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Harris In Pennsylvania As campaign Seeks To capitalize On post- debate Momentum; Trump speaks To reporters In CA Ahead Of Campaign Stop In NV; Trump DEHUMANIZES MIGRANTS, CALLS RIGHT-WING AGITATOR A "Free Spirit". Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 13, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:43]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The great debate, new questions about whether or not we'll see a second matchup between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, and new campaign strategies rolling out today as both campaigns hit critical battleground states.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, a new CNN investigative report uncovering allegations of sexual assault and harassment within the New Hampshire National Guard. The eye opening details in this new report.

Plus, phoning home. Boeing Starliner crew speaking out for the first time since their spaceship returned to earth without them on board. The event from space just moments away will bring you their remarks live as we follow these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

KEILAR: In the race for the White House, the hard campaigning begins for Vice President Kamala Harris. And she is looking to push through these neck and neck polls with breakthrough moments and innovative appearances according to new CNN reporting. Today, she's in the critical battleground of Pennsylvania, where we expect that she will be arriving any minute. She'll be speaking directly to voters there, specifically targeting two counties that her rival, former President Donald Trump, won in the last two presidential elections.

Trump, in the meantime, is also on the trail right now. He's expected, or he is speaking, I should say, to reporters at his golf course in southern California. Then later, he'll be heading to Las Vegas for a rally.

CNN Senior Reporter Isaac Dovere begins our coverage here. And you have some really interesting reporting that I mentioned, which is that she's skewing, as we know, sort of the value of traditional media, but she's looking at kind of innovative appearances. What does the campaign have in mind here?

ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Think about what the first couple of weeks of this campaign were for her in July and August. There was all that excitement and energy and good vibes that were carrying her through that sort of built up to the Chicago Convention. The last two and a half weeks since then have been a little slower, a little lower intensity for her. A lot of that's because of Labor Day. And then she was in debate prep building up to Tuesday. What the campaign looks at now in these seven weeks that are left is how to get that energy to carry through all the way to focus more on that, getting people to feel good about Harris, and feel like they know her in that way, rather than things like deep policy rollouts or those sorts of things.

KEILAR: And you have found that some Democratic officials have been, as you put it, wishfully scrolling through Taylor Swift's era's tour schedule.

DOVERE: That's right. Like, Taylor Swift's endorsement on Tuesday night was a surprise. There was an expectation, a hope that Swift would back Harris, but that it came then was not something that had been engineered.

Now, you see already today, the Democratic National Committee has been starting to do advertisements around it. But the hope that some Democrats, leading Democrats have is that they can get Swift to be doing things on the campaign trail and even to get Beyonce out on the campaign trail. Remember, there was that rumor that she might show up at the convention, She didn't. But could they figure out how to get Swift, how to get Beyonce, maybe together, maybe separately doing events, building this sort of cultural phenomenon, very much like the 2008 campaign for Barack Obama, should be said, Obama will be part of this, too, with an aide to the former President telling me that they're looking to do things that they're going to have some fun.

So he'll do those rallies like he does every election cycle in the fall, but other things, too. And anything else that the campaign can be doing to build out that feeling of energy and excitement for Harris.

KEILAR: All right. We'll be looking for that. Great reporting.

DOVERE Thank you.

KEILAR: Thank you so much, Isaac. Boris?

SANCHEZ: As Brianna mentioned, Donald Trump is currently speaking to reporters in Southern California. It is not clear yet if he's going to take questions or not. He's been speaking for roughly a half hour or so. Well bring you the question and answer portion if it does happen. This is obviously a couple days after his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris and one day after saying that he would not hold a second debate with the Vice President. He was still relitigating the debate moments ago as he was giving his remarks.

Well, of course, bring you the headlines again and if there is a question and answer portion.

[14:05:02]

Meantime, Trump's running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, is continuing to attack Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, as two more of the city schools had to be evacuated today. Vance posted on X quote, "in Springfield, Ohio, there's been a massive rise in communicable diseases, rent prices, car insurance rates and crime. He says, "this is what happens when you drop 20,000 people into a small community. Kamala Harris's immigration policy aims to do this to every town in our country."

Now, the evacuation of those two elementary schools today comes after a bomb threat yesterday forced officials in Springfield to close two other schools and city hall. Springfield has seen a surge in immigrants in recent years, specifically from Haiti. The city estimates there are between 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants in all, a significant number when you consider that town recorded a population of less than 60,000 in 2020.

Last night, Springfield's mayor spoke to CNN about Trump and Vance's rhetoric, which included that debunked rumor claiming that immigrants, Haitian immigrants, were eating people's pets. Listen to part of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB RUE, SPRINGFIELD, OHIO MAYOR: We have to focus on making sure this rhetoric is dispelled, that these rumors are just -- they're just not true. We have a beautiful city and we need the national stage to pay attention to what their words are doing to cities like ours, legacy cities in Ohio, legacy cities in the Midwest that are working hard to be significant. And we are doing well at that. We don't need this pushback that is hurting our citizens and hurting our community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's actually take you straight to that golf club in southern California where the former President is now taking questions. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's the worst president and she is the worst vice president in the history of our country. 94% of the Republicans and the only one that wouldn't, maybe Mitt Romney or somebody like that. But we've gotten great praise for the debate. And based on the polls like Rasmussen being up six today, the first poll out. Based on the polls, obviously, I did well in the debate. Also based on the debate polls where I sometimes had, in one case, 92% wins. So, you know, look, you come from Fox. You shouldn't play the same game as everybody else.

Go ahead. Go ahead.

WOMAN #1: What would you say to your Republican colleagues or your allies who are concerned about your close relationship with Laura Loomer?

TRUMP: Well, I don't know what they would say. Laura has been a supporter of mine just like a lot of people are supporters. And she's been a supporter of mine. She speaks very positively of the campaign. I'm not sure why you asked that question, but Laura is a supporter. I don't control Laura. Laura has to say what she wants. She's a free spirit.

Well, I don't know. I mean, look, I can't tell Laura what to do. Laura is a supporter. I have a lot of supporters, but I -- so I don't know what exactly you're referring to. That's okay.

Yeah, please? I just don't know. Laura is a supporter. I don't know. She is a strong person. She's got strong opinions. And I don't know what she said, but that's not up to me. She's a supporter. Please?

WOMAN #2: Traveling with you on your plane (inaudible).

TRUMP: A lot of people do. It's a very big plane.

WOMAN #2: (Inaudible) with you. She made racist remarks about your opponent. She also espoused conspiracy theories about 9/11. Do you disavow those remarks and why --

TRUMP: Well, I have to see what the remarks are. You're telling me for the first time, we're here about -- we're here discussing the destruction of San Francisco and California by a person that's running for president, so I don't even know what you're talking about. I do know that she may have said something based on what you're telling me, but I don't know what she said. But I'll go take a look and I'll put out a statement later on, but I really don't know. Please?

WOMAN #3: (Inaudible) president, Springfield, Ohio is experiencing a migrant crisis. Will you --

TRUMP: Yes.

WOMAN #3: -- an event there to show the media what's actually happening, maybe at Town Hall?

TRUMP: Well, we could. And maybe we'll do that. Where are you from? That's good. Very good. They're doing a very good job. Yeah, that's very good. Now, I will -- maybe Springfield, maybe Aurora, maybe both. We'll go there. I can say this. We will do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio. Large deportations. We're going to get these people out. We're bringing them back to Venezuela.

You know, he told Biden, he's not accepting anybody back. They moved all their criminals. Not all of them, but the rest are moving in now. They emptied their jails in Venezuela, emptied their criminals, emptied the nests. They call them nests of bad people. They're all now in the United States. And they're now taking over cities. It's like an invasion from within. And we're going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country. And we're going to start with Springfield and Aurora, okay?

MAN #1: The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, the Police Chief, the Republican Governor of Ohio have all debunked this story about people eating pets. [14:10:05]

And now, there are bomb threats at schools and kids being evacuated. Why do you still spread --

TRUMP: No, no, no

MAN #1: -- and dispel story?

TRUMP: The real threat is what's happening at our border because you have thousands of people being killed by illegal migrants coming in and also dying. You have women dying as they come up. They're coming up in large groups, we call it a caravan. I think I came up with that name, but it's really what it is, 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 people. And you have large numbers of women being killed in those caravans coming up to this country.

And then when they get here, they can go into the country and they end up being sex slaves and everything else. Those are your real problems, not the problem that you're talking about. Yeah, okay.

WOMAN #4: Quick question. So you just said that you will carry out the largest mass deportation of illegal immigrants. How are you going to have, for example, Governor Gavin Newsom or official and sanctuary cities comply with that?

TRUMP: Well, you know, if you go to the people of California, they don't want to have sanctuary cities anymore. They're tired of sanctuary cities. Sanctuary cities are really blocks that protect bad people from deportation and other problems, and they're going to do it. And our federal government has tremendous power. But we're not going to let states even like California, even though I know it's largely sanctuary state essentially, but we're not going to let that happen to the people of California. They want these people out. They're just as scared as everybody else. The people of Ohio are scared. The people of Colorado, you have a governor there who's very weak. He doesn't know what to do and he doesn't want to talk about it. A lot of it, as per your question, they don't want to talk about what's happening.

They say it's so bad for the city. Let's not go public. Let's live with it for a little while. Maybe it'll go away. It's not going to go away. It's going to get worse. It's going to get so bad. You know what? We're experiencing now is -- they're just getting settled in. These 21 million people that have come in, they're just getting settled in. It's going to get much worse. It's going to get worse at a level like nobody's ever seen before. Go ahead.

WOMAN #4: Follow up question. Regarding the economy, we're seeing more and more companies are shipping their jobs overseas.

TRUMP: Yeah.

WOMAN #4: But even for white collar jobs --

TRUMP: That's right/ WOMAN #4: -- they're having problems with that. We've been seeing mass

layouts. How would you for prevent these white collar jobs from being (inaudible)?

TRUMP: By lowering taxes and regulations. And what they're doing is they're seeing that every time it looks like Kamala is doing well, companies want to leave, stock markets go down. The stock market, there's a great gentleman, Scott Bessent, who is one of the top Wall Street people. He said the market's only up because they all think that Trump is going to get elected. We had a great stock market. Even with COVID, we ended up handing over a market that was higher than previous to COVID or the China virus coming in.

Now, we are going to make sure that the taxes are going to stay where they are and/or come down, ideally come down, both for the middle class and for corporations because corporations put the people to work. We had the best numbers in the history of our country, by far, not even close. And there are companies leaving because they cannot stand what's happening right now to our country.

And one of the reasons I'm doing this today is to let them know, you're not going to have to leave because we're going to take care of the problem. They have a tremendous crime problem. Like, if you're in Los Angeles, look at the crime numbers. And then you have the FBI lying about the numbers, saying the numbers went down. But anybody with common sense know the numbers are through the roof. I didn't know they were as high as they are. But think of it, how good is a person from a government agency that would release the numbers when they saw that I was unfairly targeted by ABC? And you could say by the FBI with false numbers, so -- I mean, I have great respect. I have to find out who that person is or who that group is, but I have great respect. Go ahead. One more.

WOMAN #5: North Korea Kim Jong Un, he just toured a uranium facility. The U.S. is saying that Iran is sending ballistic missile to Russia. If reelected, how would you address the situation with our adversaries?

TRUMP: I'll be able to make phone calls and solve most of the problems. I may actually have to meet a couple of times. But, you know, Viktor Orban, the -- and you've heard me say this, but it wasn't long ago, he said the only way you're going to solve the world problem is Trump has to be president again. And I don't say it. I didn't say it. I sort of would be embarrassed to say it. But he said everybody was afraid of Trump. He said China was afraid, Russia was afraid, North Korea was afraid. Everybody was afraid. We had no wars. We defeated ISIS in four weeks. And they said, it was going to take five years, right? The generals in Washington. I went there and met a great general and a great -- some great people. And I said, go to it. And he took them out in four weeks, 100% of the ISIS caliphate. I flew there. I flew to Iraq to the field, and they took him out in a very short period of time, short order.

[14:15:05]

We have a great military. But, you know, a great military needs a leader. If you don't have leaders, then you end up with Afghanistan, the worst withdrawal from a country in the history. Look, I've gotten to know great people. I went to Arlington at their request. And I stood -- and I was with them for hours, and I stood with them. They did a ceremony and then they asked me if I'd go down to the graves of their children. They called them their children, that they always will be their children. And there were tears all over, as there should be. And they said, "sir, could you take pictures with me by the grave of my son?" In one case, a daughter. And I said, I'd love to. And I took pictures with them for a while and then I left. And that was it. And I got home and I get a call from the people in the campaign, "sir, the Biden -- people are saying that you did this for publicity."

If people knew how hard it was to get there because I was coming from a location that was very far away, and yet they were having the ceremony, and I really felt, you know, I had them up to Bedminster, most of the family members, and I got to know them. They're great people. Their sons and daughter, just as though Kamala shot them with a pistol in her hand or his hand, they were killed by Biden and Kamala. They were killed. They should have never left from that airfield. They should have left for Bagram. We should have never given up Bagram. Bagram now is controlled by China.

The reason we shouldn't have given it up was not because of Afghanistan. The reason we shouldn't have given it up one hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons. And I wasn't giving it up. We were getting out quickly and effectively. I'm the one that got the numbers down to less than 5,000 soldiers. But I would have never left unless they fulfilled their obligations under an agreement. I had a wonderful agreement, but the agreement said, you have to do this, this, this. They didn't do three of the first five things, so therefore, they would have done it.

Abdul was the leader. And he wouldn't have done it. And he would have never done that to us. And just in finishing up with that, and I appreciate the question, actually. But in finishing up with that for 18 months, spoke to Abdul over the phone, for 18 months, not one American soldier was shot or killed. Not one American soldier was even shot at. Abdul understood. Don't do it. I said, don't do it, Abdul. Don't do it.

And for 18 months, not one soldier was even shot at. And that's the way it's supposed to be, right? And then they had that horrible situation with the 13 dead, leaving billions of dollars of equipment behind and leaving a lot of Americans behind, a lot of Americans. And you know what else? Leaving a lot of soldiers badly wounded. Nobody ever talks about them, but I do.

MAN #2: Let's talk about California. You are claiming that we need to do major changes in this state. If you're president, what's the biggest policy difference for the people of California? And what would the nature of your relationship be with the leaders of California, who you're calling scum? How do you get that--

TRUMP: Well, I would have a great relationship with them. And what you have to do is start all over again. You cannot have these policies of high taxation. You can't have these policies of politics where you go after your politicians. You have to have an honest voting system because, you know, you don't have an honest voting system. They send out millions and millions of ballots. They go all over the place. Some people get two, three, four, five. You have a very dishonest system over here. If I ran with an honest vote counter in California, I would win California.

But the votes are not counted, honestly. It's a very dishonest system that you have in California. And I'd make it business friendly. Right now, it's business unfriendly. Look, Elon Musk is a friend of mine. He endorsed me very powerfully. He endorses me every time he speaks. He really wants to see us win because he knows we can do a great job and turn it around. He left California. I said to him, Elon, did anybody ever call you? It's a big company. He moved to Texas. A lot of people moving to Texas. Great state, excellent governor, and excellent lieutenant governor. Great people. They love entrepreneurs. They love the people that live there. They want to keep their taxes low. Taxes are way too high here.

But I said to Elon, "so you have a big company and you're moving it to Texas from California. Did anybody call you, like the governor, to try and get you to stay?" "No." "Did anybody see you write a letter, do anything to try and keep you to stay? You have thousands of jobs." He said, "nobody ever called. There'd be so many things you could do." This would be the easiest place to turn around if they knew what to do. Look at it. I mean, look at the weather. We're standing out here on the Pacific Ocean in the most beautiful weather.

[14:20:02]

A lot of states don't have weather like this. They don't have Pacific Oceans. So it's many things you could do, but you start, lowering taxes and making it friendly. But think of it, Elon Musk, a great guy, brilliant guy, big company, lots of jobs, leaving. Nobody even calls him to try and get him to stay. I would have been on him. I would have said, "let's have lunch. Let's have dinner. And then let's have breakfast the following morning," right? I would have tried to talk him out of it.

Yeah, go ahead, please?

MAN #3: What value does -- what value do you feel that Laura Loomer brings to you? And has nobody told you about the conspiracy theories that she has promoted?

TRUMP: No, I don't know that much about it. No, I don't. I know she's a big fan of the campaign, but I really don't know. I would say that -- well, she brings a spirit to us that a lot of people have. We have very spirited people. And in all fairness to her, she hates seeing what's happened to the country, I guess. I mean, she hates seeing what's happened to the country. So do I. It's very sad. It's very sad when I have to stand out here on my property and say how bad California is. Did you have another one?

WOMAN #6: MR. President, getting back to some questions that matters to the people of California, there are a lot of folks here who feel like they are forgotten men and women. The state government -- TRUMP: They are.

WOMAN #6: -- seems to care, but you are coordinating with the local mayor. What can you do to help this community either now or when you get elected?

TRUMP: Well, we're going to help them. And I told John, the local mayor, but I told John we're going to help him with his slide problem. You know, there are ways of fixing that. We discussed it. He knows better than anybody. and he needs help from the federal government. He needs help from the state government. And it's a very wealthy area. But you also have people living here that are elderly and have fixed incomes, and have houses that are going to be, you know, shoved into the Pacific Ocean if something is not done. And he wants it taken care of. He's a great mayor. He wants it taken care of. He was very -- he wants nothing for himself. He just wants to help these people.

And John, I think you said you have about 600 houses on the site that's sliding. And he'd like to be able to save those houses for people that some of which will never be able to have a house again. You know, it's pretty sad.

WOMAN #7: Media shares are down about 75% from their peak in March. Your lockdown provision and soon, will you sell your shares?

TRUMP: No, I'm not selling. No, I love it. I mean, I use it as a method of getting out my word. You know, when it opened, it went way high. But then, the SEC gave us nothing but problems. We had to go through a long, long process with the SEC. But people think that I'm leaving that's why they're down. Because if I leave, you know, it's different if I leave, but I'm not leaving. I love it. I think it's great. Mechanically, it works the best.

And again, I'm friendly with Elon. And Elon would love me to come over to X, but I just, you know, I have close to 100 million people on X. I had 230 million people on X, and then they shut me down. And I said, I'm not going to let that happen again, you know, that I had hundreds of millions of people on X, and Facebook, and Instagram, I think more than anybody. Zuckerberg told me at the White House. He said, "congratulations, you're number one on Facebook," is a number of years ago. And all of a sudden, he wants from being number one to having no voice --

(END VIDEO TAPE)

KEILAR: All right. We're listing to former President Trump speak in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Just to fact check a number of things he said before he heads to his event in Nevada. He said that he won the debate. And we just need to be clear that every major scientific poll, all of them found that Harris won the debate. That is according to respondents, to people who were polled and what they say about who won the debate.

And then there were some questions about Laura Loomer who has said things. She traveled with him on 9/11. She has suggested that 9/11 was an inside job, but it was also recent racist comments about Kamala Harris that got a lot of attention. He said he hasn't heard the remarks. That's just not believable because this is not a new controversy. It has roiled allies in his party. So this is something that's been getting a lot of attention. So it's hard to really believe that he wouldn't have heard what she said unless he's been hiding under a rock.

But he said that she's a free spirit, she's a supporter, she has strong opinions. He suggested he may put out a statement later on. We'll see if that actually happens. He said that she brings a spirit to us that a lot of people have when asked what it is that she brings a benefit to the campaign.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. She has made a name for herself, not only running unsuccessfully for Congress twice, but with controversial remarks about a number of ethnic groups. She's described herself as a proud Islamophobe as well. And as you noted, even Republican members of Congress have publicly come out in recent days and suggested that Trump should distance himself from her. But he said at least five times, quote, "she's a supporter," also saying he doesn't know what she said.

The former President there also notably saying that he might hold an event in Springfield, Ohio, that he might do a town hall there.

[14:25:01]

This has obviously been a heated story over the last several weeks since Republican Ohio Senator J. D. Vance and Trump's vice presidential nominee made this case online that Haitian immigrants there had been accused of eating pets, of stealing and eating people's pets.

Here, the former president saying that there will be large deportations in Springfield. He dismissed the fact that there had been bomb threats not only at city hall, but at schools in the area. This is the second day in a row that elementary schools have been shut down in Springfield over this. He said, the real threat are illegal immigrants. He claimed that he would deport people from Springfield to Venezuela. We should point out the vast majority of the immigrants in Springfield, some 15,000 to 20,000, are Haitian immigrants who were actually in the country legally through temporary protective status.

He also claimed that FBI numbers were made up on crime. Numbers that have shown that there's been a decrease in violent crime across the country. He again dismissed them, as he did in the debate. He also suggested that there's election fraud in California. He argued that if ballots were counted fairly there, he would have won the state the three times now that he's run for president, even though the last Republican to win in California was back in 1988, and that was George Herbert Walker Bush.

We're joined now by a panel of folks who are monitoring not only the politics of this, but also the fact checking. Shout out to Jeff Zeleny, who gave me the intel on the last time a Republican won the state of California.

Jeff, what do you make of these comments from Trump?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's start with the California thing. I mean, it simply is not true. He was saying if the votes were counted fairly, he would win California. As you rightly point out, obviously, Ronald Reagan in 1884 won, George H.W. Bush won in 1988. Since then, a Republican has not won statewide, and he will not either. He knows that. But as just one more way to amplify his -- really has been a frustration for him about the popular vote. I think that's what he's talking about here, obviously, California, the largest state, and it -- that contributes to his losing the popular vote.

But beyond that, I think the more important thing is if he goes to Springfield, Ohio, that confirms what we were talking about earlier, he's trying to keep immigration alive front and center in this campaign conversation. He believes that that is something that can sort of gain ground that he was unable to do at the debate. But imagine all that would do for that town of Springfield.

KEILAR: Let's bring in Dhoni O'Sullivan to the conversation as well. And on the topic of Afghanistan, Dhoni, and then you can leap off on whatever fact check you see of import on this, because there is a lot he said and seemed to indicate that there were 18 months in his presidency where there were no casualties in Afghanistan. That's not true. This was a period of time that actually spanned his presidency and Joe Biden's presidency. But he also seemed to rebuff suggestions that he had politicized the deaths of American service members by then going on to politicize the deaths of U.S. service members, saying, just as if Kamala had shot them with a pistol in her hand.

DHONI O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, I mean, I think just taking all of that press conference and what we've heard through the last few days, I mean, we're really through the looking glass here when it comes to, you know, you mentioned schools in Springfield, Ohio, being shut down because of these conspiracy theories.

One thing that did stand out to me there towards the end of what we took from the press conference was he was asked about whether he would start posting again regularly on X, formally Twitter. Of course, he was kicked off X, off of Twitter, after January 6th. He's now back on the platform, thanks to Elon Musk, but he isn't posting regularly. I think that highlights something important here, which is, you know, easy to get lost in all the developments that is happening, is that the role of Elon Musk has in all of this, right? Because Laura Loomer, who most Americans probably have not heard of until this week, she was effectively cancelled. She was kicked off Twitter years ago.

Musk brought her back. She now has millions of followers. Her posts are going viral all over the world. And she has become and been made relevant in part by Elon Musk. And of course, you can see over the past few weeks all the other ways that Musk has been helping Trump, actively, promoting posts and also hosting discussions with him. So I think that's just one thing to mention here.

And just back to the idea that Trump doesn't know really what Laura Loomer is about. You don't have to dig hard for these posts. I mean, it's literally, it's every second post.