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Harris Reaches Out to Black Male Voters; Walz and Vance Prepare For Vice Presidential Debate; Hurricane Recovery Efforts Continue in North Carolina. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 30, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:35]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Postapocalyptic, that's how a Charlotte, North Carolina, city councilman described some areas in the wake of Hurricane Helene, dozens of communities cut off from fresh water and much-needed supplies are dwindling by the minute, rescue teams now racing to get to those stranded residents.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, a final day of prep for what could be the last debate before Election Day. New reporting on how Senator J.D. Vance and Governor Tim Walz are preparing, specifically the last- minute jitters Walz says he is feeling as the Trump team tries to set expectations high for their rival.

And Israel carrying out new raids in Lebanon, as we learn new details about the possibility of a ground offensive. How Hezbollah is responding after the assassination of their leader.

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

KEILAR: Communities across the Southeast are grappling with incomprehensible storm devastation after Helene left a 500-mile-wide path of destruction from Florida to Virginia.

One of the hardest-hit areas, though, is Western North Carolina and some of the scenes there, frankly, they're hard to process. This used to be a lake in the Chimney Rock area. This right here now is just unrecognizable. It's littered with debris and this is what it looks like in Asheville, where Helene washed out roadways, left residents cut off from much-needed supplies there.

And millions are without power and cell service because the service there is crippled.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw this, I broke out in tears.

LUCY TAVERNLAR, NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENT: It's indescribable. I don't know. It just was covered in litter and trees and mud and it's stinky. And it was all the way up the street up here. It just looks like the bottom of a river. JULIAN TORRES HARWOOD, NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENT: It was crazy. The

water came all the way up to the top of our driveway. And usually you might see a little bit of flooding down at the bottom of the street. But it came up, I mean, another 15 feet more than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: At least 115 people have died. That is across six states. Officials are fearing, though, that that number is going to go up because there are many more people who are still missing at this point.

President Biden spoke a short time ago about his administration's response effort.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want them to know we're not leaving until the job is done. I also want you to know I'm committed to traveling to the impacted areas as soon as possible. But I have been told that it would be disruptive if I did it right now. We will not do that at the risk of diverting or delaying any, any of the response assets needed to deal with this crisis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: For more on what's happening on the ground in North Carolina, we're joined now by Moss Brennan. He is an editor for North Carolina's "Watauga Democrat" newspaper and also an EMT for the Watauga County Rescue Squad and for the Deep Gap Volunteer Fire Department.

Moss, thanks for taking the time to join us on the phone.

Can you just tell us what kind of damage that you're seeing there in your community?

MOSS BRENNAN, "WATAUGA DEMOCRAT": It's -- I mean, it's hard to describe, as many people have said.

There are places that just look like bombs have been dropped, complete destruction. And it's all over. It's widespread, which is the real issue. We have small communities, big communities that are just destroyed. And some of these small communities, really, it's going to take years for them to recover, if they ever do.

KEILAR: And Moss, we're seeing the pictures. It is really -- I mean, it's horrible what we're looking at here.

You're a journalist. You're also a first responder. I know that you have done some swift-water rescues. Tell us about that.

BRENNAN: Yes, ma'am.

So I kind of -- on Friday, I prioritized life safety and was working with Watauga Rescue Squad to help out with some of their swift-water efforts, but also keeping my reporter hat on and trying to get information out to the public. Friday, especially, and Saturday, there was barely any signal. It was -- it was really hard for us to get any information out.

But as that got better, we were able to do that. And we're now in kind of a recovery phase, where we're trying to find people that are missing. Crews have been working 24/7. The western part of our county is -- a lot of people are isolated over there, Ashe and Avery counties are devastated as well.

[13:05:09]

And it's just -- we're in the recovery phase now. And it's just going to be hoping we can find people and hoping we find them alive.

KEILAR: And are people able to communicate now with emergency services? Has cell phone connectivity been restored?

BRENNAN: In some places, it has. It is still very limited in different areas. In our western part of the county especially, there is really no service.

In Avery County, which is our neighboring county, they really have no service. Ashe County, again, one of our neighboring counties, they are getting limited service back, so it's still not a lot of people can communicate with emergency services or each other, which is why people are not able to contact loved ones at the moment.

KEILAR: Yes, which is why we don't even have necessarily a full scope of what's going on in those areas, Moss.

And talk to us a little bit about the biggest challenge right now and what people in the area need.

BRENNAN: I mean, the biggest challenge is just getting to these people and kind of figuring out where they are and how to access them.

We have chains all crews up in the area, I have been told by our Watauga County Emergency Management. We have volunteers up here. We have been having volunteers come and kind of start freelancing. And that can be dangerous. So I would just urge everyone to go and check in with one of the local services that are up here.

There's many places that are taking donations, taking supplies, and we have been reporting on that on our Web site, WataugaDemocrat.com. And people will need help. The one thing that I have been told from many people, just don't come to Western North Carolina at the moment. Roads are bad.

The more people there are that are here, the harder it is going to be for emergency services to get to people that they need.

KEILAR: Very, very good advice.

Moss Brennan, thank you so much, and thank you so much for what you're doing as a journalist and as a first responder. We really appreciate you joining us and telling us what's happening there on the ground. BRENNAN: Yes, ma'am, thank you for having me -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: The storm may have passed, but the flood threat remains for some areas hit by Hurricane Helene.

Let's go now live at the CNN Weather Center and meteorologist Chad Myers.

Chad, what's in the forecast for today?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, no more rain for the people here that already have all the damage, but this water has to go somewhere.

It eventually has to get into the Atlantic Ocean. So there are rivers that are going to rise downhill from here in parts of the Western, Northern North Carolina here, but what place in the world can take this type of rainfall and not get absolute devastation?

And I would say that's probably maybe the top of Kauai, because there's just nobody up there and it's the top of a volcano. When you talk about how much rainfall came down over those days, and it was very heavy at times, it happened before the hurricane, and then it happened during the hurricane, and now it's finally ending for the most part.

But 20 to 30 inches of rainfall in these higher elevations, that's just really hard to put your mind around because all of that water had to run downhill, had to wash away homes. I know you see those pictures and it looks like sticks and twigs, but there are bits of homes in there.

There's people's livelihoods in there. This is truly a devastating event here from Asheville out toward Black Mountain and places that, if you're from the South, you go there because they are so beautiful. Well, this is going to take a long time to be beautiful again, I'm afraid, for many people.

So we will have some rainfall across parts of Virginia today, but likely only about one to two inches. So this is not a big event, but what you may have missed over the weekend, now we have three, Isaac, Kirk and Joyce. It's like, wow, you guys really ramp things up in a hurry.

And now we have one that could potentially here be in the Gulf of Mexico, same place that the last one was, likely not growing as much as the last one is. The computer models are not making big circles here. That's what we'd be looking for right now, those tight eyes. Just don't see it yet, not that it's impossible. The water's still very warm.

But if this thing does finally develop, it will be Leslie. We will see -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Chad Myers live from the Weather Center.

Thank you so much, Chad. So, in the next hour, former President Donald Trump will make remarks

as he visits hurricane-ravaged Valdosta, Georgia. He landed there in the last hour to see the damage firsthand and get a briefing, Georgia, of course, a key battleground state in the presidential election.

KEILAR: Yes, Trump's visit is coming after he criticized Vice President Harris for holding campaign events over the weekend, instead of helping impacted communities.

We do note that the former president also continued on with his regularly scheduled campaign rallies.

We have CNN's Kristen Holmes with us now.

[13:10:00]

Kristen, what is Trump's goal with this trip today?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, they had been telling me that they were going to try to travel every single day from now until the election, or as many days as they could, with a lot of these stops in battleground states.

And there was a plan to go to Georgia today before the storm hit, before the devastation. They were talking about a rally. They were talking about a messaging event. Obviously, everything changed once that storm took place.

Now, in terms of what Donald Trump is going to say, you're going to hear what he already has been saying. He's hitting Kamala Harris. He's hitting Joe Biden, saying, why aren't they on the ground, trying to seize this as an opportunity to show himself as the former president who is caring for these people on the ground.

But, I mean, obviously, it's a lot different than having a sitting president or a sitting vice president on the ground. There's nothing he can really do in terms of promising aid or promising distribution. There's nothing he can really even glean from this to take it to other states or to try to help with the disaster response.

So it's really a show here of him reaching out. Now, the other thing that's kind of interesting is, he's now trying to blame the administration for only helping certain areas of North Carolina, in particular, essentially saying that they're not helping Republicans and his supporters.

This is what he posted on TRUTH Social. He said: "I was also going to stop in North Carolina, which has really been hit hard. I have a lot of supplies ready for them, but access and communication is now restricted. And we want to make sure that local emergency management is able to focus (AUDIO GAP) effective, and not being concerned with

me. I will be there shortly, but I don't like the reports that I'm getting about the federal government and the Democrat governor of the state going out of their way not to help people in Republican areas. MAGA." We have no indication that that is true. We have not heard any of these reports. And just to be clear, one of the things that we heard from President Joe Biden today, and we know this to be true, is that it's very difficult and it does take a lot of resources for a sitting president, or even a sitting vice president to travel to these areas, particularly a place like North Carolina, where they need all of those emergency resources.

And it's been a point of contention in past presidencies as well. Do you go right away? When do you go? You do not want to be responsible for taking away resources that could potentially help people who are suffering, or even with this recovery, but also they want you on the ground and you risk being hit politically for not being there.

KEILAR: I mean, we just spoke to someone from Watauga County who said they are having a hard time getting in touch with people there and in the neighboring counties. And the piece of advice he said, was don't come here. So that's certainly something to heed.

Kristen Holmes, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Still ahead, President Biden urging Israel to stop special forces raids in Lebanon, as the U.S. believes that Israel could imminently launch a more limited ground incursion than had been planned. We're going to have new details on what that would look like.

SANCHEZ: Plus, sources telling CNN that Tim Walz is fighting off nerves ahead of his debate with J.D. Vance tomorrow. We're going to explain why in just moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:17:22]

SANCHEZ: The countdown is officially on for the first and likely only vice presidential debate of this election cycle, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance going toe to toe tomorrow in New York, a key moment for both campaigns, and one that Walz apparently is especially nervous about.

CNN's Isaac Dovere has that new CNN reporting.

And, Isaac, you have been speaking with players behind the scenes of his debate prep. And whenever I see stories like this, I wonder, is this expectation-setting by the campaign? How much of this is legit? You just told me before the commercial break, this is actual nerves. He's actually nervous.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: It's fair for you to feel like there's expectation setting going on, but there is genuine nervousness going on here.

Walz is pretty committed to the idea that he does not want Donald Trump back in the White House. He does not want to let Kamala Harris down and make her think that she screwed up her choice. But it's also about going up against J.D. Vance, J.D. Vance, who is better at debates than Walz has been in their past performance.

He went to Yale Law School. Walz has been in Congress, was in Congress for 12 years, has been governor for six years. That's a long time, but he has never been great at the debating part of it. And, in fact, he was at a fund-raiser in New York last week, and one of the people there asked him, how is debate prep going?

And he said -- someone in the room told me that he said, as teachers, we're trained to answer the questions, and we train our students to answer the questions. That's not what this is.

So he's got in his head, how do you get a question answered in under two minutes? What does your face look like when you're not on camera? How do you respond? All these things. It's a lot to do. And, look, you and I, we have never been in a nationally televised debate.

SANCHEZ: Definitely not.

DOVERE: It's a big, crazy thing, and especially in this case, because it does not look like there will be any other debates for him or for Harris and Trump.

This could be the last marquee event of this campaign.

SANCHEZ: That'd be something to pitch, Isaac, a debate between you and I on national TV.

DOVERE: Well, we would really go at it.

SANCHEZ: We mostly agree on everything.

(LAUGHTER)

Isaac Dovere, thank you so much.

DOVERE: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Appreciate it.

So, Brianna, you know what can help shake off some pre-debate jitters. A good laugh.

KEILAR: Yes, no doubt. I know it's how we manage to calm our nerves around here, right?

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: Well, here's "Saturday Night Live" kicking off their 50th season with some of their past alums poking fun at this wild election season.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYA RUDOLPH, ACTRESS: I am so happy to be campaigning in whatever swing state I'm in, which I will just refer to as Wisconsi-Pennsylva- Georgia. Come on out here, Coach Walz.

[13:20:00]

(CHEERING)

JIM GAFFIGAN, ACTOR: Hey, hey, hey.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

GAFFIGAN: What can I say? I got that BDE, big dad energy.

(LAUGHTER)

GAFFIGAN: See what I did there? You get it?

RUDOLPH: I got it. I didn't want it, but I got it.

(LAUGHTER)

RUDOLPH: It's my husband, Doug.

ANDY SAMBERG, ACTOR: I, for one, can't wait to decorate the White House for Christmas.

(LAUGHTER)

SAMBERG: The theme will be Hanukkah.

(LAUGHTER)

RUDOLPH: Viewers from New York and California, please close your ears. I have a gun.

(LAUGHTER)

RUDOLPH: A cool one.

(LAUGHTER)

RUDOLPH: All right, come on back, New York and California.

JAMES AUSTIN JOHNSON, ACTOR: We love my rallies, except when someone does a bing-bong, bing-bing-bing right at me.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHNSON: That happened because of the rhetoric of the radical left. They say that me blaming the Democrats for inciting violence is the pot calling the cattle black.

But, frankly, I didn't know the kettle was black until very recently. I thought the cattle was Indian.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHNSON: But then it decided to turn black.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHNSON: They're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats. They're taking your pets, and they're doing freak-offs. They're doing freak- offs with the dogs. And they're making the geese swatch. It's very sad.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHNSON: It's very sad. They're doing a Diddy.

J.D., come on up.

BOWEN YANG, ACTOR: Thank you, President Trump. Thank

(CHEERING)

YANG: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

YANG: He's gone. He's taken the glass with him. That's fine.

DANA CARVEY, ACTOR: A lot of people forget I'm president, including me.

(LAUGHTER)

CARVEY: But guess what? And, by the way...

(LAUGHTER)

CARVEY: ... I think I did a pretty good job.

RUDOLPH: Thank you, Joe Biden. Thank you for putting country first and for handing over the reins.

CARVEY: I didn't want to.

(LAUGHTER)

CARVEY: They made me. And guess what? And, by the way...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: That's pretty good, right?

SANCHEZ: It's quite funny because it's so close to the truth and slightly uncomfortable at times.

KEILAR: That's right. The mannerisms are very good by all of these comedians, though. They really do nail these politicians. It's great.

SANCHEZ: Yes, especially the Trump impression. It's so spot on, it's eerie.

KEILAR: Yes, it is.

So while Tim Walz is preparing, maybe with some jitters, for his big prime-time debate, Vice President Harris is trying to appeal to black male voters and turning to nontraditional media to do that.

"All the Smoke," a sports and pop culture podcast, just aired its interview with the V.P. Host Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson discussed a wide range of issues, including the repeated attacks on Harris for not having biological children.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I love those children. They are my children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.

HARRIS: And we talk about we have a modern family, especially as I'm now running for president, and these kind of conversations are becoming more prevalent. Like, what does it mean to be a step-parent?

And I grew up with the family that is my family by blood and the family that is my family by love.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, sometimes, that's thicker.

HARRIS: And that's exactly right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN national politics correspondent Eva McKend is here with us.

Eva, how important was this interview?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: So, Brianna, I think that the campaign achieved what they wanted to in this platform.

The entire idea of going on a basketball podcast is to introduce herself to people that may not be tuning into politics that closely. So she talked about being a stepmom, how important that was to her, modeling good, healthy relationships for her children, being a longtime Warriors fan.

She did get into policy a bit, talking about the economy and her vision for small businesses. And then she also reiterated a long-held position on marijuana policy. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I just feel strongly people should not be going to jail for smoking weed. And we know historically what that has meant and who has gone to jail.

Second, I just think we have come to a point where we have to understand that we need to legalize it and stop criminalizing this behavior. And so -- and, actually, this is not a new position for me. I have felt for a long time we need to legalize it. So that's where I am on that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love it. She said weed, not cannabis. Pay attention, you all.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's old school.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: So, this is unconventional, a bit of a softer conversation, rather than an interview, but think about all the people that they are reaching through this platform. That podcast has more than a million followers on YouTube.

[13:25:00]

KEILAR: And probably more tuning into this specific podcast, I would think.

So she said also that, when she was growing up, her mom was very clear that she was raising two black girls to be two proud black women. Who is she targeting with this message?

MCKEND: So, this was particularly interesting to me, because we don't hear her talk a lot about race on the campaign trail, but she was asked.

And she gave a really fulsome response that, basically, this is nonsense, questioning her racial identity, she doesn't really think too much about it, and that if people really want to have this conversation, they're going to have to grapple with the things like the one-drop rule and the complicated legacy we have in this country when it concerns mixed-race people.

And so she wasn't shying away from this conversation. She went on to evoke the legacy of Shirley Chisholm when she was later asked about the five people she most wanted to be around her dinner table, dead or alive. And the hosts and her had a brief moment where they talked about the significance of her legacy.

So I feel like she felt a lot more comfortable talking about race in that space. But this was also to set the record straight here and to be clear that her racial identity is not up for debate.

KEILAR: Yes, I mean, and speaking to it, you heard on that "SNL" cold open where that was an allusion to Trump talking about her racial identity. And here she is talking about it in this interview.

Eva, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. And still ahead: The Pentagon says it has put an unspecified number

of troops on prepare-to-deploy orders, this as Israeli special forces carry out strikes and raids inside Lebanon. Fear is now growing of an all-out regional war in the Middle East.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)