Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Ukraine Conducts Drone Attack on Moscow; Georgia School Shooting Investigation; Trump and Harris Set to Debate. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 10, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:48]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Face-to-face for the first time, and maybe the only time before Election Day. Hours from now, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will battle it out on the debate stage. And if that last one taught us anything, you know these showdowns can be game-changes. We're going to talk debate strategy.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Plus, the mother of the suspected Georgia school shooter speaking out about her call to the school a half-hour before her son allegedly killed four people there, as investigators release body camera footage from a police encounter with the teen last year.

And it's a daring trek that could make history. Astronauts on SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission are attempting to do what has never been done before, conduct the first ever private space walk.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: It is on. Tonight on stage in Philadelphia in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will face off in a historic presidential debate, one that could be the most consequential moment of the 2024 race for the White House.

It'll be not only the first, but perhaps only debate between the two candidates, also the first time these two have ever shared a stage face-to-face. And with just eight weeks until Election Day, this 90- minute showdown comes at a pivotal time in the campaign.

CNN's brand-new poll of polls out today shows the race is virtually deadlocked, no clear leader in the race for the White House. We have all angles of this story covered with a team of correspondents.

Priscilla Alvarez is covering the Harris campaign and Kristen Holmes is covering the Trump campaign.

Priscilla, let's start with you. Talk to us about the vice president's mind-set going into tonight and how she's preparing. PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, sources telling me that she has been doing robust debate preparations. Of course, she spent the last several days in Pittsburgh where she was with her group of advisers preparing for this consequential moment tonight.

Now, part of that preparation also included identifying the issues that they can needle former President Donald Trump on. And one of those, according to sources, is going to be reproductive rights. She is expected to lean in on that, going after his muddled messaging on this very issue.

Of course, the vice president has been a key voice on this issue, and Democrats see it as a galvanizing one for voters. And, of course, she is trying to capitalize here too on her edge in the polls that show that she does have an advantage over former President Donald Trump on this issue of reproductive rights.

But in addition to that, she has sought out advice. She has the advantage of being able to also talk to Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama about this debate, both -- particularly Clinton, who has gone up against Donald Trump in the past.

Now, all of this will culminate, of course, in that first face-to-face encounter tonight, one that the vice president has been waiting for, I'm told.

SANCHEZ: Priscilla, thank you so much.

Let's bring in CNN's Kristen Holmes, because, Kristen, this is Donald Trump's seventh presidential general election debate. That is a record. What do we know about his approach going into tonight?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they tell me that they really haven't changed that much from what we have seen in debates past, particularly with President Joe Biden earlier this cycle, that he is not using the word preparation, but instead is using every event that he holds in terms of town halls or speaking in front of the New York Economic Club as all ways to prepare for this debate.

We also know he's been sitting down with senior advisers like Jason Miller, as well as other lawmakers like Tulsi Gabbard, Matt Gaetz, all people who have helped him get ready and prepare for this potential debate, even though, again, he doesn't like to use the word prepare.

Now, one thing I have been told by a number of sources close to Donald Trump is that they have essentially been warning him not to respond to any kind of goading comments from Kamala Harris. There really is a belief among Trump's inner circle that one of the reasons that Harris' team wanted unmuted mics was to try and get underneath his skin to hear him respond to something she said while she was speaking.

[13:05:10]

Remember, Donald Trump is notoriously reactive. We have seen in the past it is not that hard to get a response immediately from him. So what they're trying to avoid and trying to talk to him and urge him to avoid is any kind of verbal response to her.

In fact, I was even told by one ally that they had encouraged him to use facial expressions to respond, not to actually say anything out loud. Now, of course, as we know, Donald Trump is his own person. And with even the most preparation, again, not what they're calling it, but even the most preparation, he is not somebody who can be controlled.

So which version of Donald Trump gets on that stage and whether or not Kamala Harris is able to get underneath his skin, that is really something that his allies are concerned about. They also point to the fact that his aggressive rhetoric might not play the same way that it did with Joe Biden when he is up against a woman on that stage.

Tulsi Gabbard was asked about this question if he's going to change his tone or rhetoric. She essentially said, no, why would he? But that's really what these Republicans are worried about. They want him to go in and just stage to the issues, not get goaded into anything and not launch any personal attacks.

Again, we will see which version of Donald Trump takes the stage tonight.

SANCHEZ: Got to be careful to not call the preparation. Kristen Holmes live for us in Philadelphia, thank you so much -- Brianna.

KEILAR: With us now is pollster and communications strategist Frank Luntz.

And, Frank, recently after Trump posted on social media about prosecuting his opponents, you tweeted: "Message to Donald, focus on helping voters, not yourself."

You just heard Kristen reporting that allies are concerned. That's not so easy for him. Do you think that Harris will be trying to and effectively goading him into talking about 2020 election falsehoods and grievances in this debate?

FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER: Absolutely. But there's a response to that. And I'm curious to see how prepared these -- both these candidates are, how disciplined they are, how focused they are on putting out their message.

Because Harris is absolutely going to say, let me finish or I'm talking or stop interrupting. And Trump has a perfect line for that, which would be, if he was paying attention, yes, you're talking. You're always talking. And what the American people want is doing. And you're not doing enough.

And there's so many of these types of responses that Trump can do. And in his case, what she can do to him is, for all the mothers out there and the daughters and the sisters and the nieces and the grandchildren, stop interrupting and start respecting.

And that's a really powerful statement for her advantage, which is among women. Both of these candidates have clearing weaknesses that I have not seen in a debate situation like this, but both of them have go-to lines and go-to strengths.

In Trump's case, his advantage is on the issues, on the policies. In Harris' case, her advantage is her character and her persona. So whichever candidate gets the focus on that advantage is the candidate who wins.

KEILAR: Ahead of this debate, Trump's campaign spokesperson Jason Miller said on CNN that it was Harris, not Biden, in charge of the country over the last 3.5 years.

Do you think that is a preview of something that Trump may trot out? And do you think that that is effective when it comes to the persuadable voters that Trump is trying to win over?

LUNTZ: Absolutely not. In fact, Harris' goal tonight, her mission tonight, is to show that she's relevant, is to show that she had some role in the Biden administration, to be able to prove that she's not only been number two, but is fully prepared to be number one.

So I don't believe that argument's going to work at all. In fact, I could make the argument that if Trump does try to say that, he's actually helping Harris, rather than hurting her. We asked the public, can you name one thing that Kamala Harris has done that's had a meaningful measurable impact on you? And 70 percent could not.

So now he's switching and saying that she's in charge? That would be an awful strategy for him tonight.

KEILAR: And it's hard to imagine Harris not being asked, certainly being taken to task, we expect that by Donald Trump, but just not even being asked here, we expect she will be, to account for positions on banning fracking and border security, positions of hers that have changed here in recent years.

She repeated her line recently in her interview with our Dana Bash, my values have not changed. Do you think that she's going to have to expand on that? Is that sufficient tonight?

LUNTZ: It is not sufficient.

And she said it three times. And when someone says something three times, I know, as somebody who studies human behavior and anthropology and sociology, you assert too much, that becomes too rehearsed. It's a go-to line. That will absolutely fail if she says that.

[13:10:15]

In fact, it's far better for her to say, is there anyone out there who's not changed their mind on something important over the length of their career? That, actually, what you want is someone who listens and learns and then leads. What you want is someone who reexamines the issues based on what's happening in the economy, based on what's happening in society.

She should turn those changes, because they are changes, into something positive, that I'm not going to tell you the same thing today that I would have said 20 years ago, because we're not the same country and the conditions have changed.

I think that this would be for -- again, for Harris, an awful strategy to try to claim again and again that her values haven't changed. And, by the way, it's not values. It's priorities. Values tells people what you're about. Priorities explains how you will affect them.

So I'm sure that her campaign is probably too busy listening right now, but if she were an effective debater, she would focus on the priorities, rather than the values.

KEILAR: Trump has debated a female candidate before. We saw that with Hillary Clinton, of course. He lost the debate soundly, but he won the election.

He has not debated a female candidate since, however, the Supreme Court justices that he appointed overturned federal abortion rights. How's that going to affect this debate? And what can these candidates do about that?

LUNTZ: These are perfect questions for exactly what the two candidates have to figure out. And Trump is at his weakest and Harris is at her strongest when she's talking about abortion, because that's what turns out younger women.

Harris' strongest addition to what Biden was doing was among women 18 to 40. And to keep them, the abortion issue is so important, and for women 55 and older, the number one issue is health care. So that's where she's at her strength.

But there are a lot of women who care about inflation. In fact, inflation is the number one issue for the female voter, and that's where Trump is strongest. So for him to talk about shopping for gas, food and fuel, shopping for a house, that every woman wants to have a home, a home, a place to call their own, and under the Biden administration, it's become incredibly expensive, that is where Trump does best among these voters.

So, in the end, you talk about the issue where you're strongest. You talk about the attribute where you can make a difference. And Trump should be talking about the failures of the Biden administration. And Harris should be talking about the failures of Donald Trump.

In fact, in a single sentence, do you really want this chaos again and again for the next four years? And Trump responds with, are you better off today than you were four years ago? They're so equally matched. They're so -- America is so evenly divided that I would argue that tonight's going to be the most important night in American politics, potentially, of the lifetime of you and me.

KEILAR: Well, that is quite the setup for this evening.

Frank Luntz, thank you so much. We know then you will be watching very carefully and curious to hear what you say tomorrow.

Thanks again, Frank. And you can follow CNN for complete coverage and exclusive analysis

before and after the debate. The ABC News presidential debate simulcast is tonight at 9:00 Eastern on CNN.

And still to come this hour, the mother of the suspected Georgia school shooter speaking out for the first time. Hear what she says drove her to call the school to tell them to run to her son's classroom.

Also ahead, Ukraine hits Moscow in its biggest drone attack against Russia since the beginning of the war. How the U.S. is responding next.

And, later, a historic liftoff. A crew of four civilians, they are orbiting Earth right now.

You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:18:39]

SANCHEZ: We're learning some chilling new details about that deadly school shooting in Georgia. And for the first time, we're seeing body camera footage of the suspect and his father interacting with police last year.

Investigators questioned them about threatening online posts, which the teenager at the time denied. We're also hearing from the suspect's mom for the first time, who says that she warned school administrators on the day of the shooting about an extreme emergency.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCEE GRAY, MOTHER OF ALLEGED GEORGIA SCHOOL SHOOTER: The counselor said: "Well, I want to let you know that, earlier this morning, one of Colt's teachers had sent me an e-mail that said Colt had been making references to school shootings."

Between my gut feelings, the text messages, and now this e-mail, you all need to go, like run to the classroom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN's Ryan Young is following all of these new details.

So, Ryan, what more are we learning about where the investigation stands?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Boris, some troubling points right here.

There are red flags that obviously we can see here, but this video is crucial to what investigators will be looking into. We know for a fact the FBI got some sort of online threat. They passed it on to the Jackson County Sheriff's Department. The sheriff's department went by the house.

[13:20:00]

I want to make clear here, the sheriff's department involved in that part of the investigation has nothing to do with Barrow County.So, once they decided not to arrest him or they had no evidence to arrest, there was no way to allow the next school system to know there was an issue.

But take a listen to this body camera, watch it for yourself and see some of these early red flags.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN GRAY, DEFENDANT: Did you say something about a school shooting?

COLT GRAY, DEFENDANT: Never. I just told them I don't know what. Maybe they misheard somebody else. I would never (INAUDIBLE)

OFFICER: You never, ever said...

COLT GRAY: No, sir, I swear.

OFFICER: Do you use Discord?

COLT GRAY: Discord?

OFFICER: Yes sir.

COLT GRAY: I used to. I don't have it anymore.

OFFICER: When's the last time you used it?

COLT GRAY: Like a few months ago.

OFFICER: I got to take you at your word, and I hope you're being honest with me. I'm not saying you're lying, but it's...

COLT GRAY: It's a serious thing.

OFFICER: It's not unusual for people to lie to police.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, Boris, now that we know all these things, it's tough to watch this video play out.

Something that we have reported last week is we know the father then apparently, according to sources, bought that gun for a Christmas gift after this interaction. So you understand why some people would be angry.

But to switch to the victims, there is a father who's obviously so happy that his daughter was able to survive. Take a listen to this father talk about his young daughter and how she barely survived the shooting at the Apalachee School.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG GRIFFITH, FATHER OF SHOOTING SURVIVOR: A bullet went across her chest and through her arm and then the other shot was through her wrist. Still in pain. The shot through the wrist did a lot of damage. How it heals is just going to determine whether or not they need to do anything else or not.

So it's just -- it's going to be a slow healing process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, this community in pain.

Boris, to take it to the next step, there was a popular football coach also killed during the shooting. We want to show you the video from the vigil that took place over the weekend. You can see hundreds of people gathered for Richard Aspinwall. He was a popular coach in that area before moving to the new school.

He was a young father. But you can understand the pain here has just been immense. Now, the school system went back into place today, but not for the school that obviously the shooting happened. That will probably happen at another time, something we continue to watch as this investigation continues, but, Boris, plenty of red flags.

SANCHEZ: Ryan Young, thank you so much for that update -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Ukraine unleashes a wave of drone attacks on the Moscow region, killing at least one person, injuring several others and destroying dozens of homes.

This marks Ukraine's biggest drone attack on the Russian capital.

We have CNN senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen in Kyiv live for us.

Frederik, what can you tell us here?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Brianna.

Well, look, the Ukrainians certainly showing that they have some substantial long-distance drone capabilities and apparently also a pretty large fleet of long-distance strike drones at their disposal. The Russians are saying that they took down more than 140 Ukrainian drones overnight.

They claim they have thwarted that attack. However, it appears as though the Ukrainians caused some pretty substantial damage. One of the things that we have to point out is that the Ukrainians just about a week ago also launched a really large drone attack against Russian regions, but really this time one of the focal points was the Russian capital. The Russians saying they took down some 20 strike drones there. However, there was one strike that killed a 46-year-old woman and that hit happened right next to one of Moscow's main airports. It disrupted, of course, flight traffic at that airport, but also at two other airports in the Moscow region as well that has a fourth airport in the north of the city that apparently was still operating.

The Ukrainians, of course, for their part have been saying that they believe that the Russians are using their airports also for logistics purposes to fuel their war against Ukraine. And at the same time, of course, the Russians also have unleashed a massive aerial campaign against targets in Ukraine, Ukrainian cities, Ukrainian critical infrastructure, but the Ukrainians now showing that they are able to punch back.

And one of the things that they say is one of their main focal points is trying to increase their long-distance strike capabilities. They certainly have shown last night that they have come a long way, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Fred Pleitgen, thank you for the update from Kyiv.

If June taught us anything, it's that debates do matter. And, tonight, another critical matchup is in what is now a very different election. We're following the latest.

Also ahead, tracking Francine, the storm expected to become a hurricane that threatens states along the Gulf. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:29:12]

SANCHEZ: The very fact that Kamala Harris is on the debate stage tonight is a testament to the power of presidential debates and their ability to alter the race.

It was that CNN face-to-face just 75 days ago that triggered the end, not only of President Biden's reelection bid, but his political career as well.

KEILAR: Let's talk about some of those other pivotal moments in debate history.

Joining us now, we have CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali, the former director of the Nixon Presidential Library, and CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein, who is senior editor at "The Atlantic."

All right, Tim, we are going to take a look at the Hillary Clinton- Donald Trump debate face-off here in a moment. I think it's really important for this discussion. First, though, let's go a little bit further back in time.

You say that the Nixon-Kennedy debate -- and I think we can agree on this -- was really exhibit A for a transformational debate performance.

Let's play a quick clip from one of the four debates in 1960.