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Trump Delivers Remarks in Battleground Michigan; IDF Chief Says It Will Continue Striking Hezbollah Targets in Beirut. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 03, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: ... choice of being here with you today or being on some magnificent beach with the waves hitting me in the face. I would take you every single time because we're going to make our country great again. Every single time.

(CHEERING)

CROWD CHANTING: Trump. Trump. Trump.

TRUMP: This is a very energetic crowd, isn't it?

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: And who else can fill up? Only MAGA. But whoever fills big places like this at three o'clock in the afternoon, we're going to be meeting.

(CHEERING)

We're going to think of it. I just left Wisconsin. We -- four days ago, five days ago, we had a sort of a rally wasn't supposed to be -- 60,000 people showed up in Wisconsin.

But the White House wouldn't give us proper security coverage. So we end up in a room of about 900 people. You have 60,000 people, 50 to 60,000 people outside waiting. But they don't want that because they don't want crowds.

What they are doing is such a disgrace to our country. And so to those people in Wisconsin that didn't make it, I think they love us and I think they're going to vote.

By the way, we're up in all of the polls. We're up in every swing state.

(CHEERING)

They had a honeymoon period. You know, they had like a honeymoon. I didn't know what a honeymoon period they kept talking about the honeymoon because I beat Biden. We're up 21 points by their numbers. And they went to him. Crazy Nancy Pelosi, she's crazy as a bedbug. Crazy Nancy. But others, too. They went to him and they said, Joe, you're out. He said, I'm not. I'm not getting out. And they said, No, you're out. We're going to use the 25th Amendment because you're freaking crazy, man. And he eventually agreed to get out, which took about, you know, 24 hours. Remember, he said he would only get out if he was forced to by God.

And that didn't work out. That didn't work. So they said, you're getting out because you're going to lose. You're going to lose by a lot. Right after the debate, they went to him. Right. I don't know. Did I do a good job or a bad job?

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: Crazy. They said you should take it a little bit easy. But all of a sudden, we start hearing rumors, right, that he's getting out. And then we heard they, you know, have the standard list of people, Democrats and Gavin Newsom and lots of people. He destroyed California.

She destroyed California, by the way. She destroyed the greatest city in our country 20 years ago, San Francisco. And then she became AG. She -- she destroyed the state of California, along with Newsom. But she had every bit -- did you ever hear of him? Gavin Newsom. He's a terrible governor, done a lousy job.

And you have such advantages. You know, you do have great weather. You have the beautiful ocean. You have everything. But you still need somebody that knows what they're doing. And she destroyed.

Think of it. She destroyed San Francisco when she was the D.A. The crime started to be rampant. It was the best city, the best. And then she destroyed California. And now she wants to destroy the United States of America. We're not going to let her.

CROWD: Boo.

TRUMP: So you have to tell Lion Kamala that we've had enough Kamala. We can't take you anymore. We're not going to stand for it anymore. Kamala, you're fired. Get out. You're fired.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We've been listening to former President Donald Trump on the stage in Saginaw, Michigan. The former president there essentially attacking his Democratic rival, saying a number of falsehoods that we will fact check, starting with his description of Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio. He was off on those numbers.

There are roughly 15 to 20,000 Haitian migrants that have temporary protective status that moved into Springfield, a population of roughly 60,000. The president there changing the numbers, dramatically altering them nearly to double those numbers. He previously had vowed that if he's elected, he would revoke their temporary status and deport them back to Haiti.

Trump also appeared to lend his support to Israel, destroying Iran's nuclear facilities. This is in light of Iran's attack on Israel earlier in the week, the use of ballistic missiles to go after Israel.

President Biden was asked whether Israel should target Iranian nuclear facilities in response.

[15:35:00]

And Trump there mocked Biden for saying that, essentially arguing that that should still be on the table.

The former president also made false remarks about his stance and previous statements on Social Security and Medicare, as well as arguing falsely that the White House has restricted his ability to hold rallies in larger venues.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes, that's right. He said that the White House did not give proper security to coverage for him, which is not true. But we know that he is certainly sensitive to crowd numbers and any appearance that they may have shrunk, certainly because of security considerations, which let's be clear, he does have security considerations. We know that. But certainly it's not something he wants to deal with.

He also talked, of course, about the 2020 election. He said that the vote needs to be too big to rig because he won in 2020, which he didn't. But he said 2020 was rigged, which it wasn't. And he said if he thought he'd lost, he wouldn't be doing it again.

Well, we know that he has admitted that he has lost. One of the issues, though, is that when he recently said something about it, that he lost by a whisker, it was met with a lot of rejection by some of his followers on the right. This is something that really energizes them.

And they did not want that to be something that he would at all move away from. So he's making it very clear to them that he's kind of going back to where he was on this.

SANCHEZ: We have Jeff Zeleny tracking all of this with us. There was a focus there on Social Security and Medicare. And Trump made the case that Kamala Harris would gut Social Security and Medicare, partly through immigration policy.

But Trump in the past, as recently as March in a CNBC interview, talked about making changes, entitlement reform, potentially cutting entitlements. Now he's saying he would protect Social Security and Medicare, a lot of promises being made by the former president.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: A lot of promises. And there's no specific evidence or this has not been part of the vice president's plan to change Social Security. Her view has been similar with President Biden's to protect Social Security, much to the consternation from both sides of the reality of entitlement spending here.

And there's really not been a conversation by any presidential candidate really in years about the wisdom of, you know, or the longevity of these programs. That said, what he was saying there a month before the election is not true.

The crowd size is so interesting. There is no doubt Donald Trump can draw very large crowds. He seems to be sensitive to some of the sizes of these crowds when they're not in giant stadiums. But the reality is he's campaigning so often in so many states in the middle of the day.

Supporters, A, have jobs and things to do. And B, there are some constraints in terms of what local law enforcement and federal law enforcement can do at these big rallies. So he's having somewhat smaller rallies, but they're still, you know, certainly respectable in size.

I was at one in Erie in Pennsylvania on Sunday afternoon, one of the smaller Trump rallies I've been to, but certainly a couple thousand people there. So I think the crowd size is something that is still one of the nagging things to him. But look, we can stipulate to the fact that he can draw a crowd.

KEILAR: He had a hard time with numbers going both ways today, as Boris mentioned on the Springfield issue. I mean, as you outlined it, it's not a good situation in terms of the point he's trying to make. He's trying to say there's been a big influx of immigrants, and he's speaking to his audience and saying, you wouldn't like that, would you?

His audience wholeheartedly agrees with him. The numbers are bad enough from his perspective, right? Why lie? Why boost the number of immigrants and reduce the population to make the ratio look so out of whack?

ZELENY: Don't add logic into this conversation.

KEILAR: I'm so sorry, Jeff.

ZELENY: That would be one of the things. Look, I mean, immigration is something that is the red meat for any crowd that he speaks to. So the accuracy of the numbers is never a central issue here at all.

Interestingly, though, Saginaw, Michigan is one of the counties that is the reason he's there. It is in the middle of Michigan, but it is known to be a good bellwether. The last four presidential elections, it has voted with the winner.

He won it in 2016. He lost it in 2020. My question here is, and talking to Michigan officials on both sides with you, is he doing anything to expand his base or expand his group of supporters? With rhetoric like that, I'm not sure that he is. But that is why he's in Saginaw today.

But it's not all that far from Springfield. I mean, it's a state over and down, but you know, similar vibes and things. So we still there are Republican business owners in Springfield who need this labor. That is what is not being discussed at all on the campaign trail.

[15:40:00]

SANCHEZ: Yes, the positive economic impact that these folks have had has been pointed out by the Republican governor.

ZELENY: Governor DeWine has been preaching this and singing this from the rafters. No one's listening.

SANCHEZ: We are listening to that phone call somebody's getting in the studio. Well, it's not my ringtone. I thought it was for a second. I was going to say, Jeff, go ahead and take the call. Jeff Zeleny, thanks so much for joining us.

ZELENY: You bet.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, Israel is ramping up airstrikes on Lebanon while vowing retaliation for Iran's missile barrage earlier this week. The potential retaliatory attack that President Biden confirms is currently being discussed when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:14]

KEILAR: As Israel prepares to retaliate against Iran for Tuesday's wave of missile attacks and fears grow of a wider war in the region, the head of the IDF says it will continue striking Hezbollah targets in Beirut. This is coming after the Israeli military struck around 200 targets in Lebanon in a barrage of airstrikes overnight. The IDF says it killed several Hezbollah commanders in a strike on a military structure in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese health ministry says the strikes in central Beirut killed at least nine people.

Israel's military is also reporting that around 100 projectiles have been launched from Lebanon into Israel in the past several hours. And all of this as Israel is now warning villagers in southern Lebanon to evacuate. Many more towns now. A major signal that its ground incursion is expanding.

Joining us now to discuss all of this is Beth Sanner. She's the former deputy director of national intelligence. Beth, first, let's talk about what a timeline and options for Israel's response against Iran could look like. This idea of nuclear facilities, oil facilities, and when this might happen.

BETH SANNER, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Right. Well, Israel's in the middle of Rosh Hashanah right now, which ends tomorrow. And I think that that provides a little bit of a reasoning to delay.

But basically, when you're trying to figure out all the different options you have and how those will be executed and coordinated, and then preparing for retaliation, that takes a little while. And so, you know, I think that we're looking at, you know, maybe later tomorrow, maybe this weekend for something to happen.

You know, there are a lot of targets on the list. But I would say, you know, very clearly, the United States has said, don't strike the nuclear facilities because that could really lead to the most dramatic kind of escalation, retaliation that against -- by Iran. So I think we have definitely missile sites and launchers and air defense. And now this question about whether Iran's oil industry is on the table.

KEILAR: And if the oil industry is targeted and you see the resultant spike in prices, I mean, what is that going to look like? How much influence does the U.S. have over Israel in that matter?

SANNER: Well, I mean, I think there's some indications that the United States is not going to try to lay down the gauntlet with Israel on this. You know, there's kind of a limited amount of negotiating room, advising room that any administration would have with Israel at this point. And that's where we are with the Biden administration.

So, you know, they can't pick the targets for Israel. That's just not going to work for Israel. In the terms of price increases, just taking Iran off the market, most of that oil goes to China, but it's a global market, right?

So even though the United States has a lot of oil and we as the United States has produced more oil in the last year than any country on Earth ever, it's still a global market. And Iran is only about 2 percent of that market.

So I don't think the question really is about a huge price spike if Iran is taking off the market. It is what Iran does in response that might take other oil off the market. For example, if they cut off tankers through the Straits of Hormuz or they directly strike against Saudi Arabia's oil industry, for example.

KEILAR: Now, Israel has ordered many more evacuations. So you have now dozens and dozens of towns in Lebanon where they are telling people that they need to get out if they want to remain safe. What are you looking at that as when it comes to this ground incursion?

SANNER: Well, you know, I do think that this is going to continue to become more complicated for Israel. So, you know, if past is precedent and it isn't always, but if it is, it shows that these kind of limited aims that Israel sets when they have invaded Lebanon in the past, those aims quickly become much bigger as a result of kind of just necessity. If you shoot back at an Israeli force and you're ahead, then Israel is going to move ahead, right? So it keeps expanding.

So we have two things going on in Lebanon right now, right? We have the bombing of Beirut and other places.

[15:50:00]

And then we have this northern -- this ground incursion from the north of Israel into the south. Both of those things are at a point now of expansion. And this ground incursion from the north of Israel into the south, both of those things are at a point now of expansion.

And that is a particular -- you know, a potential quagmire. And it's also a potential against, you know, really, how do Lebanese people think outside of Hezbollah? How do they think about the future? And that's -- those are two really big danger points.

KEILAR: Beth Sanner, always great to get your perspective. Thank you so much for being with us.

SANNER: Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: Coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, if it's hard to find toilet paper or water at your grocery store, there is a reason, but it is not necessarily the port strike. We'll talk about some of this panic buying next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:55:10]

SANCHEZ: It's now day three of a major strike at U.S. ports on the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. Union dockworkers say they're not going back to work without a serious raise and some protections against automation -- robots taking their jobs. At some stores, the strike is triggering a run on toilet paper that's giving people nightmarish reminders of the pandemic.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich joins us now live. Vanessa, you say that those shelves, those empty shelves, are not a direct result of the port strike.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: They are not. This is not a shortage. This is pure panic buying. This is people freaking out that there's a port strike and they're going to run out of toilet paper or bottled water or formula. But just because there is a port strike doesn't mean we're going to run out of everything. For example, let's take toilet paper.

Ninety percent is produced here in the United States. The other 10 percent is produced in Canada and in Mexico. And that is all coming in by truck and rail, not ships.

Also not impacted, oil and gas, as well as hurricane relief. The hurricane relief for Hurricane Helene victims is already here in the United States. Again, that travels by rail and that travels by truck, not by ship.

But what we could see some shortages and some impacts down the line, if this strike goes past a week, is imperishable goods. So these are fruits and vegetables. Let's take bananas, for example.

We import 100 percent of all the bananas we consume here. And ultimately, there are other goods that are going to be impacted down the line. Chocolate, alcohol, furniture.

So it's important to know that as this strike drags on, we could start to see some shortages in these particular goods. But the goal here, Boris, at the end of the day, is for the two sides to come to a deal, come to an agreement before we, the consumers, start feeling any of this -- Boris. SANCHEZ: And start running out of alcohol, right? Sheesh. Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much. Appreciate you. Stay with CNN we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Finally today, McDonald's is launching a new twist on the iconic Big Mac. And let's see how we feel about this, shall we? The chicken Big Mac.

[16:00:00]

Instead of hamburgers, it is tempura chicken patties with the usual special sauce. Lettuce, cheese, pickles, no onions -- Interesting -- on a sesame seed bun.

SANCHEZ: You can get the new chicken Mac in the U.S. starting next week when it goes on sale October 10th for a limited time. A lot of fast food on this afternoon that we've talked about. I'd go for throw some bacon on there.

KEILAR: Throw some bacon. There's a reason why bacon isn't offered on there. Because I don't know, Boris.

SANCHEZ: You get a chicken club, you put bacon on it.

KEILAR: I'm just going to stick with my Taco Bell.

SANCHEZ: Let's ask Jake Tapper. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

END