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Harris to Make Case Against Trump; Trump to Speak at Mar-a- Lago; Truth in Political Advertising. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired October 29, 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]

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Just a small amount, just a very small amount could actually make people sick. And that's why there's so much of a focus on this.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you did give us some good advice at the beginning, which is to make sure to cook meat at a high enough temperature. That could help kill something like E. Coli.

GUPTA: Yes.

SIDNER: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, it is always a pleasure.

And don't forget to scan the QR code on your screen and send us your questions on the risks of illnesses from the food you eat and how you can stay safe. Dr. Gupta will be back later this week to answer all your questions.

John.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Dire warnings and the threat of fascism mixed with messages of joy and optimism, combined with an economic message for the future. New details on the speech that Kamala Harris hopes will secure her spot in the White House.

We are standing by for Donald Trump to deliver a news conference. Will he answer questions about the racist jokes about Puerto Rico at his rally? Will he apologize? New details on nerves over this inside Trump world.

And two new lawsuits filed against Sean Combs. One of them accusing him of sexually assaulting a ten-year-old boy.

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

SIDNER: Happening now, one week away, and tonight Kamala Harris makes her closing argument speech to voters from the very place Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, told his supporters to fight like hell and march. And this just in. We just learned 40,000 people are now expected to be at her speech. And this morning, we are also standing by to hear from Trump at a

press conference at Mar-a-Lago. These have a history of going wild places. We'll see what happens this time. And it will happen, though, before he heads to Pennsylvania as he, this morning, still faces the fallout over his Madison Square Garden rally.

Let's start with Kevin Liptak, who is at The Ellipses this morning.

What are you hearing the campaign from the Harris side is going to focus on today?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, the words that Harris advisers used to describe this speech are hopeful, optimistic. Those aren't necessarily the themes that we might have expected when we first heard that Harris would be delivering this closing argument speech from The Ellipse, from the place that Donald Trump rallied his supporters on January 6th, before they marched to storm the Capitol.

But certainly the Harris team wants this speech to be bigger than that. This is not necessarily going to be a treaties on democracy, a dissertation about the state of the republic. They want it to be for more optimistic vision. And they've chosen this spot because you can see the White House in the background. This place where she'll be speaking. It's only about 500 yards from the Oval Office. And they very much want Harris to allow viewers and undecided voters to visualize her as president, to paint a picture of the type of president that she would be.

So, you'll hear her talking about her vision for the economy, for reproductive rights. Certainly, she will try and draw a contrast with Donald Trump to emphasize the chaos that he brought to the White House when he was president. But they don't necessarily want this to be centered on the theme of democracy. It will be an aspect, but it won't be the thrust of the entire speech. And the real hope was that this can go after what the Harris team calls conflicted voters. Voted who aren't necessarily behind Donald Trump, who may be concerned about some of the rhetoric they've been hearing from him over the last several weeks but aren't necessarily sold on Kamala Harris, who want to hear more about what she would do in office, want to know more about her as a person. And this will be their opportunity to do just that.

They're likening it to a closing argument in a trial. Of course, Harris was herself a prosecutor. They say she's been laying out the evidence to the jury, in this case to the voters, and this is her opportunity to bring it all together in a final tent pole moment for the campaign.

Now, this speech is tonight. She is spending the majority of the day doing interviews, including television interview in battleground states. She did just speak on the radio show, "The Breakfast Club," and sort of laid out her vision for the final week of the campaign.

Listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are a week out and I am just - I'm in - I'm in the zone, right. We've got to cover a lot of ground. There's still a lot of people to talk with. And so I am traveling all over the country, in particular the swing states, to talk with folks and organize them and reminds folks of the power of their vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So, you hear her there really saying she's going to grind out this final week of the campaign.

[09:05:01]

Of course, it's hard to imagine any single one speech will convince all of the undecided voters to go for Harris, but certainly they do hope that this will be a moment to lay the stakes of this campaign, Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Kevin Liptak, thank you so much for that.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So very soon Donald Trump will be holding a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, and that is before heading to battleground Pennsylvania once again. And the final campaign stretch comes as his campaign is also trying to clean up the mess created from his Madison Square Garden rally and the racist jokes told by his warm- up acts.

What does this mean for Trump's closing argument? Here at least, in part, is part of it, his closing argument, what they're trying for, turning his anger back on Kamala Harris.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But she's a fascist, OK. She's a fascist.

She and her group of very bad people are truly a threat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Alayna Treene live from Mar-a-Lago ahead of this press conference today.

Alayna, what are you expecting from Trump here?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, well, Kate, that's the big - I think the big question is whether or not he's going to address some of those sexist and racist remarks that were said on Sunday, specifically that comment from the comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a floating pile of garbage.

But when I talked to Donald Trump's senior campaign advisors, they told me that part of the reason that this came together - and I'll note this actually came together within 24 hours. This was not on his schedule. It was kind of a scramble for them to put on. They said that this was really Trump wanting to mark the one week out from Election Day. And then I also was told, and this was, they said, really the reason, which is that he wanted to draw a contrast with Harris with her speech on The Ellipse tonight.

Now, again, I think there's a big question and there's probably, you know, a lot of people are anticipating that he is going to address some of what happened at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

But I do want to also talk about, you mentioned he's going to the battleground state of Pennsylvania later today. First of all, we know that Pennsylvania is home to a massive population of Puerto Ricos (ph). Allentown, specifically, where he's going to be having that rally this evening is - is - has a lot of Puerto Rican - has a large Puerto Rican population there as well. So, keep that in mind because this is all kind of going to play a theme today.

Now, I do also want you to listen to some of what he said yesterday because we've been hearing Donald Trump. He did not push back yesterday at - in his events in Georgia on what had happened at Madison Square Garden, but he did push back on what he said was dangerous rhetoric from Kamala Harris and Democrats and tried to defend himself, arguing that he is the opposite of a Nazi.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The newest line from Kamala and her campaign is that everyone who isn't voting for her is a Nazi.

I had a great father. He was a tough guy. He used to always saying, never use the word Nazi. Never use that word. And he'd say, never use the word Hitler. Don't use that word. And yet they use that word freely. Both words. They use it - he's Hitler. And then they say, he's a Nazi.

I'm not a Nazi. I'm the opposite of a Nazi.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Kate, one thing I think that is really important as well is that that - those comments that he made yesterday, but also on Sunday at Madison Square Garden, this is all supposed to be a part of his closing argument to voters. This is really what the Trump campaign is trying to, you know, leave this final lasting impression on voters with just days to go. But right now, dealing with that rhetoric from Sunday is not exactly what they've been wanting to do.

John.

BERMAN: No, no, Alayna Treene, opposite of a Nazi is not generally the closing argument that you plan for in the last eight days of a campaign. Alayna Treene, thanks to you.

With us now, CNN Political Commentator, Spectrum News Political Anchor, and Host of The Big Deal with Errol Louis, the aforementioned Errol Louis. Here also, CNN Senior Political Commentator Ana Navarro, and Senior Political Analyst and Senior Editor for The Atlantic Ron Brownstein.

I want to take this in succession if we can, Ana. Let's just end where Alayna was right there at this news conference Donald Trump's about to give, speculation about whether he'll address the racist jokes about Puerto Rico at this rally. What can he say, do you think, would make a difference?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Nothing, too little too late. Listen, that comedian who said the most racist, horrible jokes, not only about Puerto Rico, but about Latinos, about blacks, I mean, who wasn't offended by, you know, the comedian and the other speakers that spoke before Trump? That comedian spoke 4.5 hours before Donald Trump took the stage at Madison Square Garden. He had 4.5 hours to go out there, take that podium in front of those people and everybody watching online and say, you know what? Those jokes went too far. They don't reflect how I feel. I love Puerto Rico. But you know what? He didn't do that. It's been over 24 hours now.

[09:10:02]

And in those four hours, between the comedian and Donald Trump, Rick Scott in Florida came out, who's running, where there's a million Puerto Ricans that live there. Marco Rubio came out. Maria Elvira Salazar, the congresswoman from Miami, came out. So believe me, there were a bunch of people calling the Trump campaign, telling them this was a 911.

This is a five alarm fire right now. It has served to remind the Latino community and I think America at large about who Donald Trump is. Because the reason that comedian went out there and called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage is because Donald Trump has treated Puerto Rico like garbage, the way that he threw paper towels at people in need after Maria, the way that he responded to Maria in Puerto Rico in comparison to how he responded to red states that had hurricanes, the way that it was reported that he talked about trading Puerto Rico or selling Puerto Rico, trading it for Greenland, they brought it all back.

BERMAN: Errol, as a purely political matter, he's called this news conference for 10:00. One assumes, in a normal campaign, and I know that may be a stretch here, there would be some plan to address this. Yes?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Maybe. The -- strategically, you want to be involved in every new cycle, right? There's only seven days left, so you don't want the day to go by without being somewhere on the screen. So, that's the first reason that he's doing this. But we also know from years of experience almost, a decade now of experience with Donald Trump, is that the way he puts out a fire, five alarm fire, is to start another fire. So, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he used this opportunity this morning to say something else that's outrageous and hope that we'll talk about that and maybe move on from what happened over the weekend.

BERMAN: And just one final point, hearing, and Alayna played it for, Donald Trump saying, I'm the opposite of a Nazi. When you hear that out loud there, again, it's not the -- you know, it's not a message you plan to make the last week.

LOUIS: No, it's not a great closing message. You know, the, the political scientist in me, you know, says, well, yes, technically I guess you're an authoritarian if you want to be a dictator on day one and so forth and so on. So, yes, it is sloppy to say Nazi because that means a particular thing, but he's, you know, sort of in that zone. And the fact that people see him as an authoritarian and an enemy of democracy is also problematic in your final week.

BERMAN: Ron, I want to transition to the Harris speech today, unless you wanted to weigh in on the Donald Trump matter, which you can do. Go ahead.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. One thing about that, you know, real quick, the focus on the language and the offensive language from the rally from multiple speakers about multiple targets. At the same time, the rally was happening, Tom Holman, you know, one of his top immigration advisers, was on 60 Minutes saying that as part of the mass deportation, they intend also to deport U.S. citizen children with undocumented parents. That's how they are going to avoid family separation, by also deporting the kids.

There are 4 million Hispanic U.S. citizen children with at least one undocumented parent and about a million other nationalities. So, like while we're focused on the offensive rhetoric, the reality is that there are really sharp edge policies that go behind that rhetoric.

Similarly to when John Kelly, you know, so much focus was on him saying that Trump admired Hitler's generals or said positive things about Hitler. I thought the most important thing John Kelly said was that, as President Trump repeatedly sought to use the U.S. military against U.S. citizens in American cities and had to be stopped.

So, you know, there's a lot of focus on Trump saying offensive things, and people may be shrugging that off, but there is an agenda that goes along with that language that is not just, you know, showboating, or kind of offensive, you know, remarks. It is actual, tangible policies that affect the same communities that are being targeted with this language.

BERMAN: And, Ron, quickly, on the Harris speech today at The Ellipse, you write eloquently on this tension that has come up in the Democratic Party between, does Harris focus on some of the things you're describing, what some people call the authoritarian nature of Donald Trump, threat to democracy, or does she focus on her policy, you know, housing credits? You talk about this tension. How does she navigate that today? BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, there is a big debate in the Democratic Party. I mean, the arguments about democracy and rights, particularly abortion, resonate most powerfully with white collar, upper middle class college-plus voters. And there's a school in the Democratic Party that says she has to focus primarily on telling economically squeezed working class voters, black, Latino and maybe working class white women what she will do for them economically.

It feels as though she has come up with a pretty elegant bridge between those two points of view, which I think is going to be the centerpiece of the speech again tonight, which is to say, if Donald Trump gets back in the White House, he will arrive there with an enemies list.

[09:15:03]

If I get in the White House, I will arrive there with a to-do list for you.

And in one phrase, whoever came up with that phrase probably deserves a raise, kind of encapsulating both arguments to make the case that Trump is so focused on retribution and threatening the constitutional order that he simply has no time or energy to solve your problems, and that will be my focus. I think that is a pretty good way of trying to bridge what is a very real divide in the Democratic Party about what our closing message should be.

BERMAN: Ana, does that do it? Does that do enough for her with one week to go?

NAVARRO: Look, I thank the symbolism of this speech. It happening where Donald Trump spoke before January 6th, it just draws such a stark contrast. For me, this is about making it a binary choice. It's a binary choice between a racist and a woman who wants to represent all Americans. It's a binary choice between a convicted felon and a woman who prosecutes criminals. It's a binary choice between a man who feels he is above the law and above democracy and a woman who wants to defend democracy in the room, in the place where it happened.

So, I think I think the symbolism of it is great. I want her to talk about policies because people say, oh, you know, she's not offering plans. Where have they been? Just Google it, go on her website. Eight hours. Before the Madison Square Garden rally, where Puerto Ricans and Latinos and everybody else was being offended, she had released policy to help the people of Puerto Rico, very thoughtful, comprehensive policy.

BERMAN: Errol, a little curveball here just before we walked out here, Joe Rogan posted on X that the Harris campaign has not passed on having the vice president sit down with Joe Rogan. What he says is right now the issue is he wants it to be in Austin where his studios are. He wants it to be three hours. The Harris campaign wanted it to be somewhere else, maybe a little shorter. How much more risk would it be for her to do that podcast in the waning days of the campaign?

LOUIS: I don't think it's a risk at all. I mean, it might be a waste of time, but I don't think it's a risk. I mean, look, she needs to talk to and she's been specifically trying to talk to younger men, younger men of lesser education, not college educated. She doesn't connect with them naturally. She hasn't had a pitch that has really hit home with them so far. She's issued some policy statements, but they're not really well thought out in a lot of ways. And so she needs some authenticity.

And if she thinks it will help her in, you know, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh or Milwaukee, then it's worth her time. If she's not sure that that's going to happen, then it's a complete waste of time. She doesn't need young male voters out of Texas. That's not a state that she's going after.

NAVARRO: Three hours is an awfully long time, though. I mean, it's something that Donald Trump can do because he rambles for three hours. But, really, other than my dog, is there anybody I want to spend three hours with? I'm not sure.

BERMAN: Well, I will say this, this show is three hours every day, Monday through Friday. And I love spending it here with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. Ana Navarro, Ron Brownstein, Errol Louis, thank you all very much.

SIDNER: Hey, John Berman.

BERMAN: Yes?

SIDNER: (INAUDIBLE) dog.

BERMAN: Oh, my God, we have a dog here.

NAVARRO: Oh, Cha Cha (ph).

BERMAN: Cha Cha, Ana's dog, is here as well.

This morning, a brand new fact check from CNN's Daniel Dale. He will say yes that is, in fact, a cute dog. And also focus on how the campaigns are using questionable editing techniques in their ads.

Social media influencer telling their followers who to vote for, but are their endorsements real or paid for by the campaigns?

BERMAN: Cha Cha.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:22:50]

BOLDUAN: So, the campaigns are spending millions of dollars targeting young - targeting younger voters in battleground states. How much - how much - so, let me restate that, targeting voters, not just younger voters, all voters in battleground states. But what are the facts around the messaging that they're seeing in these ads?

The latest Trump ad, for example, lobs accusation after accusation against Kamala Harris. All of them appearing in this ad as if ripped from the headlines. But that is where CNN's Daniel Dale comes in, who's joining us now.

Daniel, what are the facts on this?

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Kate, I published an article on Friday about how the Trump campaign had made a habit of deceptively using quotations in its television ads, taking words out of context, cutting out words from quotes to change their meaning. And then it released this ad a few days after may article, which I think is the most egregious example yet.

So, let me give you four examples of how this new ad deceptively uses so-called quotations. First of all, the ad claims that it has a quote supposedly from "The New York Times." It says, "Harris is seeking to significantly raise taxes." OK, so it sounds like "The New York Times" reported she wants a broad tax increase. Well, I went to the actual article. What does it say? It says, "Harris is seeking to significantly raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and large corporations." The ad excluded those key words.

A second example, the ad appears to quote CBS News saying the words, "Harris vows to keep Biden's border." And this - this claim in the ad is accompanied by a claim that Biden had an open border. So, it suggests that CBS reported Harris wants to keep a liberal border policy. Well, go to the actual CBS News article. It says, "Harris vows to keep Biden's border crackdown." So, the ad eliminated the word crackdown. It goes on to quote her as saying, "the United States is a sovereign nation." The CBS article begins, "during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, Vice President Kamala Harris vowed to keep President Biden's asylum crackdown in place if elected, solidifying Democrats' embrace of more stringent immigration rules." So basically, the opposite of what the ad suggested.

A third example. The ad appears to quote NBC News saying the words "welfare for illegals." Now, you'll notice there that the date of this supposed citation is 2018.

[09:25:04]

That's before the Biden/Harris administration even began. More than a couple years before, in fact. So, I went to that real NBC News article. It's not even about Biden-Harris. It does not even mention either of them. And it does not claim that they wanted to or were giving welfare to illegal immigrants. It's on a totally different topic. It's on strict occupational licensing rules that were preventing DACA recipients, the so-called dreamers, from working in certain professions. It said, "regardless of ones position on welfare for illegal immigrants," there's that phrase, "a license is clearly different from food stamps and other government safety nets." So, again, totally out of context.

And I'll give you one final example. The ad includes the words in very large text with some explosion in the background. It says "global war," and it attributes this to the media outlet "Axios." So, again, I went to the actual "Axios" article. It does not say that there is global war under Biden and Harris because there isn't, although there is some war. The article is actually about a commission studying U.S. readiness for future possible war. The headline is, "U.S. Not Ready for Global War Commission Warns." It was about, again, a bipartisan group's findings about the U.S. preparedness for hypothetical future conflict, not about the present situation.

So, Kate, this all seems obvious, like when you put them side-by-side, it seems, you know, obviously egregiously - egregious distortions. But we know that most people, most viewers of these ads, are just not going to see the truth. They're just going to see those misleadingly snipped versions.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I mean, people don't have the time to have to go clicking through the articles. Thank God you do. But calling it misleading and egregious is almost an understatement of what we're seeing here in these final days.

DALE: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Daniel, thank you for laying out the facts.

DALE: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Kamala Harris winding down to her final pitch to voters. Will it be more focused on her plans or about her opponent?

And disturbing details about two new civil lawsuits filed against Sean "Diddy" Combs. The allegations he's facing now from a former contestant on the MTV show, "Making the Band."

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