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Hurricane Helene Targets Florida; Trump Campaigns in North Carolina. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 25, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:57]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: On the trail in North Carolina, Donald Trump campaigning there, a key state on his path to 270 electoral votes, as new polling shows, Vice President Harris with a commanding lead among younger voters, but one that falls short of President Biden's 2020 performance.

And boarding up and buckling down, Florida bracing for Helene as the hurricane soon to be creeping closer bringing fierce winds, now a hurricane, I should say, it just switched, and bringing storm surge as well, as forecasters worry it could intensify quickly. We have a new update just one hour away.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: And a new suicide pod reignites the debate over assisted suicide after woman takes her own life in the woods in Switzerland. Now four people are in custody.

We are following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: Hello. I'm Brianna Keilar, alongside Jim Acosta, who's in.

ACOSTA: Hello.

KEILAR: Great to have you. You're in for Boris Sanchez. Thanks for being here with us.

ACOSTA: I am. You bet, of course.

KEILAR: And, at any moment, former President Donald Trump is expected to speak at a campaign stop in the critical battleground state of North Carolina a day after he outlined more of his economic plan in Georgia, including boosting U.S. manufacturing, stopping companies from leaving the U.S. and his plan to -- quote -- "take other countries' jobs."

ACOSTA: Right now, Vice President Kamala Harris is on her way to another key swing state, Pennsylvania, where we're expecting a wide- ranging economic speech from her in Pittsburgh.

And CNN's Alayna Treene is in Mint Hill, North Carolina.

Alayna, you have new details about what former President Trump is expected to say. ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right.

We actually just got some of his prepared remarks. Obviously, he is going to be taking the podium up behind me shortly. But I want to point out what he says, because there's actually some newsy bits in this speech. He talks about referencing the U.N. General Assembly in New York this week, talks about the leader of Iran being in the U.S. right now following the reports and what DOJ had said was a potential assassination attempt by Iran on him.

I'm going to read for you what exactly he is supposed to say. Of course, Donald Trump doesn't always stick to the script, but this is what they have in their prepared remarks.

It says -- quote -- "Meanwhile, we have the president of Iran and our country this week. We have large security forces guarding him. And yet they're threatening our former president and the leading candidate to become the next president, certainly a strange set of circumstances."

The speech goes on to argue that -- Donald Trump saying that: "If I were president and a former president, leading candidate to be the next president, was under threat, I would inform the threatening country, in this case, Iran, that if they do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens."

So, clearly, very harsh rhetoric there toward Iran. The speech also goes into detail about some of his assassination attempts, but he's really putting pressure on Iran right now, which is in the U.S. for this U.N. General Assembly and trying to argue that, look, if I'm president again, I am going to come after you very hard.

We know that is something that Donald Trump often says, that his campaign often says. They actually just put out a recent statement arguing that they believe that Donald Trump would be very bad for Iran, that Iran does not want Donald Trump to win.

So that's in line with what I think we're about to hear in just a couple of moments.

KEILAR: And North Carolina became a lot more competitive here in the last week, Alayna, after CNN revealed a series of past disturbing comments that the Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson made on a porn site years ago.

Has that controversy changed Trump's strategy there?

TREENE: I'm not sure if I would say that it has changed the strategy, but it has definitely put his campaign on guard in this state. They recognize they have a small lead here. We saw that earlier this week in "The New York Times"/Siena College polling, but it's still a slim lead.

[13:05:03]

And this is a state that has not voted for a Democrat since 2008. They view North Carolina as essential to Donald Trump winning in the fall. And I apologize. He is taking the podium behind me so it's very loud in here.

But, look, when it comes to Mark Robinson and what I'm hearing from my sources on the Trump campaign, they argue that, look, even though Robinson was not doing so great in his own governor's race, the stakes are very high for Donald Trump. Again, they see the state as crucial.

And there are concerns that potentially the drama around him could drag the ticket down. Now, we are not going to see Robinson here today in North Carolina. Donald Trump was also in the state on Saturday. Robinson was not there either. I am told you will not -- you should not expect to hear any mention of Robinson from Donald Trump today.

But, again, we're all keeping notice of this because we really haven't seen the former president address the reporting, our CNN reporting directly, nor signal that he may withdraw his support of the lieutenant governor -- Brianna, Boris.

KEILAR: All right, Alayna, thank you so much. Of course she meant Jim. She just can't see us.

ACOSTA: She meant...

KEILAR: She doesn't have return there.

ACOSTA: She can't see us. It's all right.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: However -- and I should mention, we saw Trump being introduced there. We are going to be taking some of that here as it gets under way.

Joining us now to discuss is Kate Bedingfield, former Biden White House communications director, and Ashlee Rich Stephenson, former polling director for the Giuliani presidential campaign. She's also the president of AxAdvocacy.

So, Kate, Trump continues to poll better on the economy significantly than Harris. And I think something that is also very interesting that you see in our new CNN poll is that, even among those who say that Trump's views and policies are too extreme, 15 percent say they trust him over Harris to handle the economy.

We see that trend more with him. How does she put a dent in something like that?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, well, this is one of the biggest hills that she has to climb in this race, no question about it.

And I think what she does is a lot of what we have seen her do, which is she talks about the economy in very personal terms, talks about her own growing up. She's communicating to voters that she understands what their lives are like. She also talks about the future. We don't really hear Trump talk a lot about the future. You hear

Harris, and you will, I'm sure, hear her do this again this afternoon,you hear her lay out a really forward-looking plan to bring down costs, particularly around health care, around housing.

She's put concrete policies out there. But she talks about this in a way that I think is accessible and relatable to voters, whereas Donald Trump, somebody who comes from the wealthiest class and whose signature economic accomplishment of his previous term as president was a major tax cut for billionaires and the wealthiest in this country.

So there is a really good contrast there for Kamala Harris to draw. And she has to continue to draw it.

ACOSTA: Yes.

And, Ashlee, I mean, one of the things that we have been hearing from Donald Trump for several days now is, he's been going on about the issue of immigration. He's going to be at this speech, he says, in Aurora, Colorado, in the next couple of weeks. And he keeps repeating this false claim that the city has been taken over by a Venezuelan gang, which local officials there have refuted.

Let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They're now creating criminal havoc throughout the country. Aurora, Colorado.

You saw that where Venezuelan gangs are taking over real estate. They become real estate developers. How nice. They're going to take over a lot more than Aurora. They're going to go through Colorado, take over the whole damn state by the time they finish, unless I become president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Yes, I mean, Ashlee, it's just plain false. He keeps saying this over and over again. What's the point here?

ASHLEE RICH STEPHENSON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Not only does President Trump have a huge advantage on the economy as we just talked about. He's also got an advantage on issues like national security, crime. This is an opportunity for him to go to a place and highlight his advantages on these issues that ultimately can be effective as he needs to turn out voters who care about immigration as a great example in the run-up in the big seven states.

ACOSTA: Even though that -- it's a fantasy, what he's talking about there.

STEPHENSON: Look, he's got to draw contrasts. Voters believe that President Trump is best suited to handle immigration, handle national security, handle crime.

And this is an opportunity to really to hit on all three at a place that he's highlighted over and over again.

KEILAR: She's going to go to the border, as we understand it, this week. What do you think are her opportunities and vulnerabilities in that visit?

STEPHENSON: Huge vulnerability that she hasn't been to the border as the border czar.

And I think that Vice President Harris has done a really good job trying to separate herself from this administration. But she also has a real risk now of reminding voters that this was her responsibility and she simply hasn't been there the last four years.

That's where the Trump campaign really needs to come in and remind voters of that. And if they don't, I think it'll be a big mistake.

ACOSTA: Yes, Kate, I mean, what are the challenges for Vice President Harris on immigration?

[13:10:00]

And one of the questions that I have is, should she be weighing in more on what Trump has been saying about Springfield and Aurora?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, I think, first of all, on her record in the White House, I mean, illegal crossings have dropped dramatically since the executive order that President Biden and Vice President Harris put in place this month -- or -- excuse me -- earlier this year.

So she actually has a good story to tell in terms of the effectiveness of some of the tougher line that she and President Biden have taken this year. So I don't think she has to completely abdicate this issue. Obviously, Republicans want to paint her as having not been effective here, but there is substance there that allows her to push back.

I also think she can be more aggressive in calling out Trump's fearmongering. This Haitian immigrant lie that he and J.D. Vance have been telling is a good example. I mean, they're talking about people who are in this country -- in this country -- excuse me -- legally.

They're smearing them. That's more of the kind of divisive, hateful language that voters don't like about Trump. They will -- they do like some of what Trump says about the need to be tougher on immigration. They don't like -- especially moderate voters, swing voters who are going to be determinative in this election, they don't like the hateful language. They don't like the sense of chaos that Trump brings.

So I do think that V.P. Harris has an opportunity here to be aggressive about the fact that Trump scuttled the bipartisan immigration bill that was going to tackle some of these issues. And instead of putting meaningful solutions on the table, he's using this kind of inciteful language, because we see that, again, swing voters reject that.

KEILAR: All right, let's listen in to Trump. He's actually there speaking in Mint Hill, North Carolina. Here he is.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

TRUMP: It's all a big scam. It's all against a political opponent, me, who's doing better in the polls than anybody else and should be hopefully able to recapture the presidency in 41 days and make our country great again.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: But all they focus on is their political opponent. But they must get Apple to open these foreign apps, and they must get Apple to likewise open the six phones from the second lunatic, who's a lunatic, and open them immediately, because we have a lot at stake, whether it's me or any other former president.

They break into apps all the time. They had no problem breaking into the apps of the J6 hostages. They broke into those apps. And they could be Iran-based. They could also be something else, but we will never know until they're opened, and they got to get them opened.

And, really, why is it that the father of the shooter in the Butler instance has one of the best and most expensive lawyers in the entire state of Pennsylvania? How did he get to this expensive lawyer, big, big law firm, the biggest in Pittsburgh?

Where did he get this big law firm from? It's very strange. If I were president and a former president and a leading candidate, I'm the leading candidate by far to be the next president, and that leading candidate was under threat, if I was president and the candidate was under threat, any candidate, Republican or Democrat.

And, by the way, I want to thank the Democrats because they just increased funding for the Secret Service, who work very hard. They increased funding for the Secret Service. And nobody will believe this. It was a unanimous vote. Republicans, every single Republican, every single Democrat present voted in favor. That was the first unanimous vote we have seen in a long time.

And that's to increase the funding of the Secret Service. So I thank everybody in Congress. But if I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens. We're going to blow it to smithereens. You can't do that.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: And there would be no more threats. There would be no more threats.

But, right now, we don't have that leadership or the necessary people, the necessary leaders. We have two people, not one. We don't even know who our president is right now. Who is our president right now? We really don't know, but we have two people, not one, that only keep looking.

And when you do that, when you just look, trouble always ensues. So it's big trouble for our country.

[13:15:04]

Meanwhile, we have the president of Iran in our country this week. We have large security forces guarding him, and yet they're threatening our former president and the leading candidate to become the next president of the United States, certainly a strange set of circumstances.

Around the world, our enemies are desperate to prevent Donald Trump from returning to the White House because they know...

ACOSTA: And that's former President Donald Trump in Mint Hill, North Carolina. He's been commenting on the assassination attempts on his life.

And at one moment, Brianna, I mean, I think we do need to talk about this, he was commenting on some of these threats from Iran that have been identified by intelligence officials in the U.S. government, that Iranian interests may be thinking about going after former President Trump.

And Trump said, if something like that were to occur cities in Iran would be blown to smithereens, I believe were the words he was using there. He did go on to describe the way he characterizes things inside the White House right now, that there are two presidents right now. Obviously, that is not true.

But, obviously, we're going to be talking about these comments that he's making basically issuing a threat to Iran.

KEILAR: And he did thank the Congress for allocating additional funds for the Secret Service, as it looks for a paradigm shift, as we know.

Ashlee, you heard the president there. What did you think about what he said specifically about this threat to Iran?

STEPHENSON: We're living in abnormal times. We're in a moment where there's been not one, but two reported assassination attempts against this president, one that got uncomfortably close.

And the reporting that's come out this week even just this morning about the mistakes and missteps that were made that allowed us to get to this point is incredibly unfortunate. Look, this is happening in real time. We know that President Trump, when he's out giving these speeches, always creates news.

From a political perspective, I think it's probably a chance for him to try to remind Americans of his strength, especially when it comes to adversity and dealing with some of our foreign adversaries. That's the most I can make of it from a political perspective in this moment. ACOSTA: I mean, Kate what do you think of this, I mean, bombastic

rhetoric that Trump is using there, threatening to go to war with Iran?

I mean, we should note the last -- the two assassination attempts that have been in the news obviously since this past summer were involving people that were not backed by the Iranians. We have no information to say that that's the case.

We do have this new information that's coming from intelligence officials that Iran may have some interest in taking a shot at Donald Trump. We don't know exactly how that might come to pass. But, I mean, Kate, that is a pretty incendiary rhetoric right there being tossed out with less than six weeks until the election.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes, I mean, what he's saying there essentially means a hot war in the Middle East that the United States is involved in.

And is that what Donald Trump's saying? He wants U.S. troops involved in a war in Iran? I don't think the American people want U.S. troops involved in a war in Iran. I mean, certainly, what he's saying about potential threats to his life, he is right. He has -- should have every expectation that the United States Secret Service and the U.S. government keep him safe, keep the president safe, keep any nominee for the presidency of a major party safe.

He's absolutely right to have that expectation. Of course he should. But the idea that throwing out this language we're going to bomb Tehran off the face of the earth is responsible or would make the United States more secure, would make Americans more secure I think is ludicrous.

So I agree he's trying to show strength here. Obviously, the political imperative is he's trying to draw this contrast between strength and his assessment of the Biden/Harris administration as weak. But what he is casually tossing out there would mean a war for U.S. men and women in uniform in the United States.

And I don't think that's what the American people want.

ACOSTA: And he's been out on the campaign trail saying that the United States needs to get out of what he considers to be wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East, although the United States is not involved in those wars. They have been lending military support, obviously.

But this would be the opposite of that. Bombing targets in Iran would obviously be the opposite of that.

KEILAR: Yes.

And, ultimately, voters will have their say well, and in not very long.

ACOSTA: They will. They certainly will.

KEILAR: Kate Bedingfield, thank you so much. Ashlee Rich Stephenson, we really appreciate you being in studio with us. Thank you.

And ahead this hour on CNN NEWS CENTRAL: Secretary of State Blinken says the U.S. is fighting to prevent a full-blown war, as Israel ramps up its attacks on Hezbollah. We are following the latest from the region.

Plus, a new report detailing those stunning Secret Service failures that we were just talking about around the first assassination attempt against Trump and officials say the problems have yet to be addressed.

ACOSTA: And we're following mandatory evacuations in Florida, as Hurricane Helene prepares to make landfall, heads up to the Gulf Coast. This is a big storm, very powerful.

[13:20:03]

The latest on the storm's path next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Happening now, Hurricane Helene rapidly intensifying, slamming Cancun, Mexico, with strong winds and heavy rain as it barrels toward the U.S.

The massive storm is expected to make landfall tomorrow on Florida's Gulf Coast as a major hurricane.

KEILAR: And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is urging residents to heed these warnings.

There are mandatory evacuation orders in effect for parts of 15 counties, much of the state right now under a tropical weather alert.

Meteorologist Elisa Raffa is in the CNN Extreme Weather Center.

Elisa, give us the latest here.

[13:25:02]

ELISA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It has already rapidly intensified. It was just named a tropical storm yesterday, and we are expecting it to rapidly intensify again.

Here's a look at Helene, 80 mile-per-hour winds, gusts up to 100 miles per hour, sitting about 500 miles south-southwest of Tampa, Florida. But we have had tropical-storm-force and hurricane-force winds lashing Cancun and even parts of Cuba, Havana, as well, because this storm is really wide and getting even wider.

We have sea surface temperatures that are incredibly warm, up near records, upper 80s in this area, and then even middle 80s as we go into the Gulf of Mexico. That's what's going to fuel this rapid intensification as it gets closer to the Gulf Coast, so it could still be an intensifying stronger storm.

That's why we're worried about a Category 3 landfall, somewhere in that Big Bend of Florida. That red that you see, those are hurricane warnings that are in effect. But look at all that blue, tropical storm warnings in effect for the entire peninsula there of Florida, because the storm, again, will be so wide.

Tropical storm watches extend in the yellow up to Atlanta, because this thing could still keep its organization, still keep its wind field even that far north. With those winds, you're going to get that slosh of the ocean coming inland. That's that storm surge, 10 to 15 feet in that Big Bend of Florida, but even getting five to eight feet of storm surge down towards Tampa Bay.

Again, you can see where we're very concerned about that ocean water coming inland for places like Cedar Key. I mentioned we're finding Helene not only intensifying, but growing wider. The wind field could expand more than 400 miles. So we're looking at tropical-storm-force winds again stretching from South Florida up towards Southern Georgia.

And that's what's going to take that risk for some intense winds and power outages, not just in Florida, but we're talking Alabama, Georgia, even into the Carolinas, winds up to 73 miles per hour possible even as far north as Atlanta as this thing makes landfall going into tomorrow, winds, of course, 110 miles per hour near that landfall center on the Big Bend.

Also looking at a huge footprint of heavy rain, because with this very wide wind field, it's going to suck up a lot of tropical moisture. So some of these rainfall totals could approach foot in parts of the Southern Appalachians, and that could cause some landslides -- guys.

KEILAR: All right, we will be watching for that, obviously very dangerous conditions.

Elisa Raffa, thank you.

Meantime, Secretary of State Tony Blinken says the U.S. is trying to prevent all-out war in the Middle East, as Israel says it's preparing for a possible ground incursion into Lebanon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:30:00]