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Trump: We're Going to Take Other Countries' Jobs; NHL Hall of Famer Brett Favre Reveals Parkinson's Diagnosis; Joe Biden Delivers Final U.N. Address as President. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 24, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:01:37]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Neck and neck. New CNN polling shows just how close the race for the White House is, with just six weeks until Election Day. But when you dig into the numbers, there are bright spots and some troubling trends for both candidates.

And back to school. After an unthinkable tragedy, the students at Apalachee High School return without two classmates and two teachers who were killed in a shooting nearly three weeks ago. How they're coping and how schools handle this as we speak with a Principal whose school faced its own horrific shooting.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: And an NFL legend reveals he has a disease with a potentially bleak diagnosis. Brett Favre says he has Parkinson's disease after a career where he estimates he may have suffered from hundreds of concussions. We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

KEILAR: Neck and neck. With six weeks to go, fresh CNN polling just released shows Vice President Harris and former President Trump in a national dead heat in the race for the White House.

Harris at 48%, Trump at 47%. All within the margin of error, meaning no clear leader in this race. What the new data does tell us is that there's a major shift in voters' attitudes compared to earlier this summer. There's been a 10% shift among Harris supporters from 50% to 60% who say their vote now is more for Harris than it is a vote against Trump.

We have CNN Political Director David Chalian joining us to break down these numbers. All right, what are the big takeaways that you're seeing?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, as you said, the biggest takeaway is this. It is, you can't get closer than this really in a presidential election. We should note, this is a national poll. It is among likely voters now that we are just six weeks away. And we know that the path to 270 through 7 battleground states will determine the winner here. But this is a national snapshot.

Most important issue, the economy by far, Brianna, 41% of likely voters say that is the issue driving their vote choice. 21% say protecting democracy, that's second on the list. And you see immigration and reproductive rights, abortion rights round out those that have double-digit support. But these top four issues are the ones we hear the most about the campaign trail.

And obviously, the economy is the big one. And that is advantage Trump. We asked these likely voters in the poll, who do you trust to handle the economy more? 50% say Donald Trump, 39% say Kamala Harris. She needs to narrow that gap between now and six weeks from now.

KEILAR: The economy -- I mean, you see the gap there with the economy and how much it matters to people. And he's outperforming her so much on this issue. Why then is the race so neck and neck?

CHALIAN: Well, as we learned in 2022, remember in the midterms, everyone said the economy was going to be everything. It didn't end up being everything, even though polls were showing us it was the top choice. One of the reasons she's doing well is the power of the female vote. So you see here, here's the gender gap among likely voters. Kamala Harris is up 10 percentage points among female voters. Now, Donald Trump is up 9 percentage points, 52% to 43% among men, that's a 19% gender gap.

But, Brianna, look, if we look at just independent voters, the critical voters in the middle of the electorate, Kamala Harris extends her advantage with female voters among independent women, 51% to 36%, a 15 point advantage.

[14:05:09]

And his advantage with men actually narrows a little bit when you look at independent voters in the middle. So this is driving some of the closeness in the race, as is this, of course. 48% of likely voters tell us Donald Trump's views are so extreme that they threaten the country. Only 35% say that about Kamala Harris's views. Now, even some folks in this category are still voting for Donald Trump, but this is something to watch for. We asked also about who do you trust more to unite the country? On that score, 43% say Harris, only 30% say Trump. So there are some candidate qualities that are playing to her strengths even while he's dominating on issue one of the economy.

KEILAR: And there are some alarming numbers in here for her if she is looking to broaden her support, or I should say, really edge out, he's got such an advantage with white voters. She's looking to broaden her support with minority voters. What are you seeing here?

CHALIAN: Yeah. So obviously, she has, according to our latest poll today, a 63 percentage point advantage with black voters versus Trump. That's obviously huge. But look, Joe Biden had a 75 percentage point advantage in the 2020 exit poll. So she's not performing at the same level of margin as Joe Biden. Washington, four years ago when he was successful. Similar story among Latino voters. She has a healthy 19 percentage point advantage over Trump with Latino voters in our poll. But Joe Biden had a 33 point advantage.

And then, of course, the other thing to note here, Brianna, is it's getting late now. I mean, we have turned past Labor Day. 86% of the electorate tells us they have made up their mind. 12% say, they could change their mind. Only 2% say, they don't have a choice in this race.

KEILAR: These folks puzzle me. I've made up my mind, but I could still change. I like to reserve --

CHALIAN: They are persuadable.

KEILAR: They're persuadable.

CHALIAN: Exactly.

KEILAR: I like to reserve the ability to change my mind. I guess I connect with that, but it is kind of funny.

CHALIAN: Millions and millions of dollars from both sides will be spent to target that 12%.

KEILAR: That's right.

CHALIAN: Yeah.

KEILAR: They are the ones they want to get. All right, David, thank you so much. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, former President Trump is back on the campaign trail in the critical swing state of Georgia today. Right now, he's delivering a speech laying out his plans for the economy if he were to win a second term. CNN National Correspondent Kristen Holmes. She's in Savannah following the Trump campaign. And Kristen, it seems to be a consistent Trump message is tax breaks for you and you and you. I wonder how he does the math on all that.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we don't really have an answer on how exactly he's doing the math. But I do want to talk a little bit about his focus on the economy.

As you heard there, David, laying out those numbers, a pretty stark difference between voters who believe Donald Trump could do a better job on the economy moving forward than Kamala Harris. His campaign is hoping to seize on that and hoping Donald Trump will stay on message talking about the economy. Now, this speech has been about 50/50. He talked about the debate. He relitigated what happened with Vice President Kamala Harris. and he just went through the details of both the first and second assassination attempt.

But when he has talked about the economy, the message here is clear. He wants to set bring back American jobs if he is reelected. And he's also saying that if he's reelected, he wants to, quote, "take jobs from foreign countries." Take a listen.

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DONALD TRUMP (FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE): With the vision I'm outlining today, not only will we stop our businesses from leaving for foreign lands. But under my leadership, we are going to take other countries' jobs. Did you ever hear that expression before? Have you ever heard -- that we're going to take other countries' jobs? It's never been stated before. We're going to take their factories. And we had it really rocking four years ago.

We're going to bring thousands and thousands of businesses and trillions of dollars in wealth back to the good old USA. That's what we would be -- we're going to be doing it and doing it fast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So, Jim, you might be wondering how he plans to bring those jobs here to America. Well, one of the things that he has said is that he would have a 15% corporate tax rates for companies that build things here in America or produce here in the United States. Now, just to give you a little bit of a fact check here, the committee for a responsible budget says, this would actually reduce revenue by $200 billion, so wouldn't seem to be increasing there, as Donald Trump was saying.

The other thing Donald Trump has promised to do is increase tariffs at some point, promising 200% tariffs for countries who don't make things here in the United States.

Now, according to the Tax foundation, they say that this would actually increase -- raise taxes by $524 billion and produce full time jobs. It was clear, Donald Trump has heard some of this pushback today. He was arguing that increasing tariffs would not increase inflation, as we have heard from a number of economists. Jim?

SCIUTTO: The data seems to point in the other direction.

[14:10:03]

Kristen Holmes, thanks so much. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is following the latest from the Harris campaign, joins me now.

I understand you have new reporting on her visit to the southern border. I wonder how she manages that, right, because this is clearly a voting issue for many Americans. And it's one where she consistently rates weaker than Trump.

ALVAREZ: And for those reasons, it has come up as a potential stop, actually a stop when she goes to Arizona on Friday. Sources tell me that campaign officials remain concerned about the fact that former President Donald Trump is leading on the issue of immigration, but they also think they have an opportunity to try to close the gap with him. The reason why is because they're banking on that border security bill, the one that was tanked by former President Donald Trump and Republicans.

By using that and balancing it out with immigration reform and her own record as attorney general, they think they can try to build a case that could sort of close that gap in the polling because as you mentioned, it is an issue that consistently rates as a top one for voters. So she is planning to go to the U.S. southern border when she visits Arizona, a battleground state, on Friday.

Now, of course, the Vice President has visited the border before. She did it during this administration. She did it as Senator of California and as Attorney General. But all the same, Republicans have called her the border czar. And that is something that she has been trying to shake because her portfolio under this administration was the root causes of migration, not border security.

And I will also note, Jim, that there's an opportunity here because the border crossings are low. They are at the lowest they've been since 2020. Remember, this has been an administration that has grappled with multiple crises. That's not the case right now. Officials are citing that executive action over the summer that led to this decrease. But it certainly provides an ample opportunity for the Vice President to go and deliver her message at the border this week.

SCIUTTO: I mean, as always on issues, there are impressions and then there are the facts. And there's often a lag time, right, even if that issue is getting so much better or less pronounced, the impression sticks. Priscilla Alvarez, we'll see what the result is of that visit. Thanks so much. Brianna?

KEILAR: Happening today. An appeals court in Mississippi with three judges appointed by former President Trump is considering a case that could limit mail in voting. Republicans alleged that the state is violating federal statute by counting mail in ballots that arrive within five days after the election, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. The ruling could have major implications for mail in ballots cast in many states across the country with similar laws.

CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid is with us now on this. OK. So to be clear, Paula, a Democratic presidential candidate hasn't won Mississippi since 1976. This is not a swing state. Why the challenge here?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We expect Mississippi will go red in November. But the point of this challenge is to try to get this question about whether mail in ballots that are received after Election Day is a violation of federal law before this conservative Fifth Circuit.

Now, the Republican National Committee, they lost at the trial court level here. But just a few minutes ago, arguments got underway before three Trump appointed justices. And the goal here is to have this panel side with the RNC to get a win here, which would help them in one of two ways, potentially, they believe the state would -- the opponents would appeal to the Supreme Court, something that they would love to see.

But also, they think that even if they just get this decision, this win at the circuit court level, that, of course, applies to all the states in that circuit. But they could also cite it in post-election litigation if the election really comes down to ballots that come in after election day because cause roughly, 20 other states have this policy. They could try to cite whatever happens in the circuit court. But it's still unclear if we'll have a decision by then. KEILAR: So how likely is it that this case would make it up to the Supreme Court?

REID: It's really hard to say. The Supreme Court has a doctrine where they don't like to change the rules in and around elections so close to Election Day. But we've also seen that kind of being inconsistently applied by the Supreme Court. But again, it doesn't necessarily have to go to the Supreme Court for this long game strategy to help Republicans.

Now, it's interesting to see, this is really the product of the new thinking after they were really just decimated in terms of the court challenges back in 2020. Republican lawyers, people arguing on behalf of the RNC, thinking long-term, tried to come up with challenges like this to lay the groundwork for more success if the election goes to the courts after November.

So they're clearly thinking more strategically. I've talked to lawyers, though, on both sides, both for the DNC, for the RNC, representing Trump and Biden is clear. They're all thinking long-term here. And this is just one example.

KEILAR: It's a fascinating case. so we know you'll be keeping a good eye on it. Paula, thank you so much.

And ahead this hour on CNN News Central, after suffering memory lapses and openly questioning if he could have CTE, Brett Favre reveals, he's been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

[14:15:09]

We're going to discuss this with Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Plus, an emotional day at Apalachee High Schoo as students return for the first time since the deadly shooting there. We're going to talk to a principal who knows all too well about this kind of tragedy.

And smoke clouds over Lebanon as Israel launches a new round of strikes against Hezbollah targets. We have these important stories all ahead this hour on CNN News Central.

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BRETT FAVRE, NHL HALL OF FAMER: So lost an investment in a company that I believed was developing a breakthrough concussion drug I thought would help others. And I'm sure you'll understand why it's too late for me because I've recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's. This is also a cause dear to my heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: The 54-year-old quarterback led the league for most sacks in a career, 525 at the time of his retirement that was back after the 2010 season.

KEILAR: Yeah, that's according to the Pro Football hall of Fame. And then during the last play of his career in December 2010, he was reportedly knocked unconscious, resulting in a concussion.

Joining us now, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent and neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, of course, people look at Favre's football career. They're going to look at his diagnosis. They're going to wonder if there's a connection.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And I think, you know, there's been plenty of studies that have been done now on this. And I think it's fair to say that there is a link here. And I'm being careful in how I describe this because people often think there's a cause and effect relationship. X number of blows to the head. The effect is Parkinson's disease. I don't think we can say that at this point. There are plenty of people who play football that don't develop this, plenty of people who develop Parkinson's disease who've never played football, so got to be careful.

But if you look at the data, and there was a study that came out of Boston University, they were some of the ones that really drew this link between concussions and something known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

What they found was about a 61% increased likelihood that people would report Parkinson's symptoms if they played tackle football. And there was a higher correlation of people who played at a higher level and people who played for longer periods of time. So, you know, there's some connection there. We're not exactly sure, again, what the cause and effect here is. It could be that those blows to the head could be releasing certain proteins in the brain. It could be inflammation that occurs even as a result of what are known as sub concussive hits. But there is this connection.

One thing I'll point out quickly, average age of diagnosis of Parkinson's 60 and older in the United States, there's about a half a million people who have it. as you mentioned earlier, Brett Favre, 54. So a bit younger than when people are typically diagnosed.

SCIUTTO: You know, it's interesting, as you were describing that, Sanjay, it struck me that Parkinson's symptoms, right, are quite similar to symptoms of other things. And I just wondered how hard is it to diagnose those symptoms or collection of symptoms as Parkinson's itself? That's one question. Then, I suppose for people watching here, are there specific symptoms they should be aware of?

GUPTA: Yeah. You know, this is a really important question. First of all, Parkinsonism can be caused by Parkinson's disease. But there are other things that can cause Parkinsonism as well, which is, I think, what you're referring to here, Jim. There is no biomarker, meaning there's no specific blood test or imaging test that can tell you for sure that you have this. That's what makes it challenging.

So it typically is what's known as a clinical diagnosis in our world. You're looking for the symptoms and the signs that people might have. A lot of them, people generally know, tremor, for example, is one, muscle stiffness. So, you know, almost like you're holding your muscles sort of rigid, slowness of movement. You see people almost have what's called cogwheeling sort of movement where they're moving very slowly and also impaired balance. Those are a few of the signs and symptoms. Again, not diagnostic necessarily of Parkinsonism, but often associated with it.

Another one I'll add to the list is something that is referred to as masked faces. Think of your face essentially becoming mask like. People lose their ability to express themselves. They don't smile as much. They don't express the muscles in their face as much. But again, that's -- those are clinical signs. They can be associated with this and other things. That's why you have to get it checked out.

SCIUTTO: Yes. So sad to hear it for someone so young, relatively right as Brett Favre. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much.

Coming up next, another story we're following closely. Israel escalating its attacks on Hezbollah, but Lebanon says it is civilians who are paying the price. With more than 500 killed in Monday's strikes alone.

We're going to have the latest from the Middle East coming up.

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[14:29:26]

SCIUTTO: Due today, President Biden marking one of his last big moments on the world stage as President. He addressed the United Nations General Assembly, laying out stark global challenges while expressing some optimism about a path forward.

Biden spoke about the escalating crisis in the Middle East, of course, calling it -- calling on restraint from regional leaders while renewing calls for a ceasefire deal to prevent full scale war.

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JOE BIDEN, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: The world must not flinch from the horrors of October 7th. Any country, any country would have the right and responsibility to ensure that such an attack can never happen again.

I put forward with Qatar and Egypt a cease fire and hostage deal.

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