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CNN Uncovers Racist, Sexist Online Comments by North Carolina GOP Governor Nominee; Israel Strikes 100 Hezbollah Rocket Launchers in Lebanon; Springfield Mayor Claims Emergency Powers as Pet-Eating Lie Fuels Safety Concerns. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired September 20, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Republican Party has a new scandal on its hands this morning, CNN's KFILE uncovering explosive online comments made by the Republican nominee running for North Carolina governor. Republicans trying to distance themselves this morning, but what is the impact now that it can have up and down the ballot?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, for the first time for millions of Americans, it is Election Day in America. Early in-person voting begins in some states with a bevy of campaign developments overnight, including Donald Trump, in a way, blaming Jews if he loses.

And this morning, a sheriff is facing murder charges after police say he gunned down a judge in his chambers.

Sara is out. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. CNN News Central starts now.

BOLDUAN: A CNN exclusive this morning, shocking details about a Republican candidate for governor, rocking the already wild presidential race in a critical state. CNN's KFILE investigation, a CNN KFILE investigation uncovering explosive online posts made by North Carolina's current lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, the same Mark Robinson who is a close ally of Donald Trump's and also running to be the next governor of that state.

The CNN investigation finding that Robinson posted on a porn site messaging board starting in 2008, describing himself at one point as, quote, black Nazi, even calling for slavery to be reinstated. And that is just some of the parts that we can at 7:00 in the morning. Robinson has denied making the posts. This morning, though, House Republicans are beginning to distance themselves from Robinson and there are calls for him to drop out of that governor's race in North Carolina.

Robinson has made campaign appearances with Donald Trump. As I mentioned, he's a close ally. Trump has called Mark Robinson Martin Luther King on steroids.

CNN's Daniel Strauss picks it up from there for us. Daniel, how is the Trump campaign responding, reacting to this investigation, to this reporting? DANIEL STRAUSS, CNN REPORTER: This is definitely something that the Trump campaign did not have ready in their chamber. And Trump himself, as well as his allies and aides have been fairly quiet on this. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GOV. MARK ROBINSON (R-NC), GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not going to get into the minutiae of how somebody manufactured these salacious tabloid lies, but I can tell you this, there's been over $1 million spent on me through A.I. by a billionaire's son who's bound and determined to destroy me. The things that people can do with the internet now is incredible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STRAUSS: And, look, the amount of controversial posts and eye-raising comments that CNN has uncovered that Robinson made is legion. And I'm just going to read a few here. Robinson himself has said, quote, I'm a black Nazi. He has said, slavery is not bad. I wish they would bring it back. I would certainly buy a few.

These are things that in all my ten years, or ten-plus years as a political reporter, I have not heard before, and it's -- I'm speechless.

BOLDUAN: And the impact of those posts is settling in on the Republican Party. We heard from folks on Capitol Hill yesterday as they're learning about it, Ralph Norman saying that he should drop out of that gubernatorial race. Marjorie Taylor Greene saying that if it is all turns out to be true, that she cannot support him. The question is, how will Donald Trump respond when he actually does say something about it.

But speaking of Donald Trump, he was speaking at an event opposing anti-Semitism yesterday, and in his comments, essentially said that, at least in part, he would blame Jewish voters if he loses this race. Bring us up to speed on this.

STRAUSS: Yes, and this comes at a time where the Trump campaign is extremely eager to focus on immigration rather than questions about any Republican candidate's comments on Jews or Judaism.

[07:05:07]

And yet, at the same time, Trump himself went a step further than past comments and has said that Israel has to do its best to help defeat Kamala Harris. He's been very critical of Harris on Israel and Palestinians, and this was just sort of a doubling down of that going forward.

Again, though, I want to stress here that none of this is convenient or ideal for the Trump campaign. They have been very interested in trying to brush off any other topic other than immigration right now, and have been on defense on that, too. So, here, when they were hoping to change the page, they really struggled to do that. BOLDUAN: And back to the lieutenant governor of North Carolina, in an interview with CNN, he denied that those were his comments, denied, he said that's not if his character, denied that any of it was his. We will see how it all continues today.

Daniel, thank you very much. John?

BERMAN: All right, that's a lot. Today, Kamala Harris travels to Georgia and Wisconsin following an emotional event last night with Oprah Winfrey.

Let's get right to CNN's Priscilla Alvarez in Atlanta, where the vice president will be today. Bring us up to speed, Priscilla.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, sources tell me that the vice president directed her team to immediately schedule a trip to Georgia this week. This had not been previously on her calendar because of a report that came out about the two deaths linked to the state's abortion restrictions.

Now, John, this is the type of callback to her rapid response travel when she was not the Democratic nominee. She had for this administration been deploying across the country very quickly to respond to issues of consequence or news of day. Remember, she did it with Tennessee, today with Florida, and she also did in Arizona where she coined the term Trump abortion ban.

So, today, what we're going to see from the vice president is what we saw before, is her telling her team she needed to be here to respond to this report. And one of the families that was included in this report, a woman who died of what they said was a treatable infection due to delays in care, was in the crowd yesterday during the vice president's event with Oprah. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHANETTE WILLIAMS, MOTHER OF AMBER THURMAN: I wanted to go through in silence, but I realized that it was selfish. I want you all to know Amber was not a statistic.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm just so sorry. And the courage that you all have shown is extraordinary.

Is she on death's door before you actually decide to give her help?

OPRAH WINFREY, T.V. HOST: That's the problem.

HARRIS: Is that what you're saying?

WINFREY: That you've got to prove you're on death's door.

HARRIS: Like a doctor or a nurse has to say, she might die any minute. Better give her now care because otherwise I might go to prison.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: So, that was a powerful moment last night, one that we'll see an extension of today. One senior Harris adviser telling me that her trip today is a natural succession of what she's done before in rapid response, so powerful remarks expected today for an issue that Democrats are banking on that will mobilize voters in November, especially here in this battleground Georgia. John?

BERMAN: All right. Priscilla Alvarez, good to have you there. Keep us posted. Thank you very much.

New video overnight as Israel claims it hit 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers inside Lebanon. We are waiting to see what the response might be.

The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, forced to claim emergency powers as the city grapples with more than 35 threats over the bogus pet-eating claims.

A new video of a hiker's terrifying slide down a mountain, there it is. Wow. All right, we've got new details on how we managed to survive this, and keep it in focus.

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[07:10:00]

BERMAN: All right. Developing overnight, Israel says it hit 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers in Lebanon, tensions, of course, so high following the pager and walkie-talkie attacks that Hezbollah's leader says crossed, quote, all red lines.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman is live in Beirut this morning. What is the latest from there, Ben?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, those overnight strikes, John, were probably some of the most intense we've seen coming from Israel since the beginning of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel last October. What we've seen today is an intensification of the cross border fire, which is actually something that's fairly normal, but it's really the intensity that is making this day more particular.

Now, yesterday we did hear Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, saying that the pager and walkie-talkie blows, blasted me (ph), were some of the most -- was the most intense blows that the organization has received. And he said it was a blow also to its individuals and its security.

[07:15:00]

Now, he was rather vague on the question of revenge when it will happen, how it will happen. And what we saw was he was clearly shaken by the events of this week. We know that the Hezbollah has, over the years, prided itself on its security, on its ability to prevent Israeli -- Israel getting into its communications, but it does appear that certainly, starting with the assassination in late July of a senior Hezbollah commander and now the attacks of this week, that Hezbollah has in some ways been compromised, has been infiltrated by the Israelis.

So, it's questionable how short of full scale war, how it's going to be able to respond to the attacks of this week. John?

BERMAN: All right. Ben Wedeman for us in Beirut. Ben, please stay safe. Thanks so much for being there for us. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, since those device explosion attacks targeting Hezbollah, CNN has learned that they were the result of a joint operation between Israel's intelligence service, Mossad, and the Israeli military. Israel's alleged history with black ops planting explosives in devices is extensive.

Back in 1972, after Palestinian militants killed 11 Israelis at the Munich Olympics, Israel launched what is known as Operation Wrath of God to track down those responsible. Eventually, operatives allegedly linked to Israeli intelligence broke into the home of the PLO representative in Paris and planted a bomb in his phone. It was detonated remotely when he picked it up for an interview with someone posing as an Italian journalist.

And then, in 1996, Hamas chief bomb maker was killed after his cell phone exploded. And since 2010, five Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in foreign-linked assassinations, the latest one in 2020, when Iran's chief nuclear scientist was killed.

Iranian officials said a remote controlled machine gun had been set up inside a car equipped with A.I. and facial recognition. It detected the scientist, opened fire, and then the car self-destructed by exploding. John?

BERMAN: All right. This morning, emergency powers granted to the mayor of Springfield, Ohio, as threats tied to the false claims of pet-eating, those threats growing out of control.

And an argument turned fatal, local sheriff now facing murder charges after allegedly shooting a district judge multiple times inside his chambers.

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[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: This morning, threats linked to the false claims about Haitian immigrants perpetuated by Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are continuing to disrupt life in Springfield, Ohio. The city has reported bomb threats that have forced lockdowns or closures at city hall, schools, colleges, stores, and even hospitals. Yesterday, the mayor of Springfield issued a proclamation granting himself temporary emergency powers to mitigate public safety concerns, as he put it, as a result of those threats.

And at the same time as we've reported, Donald Trump says that he is planning to visit Springfield, Ohio, in the next couple weeks, something the mayor has suggested might not be helpful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ROB RUE (R-SPRINGFIELD, OH): Continue to underscore the strain that it will put on our infrastructure. And if he chose to change his mind to maybe reroute from coming to Springfield, that would be a huge message of peace to Springfield, as I see it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And CNN's Omar Jimenez is here. And you've been doing a lot of reporting in Springfield and beyond about how this is all unfolded and where it is headed. What is the very latest?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So let's start with, we can quantify some things that the mayor said that they've now had over 30 threats, over 35 threats over the past recent weeks in the aftermath of this debate. That's some places like schools, government buildings and others.

Now, the governor has said a lot of these have been hoaxes, but the mayor also said some of these threats have been personally to leadership in the community. And regardless of all of it, it's had very real effects on the ground. It has led to actually students being evacuated, people being evacuated from city buildings as well, an overall feeling of unsafe -- of uneasiness, I think, is probably the word.

And in one school, for example, the mayor said roughly 200 out of 500 kids were absent because of security concerns. So, that just sort of gives you an idea of the dynamic we're dealing with here.

One Haitian activist who's lived there for a long time told my team that Haitians are trying to make themselves less seen right now out of concerns for potential conflict or even their safety in some cases.

And I want to step back for people, too, because, look, a lot of what we've talked about has been in the aftermath of the presidential debate, understandable, but some of these tensions go way beyond that, because this is a community according to the 2020 census had around 60,000 people, a little bit under. The best estimates right now, between 12,000 and 15,000 immigrants in the Springfield area, a lot of them Haitian here.

And what that's led to is a lot of real tensions on the housing situation. The city manager said we need more. We just don't have enough with what we've got right now.

BOLDUAN: There's already an affordable housing crunch across the country, right.

JIMENEZ: Exactly. In hospitals, they've said it's led to increased volume that largely they say has come from the influx of immigrants. But then also on the public safety front, it was interesting to hear the state's public safety director say it's not necessarily crime or violence that they have seen become major problems with the influx of the Haitian community.

[07:25:01]

It's actually been around driving. That's what they say is their number one issue that they've had, sort of, traffic accidents, traffic violations. And so they're really working to try and address have more driver's education in different languages and that in this particular community.

So, that was already what the background was.

BOLDUAN: They have challenges. The city is dealing with challenges, addressing challenges that it needs to address even before they had this megaphone spotlight, whatever you want to call it, coming from -- and misinformation coming from the presidential nominee,

JIMENEZ: Exactly. And even with this influx as well, I should mention they did also fill a need because there were many companies who needed workers. They helped provide and fill that need. And so those are the dynamics that we're dealing with here.

BOLDUAN: Let us see what that two weeks means if Donald Trump will be heading there. Thank you so much, Omar.

JIMENEZ: Of course.

BOLDUAN: So, next hour, we will be speaking to the mayor of Springfield, Ohio, for the very latest on that and get an update on basically everything Omar was talking about there. So, don't miss that conversation.

Also ahead for us, North Carolina's lieutenant governor vows to stay in the governor's race there, even in light of the CNN reporting that uncovered extremely disturbing comments that he made on message boards on a porn site. The fallout from him and what it could mean for Republican chances in that battleground state.

And it was enough to amaze LeBron James, Patrick Mahomes had just one word for it, insane. How the star Dodgers pitcher made Major League Baseball history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He swings. It's a drive to the left. This ball's back. There it is, number 50, the first player in the history of Major League Baseball to have a 50-50 season. He is incredible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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