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Trump Rally Speakers Spew Racist, Vulgar Remarks; Iran Vows to Retaliate; Trump Media's Share Price Skyrockets Following Record Lows. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired October 28, 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]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A closing carnival of grievances, misogyny, and racism. This morning, Republicans trying to undo the damage from Donald Trump's New York rally.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Iran is vowing to retaliate this morning after Israel launched strikes inside Tehran.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And students in Asheville, North Carolina, heading back to school today for the first time, one month after Hurricane Helene devastated the state.

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

BERMAN: All right. Breaking just moments ago, a new CNN poll finds 69 percent of registered voters do not think that Donald Trump will concede if he loses to Kamala Harris. Now, it comes as Republicans, even the Trump campaign are engaged in uncharacteristic cleanup after Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden. The New York Times called it a closing carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism.

Now, there were many speakers, many offending comments. The first you are about to hear might be the most controversial, what Politico called jaw-slackening comments about Puerto Ricans from a speaker invited by the Trump team.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY HINCHCLIFFE, COMEDIAN: There's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yes, I think it's called Puerto Rico.

SID ROSENBERG, RADIO HOST: She is some sick (BLEEP) that Hillary Clinton, huh? What a sick son of a (BLEEP). The whole (BLEEP) party, a bunch of degenerates.

DAVID REM, REPUBLICAN POLITICIAN: Can you imagine Kamala Harris performing a random, kind, generous act?

She is the devil, whoever screamed that out. She is the anti-Christ.

GRAND CARDONE, BUSINESS OWNER: Her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.

We need to slaughter this other people.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: They're smart and they're vicious and we have to defeat them. And when I say the enemy from within, the other side goes crazy.

They are indeed the enemy from within.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. I want to get right to CNN's Steve Conterno. Steve, outrage from within the Puerto Rican community and elsewhere, and as I said, uncharacteristic backtracking from some Republicans and people inside the Trump campaign, they know this is a problem.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: That's right, John. I don't think Donald Trump's campaign entered the final week of this election season looking to get Bad Bunny, the famous Puerto Rican Latin music star and his 45 million followers to support Vice President Harris. But that's where we are heading into this Monday morning.

Like you said, there is some signs of backtracking by not only the campaign, which put out this statement saying, quote, this joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign. And we're also seeing an outpouring of response from Republicans, especially in states which large Puerto Rican diaspora, for example, Representative Salazar, who represents South Florida, called the remarks disgusting and racist. Rick Scott, who represents the largest population of Puerto Ricans as the senator from Florida, said it was not funny and not true. And then Anthony D'Esposito, representative from New York, who is Puerto Rican and is also in a tough reelection flight, he said, quote, the only thing that's garbage was a bad comedy set. Stay on message.

And the message the campaign would like to be talking about is what a lot of people probably saw in Philadelphia who are watching the Eagles game yesterday, which was an ad that was largely focused on inflation and the economy and sort of going back four years to when Trump was president. Instead, they are hearing a lot of response to the messages that we saw today.

But, look, at the end of the day, Trump's campaign, also there are a lot of people around it who believe that he is impervious to political fallout for these types of episodes, and there's some reason to believe that's true.

[07:05:04]

If you look at -- you know, he has disparaged the Puerto Rican population and the Island of Puerto Rico in the past. And he didn't necessarily face consequences for that in Florida where there is a large Puerto Rican population.

And if you listen to the message he is delivering and his own words, they remain deeply dark and especially about the country's Hispanic population and the migrant population. Take a listen to what he said yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The day I take the oath of office, the migrant invasion of our country ends and the restoration of our country begins.

We will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail. I'm going to kick them the hell out of our country as fast as possible.

I'm hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now, there is some risk to the Harris campaign focusing too much on Trump in these closing weeks. Future Forward, the super PAC that is supporting Vice President Harris, saying that the focus last week on fascism and Trump's response to John Kelly and such might not have helped them as much and she should focus more on the economy. So, potentially could be distraction for them as well if they focus too hard on this wild rally that Trump held on Sunday.

BERMAN: All right. Steve Contorno, thank you very much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Even before the inflammatory remarks about Puerto Rico at Sunday's Trump rally, among other things, Vice President Kamala Harris had announced a new plan to spur economic opportunities on the island. Just hours ahead of the Trump rally, Harris was visiting a Puerto Rican restaurant in Philadelphia.

Her campaign has been courting half a million Puerto Ricans who live in Pennsylvania. And earlier Sunday, the campaign released a video message aimed at Puerto Rican voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I will cut red tape, ensure disaster recovery funds are used quickly and effectively.

I will never forget what Donald Trump did and what he did not do when Puerto Rico needed a caring and a competent leader. He abandoned the island, tried to block aid after back-to-back devastating hurricanes and offered nothing more than paper towels and insults.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Today, the vice president is headed to the battleground state of Michigan.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joins us now. Priscilla, tell us more about how the Harris campaign is reacting to the remarks made at the Trump rally. And it wasn't just the remarks about the floating island of garbage. There were a ton of racist remarks made.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, and it's not just them who are commenting on them. In fact, what they have seen over the last 24 hours is celebrities, Puerto Rican superstars, who are also amplifying what they saw at the former president's rally and putting their support behind the vice president.

This is key because the vice president, her team have been, as you just mentioned, courting black and Latino voters. The Puerto Rican vote is also significant in Pennsylvania, half a million in that battleground state. That is why the vice president went to a Puerto Rican restaurant yesterday. She blitzed around the Philadelphia area, again, talking to black voters and Latino voters and in a battleground state that is likely to be very, very close. They want to make sure that they have Puerto Ricans behind them and in their columns.

So Bad Bunny, which you had just heard from Steve, had basically indicated his support for the vice president on social media, 45 million followers, and he is a superstar among Puerto Ricans. It has been a big question whether he would endorse anyone, and he did, again, lend his support by showing a clip of the vice president's plan for Puerto Rico. So, that was celebrated publicly and privately in messages that I was getting from people close and in the campaign when it happened.

Now, I will also note that the vice president over these next several days is also trying to continue that increased exposure, trying to convey her message on different platforms. We also saw that with an interview today with former NFL player Shannon Sharp on his podcast that was released today. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: You think he's having you over for dinner? You think that when he's going, when he's with his buddies, his billionaire buddies, he's thinking about what we need to do to deal with addressing, for example, my work around what I'm doing to address disparities in black men's health, around colon cancer, around what we need to do around screenings?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, of course, the vice president is trying to lock in support from black voters, including young black men, as polling has shown. There has been waning enthusiasm. But look at the map there. She's going to Michigan today. She was in Pennsylvania yesterday. If you want a lens into what the strategy is, it is the blue wall.

[07:10:01]

Her team is trying to lock in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, which means a whole lot of travel and a whole lot of continuing to court these voters. Sarah?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much, Priscilla Alvarez there for us in Washington.

Coming up next hour on CNN, New Central, Congressman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez will join us live here in the studio. Stay with us for that. Kate?

BOLDUAN: How much can you trust the political ads that you are being flooded with online? Well, a former Facebook executive is warning that the election is the, quote, perfect storm for deep fakes now, especially when it comes to local races.

And the U.N. Security Council has called a meeting today as Iran vows to respond to the Israeli strikes from over the weekend.

And actor Timothee Chalamet, surprising fans by showing up to his own lookalike contest in New York City.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

BOLDUAN: This morning, Iran is vowing a, quote, appropriate response, but cautions it does not seek war with Israel. This is after Israel conducted retaliatory strikes on Iran over the weekend. Israel says it severely damaged Iran's ability to manufacture long range missiles with its attack. At the same time, hostage and ceasefire talks are set to resume today in Doha for the first time in more than two months.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is tracking all of this for us from Jerusalem. Jeremy, Israel strikes in retaliation over the weekend, Iran promising to respond, but what are things looking like this morning?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is all likely to lead up to a fairly fiery Security Council meeting, which Israeli officials are panning as ridiculous. The notion that Iran is raising this at the Security Council, but Iranian officials for the time being are taking this quite seriously and they are vowing that there will be a response at the appropriate time for Israel's attack early Saturday morning, which involved three waves of attacks that have left at least four Iranian soldiers dead and one civilian, according to the Iranian state news agency.

The Israeli government believes that they have severely damaged Iran's defensive capabilities in this strike, which I'm told destroyed multiple S-300 air defense batteries as well as missile production sites inside of Iran. But Israeli officials are also making clear today amid these threats of an Iranian retaliation that Israel can do much more damage than that.

The chief of staff of the Israeli military, Herzi Halevi, yesterday making clear that Israel can do much more damage to Iran and Israeli officials also believe that these strikes, particularly on those missile aerial defense systems, have left Iran more vulnerable to future Israeli attacks.

That being said, some expectation setting that needs to be done here as well, and that is to say that Iran is not talking about any kind of immediate response. And we have heard them in the past, talk about responding at an appropriate time and ultimately weeks going by without anything happening. And so for now, it does seem like perhaps both sides are inclined to limit the extent to which there will be additional escalatory actions with Iran largely playing down the amount of damage that Israel was able to do over the weekend.

Now, as all of this is happening, we also know that there are efforts underway to try and revive those hostage and ceasefire negotiations in Gaza. Yesterday, we saw some of the key negotiators convening in Doha, Qatar, but those negotiations are not expected to really make much progress before the U.S. presidential election next week.

Egypt, though, has put a new and quite different ceasefire proposal on the table, a short-term deal that would see a two-day truce the release of four Israeli hostages in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners. And that would then give the two sides ten additional days to try and negotiate a permanent ceasefire.

It is a proposal being raised by the Egyptians, which the U.S. and Israel have also been discussing, but at this time, it's not clear that that will actually move forward or what the likelihood of that is. Again, folks here seem to be waiting for the presidential election to play out and then to see how that factors into regional geopolitics. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Jeremy Diamond, good to see you. Thank you. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Ahead, President Trump's Truth Social has tripled in value over the past five weeks. What is behind that dramatic surge?

And for the first time in a decade, the American Stroke Association making brand new recommendations for preventing strokes. We have details on those stories and more, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, a dramatic surge in the value of Donald Trump's media company, this after a plunge to record lows just five weeks ago.

CNN's Matt Egan tracking all the twist and turns here this morning. Good morning.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Good morning, John.

Look, if you're ever bored, take a look at this stock, because it is incredibly volatile. It moves around more than a toddler on Halloween candy. It's absolutely incredible. It almost makes Bitcoin look boring. Now, I want to say that, lately, it's moving all in one direction, and that is straight up. Since September 23rd, when Trump Media closed at a record low, this is up 220 percent. So, it's more than tripled. And that does not even include a 6 percent surge in free market trading this morning. And this is all happening because this company has become a proxy for how traders think this election will turn out right, and they are betting that former President Trump is going to be back in the White House.

Now, this is not a new way of looking at the stock. As that stock chart shows, it's bounced around and actually it plunged to record low after record low in July after President Biden dropped out. But now the thinking has changed and traders are betting on a Trump victory.

Now, to be clear, markets are not omniscient. They get it wrong sometimes and polls suggest that this race could go either way. I talked to venture capitalist Gene Munster, and he told me that if Trump wins, that this company could be valued at something more than the current $8 billion price tag. But if Trump loses the election, it'll be worth something like a billion dollars.

Munster told me, I've never seen anything quite like this. This company's value is almost entirely based on the outcome of an election.

BERMAN: So, very quickly, how much is Trump made on this? At least off paper, this rebound?

EGAN: Yes, all on paper. He's made a ton of money, $3 billion in the span of five weeks. When the stock was at a record low five weeks ago, his massive stake in this company was worth $1.4 billion, but now $4.5 billion.

[07:25:06]

Now, this is on paper because it'd be really hard for him to sell much of that stock without causing the price to crash. Just one other point here is the market is valuing this company at almost $8 billion, even though Truth Social remains very tiny, even though Trump media generates almost no revenue. What's amazing is the market values Trump Media right now at more than CBS owner Paramount, it's worth more right now than Peloton and almost twice as much as Macy's. It's pretty incredible.

BERMAN: It is stunning. All right, Matt Egan, thank you very much for that. Kate?

BOLDUAN: The Trump campaign is doing something that it really does, disavowing comments made by a speaker at one of its rallies, now distancing themselves from a man who trashed Puerto Rico from the stage. Why they're moving so quickly to try and play cleanup on this one.

And an emotional reunion during Adele's Las Vegas residency when she spots one very special guest in the audience.

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