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Donald Trump Says Comedian Who Told Offensive Joke about Puerto Rico During Madison Square Garden Rally Should Not Have Been There; President of Pennsylvania Chapter of Puerto Rican Agenda Calls on Puerto Rican Community to Not Vote for Donald Trump; Trump Claims Without Evidence that Pennsylvania is "Cheating"; US and South Korean Officials to Discuss North Korean Troops in Russia. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 30, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And then when you look at this and when the FBI is seeing who is getting targeted and who is getting caught in these scams, who is the most vulnerable?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, one of the popular theories is that the elderly are the most vulnerable. We just did some great original reporting on CNN last week about people with dementia being targeted again and again who don't remember they already gave, who are going through their life savings. But we find on scams like this that this is for people of all ages. This whole idea that only old people fall for this, you have people in their 30s, in their 20s who were really excited about the campaign who are falling for these things. And the FBI wants you to report them, because that's how they track where the fakes, where the real ones to that www.IC3.com (ph), the Internet crime complaint center.

But in the event that some elderly people might have trouble filling out that form, the Department of Justice does have for 60 and up the elder care hotline where they can actually walk you through that and help you do it.

SIDNER: Call if you have any questions. And I like what you said, just slow down. Don't take what is coming into your phone or your emails as --

MILLER: Check it out.

SIDNER: -- for sure. Thank you so much, John Miller. It's always a pleasure, for sure.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, Kamala Harris calls Donald Trump a petty tyrant. Donald Trump sows new election doubt. Both soon on battleground blitzes, or is it blitzi (ph)?

Donald Trump seizes on something he thinks President Biden said. As he does so Trump says these words out loud, "I don't know if it's a big deal or not." "It's" is referring to Puerto Rico being called a floating island of trash.

And way worse than the public knows. The new onslaught of Chinese hacking just days before the election.

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

SIDNER: It's closing time, not just the anthem of every American bar nearing the end of the night, but the current state of the 2024 race. For Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, if you will indulge me, it's one last called voters. That is where we now are in these final accumulation days of their historic battle.

Today, Harris and Trump will hit the trail to make some of those pitches in key battleground state that you heard John say. All this is Donald Trump says the rally at MSG filled with racist and misogynistic language was a lovefest. And he ripped apart Kamala Harris's closing argument speech that she made last night at the Ellipse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That is who he is. But America, I am here tonight to say that is not who we are.

(CHEERING)

HARRIS: That is not who we are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: It is the top of the 8:00 a.m. hour, which means it's time to take a look at one big thing in the race. CNN political director David Chalian joining us now. We heard Harris, some of those closing arguments that she made at the Ellipse last night. What stood out to you in her full speech?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, I think the clear goal of the speech, and quite frankly, I think she delivered on it was, Sara, to make sure that there is no voter in this country who could walk away and say, the choice between these two candidates is not clear. And I think that was her mission last night. Obviously, the setting of the Ellipse draws the immediate contrast to Trump's speech there, which she did explicitly from January 6th, 2021.

But then she took all the attention on this speech and used it to lay also lay out her affirmative vision, lay out her plans to bring down prices, exactly what she would do on the economy, and other areas of concerns to voters. So it wasn't just a speech about the theory of democracy or how to protect it. She ticked through abortion rights. She ticked through even immigration at one point.

But what she kept coming back to in each part of the speech was trying to invite Americans to envision either her sitting in the Oval Office or Donald Trump and what that means for them. And that's what she hopes for the next six days that voters consider in their minds.

SIDNER: As for Donald Trump, what's his closing argument look like?

CHALIAN: Well, for Donald Trump week, we saw the closing argument at Madison Square Garden. It is very similar to what we've heard throughout the campaign.

[08:05:02]

His closing argument is one about a broken border that he will make the argument makes Americans less safe in terms of their security, less safe economically. So there's the immigration pitch and the economy pitch. That's no doubt those are the two central planks. But, as with all things Donald Trump, it's never all that discipline. So you had the pre-program at Madison Square Garden that served as two days worth of a distraction. You even had him saying to Sean Hannity on FOX News last night, Sara, that perhaps that comedian that made the racist joke about Puerto Ricans shouldn't have been there.

So while he has these its pillars and planks of the overall argument he's making, it is always infused with still claiming, wrongly and incorrectly, that the 2020 election was stolen or promises to go after his political enemies should he regain power. And those get in the way, of course, of that economic and immigration pitch.

SIDNER: All right, David Chalian, we are also looking at the campaign events right next to you today in the swing states where they are battling it out. Appreciate you. Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So the fallout has not ended over the racist joke about Puerto Rico told by at warmup act at Donald Trump's Sunday rally. Trump's first response is that he didn't hear it. His take now in a new interview is that the former president is defending the Madison Square Garden rally, calling it an absolute lovefest. And asked about the racist joke, he says he can't imagine it's a big deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) FORMER U.S. PRESIDEN, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've had great relationships with Hispanics, but I've had a really great relationship with Puerto Rico on people from Puerto Rico. They love -- every time I go outside, I see somebody from Puerto Rico. They give me a hug and a kiss. Who this comedian was, I have no idea.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: You wish he wasn't there?

TRUMP: Yes. I mean, I don't know if it's a big deal or not, but I don't want anybody making nasty jokes, stupid jokes. He probably shouldn't have been there, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And joining us now is the president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Puerto Rican Agenda, a nonpartisan alliance of stateside organizations, elected officials, community leaders, and citizen volunteers, Robertoluis Lugo-Morciglio. It's great to see you. Thank you for coming in. You hear that from former President Trump from last night in his new interview, and you think what today?

ROBERTOLUIS LUGO-MORCIGLIO, PRESIDENT, PENNSYLVANIA CHAPTER OF NATIONAL PUERTO RICAN AGENDA: It's still the same insulting words that we already condemned, because that's not acceptable the way he tried to justify the unjustifiable. There's no reason to insult a country, a nation, a nation that has served this country for many, many years. In all wars in this country Puerto Ricans have served, and they shed their blood to defend the liberty and freedom of this country. And it's very unfair that we do see that insult for a candidate for the president of this country. It is not acceptable and we rejected. We are hot. And we mess with a Puerto Rican, we messing with the wrong people. We are very, love of who we are. We are very strong in who we are as a Puerto Rican, as a Cainos (ph), as a black people, we are mixed, a mix of different culture.

And we represent those people. We represent 9 million Puerto Rican on the island and stateside. And we said no to that. And if you dear to insult our great country, our sons, our daughter, our military, and people that serve in your country, you don't deserve to be in the Oval Office because you insulting your own American citizens. That is unacceptable. And we are telling to our people get out and vote. Tell them, tell this bad joke and heinous joke and racist jokes for a president for a campaign, that is unacceptable.

And November 5th, I asked my people, my Puerto Rican people in the whole diaspora, that get out and vote. Don't stay or home. It's not an option. You have to get out and vote because they're insulting our history. They're insulting our heritage. They're insulting who we are. And that's not acceptable for any country, for anyone.

BOLDUAN: Roberto, let me ask you, one of the things that is important to point out is that your chapter, the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Puerto Rican Agenda, you send out a letter yesterday, and in it you are urging people to vote against Donald Trump. The letter ends with "We urge Puerto Rican and Latino voters of Pennsylvania to reject this blatant disrespectful expression about our people by casting their vote on November 5th." Your organization, as I mentioned, is non-partisan. You traditionally do not tell people who to vote for. My understanding is, you've never come out in this way before. What makes this different this time?

[08:10:00]

LUGO-MORCIGLIO: Well, if one governor in Puerto Rico in 2019, there to insult the people, and Puerto Rican people stand up, raised, and more than 1 million people demand his resignation, and he resigned. And we did that peacefully, not shooting at a single bullet, don't do nothing, just peacefully. We stand up and reject those comments from this governor and he resigned.

The same way, when anyone insults, we as a people, we stand the same way. That person and that campaign doesn't deserve our support. Why are you looking for our vote when you're insulting our people? It's not acceptable. How you come now a few days from Election Day to tell -- to treat us like that, when we have served this country in many ways. We have been here over 100 years in this nation as the Puerto Rican community. And we don't accept that.

That's why we stand firmly and ethically to condemn. Puerto Ricans, stand up, get out to vote, don't stay at home. You have to go and vote. It's unacceptable. That's why from my perspective as a Puerto Rican I cannot support a person who insult bluntly, bluntly the way we were insulted, and my fellow Latinos also were insulted. It's unacceptable. That's why we said we have to stand up and think. When you go out to vote, I'm going to echo the words of Ana Navarro in the new show recently. She said, November 5th, you want to vote for your heritage. Go and vote for your tradition. Go and vote for your identity. Go and vote for your dignity and for your self-respect.

You want to vote for Trump or Kamala, that's in conscience. But I'm telling you that vote with conscience to defend who you are as Puerto Rican and Puerto Rico that has served this country for so many years. And we are here, and we are going nowhere. We're going to stay here the rest of our life. That's, we said what he said in that way. We cannot indulge anyone that we can blindly said is not acceptable, and he doesn't deserve the vote of the Puerto Rican community.

BOLDUAN: And not an endorsement, but I guess it would be an anti- endorsement is what I see coming from your chapter today. Robertoluis Lugo-Morciglio, thank you very much.

John?

BERMAN: All right, this morning Donald Trump is spreading election fraud claims despite not having any confirmation from actual election officials.

And for the first time North Korean troops are fighting in Ukraine on behalf of Russia. Officials expect more could be on the way.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:25]

BERMAN: This morning, Donald Trump is claiming there has been a voter fraud in Pennsylvania. Trump posted, "Pennsylvania is cheating and getting caught on a large scale, levels rarely been seen before."

In Lancaster in York County, officials have said they are looking at potential issues with voter registration applications, not ballots as far as we know. Officials say they are following the process to ensure all registrations are legal.

With us now, the county clerk of Kent County, Michigan. Okay. That was Pennsylvania, we are speaking to the county clerk in Kent County, Michigan, it is where Grand Rapids is Lisa Posthumus Lyons. Thank you so much for being with us.

I know how hard you work at your job helping to oversee the election process. When you hear claims like fraud on levels never seen before, how does that complicate your job?

LISA POSTHUMUS LYONS, COUNTY CLERK, KENT COUNTY MICHIGAN: Well, all I want to do is make sure that people have absolute faith in their elections and, you know, when I hear that, that there's fraud out there or that there's concerns, I want to meet people where they're at. I want to take -- we deserve to have competence at our election, so I want to take those concerns seriously.

I want to listen, but I really believe firmly that the antidote to concerns, I believe that instilling public confidence in our elections is reliant upon understanding the process.

So, I just have made it my mission to educate our voters about the process and all the checks and balances to encourage them to participate, to become a poll challenger or an election worker. And just remind them how transparent the processes is, because it's their election, they should be able to have faith in it.

BERMAN: Do you have any evidence that the trust is coming back?

LYONS: For the last four years, we've really gone above and beyond to make sure that we're getting out, we'll go anywhere, we'll talk to anyone about the process and truly, once people learn about all the checks and balances, it has come a long way.

We actually have had recent polling done in Michigan and one of the questions asked, if voters knew about these certain 12 steps through the process, if they knew that we would do this in Michigan elections, would you have confidence? And astronomically, the answer was yes. And interestingly, those are all things that we already do.

So again, it's just a matter of educating the public and really making sure that they understand the process and that they know that they can participate in the process. Our elections are run by your friends, your family, or neighbors, they're bipartisan, they're the people that you know and see every day.

[08:20:09]

BERMAN: Alger County, which I think is up in the UP, a clerk and the deputy removed after they told state officials that they intended to hand-count ballots before sending in their tally.

They were removed because they said they're ready to count it by hand, that's not part of the process in Michigan. What do you think about that happening?

LYONS: Well, I think above all else, we have to follow the law when it comes to elections. The public deserves that and Michigan law requires that our ballots be electronically scanned. They are put into a tabulator.

However, we have a process by which you can reassure that the outcome was accurate because aggrieved candidates can always request a recount and recounts are done by hand.

Additionally, when we conduct our post-election audits, we will take the ballots from those precincts and we'll conduct a hand recount of those ballots as well. We have multiple ways to ensure that our elections are secure, transparent, fair, and accurate.

BERMAN: Six days left. What's your message to Michigan voters?

LYONS: My message to Michigan voters is that we're going to respect and honor your rights, your votes are going to be counted. The election is going to be fair and accurate. We're just going to have a good day.

Elections are a celebration. They're a reminder of the blessings of liberty that we have in this country and they're what make us the envy of the world. And I want the public to know that, I want them to have faith in the outcome and here in Michigan, that's exactly what they're going to get.

BERMAN: Lisa Posthumus Lyons, thanks so much for your time. I appreciate it and thank you for the work that you do -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, this morning Eric Trump and Jared Kushner's calls and texts targeted what we know about the hacking operation going after members of both the Republican and Democratic parties.

And a preview of the new star power hitting the campaign trail for Kamala Harris, today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:26:34]

SIDNER: Happening today, US and South Korean officials are set to meet in Washington as some western intelligence officials say, a small number of North Korean troops are now inside Ukraine. That's a step up from what NATO and the Pentagon had previously confirmed that roughly 10,000 North Korean troops were training in Eastern Russia to join Russian troops on the battlefield eventually.

CNN national security and political correspondent, Natasha Bertrand at the Pentagon for us this morning.

How concerned is South Korea in seeing this and about this?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, the South Koreans have been raising the alarm for weeks now about the intelligence that they say they have about all of these North Korean troops that have deployed to Russia.

And now we are hearing confirmation from it the Pentagon, that many of those North Korean troops have already arrived in the Kursk Region of Russia, where they are expected to engage in combat against the Ukrainians.

But taking this a step further, we are told by two western intelligence officials that some small number of North Korean troops are already inside Ukraine.

This is deeply concerning for the South Koreans and so they have been making the rounds really briefing NATO, as well as of course today, they will be at the Pentagon to discuss the deployment of these North Korean troops and what their intention actually is.

We are told that these North Korean troops are special operations troops that the North Koreans are sending specifically to get combat experience because of course, North Korea has not actually fought in a war in over 70 years.

And so, it remains to be seen, of course, just how effective these North Korean troops are going to be on the battlefield. There is, of course, a language barrier and we are told that officials expect there to be some defections in some North Korean troops to actually desert their post once they are in Russia and Ukraine.

But still, you know, the North Koreans we are told are very confident about these troops' ability to perform well because they are specialized, they are highly trained and importantly, they are expected to augment the Russian forces there who are fighting against the Ukrainians.

So, deeply concerning for the South Koreans. And we do expect South Korean's defense leader to speak out with Lloyd Austin today at the Pentagon in a press conference about all of this.

SIDNER: Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much, appreciate it -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This election is going to come down to likely these seven key battleground states. With the unpredictability and how tight this race is these days, are swing states bellwethers now and in the future? We will discuss.

And with the McDonald's quarter pounder, E. coli outbreak making so many people sick in so many states and even killing one person has raised a lot of questions about this outbreak and other food-borne illnesses.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is back to answer your questions.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:00]