you something? Let me say this. I'm from Miami. I remember, let me say this. I'm from Miami. I remember when the Miami Heat players showed up wearing hoodies protesting the Trayvon Martin assassination-- what happened with Trayvon Martin. I believe that they take their platform, the NBA players LeBron, Dwyane Wade -- they take their platform with incredible seriousness.

SINGLETON: That's not what I'm arguing though, Ana.

NAVARRO: They have the right.

SINGLETON: We're having a disagreement over tactics.

NAVARRO: No.

TAVIS SMILEY, HOST OF NATIONALLY SYNDICATED RADIO PROGRAM "TAVIS SMILEY": I'm not disagreeing with him on why either or --

NAVARRO: Listen, the guy has got a hundred million viewers, I think he doesn't need advice from you on tactics.

SMILEY: -- but why either or versus both hands?

SINGLETON: Well, I'll say either or, Tavis, and we've talked about this on your radio show. I think the vice president's campaign has done what they would argue an effective job of talking about race and a whole other issues as it pertains to the former president.

The needle hasn't necessarily moved, I don't think, as much as they would like with those low propensity black men. The question becomes why. I would argue it's because you're not speaking enough about economics and other opportunities. And if I were advising LeBron, I think that would have been a more effective use of his platform.

NAVARRO: She has got to hold -- he has got a whole policy platform on black men.

PHILLIP: We got to go out of this. Everyone, hang on. We got to go. Guys, we're going on a commercial break. Coming up next, another financial paper, its warning of economic turmoil. If Donald Trump wins, we'll get to that economic conversation next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:36:14]

PHILLIP: Tonight, win or lose, the American economy will boom. "The Wall Street Journal" has put a marker down that no matter who wins the next election, they are going to enter office with the economic wins at their back. That's not the narrative that you're used to hearing. Add to it, another major financial paper.

"The Economist" is warning that Trump's presidency will wash away all the economic progress of the last few years. They write, quote, Mr. Trump's policies are worse. The world is more perilous and many of the responsible people who reigned in his worst instincts in his first term have been replaced by true believers, toadies, and chancers. That's extraordinary.

And -- but just on the facts of the economy, "The Wall Street Journal," this is in their news section, okay? This is Greg Ip, who is an extraordinary economic reporter. He says, the rate of growth -- "More impressive than the rate of growth is the quality. This growth didn't come solely from using up finite supplies of labor and other resources which could fuel inflation. Instead, it came from making people and businesses more productive.

Higher productivity growth should make the economy less prone to inflation, more capable of sustaining budget deficits, and more likely to deliver strong wages. All of this would be a boon to whoever the next president is." And that's not the narrative that we're hearing but it's true.

SMILEY: I'm always feeling ambivalent about this economic news because the question for me is always, a strong economy for whom? A better economy for whom? Black folks still lag far behind in every single leading economic indicator category. There are concerns, I think, amongst the demos about inflation.

We all are concerned about the price of everything having escalated post-pandemic. And then you got corporate greed, trying to make up what they lost during the pandemic, rising, raising all these costs that we pay for basically everything. So, when you say a great, they're going to inherit a great economy, for whom is the first question for me?

But then secondly, whoever inherits this great economy, they still have to do something that we have not done as yet. To shrink this gap between the have-gots and the have-nots, between the rich and the rest of us, we've gone to another campaign cycle.

Everybody talks about the middle class but we won't talk about poverty and income inequality and economic immobility. That's the real challenge to where the next president is no matter what these economic numbers with these economists say, as far as I'm concerned.

GEOFF DUNCAN (R) FORMER GEORGIA LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, ENDORSED HARRIS: There's no way to argue that this economy is not an all-time historical high, right? Stock market, gold prices bitcoin, assets, houses -- everything's an all-time high but not everybody's fitting in that exactly for sure.

And I think is, if we look at this through strictly this election cycle, as I'm in Pennsylvania in these rural communities where we're trying to convince folks in middle class America why they should vote for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump.

I think the message is very different. It's very stark difference where Kamala Harris has a plan, right? It connects to $50,000 for starting a business, whether you own that small business or you work for that small business, looking to help families get started, looking to buy a first home. These are middle class issues that I think really, really matter.

But this economy doesn't fit everybody. And I worry about inheriting this next economy. They're going to inherit a strong economy, but then what happens next? If we don't get spending under control, and this is my fiscal conservative side leaking out, we should all be scared about this. If we don't get back into control of spending, we're going to watch inflationary periods of time pop up that are unaffordable by every class.

NAVARRO: Well, you know, look, I don't know how many of the people feeling the economic crunch right now are reading "The Wall Street Journal". Certainly, it's a good thing for them to say this. It's a good thing for the Nobel Laureate economist to say that Kamala Harris' plan is better. All of those things are good, but I think it's very important for the candidates to show that they understand the pain people are going through and to have specific plans.

[22:40:02]

It's also important to highlight some of the -- some of the plans that Donald Trump is espousing and promoting are going to mean for America. When you talk about tariffs on so many products, that is a tax. That is the most anti-conservative thing I ever heard of.

When you talk about massive deportations -- I was reading in the "Miami Herald" today that just in Florida, if Trump's plan of deportation were to be put into effect, there's going to be a million people deported. Do you know what that means for the price of produce? Do you know what that means for the price of eggs? Do you know what that means for the price of dairy?

PHILLIP: One of the things that they talk about --

NAVARRO: I mean, immigrants do a lot of other things --

PHILLIP: -- one of the things that they talk about--

NAVARRO: --but they do those back-breaking works.

PHILLIP: One of the things that they talk about is the fact that immigration has helped cushion the United States economy when the rest of the world is actually suffering. They're struggling to grow at one percent and a lot of the growth that the United States has experienced is because immigration has been there.

COLEMAN HUGHES, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's true. I think it's one of the great strengths of our economy for the past 200 years is that we've had immigration. You see countries like Japan and South Korea that have virtually no immigration and struggle with growth as a result.

I think there's no doubt "The Wall Street Journal" is correct. The economy is doing amazing and the reason we should feel, take a pause to feel lucky about that is because we had inflation for three years as high as eight percent and many economists were worried that the rate hikes needed to tame that would cause a recession and somehow we managed to not have a recession.

We had the soft landing that a lot of people thought was impossible. And we should thank our lucky stars that that's true. However, people don't really decide how the economy is doing by reading "The Wall Street Journal", they look at their actual lives and they also compare what grocery prices look like now to what they looked like five years ago or so.

And so, that may be unfair because actually, you know, this administration has managed to get us out of a huge potential problem. But it's also the social reality is that I'm not sure people are going to give Kamala and Biden credit for a problem that they also kind of began.

PHILLIP: Speaking of getting credit here, let me just play Donald Trump talking about how good the economy is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (R): Some of the best people on Wall Street are saying the economy is only good because they think -- I don't want to say this because other people have said it. That's not me saying it. But they think Trump is going to get elected. That's the only reason our economy is good. That's the only reason the stock market is up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: I don't know. He can't get the story straight.

HUGHES: This is like a comedy show.

SINGLETON: Yes.

PHILLIP: Is the economy bad or is it good? Is it bad because of Joe Biden or is it good because of him?

SINGLETON: I think a part of Trump's resilience, which is interesting, he has a unique ability to point out a critique of a problem. And I think on this issue of the economy, he's been pretty spot on. I think everyone, I agree with all of the statements made here. I mean, for the average working-class person, they're going to the grocery store and they're realizing things are more expensive. They're realizing childcare is unaffordable. They're realizing if they have to care for an elderly parent, they frankly can't afford it.

NAVARRO: Kamala has a -- for that.

SINGLETON: And so, they're looking at -- I'm sure she does, Ana -- and they're looking at the Biden-Harris administration and they're thinking, well, you know what, I don't necessarily want a continuation of this. And when you hear Donald Trump, who's out there rifting and rifting at his campaign rally saying you can't afford anything and I'm going to make it cheap and I'm not going to tax your tips, I'm going to lower taxes for working class people, et cetera. Now, we can question the details of those statements. People say, you know what, this guy gets it. He gets what I'm going through. And I think that has bowled very well for him throughout this campaign.

PHILLIP: I guess I just don't see -- I don't see solutions there. I hear him talking about a lot of problems, but he's not actually putting things on the table that will solve the problem.

DUNCAN: I think to Ana's point, his biggest footfall so far that I see the applause line on the campaign trail has been these tariffs-- four thousand dollars per family of just additional cost showing up. It really hits home.

SMILEY: And I wish Coleman's point got to Donald Trump that we are a nation of immigrants and we are stronger and better because of it. We are a nation of immigrants. We just don't like them.

NAVARRO: Well, one immigrant, Elon Musk, says that with Donald Trump, there's going to be some hardship. Of course, he's going to benefit from the billion-dollar tax cut.

PHILLIP: All right, everyone. Hang tight for us. Coming up next, do conservative men actually have more testosterone? Are liberal men less healthy? J.D. Vance seemed to imply just that in an interview with Joe Rogan. We're going to discuss it. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(22:48:47]

PHILLIP: On the final week of the campaign, it's the vice presidential nominee's job to stay out of the way, don't do anything to draw attention to yourself, and away from the candidate at the top of the ballot. J.D Vance apparently missed that memo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R) REPUBLICAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, have you seen all these studies that basically connect testosterone levels in young men with conservative politics?

JOE ROGAN, "THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE" HOST: Oh yes. Oh yes.

VANCE: So, maybe that's what's going on.

ROGAN: Well, there's a certain amount of it.

VANCE: Maybe that's why the Democrats want us all to be, you know, poor health and overweight is because that means that we're going to be - - no, it means we're going to be more liberal, right?

ROGAN: Right. VANCE: If you make people less healthy, they apparently become more politically liberal. That's an interesting observation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NAVARRO: You know what's interesting to talk about --

PHILLIP: He's coming after the man--

NAVARRO: -- to talk about the talk about Democrats being in poor health and overweight when your candidate is Donald Trump. But anyways, I don't know what to tell you about this. I mean, LeBron James is not low T. Arnold Schwarzenegger is not low T. David Bautista could probably -- should, you know, ring his neck with two fingers.

HUGHES: So, I have to look up the studies that he was talking about and they are very interesting.

[22:50:02]

They don't exactly say what he's saying they say. So, for example, one study found that giving men stash of testosterone made them more selfish in games of reciprocity. Another one found that men with bigger muscles became more anti-redistribution of wealth, which is a conservative. And then one covered in "The Atlantic" found interestingly that bigger muscles made rich men more right wing but poor men more left-wing. So, there's something the impact of the hormone on --

PHILLIP: You know, that really is --

DUNCAN: For being so smart, J.D. Vance says some of the stupidest, disconnected stuff I've heard on the campaign trail. I got to imagine this might be a little bit funny, but not really. There's a lot of folks on Donald Trump's team that shakes her head and is like, what in the world -- like why now?

PHILLIP: But why is this even coming up? Actually --

SMILEY: It's about the silliness. But to your point, Abby, your comment a moment ago that got me, when you said he's coming after the men, too. I think J.D. Vance has mommy issues. It's been fascinating for me to watch the way this has played out on the campaign trail and because of those issues, he has subjected women across this country to all his bad ideas and all his bad policy.

My Angela once told me that processing pain without perpetuating pain is rough business. So, if you got mommy issues and you make everybody else in the country subject to that, that's a real problem. But to your point, now he's coming after the men.

I remember an episode of this American life years ago where the staff all took testosterone tests and when the results came in, the male host of that show, Ira, had the highest testosterone. And the executive producer of that show, a woman, had the highest-level testosterone which suggests to me that the big dogs just rule, male or female. The big dogs rule.

PHILLIP: This conversation-- I have learned a lot of interesting things.

NAVARRO: All I can tell you is that if you've got Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Bautista, Samuel L. Jackson, I say it, I could put a bumpy sticker that says my supporters have more testosterone than your supporters.

PHILLIP: All right, really quick, Shermichael.

SINGLETON: Coleman suggested the data varies, right? But there is some interesting data that suggests more younger men are slowly leaving the Democratic Party, and Tavis and I have actually talked about this on his program. And they appear to be, ideologically speaking, moving more to the right. I don't think it's a Trump issue, I think it's a cultural issue.

PHILLIP: All right, everyone stay with me. Coming up next. The panel will give us an extra special Halloween edition of their nightcaps including a spooky prediction.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:57:04]

PHILLIP: You're ready?

HUGHES: Yes.

PHILLIP: You're up first. We are back and it's time for the "NewsNightcap". Tonight, it is Halloween, and we have a special edition of the nightcaps. You each have 30 seconds to say your piece, whether it's a trick or treat --Coleman.

HUGHES: So, I think Halloween is a great time to reflect on fear. I think, you know, we all agree that politicians, and to an extent, the media, really capitalize on fear-mongering but we never think it's happening to us. So, I think a good litmus test of whether you have been taken in by fear-mongering is if you think this is the last election, you have been -- you have succumbed to fear.

If you think Trump is a fascist who's never going to leave office, you've succumbed to fear. If you think Kamala is a communist that's going to create a permanent blue majority through immigration, you have succumbed to fear. We have real challenges but this is not going to be the last election. It's not even the most important election in our nation's history. So, let's take the temperature down a bit.

PHILLIP: All right, Ana.

NAVARRO: Okay, on a lighter note. My nightcap is yesterday, Donald Trump was in costume as a working man who has to open his own door. He had a lot of difficulty opening up that door. Obviously, this is a man who's never opened a door for himself in his life. That's kind of like what I look like after three margaritas trying to get into my Uber. PHILLIP: Tavis.

SMILEY: I'll let Democrats decide whether this is a trick or a treat. But my nightcap is simply this, that every Democrat elected official and every Democratic strategist in this country ought to sign up immediately for a correspondence course taught by L.A. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts on how to manage your bullpens. how to pop out your stars when you need to, how to fight hard and win even when you're on their turf. But I digress.

UNKNOWN: That's a good attack.

UNKNOWN: Well-done, well done.

PHILLIP: Or actually, Shermichael, I'm sorry.

SINGLETON: All right, look, mine is doom and gloom. It's spooky. And I'm really wondering about World War III. We've seen a lot of this trending on social media. And that's in part because of China and the possibility that they may invade Taiwan. What would the United States do if that happens similar to Russia invading Ukraine? It scares the heck out of me. I think it's possible. I think we would react. I don't want to go to World War III, especially not against China.

PHILLIP: Didn't Coleman just say don't live in fear?

SINGLETON: I'm sorry, Coleman. That scares me. I'm sorry.

PHILLIP: I bet he comes out with that one, okay.

DUNCAN: Much lighter genre. I want to have a conversation with America to talk about the candy that kids really want for Halloween, right? You've got your starter kit here with two pieces of Starburst. This is a good down payment. This will attract a lot of attention in the neighborhood, and it's a good start.

SMILEY: Thank you, Sir.

DUNCAN: This seems to be this nerds gummy clusters. My kids will walk up a gravel driveway with bare feet to get this out. I love these. But the prize possession is any king-size chocolate bar and my make and model is Twix. Abby, there you go.

[23:00:00]

PHILLIP: Okay, you know what? This is actually the correct answer. Number one candy in America right here. You give me this off.

NAVARRO: You know what? You know I have to say something though, which is, which I just, it just struck me. The two people on this panel defending Kamala Harris are Republican.

PHILLIP: Wow.

AMEN: Amen.

PHILLIP: There you go.

HUGHES: That's a good point. What made you think of that?

NAVARRO: No.

PHILLIP: All right.

NAVARRO: No, the election did.

PHILLIP: All right, guys. We got to go. Thank you so much for watching. And thank you for watching "NewsNight State of the Race". "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.