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Harris and Trump on Trail 21 Days Out from Election Day; First Day of Early Voting in Crucial Swing State Georgia; Israel Says It Will Decide on Iran Strike Based on Its Own Interests, Amid Reports It Will Avoid Oil and Nuclear Sites. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired October 15, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are three weeks to the day until Election Day, but starting today, it's already Election Day in battleground Georgia. Early in-person voting just getting underway moments ago. Donald Trump heading to Georgia today. Kamala Harris taking a new approach and taking him on.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, Sean Diddy Combs hit with six new lawsuits as he remains behind bars. He's accused of sexually assaulting men, women and a teenager and threatening at least one if they were to go public.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: breaking right now, we're tracking one of the most anticipated flights in years. A plane carrying pandas headed to the U.S. as we speak, life imitating art imitating pandas. This is why we went to journalism school.

I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. This is Panda Watch on CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: Georgia, friends, you are on the clock. Early in-person voting begins there today. Moments ago, polling locations opened for the first time as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are hammering and honing their final messaging to voters in Georgia and everywhere.

Overnight, Donald Trump again went after Kamala Harris' I.Q., but Kamala Harris tried a new tactic when it came to taking on her opponent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged. He is out for unchecked power.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She is not a smart woman, that's true. And we cannot -- we've had that for four years. We're not going to have it for another four years.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: Kamala Harris and the new tactic, she actually threw two tape of Donald Trump speaking for himself. So, he could to drive home her argument that he is dangerous. I guess, you could say Donald Trump took on a new tactic as well, spending time after his town hall bobbing and weaving and dancing on stage for more than 30 minutes. Harris not missing a moment and reacting with three words, hope he's okay.

Let's bring in CNN's Isaac Dovere for more on this. Where do you want to begin? What exactly happened last night?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: It's a little bit strange to even wrap our heads around, Kate. Donald Trump was doing an event that was meant to be him speaking at town hall, answering questions, and talking about what he would be doing as president. There were some medical incidents, two people, one and then another collapsed, were being treated, and Donald Trump just started to ask for music to be played instead, And then he danced.

But, look, I can talk about it. I think we should just take a look at what happened there last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Go and vote. Let me hear that music, please.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone, let's thank President Trump.

TRUMP: Nice and loud.

So, play YMCA, go ahead, let's go, nice and loud.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOVERE: And so that's what we got out of President Trump with three weeks to Election Day here. We did not hear a lot about his policy proposals or what he is saying he would do right now. We got a lot of dancing for about 40 minutes last night, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Honestly, the people there, they were there for it, that's for sure. His play -- they're for his playlist and they're for the dance moves.

I want to ask you about kind of the new tactic of Kamala Harris as well, playing clips of Donald Trump during her rally last night to drive her message in a new way that she believes that she calls him dangerous and unstable. She's now headed to Michigan today. What are the plans?

DOVERE: Well, what she's going to be doing in Michigan is highlighting something that she rolled out yesterday. It's called an economic opportunity agenda for black men, trying to make that case to black men around the country, especially younger black men, that she should be the one with their vote. And she'll be doing that in an appearance with Charlamagne Tha God, the radio host from The Breakfast Club talking about all of those things. But she's also taking, with three weeks left here, a pretty stringent stance against things that Donald Trump has been saying.

[07:05:03]

And her approach has been to not just talk about them, but to let people see it for themselves.

So, one of the clips that she has talked about is this comment from Donald Trump a couple days ago that there is an enemy within that might need to be dealt with by the military. Let's take a listen to what was said there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: He considers anyone who doesn't support him or who will not bend to his will an enemy of our country.

He wants to send the military after American citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOVERE: And that is her speaking about these comments from former President Trump that there is this enemy within leftist, radical people, he said, that might need to have the National Guard or the military brought in to deal with them.

And those are comments that Harris wants people to be focused on when she thinks about what a Trump presidency take two would be.

BOLDUAN: Isaac, thank you so much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Let's go battleground Georgia now where Donald Trump is heading later today and where voters wanting to vote early can now do so in-person.

CNN's Nick Valencia is live at the polling site in Atlanta there. What are you seeing? I see a car has just pulled up behind you there.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hey, good morning, Sara. We're seeing a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of excitement. Even an hour before the doors open, there was already five people lined up outside of the door.

You see, the line has grown behind me and we're officially in early voting season in this critical battleground state and things will look slightly different for Georgia voters when they're showing up to the polls this time around. For starters, there will be fewer and fewer absentee ballot drop boxes that became a point of contention in 2020. They were available 24/7. They're going to be available now, mostly during business hours, and they will be located inside elections offices and where early voting is happening. Also a new state law makes it illegal to hand out food or water to those in line within 150 feet of where a ballot is being cast. However, there will be a more opportunity for early voting. Two Saturdays will be added to early voting and two Sundays if counties see fit. Look, it goes without saying there is a lot of anxiety around the post-election process here in Georgia, especially what happened in 2020 and also what has been happening at the Georgia State Election Board. Three Trump allies have been pushing through new rules changes. One of them currently in the courts right now, that's a reasonable inquiry, which Democrats fear could lead to a rogue county election official refusing to certify elections results.

Despite all of that, the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, assuring Georgia voters to have faith in the process.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: If people have questions at the end of the day, we're going to be able to respond with a fact based, but also we're going to have all 5 million paper ballots. And we're going to be able to scan those and read the human readable text.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: So, early voting locations all open across the state of Georgia here in Fulton County, 37 precincts to choose from. You do not have to vote exactly where your precinct is during early voting. You can vote in the county that you live in. You know, you remember Fulton County was consequential in 2020. We'll see if it has a similar fate here in 2024. Sara?

SIDNER: A lot of changes. But still, as you said, there is enthusiasm so far this morning. People there an hour before polls actually open. Thank you. I appreciate it so much. John?

BERMAN: All right. This morning, a whole region on edge after brand new comments from Israeli officials on what they will and will not target inside Iran.

New reports this morning of fights breaking out of gas stations in Florida over access to the limited supply of fuel available after multiple hurricanes.

And new video of the moment a family narrowly escaped a fiery explosion. We've got new details on what caused the blast.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, Israeli officials say they alone will decide how and when to respond to Iran's October 1st missile attack. This comes after reports, including confirmed by CNN, that Israel indicated to the U.S. it may avoid targeting Iranian nuclear and oil sites.

In Iran, today, there were funeral services for a commander of the Islamic Republican Guard killed in an airstrike in Beirut, the same strike that killed Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah. Let's go to Tehran. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is there for the very latest. Fred, it's great to have you there. What are you seeing this morning?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John. Yes, we were inside that funeral procession for Abbas Nilforoushan, who is, of course, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander who was killed in that same airstrike that also killed the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on September 27th, it was a really big event that saw a lot of prayers, saw a lot of chanting as well.

I would say that on the streets there, we were among a lot of people, tens of thousands of mourners, who showed up to pay their respects, but, of course, also to display their anger towards the United States and to Israel. The crowd, in fact, broke out into death to America and death to Israel chants at various times as that procession went along. And, of course, the killing of Abbas Nilforoushan along with Hassan Nasrallah was one of the reasons for that major missile strike, the Iranians say, when they targeted Israeli territory.

Now, as you mentioned right now, reporting, suggesting, including our own, that the Israelis have now relented and said that they're not going to attack energy installations or nuclear installations inside Iran.

[07:15:02]

However, the Iranians still sending a pretty tough message themselves. They say no matter in which way Israel strikes and if Israel strikes, there will be a retaliation coming from Iran. We've seen that kind of rhetoric throughout the weekend with the Iranian foreign minister traveling throughout this region, making that point again and again and again. And one of the things that he was saying is that, for Iran, there are no red lines, as he put it, in the defense of the Iranian population, but, of course, also in the defense of Iran's interests as well.

The other thing that we picked up on as well, John, was that the Iranians are now warning countries here in this region not to allow Israel to use their airspace for a strike on Iran. They say that that would have negative implications for those countries. So, you can see that the rhetoric is still very much ramping up. But the bottom line from the Iranians is no matter what kind of strike the Israelis conduct, if they conduct a strike, the Iranians are going to hit back, John.

BERMAN: Frederik Pleitgen, you've been to Tehran so many times, it's great to have you there now at this moment of extreme tension. Thank you so much. Keep us posted. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, six more people are making new accusations and filing new lawsuits against Sean Diddy Combs, one from a 16-year-old boy at the time.

And FEMA back to full operations again in Western North Carolina after being forced to halt work over threats. One man now arrested and charged for making those threats against the FEMA teams who were on the ground just trying to help.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

SIDNER: This morning, Musician Sean Diddy Combs facing a new round of serious and disturbing allegations. The rapper and record label executive has been accused of sexual assault in six new lawsuits, all filed anonymously at this point. The alleged victims include men, women and a teenage boy.

The lawsuit says Combs told them that then-16-year-old boy that the alleged assault was a right of passage to becoming a music star. That is the allegation from him.

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister is joining us now from Los Angeles. What more can you tell us about what is in these lawsuits? And at this point, we don't know the names of those who are making these accusations.

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: That is correct. These were all filed anonymously as either Jane Doe's or John Doe's. There are four male accusers who filed as John Doe's and there are two female accusers who filed as Jane Doe's.

Now, these lawsuits, Sara, range from 1995 to 2021. There are a lot of similarities throughout these lawsuits. All of the accusers are alleging that they were sexually assaulted by Combs and half of the accusers alleged that they were drugged.

Now, you mentioned that one of these accusers alleges that he was a minor at the time. He says that he was 16 years old, as you said, that Combs allegedly told him that this was a way to break into the industry when he sexually assaulted him at a white party.

I want to walk you through some of the other lawsuits. One female accuser alleges that she was 19 years old at the time, she was a college student. Another woman says that she was raped at a party in 1995 for a music video.

I want to read you part of her lawsuit. It says, quote, when plaintiff attempted to pull away, he violently struck her, slamming her head against the wall and causing her to fall to the floor. Disoriented and in pain, plaintiff tried to escape, but Combs hit her again, making it nearly impossible for her to move, that is when she alleges that she was raped.

The most recent accusation coming from a man who says that, in 2021, that he was actually flown out by Combs' businesses and transported from the airport to a party in New York. That is where he said that he was drugged and then that he claims that he was sodomized. So, very graphic details in all of these lawsuits.

Now, you may remember that earlier this month in a, an attorney from Houston named Tony Buzbee, he came forward in a press conference. He said that he was representing at least 120 new accusers that he plans file lawsuits for all of them. These are the six first lawsuits to come from this attorney, so they are all represented by him.

Now, I spoke to him earlier this month about the lawsuits that he said would be coming. Let's take a look at what he told me about some of those similar accusations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BUZBEE, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING NEW ACCUSERS: The white party comes up quite often, but there's obviously, there's a lot of partying going on, album release parties, after parties, club parties, parties after club, I mean, you name it.

These were people that were there, that were allegedly drugged and then allegedly raped, passed around, woke up the next morning with just completely clueless about what had happened to them and just in utter shock and injured even.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGMEISTER: Now, when I spoke to that attorney, he told me that he did intend to file lawsuits for all of his 120 clients that he says that he is representing, Sara.

SIDNER: Has Combs or his attorneys responded to any of the allegations in these new lawsuits yet?

WAGMEISTER: Yes. I obtained a statement from his attorneys yesterday. They say that that attorney is simply looking for publicity.

I want to read you part of their statement, Sara. They say, quote, Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone, adult or minor, man or woman.

So, you see they're not responding to the specific allegations in the six lawsuits, but denying full stop that beyond even the six lawsuits that he ever sexually assaulted anyone.

[07:25:05]

SIDNER: Elizabeth Wagmeister, thank you so much for keeping us updated on this ongoing story with more lawsuits against Sean Diddy Combs. I appreciate it. John?

BERMAN: All right. We have new video of an explosion on a busy road. Officials now say it was a homemade explosive device.

And, quote, hope he is okay, the new reaction by Vice President Harris to the strange Trump town hall overnight that turned into 30 minutes of him sort of dancing on stage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Let's make it into our music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right? Let me hear that music, please.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone, let's thank President Trump.

TRUMP: Nice and loud.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God bless you.

TRUMP: Play YMCA, go ahead, let's go, nice and loud.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here we go, everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]