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Trump Ramps up Rhetoric on Campaign Trail; Harris Questions Trump's Fitness; Michael Tyler is Interviewed about the Harris Campaign; U.S. Sending Troops to Israel; FEMA Forced to Pause Operations. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired October 14, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Mission, which I believe has been ineffective since that time, is supposed to be about helping demilitarize Hezbollah, supporting the Lebanese government and their army against insurgents, reducing arms smuggling across the border, and ensuring the Lebanese government restore its authority and its potential that put down these kind of issues within the country. I don't think it's done any of those things. Peacekeeping forces are tough to monitor. Their - the metrics, they - they're thrown in and, as you said, I think most Americans would be amazed at what countries contribute to these forces. It's normally led by a French general and it has forces from countries like Indonesia, Japan, and they are peacekeepers. They are not people that insert themselves between combatants.

So, Mr. Netanyahu, yesterday, asked for them to be pulled out of southern Lebanon. They haven't yet. I think they might be because they're right in the middle of a crossfire now, but they've been there again since the mid-1970s.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: General Hertling, always an education. Thank you so much for being with us this morning. Appreciate your time.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump leaning harder into the dark rhetoric that he's known for against immigrants, now suggesting using the National Guard against the enemies within. Those are his words.

And Kamala Harris making a very specific pitch to black men voters, that Donald Trump is dangerous for them.

Hezbollah is claiming responsibility for a drone strike that killed four Israeli soldiers and injured dozens more inside Israel. The investigation into how the drone managed to get passed Israeli air defenses.

And never before heard tracks from one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and about to go up for auction. How much would you pay for memorabilia from Jimi Hendrix?

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

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Twenty-two days, that's it, until Election Day. Everyone, with just over three weeks until voters cast their ballots, Donald Trump is turning up the divisive rhetoric to and 11. The former president heads to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania today after a weekend filled with fear mongering, even calling fellow American citizens, quote, the enemy from within.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within.

And we have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics.

It should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard or, if really necessary, by the military.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: CNN's Kristen Holmes is with me now.

Kristen, we're hearing this rhetoric. It's getting darker as time goes on. What are we expecting to hear today in Pennsylvania?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, expected to just get darker and darker. It's not going to stop ramping up. Donald Trump believes that the issue of immigration, particularly his language around it in 2016, helped propel him to the White House. And there is a belief, among him and his team, that it could help him, again, going into November.

One of the things that you need to look out, and talking about this morning, is that new polling. We've been seeing a series of new polls over the last several days that show a tightening in the race. Some even indicating that Donald Trump is chipping away at any lead Kamala Harris might have had. That is something that Donald Trump and his team are acutely aware of. And they believe that this messaging in part helps with that.

Now, today in Pennsylvania, it is a town hall. It is being billed on an event about the economy. And he will answer questions from voters, but generally supporters, about the economy. However, you can expect him to turn at least some of these questions into questions about immigration. He has talked about this at various economic events, trying to say that immigrants or migrants are taking the jobs of working-class people.

And one thing to keep in mind here, we talk about particularly targeting working class people. Donald Trump's team believes that the best way for him to win in November is targeting what they call low propensity voters, people that generally don't show up to vote. Many of them are working class. They do this through the various podcasts he's been doing, through the YouTube streamers that he's been talking two and through this kind of divisive rhetoric. There has been a general belief for the past 12 or so plus years that people who are non-voters in the middle of the country leaned left. They had believed that there has been a shift there, that these non- voters lean right, and so they are trying to read those voters and drive them out to the polls to try and boost Donald Trump's electorate, his voting, his popular vote in November. And they believe this rhetoric is going to help him with that. So, whatever we say, we can continue to call it polarizing, divisive, dangerous, all of which it is. They are seeing a shift that they believe this is working for him as we head into November.

[09:05:01]

SIDNER: All right, Kristen Holmes, thank you so much, live there for us from Washington, D.C.

John.

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, Vice President Harris is calling Donald Trump's mental health into question. This is during a new interview that just happened with Roland Martin. And it's really part of her outreach to black male voters. Also this morning, the Harris campaign has unveiled a new economic plans specifically targeting black male voters.

CNN's Kevin Liptak is here with all the details.

Good morning, Kevin.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, and it's a pretty sweeping economic plan. And taken together with her campaign travel this week, you really do get a sense of how urgently the Harris campaign is trying to shore up support, specifically among black men. And this economic plan, at its core, is designed to help black men build wealth, start businesses, protect their assets. It includes proposing new loans for small businesses and for entrepreneurs creating apprenticeship programs, creating a health program specifically looking at ailments that affect black men. She's also reiterating her support for legalizing recreational marijuana and helping black men get involved in leadership positions in the nationwide cannabis industry.

And it all sort of lends this sense that the Harris campaign is very much focusing on this - on this group that Democrats have been warning could be slipping away during this election. And Harris' own advisers acknowledge that some black men have felt marginalized by the Democratic Party. And this is really her effort to bring them back into the fold. And you see that also reflected in her campaign travel this week. Today she'll be in Erie, Pennsylvania. She'll be visiting a black-owned business. Tomorrow she's in Detroit. She'll be speaking with the radio host Charlemagne tha God. His radio show is very popular among black millennials.

You know, the fear at the Harris campaign is not necessarily that Harris is going to lose among black men. In fact, she is winning by a wide margin in polls. The real fear is that she is underperforming previous Democratic nominees. And in an election that's this close, that could have an effect on the final result. And so you do see this very concerted effort. You know, we saw it starting last week with Barack Obama. We're seeing it continue this week with Vice President Harris really trying to shore up that critical constituency ahead of November's election.

BERMAN: Yes, and she's talking to Roland Martin on his digital daily show. And actually doubling down on this line of attack that we really first heard yesterday, calling Trump weak and unstable.

LIPTAK: Yes, and this is really a concerted effort, really trying to sharpen the contrast, really going after Donald Trump. You know, it started over the weekend when she released a letter from her own physician detailing her own health. It was fairly unremarkable that they say she's fit for office. The real point of it was to try and draw the contrast with trust, who has not released his own health records. And she talked about it yesterday in North Carolina. Listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He is not looking out for folks when he is - when he was a landlord and would not rent to black families, sued for it. When he took out a full-page ad in "The New York Times" against those five teenagers, black and Latino, who were innocent -

ROLAND MARTIN: Saying they should get the death penalty. Yes.

HARRIS: Saying they should be executed, the Central Park Five. When you look at he -- the first black president of the United States and he had birther lines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So, her argument there, and that was with Roland Martin, is that essentially Donald Trump was - has been bad for black Americans, will be bad for black Americans if he's elected president. And you can see her really starting to form the contrast, the closing argument as this race reaches its final stretch.

BERMAN: And notable use of language there.

Kevin Liptak, thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now is the head of communications for the Harris campaign, Michael Tyler.

It's good to see you. Thank you so much for coming back in.

We hear what a lot of people are talking about from outside the campaign in terms of the concerted effort to reach out to black voters and specifically black men voters right now. Do you think that Kamala Harris is struggling with black men voters right now? MICHAEL TYLER, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, HARRIS-WALZ CAMPAIGN: No.

Listen - good morning. Thank you for having me.

I think, at the end of the day, black men are going to be the strongest cohort for Vice President Harris, probably short of black women. But that doesn't mean that we're going to leave any stone unturned as a campaign. I think our programmatic efforts down the stretch here are reflective of that. That's why we're continuing to run paid advertising that targets black men. It's why we have programming on the ground, whether it be our black men huddle up series that has conversations during halftime of NFL football games about the vice president's vision, the stakes of this election, whether it's our Souls to the Polls initiative to make sure that after morning service people can go exercise their constitutional right to vote. We're not going to leave anything unturned.

And we're also going to make sure that black voters understand the fundamental stakes of this election. On one side you have, as the vice president was saying with Roland Martin, somebody who has repeatedly throughout his life disrespected and denigrated black men to benefit himself in Donald Trump.

[09:10:06]

And on the other side you have the vice president, who was actually talking about what black men can achieve under her presidency. We think that that is an important distinction and one that we're going to talk about over the remaining three weeks of this campaign.

BOLDUAN: But, Michael, this weekend, speaking to Dana Bash, Jim Clyburn said he was concerned about black men not showing up, not turning out to vote. Are you concerned about that? That's what I'm trying to get at. If you guys aren't concerned, what is this effort about?

TYLER: Yes, well, this effort is about making sure that black men understand that there is actually a candidate in this race who sees them, who understands them, and who is not simply focused on the challenges and the obstacles that black men face in this country, but is actually focused on what we can achieve, right? Somebody who understands that black men want to strive to open up and grow small businesses, who wants to take care of their families, who want to build wealth. There's one candidate in this race who's actually talking about that, that's Vice President Harris.

Donald Trump's idea of outreach, when it's not hawking gold sneakers or t-shirts with photos of his own mug shot on them, is all about division. It's all about hatred. It's all about chaos. Again, we think that is a stark difference and one that we want to talk about. And again, we're not going to leave any stone untouched when it comes to our efforts to make sure that every single black man in this country who is eligible, is capable of voting in this election. Down the stretch here we're going to use every single tool to do that.

BOLDUAN: Does the campaign agree with what former President Obama suggested, that black men may be reluctant to vote for Harris because she's a woman. He thinks that's part of the struggle.

TYLER: Listen, I think what President Obama was talking about again was the stark choice, right? You have Donald Trump, who, as a candidate, as a business person, as a president - as a - as a president -

BOLDUAN: He definitely was talking about a stark choice, but very clearly he was suggesting, Michael, that he said - I mean I have the - I have the sound bite right here. He says part of it makes me think that, well, you aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president, so you're thinking about sitting out or even supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you because you think a sign of strength, because that's what being a man is, putting women down. That's not acceptable.

It's very clear what he - that he's suggesting that sexism is at play for why some black men, he's, concerned, aren't going to turn out.

TYLER: Yes, he was also very clear that there's one candidate in this race who actually has the interests of black men at heart, and that's Vice President Harris. He was also equally clear that it is black men who are capable of exercising our power to decide the fate of this election.

BOLDUAN: So, do you agree that sexism isn't - isn't like - like Obama suggested?

TYLER: Black men are going to do that, and they're going to do it on behalf of the vice president, because this campaign is going to make sure that black men understand the stakes. They're going to make sure - they're - this campaign is going to make sure that black men understand that there is a candidate in Vice President Harris, who is actually fighting for them.

And, yes, we're going to make sure that black men also understand that, in Donald Trump, this is a person who, whether he was a landlord who refused to rent to black tenants, whether he was the person who stepped into public life by calling for the execution of five innocent black and Latino men, whether it's somebody who, yes, spread the racist birther conspiracy theory and took it mainstream in American politics, is somebody who has repeatedly disrespected and denigrate black men throughout his life. And he was able to return to power, whether it's repealing the ACA, repealing the $35 a month insulin cap -

BOLDUAN: Right, but -

TYLER: Or, as he said yesterday, going after the enemy through within - from within. Whether it be with the police, the National Guard, or even the military, we're going to make sure that black men and all Americans understand the fundamental stakes in this election. It's very - it's a very serious moment, and we're going to make sure that the choice is absolutely clear.

BOLDUAN: Let's move on to something else, but just to my question, does the campaign think sexism is part of the reason why black men are reluctant - are showing some reluctance to vote for Kamala Harris?

TYLER: No. What we're focused on, what the campaign is focused - understands is that for too long too many black men have not felt as though candidates running for office have centered our concerns, have centered our anxieties, have centered our dreams and our aspirations. And the vice president, long before she was ever a candidate, that's exactly what she has done. And so we are bringing that to this campaign down the stretch and making sure that black men understand that there is somebody who is going to be thinking about them when she's sitting behind the Resolute Desk.

BOLDUAN: And making the push to make that case today and all throughout, well, the remaining three weeks.

Michael Tyler of the Harris campaign, thanks for coming in.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, this morning, Floridians are dealing with the huge headache of cleaning up the damage left behind by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The task even more daunting because many people our still without electricity and having trouble getting their hands on gasoline.

And a man with guns is arrested near Trump's Coachella rally. What we know about that arrest and about the suspect.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:19:22]

SIDNER: The alarms didn't sound, no defense systems responded. Israel trying to figure out how Hezbollah's drone got through its defense systems and hit an army base near Haifa. At least four soldiers were killed there and dozens of others wounded. It's one of the deadliest strikes on Israel in more than a year. Hezbollah says it's payback for Israel's strike last Thursday in Lebanon.

And it comes at the Pentagon says it's sending a powerful anti-missile system to Israel, and about 100 U.S. troops to beef up its air defenses.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Jerusalem for us this morning.

What can you tell us is the latest on what has actually happened that no alarms sounded, no one was sort of warned that this drone strike was happening?

[09:20:06]

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is a very significant attack, carried out by Hezbollah, on an Israeli military base, and one that has certainly shaken the Israeli public at large because it is one of the most - one of the highest casualty attacks that we have seen on Israeli territory since the beginning of this war. Not only were four soldiers killed in this attack, but at least 61 others were wounded, eight of whom are still in serious condition according to Israeli authorities. And as you said, no Israeli air raid alarms sounded before this drone struck this base. And this base was quite deep inside of Israel. About 40 miles away from the Israel- Lebanon borders. So, for this drones to make it all that way without being detected, without being intercepted, certainly raises some serious questions that the Israeli military says is working to answer now. They are vowing that there will be an investigation into this and that they will take the lessons from this event and carry those forward.

The question now, of course, is how the Israeli military will respond inside of Lebanon. As all of this is happening though, the Israeli military still mulling a potential response to Iran's ballistic missile attack a couple of weeks ago. And with that we are seeing the delivery of this fad air defense system, the terminal high-altitude aerial defense system, a very advanced system being provided by the United States to Israel to defend against future Iranian ballistic missile attacks against Israel. And in addition to the system itself, the U.S. will also be stationing about 100 U.S. troops inside of Israel, which is notable given the state of tensions right now between Iran and Israel.

SIDNER: All right, Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much, live there from Jerusalem for us.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Also new this morning, FEMA disaster recovery efforts were forced to be temporarily halted in North Carolina after the agency said it received several reports of threats being made against their teams on the ground. In one county, FEMA workers had to stop work after National Guard troops reported seeing armed militia threatening them nearby.

CNN's Isabel Rosales has the latest on this.

What's happening here?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, good morning.

Certainly, a very serious situation has actually forced FEMA workers out of an abundance of caution to work out of secure locations instead of going door to door to those deeply impacted areas of western North Carolina to get people to help that they need.

This was first reported on by "The Washington Post," stating that National Guard troops witnessed armed militia making threats against FEMA workers. Now, of course, we don't know if that threat is credible. We have put out a call to FEMA to try to get more information about that, but we've had two communities that have been impacted by these threats. That's Ashe and Rutherford counties with the sheriff of Ashe County saying this. He urged residents to, quote, "stay calm and steady during our recovery, to help folks and, please, don't stir the pot.

And, of course, Kate, this comes amid a backdrop of misinformation that has been circulating about the federal response to Milton and Helene. This has deeply upset many local officials that I've spoken with, not just in North Carolina, but Florida too, because this is taking up the resources that could be used toward recovery and, instead, they're online, on social media, telling people, hey, this is false information, don't believe this. So, this is taking up a lot of their time.

Also forcing FEMA to actually open up a section of their website called the Hurricane Rumor Response section to, again, try to bat down all of this misinformation, Kate.

BOLDUAN: And, Isabel, you were in Florida last week covering the Hurricane Milton for us. What are you hearing in terms of the latest recovery efforts there?

ROSALES: Yes, it's a long task ahead for recovery in Florida, specifically because they're still dealing with all of this flooding. There's flooding warnings for major rivers, Hillsborough River. You also have the - then you also have sound - you also have other rivers there that have been flooding. We've seen the recovery happening around the area with Sheriff Chad Chronister saying that, unfortunately, the waters are not receding as much as they would like. This is leading to a lot of deputies trying to help out people there.

Then you've got fuel. You've got hard-hit areas like Tampa and St. Petersburg seeing three quarters of gas stations without fuel to the point that the state is stepping in, leading escorts of the fuel tankers and also opening up fueling stations where people can get up to ten gallons of fuel for free to try to help them turn the page on this.

We also have some sound on this. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW LENNOX, FLORIDA RESIDENT: So much damage was already done there was less for Milton to do. But again, just the stress level, you know, it - it takes a toll.

CASEY LENNOX, FLORIDA RESIDENT: I think getting all of this stuff out of the street, all of the reminders of everything that was ruined, I think is really going to go a long way towards everybody in the community feeling like they can really move on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:25:06]

ROSALES: Yes, and that debris, Kate, is certainly a big priority. Governor DeSantis said as such. This is happening around 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to remove all of that specifically Helene debris out of the way because these are flying projectiles, extremely dangerous, and we're not out of her hurricane season yet.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

Isabel, thank you very much.

John.

BERMAN: All right, a man armed with guns arrested outside of a Trump rally. New details point to him as a Trump supporter. So, what was he planning?

And this morning, a trial set to begin against a man accused of killing two young girls and then evading law enforcement for five years.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)