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Sen. Gary Peters, (D-MI) Interviewed on Senate Report on Secret Service Failures that Led to First Assassination Attempt on Donald Trump; Interview with Goc. Ned Lamont (D-CT); Polls Continue to Show Close Race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump; Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont Interviewed on Donald Trump's Comments about Deindustrialization in U.S. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired September 25, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: -- statement that you saw, very emotional. She was crying and wiping tears away the entire time. She did say that she is happy to see Combs behind bars now, but that it's just temporary relief.

In the lawsuit there are also claims that she has been threatened over the years not to come forward, Sara, and that that is one of the reasons why she is speaking out now, again, more than two decades after this alleged attack.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: I think she is the 11th person to accuse Sean "Diddy" Combs in some way, shape, or form. Elizabeth Wagmeister, what a terrifying story. Thank you so much. Appreciate that.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Foreseeable and preventable failures, the details just revealed in a new bipartisan congressional report on what went so wrong that led up to the attempted assassination on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. One Democratic Senator saying Americans will be appalled and astonished.

New polling out just this morning with an important look at where the candidates stand with young voters, a group of voters that could decide this election if they decide to show up.

An evacuation order is already in place in Florida as the state braces for Helene. The storm is likely to be coming major hurricane likely to have a direct hit on the Florida coast.

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking this morning, a new Senate report details the stunning security failures surrounding the first attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Besides a major breakdown in communication, the report found that the Secret Service failed to set a visual barriers, had no plan on how to secure the building where the gunman was located. Some requests for critical resources were denied. Some of those requests not even made. This morning the agency's chief of communications is responding, saying the report lines up with what the agency's own review found. The statement says, "The U.S. Secret Service has implemented changes to our protective operations to ensure the highest levels of safety and security for those we protect."

With us now is the chair of the Senate committee behind this report, Michigan Senator Gary Peters. Thank you very much for being with us. Senator, let me ask a simple question, or what would think would be a simple question -- who was the clear leader in charge of planning and security decisions for the July 13th rally?

SEN. GARY PETERS (D-MI): Well, you're absolutely right. That should be a very clear answer. And the problem is there is no answer. That was astonishing to us is the fact that we could not find one point of contact who said this is the person -- to ensure there was supervision, that it was being implemented properly. So we found a lot of finger-pointing, saying, well, it was a collaborative plan. Many people worked on it, but no -- local law enforcement saying they weren't being told. We had Secret Service saying they were telling them. It was clearly not what you would expect to see when it comes to securing a principal like the former president.

BERMAN: You call it astonishing. That was your takeaway from the various testimony?

PETERS: It was. I mean, the fact that we saw many points of failure, and all of those points of failure were, quite frankly, were preventable. They should have never happened. We started with the plan, as you mentioned, you should have a comprehensive plan. It should look at all of the elements that you need to protect. The building that the shooter used was not adequately covered. The Secret Service said they thought that the local law enforcement we're doing it, but law enforcement, local folks, so they didn't, they didn't have the resources. But ultimately, it's the Secret Service's responsibility to make sure that that building is secure.

But there were other failures. The counter-drone that the Secret Service has that they put up to prevent drones from surveilling the site was not operative. In fact, we had testimony that they spent most of the day with technical line trying to figure out what was wrong. And then we know the shooter actually put up a drone, had a drone to surveil that area beforehand. Had the counter-drone been there, they would have been able to track that shooter and would have been able to confront him early. Chances are that event would have never occurred had that drone been up as an example.

Communications failures as well, the local law enforcement were on a different system than Secret Service. They weren't communicating together rapidly enough. In fact, their command centers were separated, so they were two separate entities. And so when people even saw the shooter on the roof, it was not communicated quickly enough to the Secret Service. In fact, it's interesting that they knew there was somebody with a range finder, a range finder, which is a real ominous development, and for 30 minutes there were looking for him beforehand. They kind of get lost in the crowd.

[08:05:00]

But then it raises questions. Why would you put the former president on the stage when you know there's someone with a range finder out there that could be a threat?

BERMAN: Let me just very quickly, go over one thing you said there on the technology failures. There was a Secret Service agent on a 1-800 toll free tech line trying to figure out how to use a counter drone hours before the former president was about to speak?

PETERS: Yes, that's correct. Yes. I'm aligned. There was issues with the drone. It wasn't up in the air. And it was during that time that we know that the shooter actually was flying his drone to surveil the area. And clearly, if you have someone who has got a drone up before an event, it's probably for nefarious reasons. So they would have tracked him down. And even the acting director of Secret Service said they would have been able to get him, and certainly its unlikely had he known that the Secret Service was on him, he probably would've thought today is not the day. I'm not going to do this. And this would have all, would have been avoided.

BERMAN: All right, let's talk about requests that were denied. The Trump Secret Service security detail had asked for a counter assault liaison. That was denied. Also, they wanted more magnetometers. Some of those were denied. Did you get any explanations for why?

PETERS: Yes, well, part of it is because the security that is provided to each protectee is different depending on their status. If you're the president of the United States or the vice president of the United States, that's a higher level of protection than others. That's one of the findings in our report and one of the recommendations is that the type of protection provided to a protectee, to an individual, should not be based on what the title of their position, but it should be based on the threat assessment. It should be based on intelligence as well.

But clearly the threat assessment, where we're dealing with a highly polarized environment, lots of tensions. I think we all agree that whether you're running for office or you're in office, you should be getting the same level of protection at all times.

BERMAN: And I suppose the most important question to end with is, how confident are you that the Secret Service has fixed this?

PETERS: Well, I know they're making efforts to plug all of these holds. We've had conversations with them. Our report is out, and I want to stress ours is an interim report. We still need more information. We received 2,800 pages of documents, but we need more because the questions we asked lead to more questions. We've done a number of interviews. We've got to do more interviews. But as we continue to do that, we continue to press the Secret Service to make sure they're making changes real time, not waiting for recommendations.

And also we want to assess what are the steps they believe they need to take. That's an ongoing process. I'm confident they can do the job, and certainly, I want to be clear. The men and women who serve in the Secret Service are heroic folks willing to put their line (ph) on the on the line every day. And they deserve certainly our thanks for that. But we got to make sure they're not lead down by folks who are dropping the ball on planning and making sure that all the operations are working to support what they need to do to complete their mission.

BERMAN: Senator Gary Peters, we appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much for being with us.

Kate?

BOLDUAN: Thank you, John.

This morning, we have brand-new CNN polling showing an unbelievably tight race. And this morning we're having a closer look at younger voters. Harris holding a 12-point advantage among voters below the age of 35. And courting young voters has been a particular focus for Democrats as earlier polling had showed a lack of enthusiasm there when President Biden was still at the top of the ticket. Does that enthusiasm gap remain? How does this compare to the last election?

Joining us right now, the man with all of the answers, CNN political director David Chalian. David --

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: You're setting me up for failure, Kate.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: But all you have to say is a snapshot in time and then we're fine.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: Tell me, what stands out to you in this?

CHALIAN: Well, you, know, the big question, I think, when we talk about young voters, and obviously that is a substantial advantage, 52 to 40 for those voters under 35, as you note, there. Also noted, the other end of the age spectrum, by the way, you see a slight edge, closer race there, obviously, for Harris among senior voters. That has been sort of part of the Joe Biden coalition that seems to be hanging on there for a moment.

But I would say with young voters, the big question for me, Kate, is always, will they show up? We see in our survey research in this brand-new poll where our colleagues have done sort of a deep dive into the youth vote. They're very dissatisfied with their influence on the political process. And does that make them so disenchanted to not show up?

We talk a lot about the youth vote in cycle after cycle. We've seen in recent years in the Trump era that they did show up in greater numbers than they had before. Not sure if that will continue. It's one of the things I think we'll look for on November 5th.

BOLDUAN: Yes, exactly, how enthusiastic, are they going to show up -- I mean, literally key to success for any candidate.

[08:10:03]

Alayna Treene has been pointing out, she says something she has been noticing at recent Donald Trump rallies is a concerted effort by the former president to reach out to try to court women voters. What are you seeing in terms of the much discuss gender gap in our recent, in our new numbers?

CHALIAN: Yes. So in our brand new poll, the gender gap is clear. It's a 19 point gender gap, meaning Kamala Harris has a 10-point advantage with women in our poll, and Donald Trump has a nine-point advantage with men in our poll. So that's the divide there.

But it's interesting when you look at sort of subcategories in there. You see among independent women, when you look at likely independent voters, the gender gap, the gender gap plays more into Harris's advantage. I mean, she goes to a 15-point advantage among independent women. And we also see a big difference among white voters compared to black or Latino voters where the gender gap isn't as pronounced. But among white voters, Donald Trump has an enormous advantage with white male voters, as you might suspect. And among white women, Kate, Kamala Harris is within the margin of error. Numerically, she's trailing him by three -- 50 percent of white women support Trump in our poll, 47 percent support Kamala Harris. I mean, that's well within that subgroup's margin of error.

I would just note, Hillary Clinton in 2016 lost white women to Donald Trump by nine points. Joe Biden lost white women do Donald Trump in 2020 by 11 percentage points. If that is -- if that mirrors what it looks like on election night about how white women cast their ballots in this election, that would be very good news for Kamala Harris.

BOLDUAN: That's a great point and probably is a little bit -- a lot of it behind why Donald Trump is literally saying, I don't know why people think women don't like me on the campaign trail, because he is, he sees it -- go ahead.

CHALIAN: No, I'm saying he's very aware of the deficit. And you heard Alayna Treene report that it's been on his mind, and that is why -- Donald Trump is not one for subtlety. So he is trying to make a direct appeal to deal with that polling deficit.

BOLDUAN: Exactly, direct appeal. David Chalian, you must come on every day. Thank you very much. Its good to see you. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, thank you, Kate.

Today, Vice President Kamala Harris is back in battleground Pennsylvania to lay out her economic vision to voters. A senior campaign official telling CNN the vice president will focus on American manufacturing. It is another chance she has to pitch voters on her plan and how it differs from Donald Trump's. It comes after Trump outlined his vision for a manufacturing renaissance, as he put it, in the U.S., and said this about Harris's plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If Kamala Harris gets four more years, she will deindustrialize the United States and destroy our country. We will become virtually a banana republic. We will be destroyed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Joining me now is Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont. I'm going to let you respond to that very dark language that is being used and sort of scare tactic being used by Donald Trump. What do you make of that?

GOV. NED LAMONT, (D) CONNECTICUT: Good morning, Sara. It's the exact opposite of our experience here in Connecticut. We pride ourselves on manufacturing, advanced manufacturing a lot to the defense industry. We've been creating jobs and adding capacity every year since the Biden-Harris administration came in. Big focus on workforce development, making sure people are trained for the very sophisticated, advanced manufacturing jobs that are out there. I think that's a big piece of the Harris agenda.

It's also the opportunity agenda she has, helping small businesses get started. We've had more businesses started by FEMA loans to minority owned companies than ever before in our state.

SIDNER: A group of more than 400 economists and former policymakers have endorsed Vice President Harris in an open letter that was published on Tuesday. But when you look at the polls, including the latest CNN poll, take a look at this -- almost every single poll says that likely voters trust Donald Trump more than they do Kamala Harris. Here is the latest CNN poll there. You see that gap between the two of them, 50 percent for Donald Trump, 39 percent for Kamala Harris. If this is the number one issue, which over and over again the polls say it is, what does she need to do to try to improve these numbers?

LAMONT: I think she needs to say look where we were four years ago, look where we are today. Four years ago, some COVID related, but our businesses were shut down. There was sagebrush blowing down empty main streets, high unemployment.

[08:15:00]

Today, we are virtually a full employment economy, a lot of economic growth, one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. We are the envy of the nation.

SIDNER: Here is the other issue, immigration, that tends to poll very high, so it is the economy and immigration, and in both, likely voters have told us over and over again that they trust Donald Trump more. Those numbers are starting to sort of decrease a bit, but still, he is at the top.

With the polls saying that they prefer Donald Trump on these two big issues, how does she have a path to win? What does she need to do? LAMONT: I think she takes that oh, head on. Obviously, illegal

immigration is way down over the last six months. We could do even better if they pass the bipartisan immigration bill that Donald Trump stalled in the Congress.

She's got to make sure people realize that legal immigration is really key to our economic success. Illegal immigration, get more control over that.

SIDNER: There has been many economists that have said that immigration had actually helped fuel the economy as well.

Young voters tend to -- are trending towards Kamala in a significant way. What more can she do there? Because obviously, she is doing well there, does she sort of move on and try to get other voters or does she continue to pound a lot of social media from this campaign?

LAMONT: Well, focus on these young voters. We need them involved. We need them to know that their vote makes a big difference.

Look, we've come a long way in the last four years and just getting started. That means opportunity for young people, opportunity to start a business, opportunity to get the job training skills you need to get a better job; opportunity to own your first home, that's what gets the young people involved, and that's why Kamala is going to that message.

SIDNER: We've seen that Harris is expected to do an interview with MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle. Does she need to do more of these interviews to get more of the population who consistently say they don't exactly know what her plans are when it comes to, for example, the economy, what she is supposed to lay out today, and immigration among other things.

LAMONT: Look, we've got six weeks left in this election. You're going to hear a lot from both candidates in terms of interviews. Hopefully, on one more debate anyway, we can hear that, but I don't think that President Trump wants to do another debate.

But yes, she's got to explain every day, not just what you want to do, but who you are and why you're doing what you do.

Kamala has done a great job of that. She has only been a candidate for a couple of months and she has got six weeks more to make the case. I think she is making the case.

SIDNER: Well, there is another debate that is coming up on Tuesday here on CNN, and that is the vice presidential debate. And I think a lot of people will be paying attention to it. I assume that you will be, too.

Do you think people will pay more attention to this than they have in the past when it comes to vice presidential debates?

LAMONT: I think so. You know, JD Vance is -- you know where he is on ideology. I've gotten to know Tim Walz very well. We were elected at the same time. He is just a genuine human being. All the democratic governors think the world of him. I think most

Republicans do as well. So it will be a real contrast in styles I think in that debate. I will be watching.

SIDNER: I will, too. Governor Ned Lamont, thank you so much for coming in early this morning for us -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Tropical Storm Helene is expected to become a hurricane today, putting a huge part of Florida now in danger.

And evacuation orders are still in place in Ohio after a railcar leaking a dangerous and toxic chemical started venting and the efforts contain it all, still ongoing.

And after weeks of being targeted and accused in false conspiracy theories, one Haitian non-profit group is now saying that Donald Trump and his running mate should face criminal charges. We will be back.

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[08:23:36]

BERMAN: All right, happening now, evacuations underway across Florida's Gulf Coast as residents brace for a major hurricane.

Tropical Storm Helene is gaining strength and is expected to make landfall tomorrow night.

CNN meteorologist, Allison Chinchar tracking the path.

First though, I want to go to CNN's Patrick Oppmann in Havana in Cuba.

You're going to get it first, Patrick. What are you seeing?

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so what we've seen since last night, these outer bands coming through bringing rain. Although people are still going to work, you see more umbrellas than you usually do, but people are trying to go about their business.

Throughout the day though, as the storm continues to go north between Cuba's western coast and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, we will continue to see weather conditions get worse and worse. It is going to bring a lot of rain, possibly a storm surge on the western side of Cuba.

And John, you know, from your trips here over the years, it doesn't take a direct hit in a city like Havana, which has so much aging infrastructure, which is of course right on the coast to cause problems and to cause buildings to collapse, to clause flooding, so that is really what we expect to see here over the next 24 hours.

No word of any major evacuations, any injuries, any damage so far, but of course, you just have to continue to keep an eye out on a storm like this, that as it gets into the Gulf of Mexico, it is going to further strengthen and that is of course the concern for people in Florida.

[08:25:02]

It may remain a tropical storm here, it may turn into a Category One hurricane, but it will get stronger and stronger as it gets closer to the West Coast of Florida.

And you know from the storms that we've covered over the past, all the storms we've covered, experts say you cannot wait for weather conditions to deteriorate, you have to make a plan now.

So certainly, people who don't have to be out here in Cuba shouldn't be out and throughout the day, we expect to see the winds pick up, more and more rain come and that will cause problems here.

So, certainly people who don't need to be out are being told to stay home.

BERMAN: Yes. The time to prepare is now.

Patrick Oppmann, stay safe, stay dry if you can. Thanks for being with us.

Let's get to Allison Chinchar to get a sense of the exact path and how big this storm will be when it hits Florida.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. The size really is important with this storm, which is why it is going to impact so many people.

Now the strength, yes, we've already seen it rapidly intensify. Those sustained winds up to 70 miles per hour, it is expected to become a hurricane at some point today and that could be rather soon. We are only five miles per hour away from that.

The storm right now, just to the east of Cancun, Mexico. It is expected to go back out over open water where it will intensify.

We have not one, but two separate hurricane hunter flights currently investigating the storm, that will send back a tremendous amount of data for us to understand even more so what this storm is expected to do when it gets over those warm waters off the Gulf of Mexico.

We expect it to get to a hurricane today, a major hurricane at some point on Thursday before it makes landfall late Thursday and then continuing to move inland.

But it is a very fast-moving storm and that is going to allow a lot of these impacts to be able to stretch inland. Now, along the coast, you've got a lot of storm surge that is going to be a concern pretty much up and down the entire western coast of the Florida Peninsula here.

The worst is going to be along the Big Bend where you've got ten to 15 feet of storm surge. Those winds, we talked about the storm being very quick. At the time it makes landfall, it could be moving at say, speeds of around 25 miles per hour. It doesn't sound like much to folks who drive cars, but for hurricanes, that is very, very fast. That means it can move really far inland before you start to see the

storm weakening. That means areas of inland Georgia could end up seeing a high-end tropical storm force winds, or even low-end Category One hurricane. We are talking Atlanta, a very city that is nowhere near the ocean whatsoever, could end up having those wind gusts up around that 70 to 80-mile per hour range.

Rain is also going to be a big factor with this because that will also spread inland. You've got a lot of these areas in the Southern Appalachians where you're talking widespread rainfall accumulations of four to six inches, some of them could pick up eight, ten, even as much as foot of rain just over the next several days.

So you have that potential there for some excessive flooding and rainfall. You can see the area here for today is really going to be focused across much of Central Georgia up through Western North Carolina. That does include cities like Atlanta and Asheville.

And then Thursday, you also see it, but now seeing that upgrade to a high risk. That's a level four out of four, the highest possible category you can get in terms of flood risk. That is going to be for portions of Northeastern Georgia and Western North Carolina.

BERMAN: Yes, I am looking at the path of this storm, a lot of trees, a lot of big trees in Northern Florida and Southern Georgia right in the middle of a storm that will be moving very quickly.

Allison Chinchar, thanks so much. Keep us posted. This is a forecast people need to watch closely along the coast there -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, right now, schools in Cleve, a town near Cincinnati, Ohio are canceling classes as mandatory evacuations are in place now following a dangerous railcar chemical leak.

Styrene, which is toxic and flammable -- ugh, you see it there -- started venting out of the train car, Tuesday. Officials say there is no explosion risk, but this was a toxic chemical.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is joining us now.

What is going on at this hour?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, I mean that video is so alarming. The valve has been turned off, but still the repercussions, we are still waiting to find out exactly how many people are affected, how long they're going to be affected for.

There are a lot of questions that are officials are even trying to get answers to and we are waiting to get those updates this morning.

What we understand is that air quality testing was done yesterday. Those results are expected sometime this morning, so we are looking to get those updates.

We also know that there were federal officials that went to that area. And of course, those local emergency management officials who are going to provide us some updates as well.

But let's tell you what happened: At about two o'clock yesterday afternoon, the fire department there in that area near Cincinnati, as you said, in Ohio reported that this chemical, which is called styrene, it is used to make plastics and rubber -- it is colorless, it is toxic, highly flammable -- it was leaking out of that train car that was in the rail yard.

Officials removed that train car, they shut off that valve, but again, the repercussions or the effects of it, we don't quite know just yet.

Some of the things that styrene can do to people, well, it can cause serious headaches, it can cause nausea, respiratory issues, and certainly there could be some long-term issues like organ damage, so no joke. Officials taking this obviously very seriously.

Once that was reported yesterday, there was about a half a mile radius around that area of homes, of schools, as you mentioned, that were evacuated.

I just looked at the schools in that area. There are three schools that are not going to be open today, but they did say at about one o'clock today, they are going to decide if they can do after-school activities.

So you can see that that whole area sort of in waiting pattern, trying to get an update about the air quality and about what officials think that, you know, the solution is at this moment. But they did warn this could take quite a bit of people not being able to return to their homes in that area, so we will wait and see -- Sara.

SIDNER: I am sure, investigation also underway there.

Brynn Gingras, thank you so much. Appreciate your reporting this morning -- Kate.

[08:30:56]