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Today: Trump & Harris Hit Pennsylvania As Polls Show Dead Heat; Harris Launches New Push For Black Male Voters; Hezbollah Drone Attack Kills 4 Israeli Soldiers, Dozens Wounded; IDF Investigating Why Drone Attack Didn't Trigger Alarm. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired October 14, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:01:09]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We are in the final sprint of the presidential campaign, and polls show an already close race is tightening, both candidates holding dueling events in the must win battleground state of Pennsylvania. We'll take you there live.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: It's one of the bloodiest attacks on Israel since October 7. Four soldiers were killed and more than 60 people were injured in Hezbollah drone attack. This as the U.S. announces it's sending troops and an anti-missile system to bolster Israel's defenses.

And the very real impact of spreading disinformation and misinformation. FEMA workers, who are helping disaster survivors in North Carolina, are forced to flee and work from secure locations after receiving threats just for doing their job. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

CAMEROTA: Okay. The presidential candidates are fighting for the battleground states, both campaigns on the trail today in the crucial state of Pennsylvania. In the next couple of hours, we're told that former President Donald Trump will pitch his economic message to voters just outside of Philadelphia as he launches a fresh attack against his Democratic rival.

Meanwhile, Harris will speak this evening in Erie, Pennsylvania as she makes a direct appeal to a key demographic, black men.

SANCHEZ: And with just a little over three weeks until Election Day, every vote matters. Look at this new CNN poll of polls showing the race in a dead heat. The key part is that top right corner where it says no clear leader. Our correspondents are live on the trail in Pennsylvania right now. Let's begin with CNN Priscilla Alvarez, who's following the Harris campaign in Erie. Priscilla, what can we expect to hear from her tonight?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, her message tonight is going to be one focus on black voter outreach as she tries to fill the void about what her economic policies and proposals are should she win in November. Now, what she is going to unveil here in Erie, Pennsylvania is again appealing to black voters, that includes forgivable loans for black entrepreneurs up to $20,000, promoting apprenticeships and also legalizing recreational marijuana, among other measures taken together.

It's a sweeping plan that, again, tries to shore up support among black voters. Because even though polls show that she still has the majority of black voters behind her, there is erosion in that support when compared to other election cycles, and the fear and concern among her advisors is that some folks will sit out the election or vote for her Republican rival Donald Trump.

So to that end, the Vice President is also fine tuning her messaging there and trying to draw the stark contrast between her and Trump, especially when it comes to black voters. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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 Latinos who are innocent ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Saying that (INAUDIBLE), yep.

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, this is also an extension of what we saw from the Vice President over the weekend, when she was in North Carolina meeting with local black elected officials and faith leaders, and also attending a church service yesterday. Now part of her message too is going to be that about Donald Trump and transparency. This is a new line of attack, where she's suggesting that he is hiding by not doing "60 MINUTES" or revealing his medical records, as she has done both.

[15:05:06]

Now, I will also note that the Vice President will be returning to Pennsylvania this week, demonstrating how crucial this state has become as her campaign tries to find the surest way to 270 electoral votes in November.

SANCHEZ: Priscilla Alvarez live for us in Erie, Pennsylvania. Thank you so much.

Let's turn now to CNN Kristen Holmes, who is following the Trump campaign in Oaks, Pennsylvania.

So Kristen, what's on the agenda for the former president tonight?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris and Alisyn, one thing I just want to note really fast. You heard Priscilla say that Kamala Harris is expected to be in Pennsylvania again later in the week. We actually also expect Donald Trump, over the weekend, to be in Pennsylvania, just highlighting how critical, how important this state is.

Now tonight is supposed to be billed as a town hall on economic policies. Obviously, it is Donald Trump. He could say anything, but it will be more focused on the economy, since people are actually asking questions. But this does come off of a weekend in which we heard some of the darkest rhetoric on immigration that we have heard yet.

It wasn't just about immigration. He also called liberals, people that he said were essentially his enemies, that the enemy within, saying they could possibly use the National Guard or military to take care of that. And we are expecting him to ramp up. That rhetoric not dial it back, despite the fact that people have pushed him to try and maybe toe a line here.

Donald Trump believes that that rhetoric helped win him the White House in 2016 and could help win him the White House in November, as you were hearing Priscilla talk about Kamala Harris reaching out to black men, Donald Trump's team is reaching out to what they call low propensity voters. These are people who really rarely vote, if at all.

There was a idea that for the last several cycles, those people in the middle of the country that didn't really vote leaned Democrat. In the last several years, the belief has changed that they lean more Republican. What Donald Trump's team is trying to do is to drive out those voters.

They understand when it comes to middle of the road, voters, Independents, they might not be able to expand the electorate that way. They might not be able to get those votes. Instead, they want to expand the electorate through these low propensity voters, and they believe this messaging is working. And if you look at those recent polls, there is reason to believe they could be correct, so expect him to continue to double down on that kind of rhetoric. Boris and Alisyn.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes, live for us in Pennsylvania. Thank you so much for the update.

Let's drill down on all the latest headlines with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Vivek, thank you so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. I want to start with getting your thoughts on these policies put forward by Vice President Harris, the opportunity agenda that her campaign says is aimed at black men. It includes a million loans for new businesses. They're fully forgivable up to $20,000. Cutting college requirements for certain federal jobs. This new regulatory framework for crypto currency, an issue that you have spoken a lot about, also legalizing recreational marijuana. How well do you think those proposals could work?

VIVEK RAMASWAMY, (R) FORMER 2024 PRESIDENT CANDIDATE: I don't think these proposals are going to land, for one principal reason. She had the opportunity to do it for the last four years, and has not yet led the way, while still clinging to proposals as best we know, she's still in favor of attacks on unrealized capital gains, which would be one of the best formulas for a Great Depression and a stock market crash in the country.

And I think part of the reason there is a palpable sense that Donald Trump is starting to separate away from Kamala Harris, stealing voters from black and Hispanic voter banks, is that there is certain hypocrisy in Kamala Harris's stated policy positions versus what they've actually done over the last four years.

And I think Boris that is what makes this election a little bit unique. You have four years of Donald Trump, four years of Harris- Biden, compared the results, I think that's what voters at home are doing. And I do think that that's why we're seeing that migration of both black voters and Hispanic voters towards Donald Trump.

SANCHEZ: And she has made the argument that she wasn't president. She's not Joe Biden. And it's notable, the way that Republicans have characterized the administration as being Harris-Biden, when, obviously, at the top of that ticket is the President, Joe Biden. So in a sense, he has to follow his lead.

I do want to ask you about something that you pointed out there that you believe polls are trending toward President Trump. There is new polling that shows in Pennsylvania, specifically where they both are today, there is no clear leader, but Harris does have a slight edge. Do you not put any stock in those polls?

RAMASWAMY: Look, I'm not a horse race analyst, and the polls have proven wrong every election cycle in the past, but what I do see is a palpable sense of momentum that shifted right after that debate, where there was, again, a media narrative lifting up Kamala Harris to now a sense on the ground where I'm traveling the swing states.

I was in Pennsylvania myself with two events with Donald Trump last week, from the time we landed, all the way to the event, there were people lined up. We're talking about 30 plus miles all the way up to that arena. I've never seen something like that in my lifetime.

[15:10:02]

Think about an event we did over the weekend with the likes of Tulsi Gabbard, RFK, myself, Ben Carson. All four of us share something in common is that we ran against Donald Trump for president, and we don't even all agree on everything, but have come together to stand for what I see certainly as the basic rules of the road that are at stake in this election, sealing the border, growing the economy, staying out of World War III, reviving national pride, fighting the spate of law and order disruption in the country.

I think of a lot of voters that say that, you know what? I may not agree with a hundred percent of what Donald Trump says, but he's still going to be the candidate who better takes care of my better vision for this country. And I do think that that is what we're seeing intangible, polls being all over the place aside. I do think there is a sense where Donald Trump is really expanding a gap with Kamala Harris. And I think even if people - if you look at people around her own campaign, there is a sense of palpable concern about that as well.

SANCHEZ: You mentioned something in that response that caught my attention. You talked about trying to avoid World War III. You've been outspoken in your belief that the defense industry is out of control and too often guiding policy in this country. I'm curious what you make of the Biden administration announcing that they are sending these air defense missiles - these air defense systems, I should say, these THAAD systems, to Israel, along with 100 American personnel. I imagine you might disagree with that?

RAMASWAMY: Look, I think that the question is the root cause of how we got to where we were in the first place is weakness in the White House. You look right now, Americans wonder the same thing the rest of the world wonders when they look at the American White House, who's really in charge, and there isn't a clear answer to that question.

And when you have that vacuum of leadership, that's when you see Russia invading Ukraine. That's when you see turmoil again in the Middle East, when we're on the verge of major breakthroughs in the back of The Abraham Accords under President Trump's leadership. Now look at where we are today, on the brink of a major regional war. You look at other parts of the world, Chinese aggression towards Taiwan.

The instability has risen over the last four years, and I think it's not a coincidence that it coincides with exactly the period where we had weak leadership from the White House. You talked earlier about Kamala Harris being separate from Joe Biden, conveniently so. She's the person who said she was the last person in the room when many of those foreign policy decisions were made, including that disastrous, botched exit from Afghanistan, which I do think was the root cause for a lot of these foreign policy disasters that have followed, was the execution of that exit from Afghanistan, bringing the military first out, rather than last out, leaving from a civilian air force base rather than a military air force base.

Kamala Harris, on her own terms, does own those decisions as the proverbial last person in the room when those decisions were made. And I think a lot of these foreign policy catastrophes, yes, including the instability in the Middle East, can trace itself to that weakness of decision making. And that's why I do think that Donald Trump, if you're going to pick between the people who are running for US president, who's going to keep us out of World War III, I think Donald Trump is unambiguously the correct answer to that question.

SANCHEZ: It's fair to say that analysts have pointed out that that progress that was made with The Abraham Accords and the potential for Israel to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia is ultimately what led to Hamas' attack. Nevertheless, sir, I do have one more question for you.

This weekend, Donald Trump said that he expects chaos on Election Day from the enemy from within. He talked about radical left lunatics. He suggested that those folks should be handled by the National Guard, possibly by the military. Who do you think he was referring to? RAMASWAMY: Well, the fact of the matter is we have a U.S. president that in this period of two months has been the target of assassination attempts with disastrous security failures leading up to it. That's unconscionable in the United States of America. We're skating on thin ice.

And I do think that Donald Trump, even after that event at Butler, it was admirable. He could have gone in many different directions, ordinary people would have. But to call for calm and peace and a plume, I do think that that's what we need in a moment where we are skating on thin ice as a country. I hope those two incidents are by far the worst of what we see this election season, and we're able to move forward to a more united country where we can say, you know what? We may disagree like hell at the dinner table, but we can still get together and have dinner at the end of it.

That's the America we miss. And Donald Trump, people know him as somebody who can fight, but I also am betting on him as a president who can actually unite, as somebody who has literally taken fire in a way that we have not seen in a generation in American politics. And if we get it right in this moment, I hope we don't see it for many more generations to come. So who's he referring to as somebody who's been shot at many times?

There are a lot of lunatics out there who are carrying out heinous acts that needs to end. We need to restore peace. We need to restore civility. We need to restore national self confidence in a way that we're lacking today. And I do think that a unifying landslide, that's what I'm rooting for, of a kind we had in 1980 or 1984 with Reagan. I think that is a rare opportunity we have to unite and strengthen our country, and I think that's what we're working hard through the finish line to make that happen.

SANCHEZ: I just want to point out for the record, unlike the gentleman who attempted to take President Trump's life in South Florida, the Butler shooter, officials have said that his political leanings to this point are unclear. His motive remains unclear.

[15:15:05]

Vivek Ramaswamy, we have to leave the conversation there. We appreciate your perspective.

RAMASWAMY: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still to come. Israel is vowing a forceful response after a Hezbollah drone attack hits an army base north of Tel Aviv, killing four soldiers and injuring dozens more, all this while, as you just heard, the U.S. prepares to send Israel an advanced anti-missile system and American troops to operate it, as that Mideast conflict escalates.

CAMEROTA: And later, NASA just launched the largest spacecraft that it's ever built for a planetary mission. Europa Clipper is now on a six year long journey to Jupiter. That and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:07]

SANCHEZ: Israel today is threatening a forceful response against Hezbollah after a drone attack on an army base deep inside Israeli territory overnight killed at least four Israeli soldiers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through interpreter): I want to clarify, we will continue to strike Hezbollah without mercy everywhere in Lebanon, including Beirut. Everything is according to operational considerations. We have proven this recently, and we will continue to prove it in the coming days as well.

CAMEROTA: The drone strike is one of the deadliest attacks on Israel in more than a year. Israel is trying to determine how the drone got 40 miles into Israeli territory without being spotted. CNN's Nic Robertson joins us now from Jerusalem.

Nic, do they know yet how that drone slipped undetected past Israel's defense systems?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: If they do know, they're not saying it publicly, and part of that one would imagine is because they don't want to give Hezbollah a clue to how they might be ready next go round. But what the IDF said last night was about 7 PM when the strike happened, they saw two drones cross the border from Lebanon. They managed to intercept one, lost sight of the other one.

There's been speculation that maybe the second drone, the one that actually struck, maybe that went really low and it was hard for the aerial defense systems to pick up. Raises the question, is Hezbollah using some kind of new drone technology to fly its drones lower on different routes or whatever it may be. After the attack, Hezbollah claimed that they had launched dozens of missiles to confuse the aerial defense system right up there on the border, and then after that, launched a swarm of drones.

Now, the numbers that Hezbollah is talking about, a swarm and dozens may be an overstatement. May just be part of their propaganda, but it does appear as if they've intentionally set out to confuse the defense system here in Israel. And I think on top of that, the question for Israeli officials too has to be and is, how did Hezbollah know precisely where to target. They hit the canteen when the canteen was busy at 7 PM dinner time, so they kind of had an idea about the timing, but how did they know precisely where to hit.

And the IDF actually has video, a virtual video tour on its website, of that IDF base. And on that base, it locates the canteen. So I think, look, there's a lot of things for the IDF to get into here. And I think they're going to take their security and information on this pretty carefully going forward.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Nic Robertson, thank you for being on the ground for us with that update.

All right, let's talk more about what the U.S. will be sending to Israel with CNN Military Analysts, retired Major General James "Spider" Marks.

Spider, great to see you.

The Biden administration plans to send, as we just heard, about a hundred troops to Israel. Those troops are tasked with operating that anti-missile defense system, which can apparently strike down ballistic missiles from short to immediate - intermediate, I should say, range. So how do you categorize this new US commitment to Israel?

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it's not the first. As we know, the U.S. has been in the region before, twice before, once to the UAE and once in support of Israel during an exercise in 2019. And we would hope as this - as the United States Army does, and all our services do is we've acquired some lessons learned in terms of how to improve the interoperability between the THAAD system and what the Israelis use the combination of their Iron Dome, David's Sling and the Arrow system.

So this is, I would say, Alisyn, this really thickens and provides a different - an additional layer of protection for Israel. And also when you have radars that can at least exchange target data, detection data, then you're going to improve your engagement criteria and engagement platforms as well, so I think it's a good idea.

And let's not fool ourselves. Look, Iran and its proxies have not been bashful about going after U.S. targets in the region. So yes, U.S. soldiers on the ground will be at risk, but they have been in the past, and they will be going forward.

CAMEROTA: But, Spider, how does this thicken? As you say the Iron Dome system, how is this better?

MARKS: Well, I think, as Nic indicated, the Israelis don't know yet, they'll do a forensics on what just took place, whether there was a swarm, whether there was a radar problem, it could have been a detection problem. And so what this does is this removes some of the concern about swarming or overwhelming the extant system that's in Israel right now. This is another capability.

And also bear in mind, this capability of THAAD is connected to the Aegis system, which is the - what the U.S. Navy uses.

[15:25:06]

So not only do you have the THAAD on the ground, you have offshore the Navy capability as well.

CAMEROTA: So you just mentioned Iran earlier. What do they do now? Do they see this as a provocation and respond?

MARKS: I think they see anything the United States does as provocation. I mean, it's a legitimate question. What we have seen with the Iranians is that they clearly do not want to get engaged directly against Israel. They're concerned about, I think, legitimately describing an unintended success, increasing the type of delivery that they can have against the Israelis. And at some point, the Israelis are going to respond. We know it. They're increasing and refining their target package right now.

They're going to respond in a way, and Iran is going to feel some significant pain. I don't think the deployment of the THAAD alters their - they - Tehran's dynamic in terms of what they are trying to achieve going forward, the relationship. Look, their deterrence has been defined through the Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthi fighters. That now has been treated quite considerably. We're going to see more the same. It's not as capable, albeit. Israel still is in the crosshairs, but it's an incredibly resilient nation. I mean, four soldiers killed yesterday, 60 folks severely wounded. Look, they're going to continue to march along and continue to engage with these proxies appropriately.

CAMEROTA: The fact that Hezbollah managed to slip this drone past Israel's defense system. What does that say about Hezbollah?

MARKS: They're capable. Look, they still have capabilities. The fact that a terrorist organization still has a voice and still has some capability is exactly what they are looking for. They want to be able to sustain this type of - what I would call these very precise engagements.

They aren't sustainable overtime. It's not like this is the - this is probably what I would describe the end of the beginning of what we're going to see in the Mideast for quite some time. And Hezbollah will continue to exist, as will Hamas in a treated and reduced state. So the folks that - I mean, the way we view it right now is the way we're probably going to be able to view it going forward.

CAMEROTA: General Spider Marks, thank you for all the perspective.

MARKS: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Coming up, an armed man is arrested after allegedly threatening FEMA workers who are there to help victims of the devastating hurricanes. Just another cost of disinformation.

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