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Singer-Songwriter Taylor Swift Endorses Kamala Harris for President; Kamala Harris Campaign Runs Taylor Swift Themed Ads in Times Square and Las Vegas Strip; Donald Trump Says There Will be No Further Debates with Kamala Harris. Polls Show Voters Still Trust Trump More on Economy After Debate; 33,000 Boeing Employees Went on Strike Overnight; Biden Appears Open to Ukraine Using Western Missiles in Russia. Aired 8-8:30a ET.

Aired September 13, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: He owns a big chunk of the boring company, Neuralink, X AI, the artificial intelligence startup. And then also maybe his most controversial business, X, that's the social media company formerly known as Twitter, X has obviously come under fire over how its moderated content. It's also lost a lot of values since Musk has taken over, but clearly it hasn't taken a big hit out of Musk's fortune.

Just one other point here, John, just the fact that we're talking about potentially the first trillionaire does raise a lot of questions about how much power and, frankly, how much wealth one person can accumulate.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: One person like Elon Musk, especially. Matt Egan, thank you so much.

A new, brand new magical hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: New strategies rolling out this morning from both presidential campaigns, which voters Kamala Harris is targeting and why Donald Trump says he is done debating.

Plus, thousands of Boeing employees are now on strike for the first time in 16 years. The deal rejected, and why this strike could derail the aerospace giant's attempts at recovery.

And tank versus train -- train wins. Drivers in South Carolina catch a wild collision on camera. Got more on that.

I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, no debate. So now what? What will the Harris campaign do in the final sprint now that Donald Trump says he will not debate again? We've got new reporting on how the Harris team will respond and where she will look for votes.

And breaking overnight, brand new Taylor Swift themed ads in Times Square and Las Vegas, digital billboards funded by the DNC, and according to "The Hollywood Reporter," approved by Taylor Swift, just a taste, perhaps, of how the Harris campaign will use the big new endorsement from Taylor Swift.

CNN's Kevin Liptack here with the latest, covering a lot of bases for us this morning. Kevin, what do you have on this?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, that Taylor Swift endorsement, I think, brought cheers to the Kamala Harris headquarters, and you see them seizing on it almost immediately. They have those billboards in Times Square. And in Las Vegas saying that we're in our Kamala era. They started selling the Taylor Swift friendship bracelets. They actually sold out of them.

But probably more significantly for them, the link that Taylor Swift posted on her Instagram to the website Vote.gov received an enormous amount of traffic, almost 406,000 visitors, which is an exponential increase from what it normally gets. So they do see some of that playing out.

But of course, that is not the centerpiece of the Harris strategy. The centerpiece is in the battleground states which is exactly where she'll be today. I think if you could call this phase of the campaign anything, it's the grind it out phase for Kamala Harris. Certainly, she is thrilled with her debate performance and her campaign has been thrilled with her debate performance. But now it's all about getting in front of voters, and today she'll be in Pennsylvania.

And it's been interesting, if you look at the last eight days, Kamala Harris has spent seven of them in Pennsylvania, either all of the day are part of the day. And it really gives you a sense of how critical that state is going to be in her strategy moving forward.

Now, today, she'll be in two counties that Donald Trump actually won in 2020, and her campaign says that's an indication that she's willing to look for votes pretty much anywhere in the keystone state. She'll be first and western Pennsylvania. She'll be visiting a small local business with Senator John Fetterman. And then it's onto a big campaign rally in Wilkes-Barre.

Of course, the Harris campaign had hoped that this next phase of the election cycle would include a second debate. Donald Trump seems to have ruled that out. Although when you talk to Harris advisers, they're not necessarily taking that at face value. And of course, it has been true that down Trump in the past has found a way to get to yes after ruling something out. So I don't think they think that this will be the last word on this. And in fact, I think they will ensure it's not the last word on this. And you heard Kamala Harris begin to use this as an attack line against Donald Trump yesterday in North Carolina. Listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Two nights ago, Donald Trump and I had our debate. I believe we owe it to have another debate, right?

(CHEERING)

HARRIS: We owe it to the voters. Because here's the thing -- in this election, what's at stake could not be more important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:05:00]

LIPTAK: Now, yesterday, we did learn how much money the Harris campaign raised in the 24 hours after that debate. They brought in $47 million from 600,000 individual donors. Of course, with the swell of fundraising with this swell of momentum comes the inevitable fears about overconfidence. The Harris campaign says they're still very much the underdogs heading into this final stretch.

BERMAN: All right, Kevin Liptack for us this morning. Kevin, great to see you. Thank you.

Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump is not going to debate Harris again, that is what he said and posted. Instead, he continues to attack the moderators, and at the same time says he won, and repeating incendiary and disputed claims that migrants are eating family pets, even though police and other local officials in the town where he says it happened have no reports at all to indicate that's happening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Residents are reporting that the migrants are walking off with the town's geese. They take in the geese, and even walking off with their pets. My dog has been taken. My dog has been stolen. This is going only happen -- these people are the worst.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Today, Trump is set to speak to reporters in southern California. That is where we find our Kristen Holmes. What are you expecting, Kristen?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, it's Donald Trump, so we never really get too far out there on what we are expecting. But if it's any indication what we've heard from him in the last 48 plus hours, it's going to be a lot of relitigating the debate. What we've seen from him is a trying to convince the American public, or at least his base, that he was the winner of Tuesday night's debate, despite the fact of what we have seen, which is largely polling indicates that was not the case.

Here is why he says he won't be doing a third debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because we've done two debates and because they were successful, there will be no third debate. It's too late anyway, the voting has already begun. You've got to go out and vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, obviously the voting hasn't begun all across the country, so it's not entirely a reason why you wouldn't do another debate. And I will just remind our viewers that Republican operatives have said both publicly and privately, and many of these are people who are aligned with Donald Trump, who want him to win in November, that they were disappointed with his performance on Tuesday.

Now, his reasoning is that he was the winner and that's why Kamala Harris called for a second debate immediately afterwards, because she wanted a rematch. But it has been clear that he wants to say over and over again that not only was it unfair, that he won despite the fact that it was unfair.

So the big question, of course, today is, what do we expect to hear from Donald Trump? I expect to hear a laundry list of similar grievances. There's no topic on the actual press release for this, so that means it could be anything. The question, of course, for us is whether or not he takes questions. We are now at a critical time frame.

And as Kevin said, Kamala Harris is not the only one who believes that this race is going to come down to a handful of voters. The Trump campaign is also very aware that this is going to be decided in the margins. And he has traveled planned. He's in California now, but then he's going to Nevada, and other state they believe is critical as we head into November. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Stand by to stand by to see what Kristen Holmes stirs up with this press avail. It's good to see you.

Joining us right now is CNN senior political commentator, former Obama administration official, Van Jones, CNN political commentator and former White House communications director for Donald Trump, Alyssa Farah Griffin. Team, it is good to see.

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Happy Friday.

BOLDUAN: Thanks for being here.

OK. So let's start with some of the news we saw this morning about these ads that the DNC has now rolled out, digital ads in Times Square and in the Las Vegas Strip of basically leaning into the Taylor Swift endorsement, saying we're in our, ads saying we are in our Kamala era. "The Hollywood Reporter" is saying that Taylor Swift signed off on their use of their use of her appeal. Malpractice not to kind of seems to be the general view, Alyssa, but what do you think of the real impact of Taylor Swift? Are people making too much of it or too little?

GRIFFIN: So generally, traditionally celebrity endorsements don't massively matter, but I'd argue Taylor Swift falls into a different category. She's a pop culture phenomenon in a way that so few have been before her. Coming off of this huge global tour, somebody who can pack stadiums across the country, has to then extend her tour. And she crosses generations. But what I'd say, her value add is get out the vote and register to

vote. You cited this GSA stat. She already sent 400,000 people to go look at where they can register to vote. Once a couple, this would've been end of last year she tweeted out a link, and 30,000 people registered to vote because of it. So there's a huge power there.

And the bracelets the campaign made related to the Taylor Swift friendship bracelets, they sold out within a day. So there's clearly a value-add there. There's a reason everyone wanted the Taylor Swift endorsement.

BOLDUAN: Other than an -- what should -- the campaign, there's new reporting from Isaac Dovere that the Harris campaign is looking for nontraditional outreach, non-campaign rally. How do you fold these two things together? A digital ad in Times Square is one thing, but I don't know. What do you see?

[08:10:07]

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, it gets us talking about it. But I think for those of us who think about politics all the time, it turns out some people do not watch CNN every day or all day.

BOLDUAN: Do not listen to him.

(LAUGHTER)

JONES: Like many of us here. So next to politics, there's something called culture. And culture is massive, entertainment is massive. We have one of arguably the two biggest, Beyonce, two biggest stars in the world lighting up their 300 million social media followers. We talk about 300,000 people go into it to government website which has never happened before. But she's got 300 million. She's got more social media followers than many countries have citizens.

When she lights that up, that is a massive, massive detonation in the world of culture, which then has people begin to look over at Kamala Harris. Most people are not thinking about, talking about politics most of the time, but they're talking about Taylor Swift every single day. And now they're talking about Kamala Harris.

GRIFFIN: And by the way, only 67 percent of Americans voted in 2020. Theres a large portion of the population that just doesn't vote. So this is about activating people who don't pay attention to politics.

BOLDUAN: And when we have a very election like we have now, which is a margin of error election, it is this, it's these little margins.

JONES: There are enough Swifties to not only swing the election, but frankly, to win the election.

WALKER: I mean --

JONES: If only.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: Talk about --

GRIFFIN: Taylor Swift can get 538 electoral votes.

BOLDUAN: It's only slightly misinformation that I should say that CNC is Taylor Swift's preferred news program. It's only slight misinformation. I have some sources.

(LAUGHTER)

JONES: I think it's true. I think it's true.

BOLDUAN: Moving on, Donald Trump, we hear Donald Trump declared no more debates. Do you think -- take to take me behind --

JONES: Chicken, chicken.

BOLDUAN: -- take me -- take me behind the view. Do you think that is final, or do you think he's like, I don't know, one Laura Loomer plane flight away from changing his view?

GRIFFIN: So I predict that Donald Trump is actually going to reverse course on this. He will very likely -- the momentum seems to be behind Kamala Harris, even though this race is statistically neck and neck, she objectively won the last debate. I think right now he's thinking it's not in my interest to do that again.

BOLDUAN: Do you agree it's not in his interest to do it again?

GRIFFIN: I think he may need a moment. I don't know that I think he can win one, but I think that you -- when you've got this like seven weeks slog left, he made feel like he needs something to drive it. And I would argue last time around he lost the first Biden debate. He was much better in the second one. So there's a world in which he may come around and say, actually, we do need it, but he's going to say it should be on his terms, certain moderators, and the like. And she's smart hard to put him on the defensive.

BOLDUAN: What do you -- I mean, obviously Kamala Harris says let's do this again. Do you think they're OK not having another debate, though?

HARRIS: Well, she wins either way. She can just call him a chicken all day and talk about that she whooped him and whooped and whooped him and then whooped him some more, and he has to pretend that he won when everybody knows he lost. If she debates him again, he will be a different guy. He usually screws up the first debate and gets better in the second debate. I think he underestimated her. I think he had a bunch of nutjobs around him on his plane, getting him all psyched up about eating dogs and all kinds of crazy stuff. And so when he got there, he was not in the right mindset and she whooped him.

I think he doesn't like losing and I think he knows he lost. And I think if he does come back, he's going to be much more formidable. But also, Kamala Harris is getting better every single day. Every time he touches the microphone, she gets better. Every speech is better. BOLDUAN: She's definitely been on a debate stage, I would say, from

last debate --

JONES: Oh, my gosh, she was better on the debate stage than almost anybody who has been on a debate stage. She just whooped him. And Donald Trump is the Pac-man of politics. He ate through 16 republic Republican governors, senators, like it was nothing. And she was the matador that stopped the bull.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk about, let's refocus on one big issue, because it's kind of come back into the spotlight next week, which is the economy. We've got the Fed very likely looking to cut rates for the first time since early pandemic days. What, what does that mean for this point in the campaign? Because it's a funky place. You've got potentially a good sign that Kamala Harris can talk about, kind of, quote-unquote, late-stage change, but you still have Donald Trump killing her when it comes to the economy. And in that snap poll after the debate, he was up 20 points on the economy even though the vast majority said she won the debate.

JONES: But don't forget, Romney versus Obama, people thought that Romney was better on the economy than Biden, than Obama. But people believed that Obama was going to fight for them harder. And so it's not just -- there's two things that are going on here. People might think, yes, he might be better on the economy, but he's going to help the billionaires. He's not going to help me. So there's another set of numbers here that I think we're looking at that she's doing a little bit better than she is on the bigger number.

GRIFFIN: And listen, the economy is objectively Donald Trump's strongest issue, but it comes down can he actually focus on that. Aides have put him --

[08:15:00]

up to give speeches, focused on it, and he ends up diverting into all different directions. Hannibal Lecter. Now, we're on to eating animals.

So, can he keep selling that message, or is she going to start to eat into the support he has on the issue?

JONES: Look, every candidate has their strong points and the weak points. Economy weaker for her, abortion weaker for him. They're now in a tug of war over immigration and he is having to talk about dogs and cats to try to figure out some way to change the subject from the fact that he actually got in the way of a solution on immigration.

It's now his border crisis. He doesn't want to talk about that so he's making up lies, racist lies about Haitians eating animals.

So, everybody's got strengths and weaknesses, what you want to do is mitigate your weaknesses as much as you can which is why he's flip- flopping all over the place on abortion and you lean into your strengths. But what you saw in North Carolina yesterday was an extraordinary

event. I mean, people were for hours the lines were like, I don't know, half a mile long or a mile long, people there is an energy level there so when North Carolina is back in play because of what Kamala Harris is doing. He's got to be worried about that.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm really curious what next week brings in terms of the conversation around the economy, because I have -- I will say --I just think the response I've gotten to why isn't she doing better in the economy or why wasn't Biden doing better with the economy.

They've gotten from administration officials and from Democratic elected. It has been unsatisfying to this point, which is, they just haven't gotten our message.

And at some point I'm asking, where's the expiration date on that reasoning, because at some point there has to be, but let's do this again next week.

GRIFFIN: Yes, professionally.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, guys. All right, coming up for us, Vladimir Putin issuing a new and big threat overnight and President Biden weighs giving Ukraine the greenlight to strike deeper into Russia.

Also breaking overnight, 33,000 workers walked off the job and a strike that could have major impacts on the US economy.

And a story that is leaving me with more questions than answers. A man removes a Lego piece from his nose that has been there since the nineties. Yes, I said that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:46]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, happening now, 33,000 Boeing employees went on strike overnight. Union members overwhelmingly rejected a proposed contract with the aircraft manufacturer. This can have a huge impact on airplane production and frankly, on US exports.

Boeing is one of the country's biggest exporters of anything. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is with us this morning with the latest here -- Vanessa.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so, this was a deal that the union said was the best that they can negotiate. And Boeing said it was a historic offer, but 95 percent of memberships said we don't think so and 96 percent said, we're going on strike and that's what you are seeing this morning.

We caught up with Jim Bloomer, who was on the picket line early this good morning. Listen to why he said that he voted 'no' on this deal and 'yes' to strike.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM BLOOMER, BOEING UNION WORKER ON STRIKE: The fact of the matter is we're owed a lot more for what we do. If Boeing touts that were the best in the industry, they need to treat us the best in the industry.

There's a lot of stuff that just doesn't add up. Their math is crazy. They just -- people aren't seeing it. They want more for what were asked to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: And just to take you back to what was on the table, 25 percent in wage increases. The union wanted 40. They also wanted a return to traditional pensions, but Boeing offered more in their 401(k) and they also got increased job security. This was contingent on this deal being passed. It was not.

So, that leaves up in the air, John, whether or not a new plane is going to go into production in Washington State. That was critical job security and as you mentioned, the economic impact, Boeing alone generates about $79 billion in the US economy and there's 1.6 million offshoots of jobs, just from Boeing production and it remains to be seen whether or not this strike is going to drag out.

As it drags out longer and longer, you start to feel the economic ripple effect to suppliers and also to deliveries of airplanes to US airlines to foreign airlines. We're on day one, John, things can change very quickly, but it also could drag out and cause major economic headaches -- John.

BERMAN: Something that everyone will be watching very closely. Vanessa Yurkevich. Thank you so much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, new this morning, President Biden is poised to approve giving Ukraine the okay to use long-range missiles to fire into Russia. The response from Putin is extreme.

And, wild collision here, look at this, caught on camera, a train slamming into a tractor trailer that is hauling a tank. Oh, we'll talk more about it, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:29:00]

SIDNER: Putin is promising war with NATO if Ukraine fires long-range missiles into Russia, but it's a move that Ukraine's top officials have long called for and would require, of course, approval from Western Nations who have been supplying the weapons.

President Putin warning, that if the West does give the greenlight, then Russia will be at war with the alliance.

CNN's chief national security correspondent, Alex Marquardt joining us now with more. The Biden administration is considering giving their approval,

correct, for long-range missiles to be used by Ukraine.

ALEX MARQUARDT, NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Sara, the US has already given Ukraine permission to fire American weapons into Russia but at a shorter range.

So, what's at issue here is whether or not the US will give Ukraine the permission to fire the biggest missile yet that the US has given to Ukraine. It's called ATACMS, it goes some 200 miles or 300 kilometers, whether Ukraine can fire that into Russia.

Now, the Biden administration has been seen by Ukraine as being somewhat slow or reluctant to give them those permissions, give them those weapons and Ukraine has had to balance their gratitude for getting these weapons with really the impatience feeling that they could do more if they had these permissions, had these weapons sooner.

So, this is going to be discussed between President Biden and the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer here in Washington today.

[08:30:24]