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Former President Barack Obama Targets Black Men in Recent Campaign Event for Democratic Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris; Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Criticizes City of Detroit While Campaigning in Detroit; Elon Musk Featured at Donald Trump Rally in Butler, Pennsylvania; 16 Confirmed Dead, Millions Without Power as Recovery Begins, Disaster Response Teams Begin Immediate Relief Efforts Across Florida. Aired 8-8:30a ET.

Aired October 11, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:08]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Get over it -- the new, surprisingly blunt message from former President Barack Obama to men who are hesitant to get behind Vice President Harris perhaps because of her gender.

Rescue is still underway in Florida as the death toll from hurricane Milton is climbing this morning.

And online pharmacies could kill you -- the new warning from the DEA about counterfeit pills. What to look out for so you don't get scammed or worse.

Sara Sidner is out. Kate Bolduan is not. She is here along with John Berman, and this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: On the campaign trail, you could call it bringing out the big guns, pulling out the stops, calling in the heavy hitters. Whichever you prefer, they all apply when it comes to Barack Obama and Democratic politics. Obama headlining his first campaign event for Kamala Harris and not holding back one bit, it seems, with such little time left in the election, slamming Donald Trump on everything from his tax plan to the recent conspiracy theories that he's been pushing about FEMA to Trump's claim that his -- claim of his economy been so good.

Obama's message also was directed very clearly at men.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I've noticed this, especially with some men who seem to think Trump's behavior of bullying and of putting people down is a sign of strength.

Real strength is about working hard and carrying a heavy load without complaining. Real strength is about taking responsibility for your actions and telling the truth even when its inconvenient.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: Priscilla Alvarez joins us now. Priscilla, good morning.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN REPORTER: Good morning, Kate. You heard it there, former President Barack Obama ripping into Donald Trump while also making the case for Vice President Kamala Harris, drawing the stark contrast on policies but also on character. That was a big focus of his remarks last night there in Pittsburgh.

Now, the former president also kept the focus on Pennsylvania. Of course, his remarks were in Pennsylvania, crucial state for the Harris campaign. And it was also where he sort of targeted his messaging over the course of his remarks. Take a listen to what he said here about Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Donald Trump does not care that a mob might attack his own vice president. Do you think he cares about you?

CROWD: No!

OBAMA: Pennsylvania, we do not need four more years of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, former President Barack Obama also saying in the course of those remarks that he understands that to some degree, people are looking to former President Donald Trump to change the status quo. But he also offered up that there has to be something better and sort of questioning that foreign President Donald Trump could do that, and making the case then that Vice President Kamala Harris is ready to take the job.

But as you pointed out there in the beginning, the big focus of this, too, is men. When you look at the polling, this is where the Harris campaign has been struggling to gain ground, especially with black men. So he also made a campaign stop yesterday where he spoke to that, providing some stern words about making sure that black men are turning out for the vice president and that if they do not, or what their reasonings are, if they're not appear to be based in sexism. So certainly a remarkable moment to see the former president out on the campaign trail, but also offering some stern and sobering words in what is the final stretch of this election cycle.

Now, he is going to make more of these stops. This is the beginning of a blitz. Two battleground states. Meanwhile, the vice president was in Arizona on their side of the country where she was appealing to Latino voters. So taken together, this is an effort to build their coalition knowing that Latino voters, black voters, among many others, are going to be crucial, and they're trying to shore up that support as best they can in this moment, Kate.

BOLDUAN: And priscilla, there's a new profile out about -- of Kamala Harris. What's the headline from it out of "Vogue"? ALVAREZ: Yes. This is, as you mentioned there, sort of a telling of

her own personal story, but also of what has been a very truncated campaign.

[08:05:00]

Now, something that stood out to me when I was reading through this this morning was she was asked what her first phone call would be if she were to take the Oval Office, and she said that outside of family -- let me read this to you here. It says "would be to the team that is working with me on our plan to lower costs for the American people." She goes on to say that she would want to start to get that going and get it going early.

So this is the first time that I can recall the vice president has sort of described what those first phone calls would look like, again, if she were to win in November. We have heard her multiple times on the campaign trail talk about the opportunity economy, as she calls it, and recognizing that costs are still high for families and that she wants to focus on lowering them. So in this interview, she described that would be one of her first phone calls.

Of course, much of the rest of this is sort of part of that get to know U.S. strategy, right? The campaign was trying to get her out there as much as possible, increase exposure as some voters still have questions about who she is. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Priscilla, thank you. Good to see you.

So this morning, Donald Trump is heading to Aurora, Colorado, visiting that city after he has spent weeks targeting that city and saying that it has been overrun by Venezuelan gangs, something the mayor of the town and the governor of the state of Colorado have said is not true. CNN's Kristen Holmes is in Aurora ahead of Donald Trump's visit. Kristen, what's going to happen today?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, let's keep in mind one thing here. Colorado is not a swing state. It is a solidly blue state. He is not here to reach undecided voters. Instead, this is a chance for Donald Trump to amplify his often false rhetoric about migrants, particularly as you noted, the city of Aurora is overrun by Venezuelan gangs.

Now, as you said, local officials have pushed back on this, not just the messaging there, but on his trip here, saying that it is unhelpful, saying that it's not true. Some local officials say maybe actually it will show that Aurora is not overridden by Venezuelan gangs. But this of course, is coming after his trip yesterday already was criticized by local officials because he went after this city of Detroit while he was in Detroit. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We are a developing nation, but we're a developing nation, too. Just take a look Detroit. Detroit is a developing -- Detroit is a developing area, a hell of a lot more than most places in China. The whole country is going to be like, you want to know the true,

it'll be like Detroit, our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she's your president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And Kate, his campaign and Donald Trump himself believe that this fear-based messaging, whether it's about the economy or about immigration, is working for him, that it could help propel him to the White House in November. If you take a look behind me, you can see that there are already hundreds of people lined up for this rally. If you look at recent polling his team might be right. It shows that this race is incredibly close, and this messaging is not actually stopping voters in any way from coming to Donald Trump's rallies, from supporting the former president. And again, this race is going to be determined in the margins. So this is a strategy that him and his team are banking on. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Great point. Great to see you. Thank you so much, Kristen.

John?

BERMAN: All right, with us now is Meridith McGraw, national political correspondent for "Politico". Thanks so much for being with us. A lot of political headlines in the last 20 hours or so. That one that Kristen Holmes just played from Detroit, Donald Trump goes to Detroit, criticizes Detroit, what's the impact of that, do you think?

MEREDITH MCGRAW, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "POLITICO": Well, Trump was there, as Kristen said, making his latest announcement on the economy and his tax plans, saying that he was going to get rid of taxes on car loans. And we've heard him roll out a bunch of tax cuts over the past few months.

But Detroit is going to be incredibly important for whoever wins Michigan. And one of my colleagues at "Politico" has reported that the Harris campaign has seen some issues with black voters, especially black men in the Detroit area. And so Trump going to Detroit is, of course, to gin up support in that area.

But his comments about Detroit and admonishing the city has already made headlines locally, and certainly doesn't help, and just give some political fuel to people like Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who said that voters aren't going to forget those comments come November.

BERMAN: And we're going to hear from Gretchen Whitmer very shortly right here this morning. And some people look at this and say, Trump is speaking to a largely white audience and criticizing a largely black city just won't sit well with people there.

I will say you brought up black men in Detroit. Black men clearly the focus for Barack Obama at his event yesterday in Pittsburgh, and then his stop by a Pittsburgh campaign office there. You really felt like it was it was sort of laser-focus. He went in with a purpose. Why?

[08:10:07] MCGRAW: Well, look, we're going to see historic gender divides in this election. We've seen that play out in a lot of the recent polling. And for Harris, it's going to be incredibly important that she keeps high margins with Latino and black voters, in particular Latino and black men. And we've seen the Donald Trump has made inroads with both of those constituencies.

And Barack Obama, who remains one of the most popular people in the Democratic Party, had some harsh words for black men, saying, as Priscilla mentioned, that there could be some sexist undertones to why they're not rallying around Kamala Harris. But we've also seen how Trump is really trying to get out the, quote-unquote, "bro vote" with appearances on podcasts that are popular with young men, that are popular with the very people that it would make a big difference and who remain undecided in this election.

BERMAN: So "The New York Times" has an interesting sort of profile of Elon Musk and his role in this election. You mentioned the bro vote. It seems like Trump may have no bigger bro right now than Elon Musk. It has this paragraph, it says, "These days in private conversations, Mr. Musk is obsessive, almost manic about the stakes of the election and the need for Trump to win. One person who spoke recently to Mr. Musk recalled him saying without any hint of irony, I love Trump."

And if you watched the event over the weekend in Butler, I mean, he seems like smitten. I'm not sure I can think of any other word.

MCGRAW: No, you're completely right. And you don't have to spend much time on X, the platform that Elon Musk owns, to see his affinity for Donald Trump. He's been pushing out pro Trump messages. And as you said, he appeared at Butler, spoke at butler. And he is going all in on Trump.

And there is an incredible cultural value to this kind of political alliance. You think about X, the platform, the millions of people that Elon Musk reaches. And like I said, just the cultural impact that Elon Musk has, but also the financial. Elon Musk is pouring millions of dollars into this race. He has his own super PAC. And the Trump campaign has really been leaning on outside super PACs to do things like get out the vote efforts in states like Pennsylvania, where Musk has a personal connection and has really been using that state as an H.Q. So for the Trump campaign there's an enormous gain, and that's all in dollar signs that's being put -- that Elon Musk is using with his super PAC.

BERMAN: I mean, those are some pictures from Butler, bear midriff and all, hundreds of millions of dollars and a huge social media platform to push for his candidate. Meredith McGraw, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much.

Kate?

BOLDUAN: Hurricane Milton's death toll growing overnight. And what is behind the struggle right now, to get the power back on for millions. And back-to-back major hurricanes hitting also right around voter registration deadlines. Why a judge has decided to not extend registration deadlines in two of the states hit hard by the storms.

And are you ready -- speaking of Elon Musk -- are you ready for the robo-van, or the cyber cab?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:18:15]

BERMAN: Happening now, millions of Floridians are picking up the pieces after Hurricane Milton. Overnight, the death toll climbed to 16 and new this morning, the Red Cross is stepping in to help reunite missing people with loved ones.

Let's get right to CNN's Isabel Rosales, who has been right in the middle of it all, standing by this flooded out area. What's the latest you're seeing this morning?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, good morning.

So I did just receive a text from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office saying that they have an emergency going on in the Riverview area. So that's Southern Hillsborough County, we are in the northern part of Hillsborough County. They're telling me that the Alafia River is cresting. So this would make sense from all of the rainfall that we saw, the torrential rainfall from Milton.

They are saying that there is about four feet of water in people's homes right now, so they're working actively to get folks out as we speak.

Of course, we were out here all day yesterday with HCSO and Fire and Rescue as they zeroed in on an assisted living facility. Water rushing in overnight, these are people on medication, on oxygen, people who can't walk, and they were forced to stay in waist deep cold flash waters for hours until it was safe enough for deputies to get out to them and bring them to safety.

And then there was that visceral scene of HCSO deputies on boats and they spotted a 14-year-old for old child in the water floating. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHAD CHRONISTER, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA SHERIFF: Well, he was frantically waving his arms. We went over. I mean, it literally was like a scene out of the "Castaway" movie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, let me spin around for you. Stay right there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:20:02]

ROSALES: And HCSO told me that that child was at a friend's house. They didn't expect anything like this because this isn't an evacuation zone. They had no evacuation orders here and that he was trying to make it back home and that's when he got caught up in those floodwaters.

But just take look at this. I mean, Milton rolled through Wednesday overnight into Thursday morning. We are on Friday, and still this is the situation where you have cars flooded all the way to the top in some portions.

John, this is going to take a long time for this community to recover from this and certainly they will have to wait until these waters recede.

Further over there are big neighborhoods.

BERMAN: Yes, and even as some problems get better, you know, in the other part of the county some getting worse this morning as you reported right at the top there.

Isabel Rosales, thank you very much for that -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So as Isabel just mentioned, more than two- and-a-half million customers are without power right now throughout the state of Florida. So let's get an update on efforts to restore it.

Joining us right now is Melissa Seixas. She is Duke Energy's state president in Florida.

Thank you so much for coming on, Melissa.

How many of your customers are without power as of this moment? And where are the outages most concentrated still?

MELISSA SEIXAS, STATE PRESIDENT IN FLORIDA, DUKE ENERGY: As of 6:00 AM this morning, across the 35 counties that we serve here in Florida, we had 845,000 customers without service.

The hardest hit county is Pinellas County, which is situated between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, and as of 6:00 AM, we had about 397,000 of those customers off here in Pinellas County.

BOLDUAN: Do you have a clear idea when it is all going to be back online and power hopefully restored?

SEIXAS: So, we began our damage assessment process early yesterday morning as soon as the sun came up. We were able to get boots on the ground, drones in the air, in addition to helicopters to do surveying. At the same time, we began restoration of critical facilities such as hospitals, 911 centers, bus stations, water treatment plants, those kinds of things.

So we have been able to restore in Pinellas County, for example, about 56,000 customers. And today, a full day of restoration is already underway, and so combined with our damage assessment from yesterday, the work that we are doing today.

We will issue later today an estimated time of restoration for our customers to give them an idea of when power will be restored. And then as we go through the days, we will fine-tune that, kind of localize it more and more.

But today's global ETR will provide customers kind of a high-level long-term outlook. And it is not weeks, days, but a lot of customers will come on before even that estimated time of restoration.

We kind of want to give them an accurate timeframe because there is a lot of damage out there. Wind -- the atrocious wind from this storm brought down a lot of wire polls. We have had flooding in some areas of Central Florida, which we also serve, so a lot of diverse disruption and damage throughout our service territory.

BOLDUAN: Yes and everyone can understand it is going to be different depending on the community in terms of timing of outages and restoration and different because maybe -- maybe some of the infrastructure gets put back up faster because crews are able to work faster because roads are cleared faster.

I mean, all of it can be -- can move around, but the estimate, not weeks, which will be very comforting for people, in terms of days. I mean, by, you know, the end of next week, does that -- should people be optimistic that they will have that or even before that?

SEIXAS: They should be optimistic, yes. We will issue that global estimated time of restoration sometime, I think of late afternoon, early evening today.

BOLDUAN: What's the biggest challenge that your teams on the ground are facing right now in terms of restoration?

SEIXAS: So, for this particular event, Milton, it is kind of a combination of what the winds did to infrastructure because when trees are taken down, they typically can end up bringing down other types of electric infrastructure around them, so poles, wires.

That's why we team up line personnel with vegetation management crews so that they can work together and in parallel to expedite the restoration process.

[08:25:03]

And sometimes it is a rebuild, but they can do that in a safe manner to ensure that the debris is cleared, wires are cleared and that is also really important for our customers and the public. We are encouraging them to stay away from debris where there could potentially be any type of overhead wire. We always want them to assume that those wires are energized. They don't necessarily spark, they don't necessarily hiss, but they are a silent, deadly killer for somebody who is not trained to handle them.

BOLDUAN: That is important advice as people are going to be trying to -- try to just pick up pieces around their home and pick up their lives and definitely, some circumstances.

Melissa Seixas Of Duke Energy Florida, thank you very much.

So federal officials declining now to extend voter registration deadlines in Georgia and Florida, even as these are two states that are clearly facing a double whammy of hurricane damage in the case of Florida and Georgia still recovering from Helene.

And a powerful geomagnetic storm that created a stunning display of Northern Lights in the United States, even into the Deep South. How it could also impact hurricane recovery efforts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:00]