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Harris and Trump's Dueling Events in Wisconsin; Trump's Escalation of Violent Rhetoric; Trump Attacks Liz Cheney; New Jobs Report Show 12K New Jobs; Legal Challenges Over Absentee and Mail Ballots in PA and GA; GOP's Emergency Appeal Over Ballots in Pennsylvania; Legal Battles Underway to Clean Up Biden's Garbage Gaffe. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired November 01, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Escalating violent rhetoric. Former President Trump attacks one of his top Republican critics, Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, saying she should be fired upon. What both campaigns are saying now about those comments.

Plus, a new jobs report only muddying what is already a very blurry picture of the economy. We'll break down the numbers and the impact that it could have just four days before the presidential election.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, an emergency appeal by Republicans to reject certain ballots in a battleground state. Much more on the legal challenges underway in Pennsylvania. We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

KEILAR: Today, the Harris and Trump campaigns turning their focus back to that blue wall hitting the trail in two critical battleground states. Later this hour we do expect to see Vice President Harris arriving in Wisconsin ahead of kicking off the first of three campaign events across the state today.

The race for the Badger State's 10 electoral votes, it is neck and neck. The latest CNN Poll of Polls showing no clear leader.

SANCHEZ: And Former President Donald Trump will also be campaigning in Wisconsin tonight, holding a rally in Milwaukee, but he begins his day in the key swing state of Michigan. And his campaign is trying to clarify after major backlash with the former president's remarks about Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney. Listen to this.

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's a radical war hawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine-barrel shooting at her, OK? Let's see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face, you know, they're all war hawks when they're sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, oh, gee, well, let's send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN's Eva MckEnd is covering the Harris campaign for us, but we want to start with CNN's Kristen Holmes on the fallout after these comments. Kristen, what more can you tell us?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris and Brianna, obviously the campaign is taking issue with the characterization of these comments. They want all of the comments to be played in full, which, of course, we just did, to show that they say Donald Trump was using remarks that have been used before.

Obviously, it's Donald Trump, so he has gone so much farther in terms of calling her a chicken hawk, that's what they say that he was doing, was saying that she's a warmonger, but that she would never go to war herself. And that's what they've been trying to hammer home in various statements and calls that we've been fielding today.

This is the exact same statement they gave us. And I do want to read this. They say, President Trump is 100 percent correct that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them, rather than go into combat themselves. This is just the continuation of a large -- the latest fake news outrage days before the election in a blatant attempt to interfere on behalf of Kamala Harris.

Obviously, that last part is just simply not true. Donald Trump did say those remarks, which we just played in full. I think a couple things. One, Democrats clearly seizing on this. Two, Donald Trump doesn't have a lot of goodwill when it comes to comments like this because of the fact that he has called Democrats the enemy within, because of the fact that he has said that the people need retribution, essentially that he would be seeking revenge if he was brought back into the White House.

However, they are saying this is not part of those kind of comments that Donald Trump has made in the past, that this is a separation, that he was simply saying that she should go to war herself if she's going to call for wars. She's also -- he has also went on to call her a moron, stupid, various different name calling within this.

It is clear that Liz Cheney is somebody who has gotten under his skin. Regardless of these past comments, we know that to be the case, particularly as Cheney has been on the campaign trail campaigning for Kamala Harris. But one other thing to note here, everything both of these candidates say is under an enormous amount of scrutiny. So, saying these comments at a time just close to the election obviously is going to call -- cause uproar because everyone, voters, media, we are all watching everything both of these candidates say.

KEILAR: All right. Kristen Holmes, thank you very much. Let's go now to Eva McKend. She is following the Harris campaign as they're responding to Trump's comments about Liz Cheney. Eva, what are they saying?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, we're still waiting to hear Vice President Harris respond to this Trump- Cheney fallout directly. But more broadly, the campaign argues this type of episode illustrates he's unfit to return to the White House.

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So, much of Harris strategy is based on messaging to disaffected Republicans' voters who may not agree with her on every policy matter, but can't embrace the chaos that, in their view, came to define the Trump era.

But we are seeing a strong contrast in how they're making their closing arguments. And Harris believes Trump's tone, the positions that he has taken just in the last several days, that it positions her well to make an appeal to those alternative -- to be an alternative rather, and directly to those undecided voters.

SANCHEZ: And, Eva, what can you tell us about the Harris campaign strategy at this late stage? She's crisscrossing Wisconsin today.

MCKEND: She is, Boris. I was with her yesterday in Phoenix. What we see from the vice president is her consistently trying to characterize herself as a unifier, also leaning heavily on the strength, they believe, of this issue of reproductive rights.

She's back in battleground Wisconsin today, here in Georgia tomorrow, then North Carolina, Michigan, and Pennsylvania all before the votes are counted. The campaign is long maintained. They are competing everywhere and see every battleground state as in play.

SANCHEZ: Eva McKend, thank you so much for that update. The economy, of course, one of the top issues that voters are weighing and the last significant piece of economic data before Election Day is now out, it's the October jobs report.

KEILAR: Yes, that's right. And the Labor Department's saying today the job market, the growth fell well below expectations, adding just 12,000 jobs. We have CNN's Julia Chatterley to break down the numbers. Julia, this was the lowest job growth since 2020. There are a number of reasons. What happened?

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: It's certainly a jarring jobs report. And you're right. Strikes, storms and potentially some slowing of jobs market growth too. The challenge we've got is it's tough to quantify how much of each. And that was the overriding message, I think, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They said, look, we saw a, quote, "severe impact" from Hurricane Helene and from Hurricane Milton and that they couldn't quantify the impact. So, that leaves us grasping around to understand.

To the numbers, as you pointed out, 12,000 jobs added for the month of October, a fraction even of what we were expecting. And that is jarring. Let's be clear. We were expecting a hit of somewhere between 60,000 or to 100,000 jobs as a result of those Boeing strikes and the storm impact. Even if you add the best-case scenario, this does look like a softer report. Then take the revisions to the months of August and September. We saw 112,000 less jobs added over those two months, too. So, it's not a collapsing jobs market, it is a cooling jobs market.

In terms of the sectors, let me just give you a look. It's what you would expect. We saw a big hit to manufacturing. We saw a big hit to temporary jobs as well. We saw gains from government hiring jobs and people and from health care as well.

What's most interesting to me, guys, very quickly, is the unemployment rate, 4.1 percent unchanged from the month of September. So, through all this noise, perhaps that's the best way to look at these numbers and the jobs market and just wait for next month, quite frankly.

What does this mean and where does this leave us four days out from a presidential election? Plenty of room, I think, to politicize this report.

SANCHEZ: And to that point, Julia, how do you expect both camps might try to gain the edge with this report?

CHATTERLEY: It's certainly a curveball for the White House. They've said, look, let's wait for next month's jobs numbers. And I would have to say, I agree with that. The Trump campaign is calling it catastrophic. It's not. We know this is a solid economy, but we know that the jobs market is slowing too. Again, let's wait the 34 days until the next jobs market report and that we can then see what we can get.

Silver linings, guys, six days until the Federal Reserve meeting. This is consistent with the quarter of a percentage point rate cut. So that's good news, at least, for borrowers. And let's wait until next month to make judgemtns.

KEILAR: All right. We will wait because you said so.

CHATTERLEY: Thank you.

KEILAR: Julia Chatterley, thank you. And we're joined now by Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee of Michigan. Congressman, yes, strikes hurricanes, but this is a curveball. This jobs report is not good.

REP. DAN KILDEE (D-MI), BUDGET COMMITTEE AND WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE: Yes. I mean, obviously we'd like to see more robust job growth, but I think it makes the point, do we want to stick with the administration that has been growing jobs for the last four years or do we want to go back to job losses?

I mean, right here in my home communities of mid-Michigan, we lost jobs under Donald Trump. Even this month, we're gaining jobs right here. It's a troubling report, but it really begs the question, do we want to stay on the path that has created record job growth and maintain low unemployment or do we want to go to the chaos of Donald Trump and all that that means? He lost -- we lost jobs when he was president. We can't go back to that, especially now.

[13:10:00] KEILAR: You will be heading to Flint today. You'll be campaigning with Governor Walz. What do Michiganders need to hear from him and Vice President Harris?

KILDEE: I think we have to continue our closing argument, and that is that we have a to-do list. We want to continue to build manufacturing jobs in this country. We are having success. We want to stay that course, number one. And secondly, we want to put behind us the politics of anger, division, resentment.

You know, Donald Trump has his enemies list. Kamala Harris has a to-do list. That's the question that we pose for the American people. Do you want retribution and anger and angst and name calling or do you want to roll up your sleeves and get to work to continue the progress that we've made under the Biden-Harris administration? I think it's a clear choice for Michiganders.

KEILAR: Congresswoman Slotkin, who is running for Senate in Michigan, was on CNN earlier talking about the secret women's vote. I wonder, do you think the polls are missing secret or ghost voters?

KILDEE: Yes, I don't have aggregate data on this, but I've been out with our door knocks. I've been on the doors, on those porches, and what we've heard from many people is that we have split households. And in fact, in some cases they say, you know, like, for example, we go to a door and one of them might have a Trump sign in the front yard. But typically, because of the gender differential that we're seeing in this race, typically, the woman in the household is saying, look, I'm with Kamala.

So, I'm not sure how that shows up in polling. All I know it's right now, you know, it's going to be a close race, but the energy is on our side. A lot of it has to do with people who are just sick to death of this sort of anger and venom that Donald Trump introduces to the political process.

But it also is about reproductive rights. It's about the economy. It's about our democracy. All of that falls to our advantage. The interesting thing is that there's some recent polling that shows there's almost no undecided voters. The decision are for voters who don't know if they have a stake in this race as to whether they're going to participate.

So, our argument, really, is not to appeal to people to change their minds, but to activate themselves based on what their interests are and get to the polls. If we do that, we'll be fine.

KEILAR: So, you're saying you personally, as you've gone door knocking, have encountered these split households where the wife or the woman in the house is saying that she's going to vote for Harris while her husband or partner is going to be voting for Donald Trump. Can you tell me a little bit more about those interactions and the conversation or conversations that you've had?

KILDEE: Yes. I mean, I've had -- just had a conversation the night before last with this -- in this precise context where this particular woman's husband is clearly deciding he's voting for Donald Trump. You know, I could argue that with him. It wasn't going anywhere. She was open to Kamala Harris, maybe not on every issue, but on sort of the fundamentals, and it falls into two categories.

One, women's rights -- women's reproductive rights clearly are on the ballot in the United States, no matter what Donald Trump says. He wants to take us back. He engineered the change that resulted in Roe --

KEILAR: OK. So, but -- so, the woman was open or she said she would vote for Harris? And where was this? I'm just curious.

KILDEE: Well, in this particular case, she was going to vote for Kamala Harris. But what we're getting -- and we're picking that up in other places as well. And of course, the data shows that, when you see such a gender gap, it's logical that some of that is going to fall within a household, and that's what we're seeing here in Michigan.

KEILAR: And when you're talking to people, are these women who voted for Trump before?

KILDEE: In some cases, yes. I don't think we saw quite the gender gap that we're seeing this time around as we saw in 2020 or even 2016, and I think largely that does result from the full understanding that Donald Trump is proud of the fact that the Supreme Court that he engineered has taken away women's reproductive rights.

And of course, the way he speaks about all of this, the way he speaks about people in general, but also speaks about women in particular, the Liz Cheney comments, for example, that's really offensive to a lot of the folks that I'm talking to. And so, some of them may have been Trump voters, but they're just sick of him. They're just done with him and they want to put him in the rear-view mirror.

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KEILAR: All right. And then, just on the flip side, Mark Cuban, who's a vocal Harris supporter, said on The View yesterday about Trump, you never see him around strong, intelligent women ever. So, he's sort of stuck his foot in his mouth when it came to women. Do you think that is going to have a negative impact for Harris, who he's backing?

KILDEE: No, I don't think so. And first of all, it's Kamala Harris that's on the ballot, not anybody else who might be making commentary. And her record is fairly clear. And the difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris couldn't be more clear, no matter what anybody's saying or how they're characterizing it.

I just think we take them at their word. Listen to Donald Trump. Listen to Kamala Harris. And make a -- you know, come to a conclusion. And if you do that, men, women, independents, Republicans, Democrats, many of them are finding their way to Kamala Harris.

KEILAR: All right. Congressman Dan Kildee, thank you so much. Here we are just a few days out. We'll see what happens. Thank you, sir.

KILDEE: Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: Still ahead, legal battles underway over absentee and mail-in ballots in battleground states like Georgia and Pennsylvania. Ahead, we'll talk about how those challenges could impact the race.

SANCHEZ: And new details on an urgent scramble inside the White House to clean up President Biden's garbage gaffe. Stay with CNN News Central.

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SANCHEZ: In Pennsylvania, where every single vote could be critical to winning the White House. Republicans are battling in court to throw out early ballots. And I'm going to talk a -- but first, let's talk about these ballots if they were dated incorrectly.

KEILAR: Yes, we have CNN Political Correspondent Sara Murray here on this story. So, Sara, how could this affect the final result?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is an ongoing fight about the date that goes on these ballots. You know, in the past, people have filled it out incorrectly. They put their birth date. They put the wrong date. They forget to put a date on it. And so, then the ballot doesn't count. And so, this is a fight over whether these ballots should count. And the question is whether what a lower court ruled could actually apply to this election that, you know, the ballots could count even without the dates.

What I want to say is that voting rights groups are saying this is a murky situation. If you have not handed in your mail-in ballot yet, make sure you fill out the date properly to ensure it could count. Where we could see this really come into play is if there are very tight margins in Pennsylvania and we see this kind of post-Election Day litigation about whether to count certain batches of these ballots that have the incorrect date on them.

SANCHEZ: We should point out in Pennsylvania, Joe Biden won last time by about one percentage point. So, every vote is enormously important.

MURRAY: It could be very close, yes.

SANCHEZ: Yes. There's also something going on in Georgia where there's a civil rights group asking a court there to extend the deadline to return absentee ballots for more than 3,000 voters. This is in Cobb County. Walk us through what's going on there.

MURRAY: Yes, this is in Cobb County, Georgia, and officials there have acknowledged that they got this surge of last-minute absentee ballot applications and that it was difficult for them to process them quickly and to get them out the door. They're now taking steps to try to do that as quickly as possible. But there is a lawsuit essentially saying, we want you to accept. for when you will accept day on November 5th rather than Election Day, on November 5th. So, there is a hearing in the matter today. We're waiting to see where it lands. KEILAR: And staying in Georgia, tell us what election officials are calling an obviously fake video that's alleging voter fraud there.

MURRAY: Yes. I mean, we've been talking about this firehose of mis and disinformation that election officials are dealing with. This is another great example of this. This is a video that's coming out of Georgia that purports -- well, let me just tell you what Brad Raffensperger said, because he describes us in the video, the secretary of state. He said, earlier today, this was last night, our office became aware of a video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant with multiple Georgia I.D.s claiming to have voted multiple times. This is obviously fake and part of a disinformation effort. Likely it is a production of Russian troll farms.

And we just heard from U.S. intelligence officials who are saying, yes, we do believe this is a Russian disinformation effort. The problem here is not just that it's a Russian created video, it is that we are seeing political operatives on the conservative side in the State of Georgia amplifying this and continuing to share it even though we saw this prompt response from election officials in Georgia, there are a lot of conservative Republicans in Georgia who just don't trust Brad Raffensperger and his officials after they refused to overturn the results in 2020.

SANCHEZ: Despite this slate of new laws that were put into place in Georgia specifically after 2020 election?

MURRAY: Yes, exactly. There is a voter I.D. law in the State of Georgia. They've made it more difficult in many of these cases to be able to cast your ballot in a ballot drop box. I think that's part of the reason we're seeing such high, you know, early in-person voting numbers in Georgia is because it's just much less convenient to do this sort of mail ballot drop boxes.

So, yes, it has been -- sort of the process has been tightened in Georgia, but the misinformation is still running rampant.

KEILAR: Yes, it's very important to give us that reminder. Sara, thank you. So, we're learning more about the steps that President Biden's aides took to clean up his controversial remarks earlier this week and he -- when he appeared to call the supporters of Donald Trump, quote, "garbage" and how career staff at the White House are upset about the process to rush out a corrected transcript.

SANCHEZ: Yes. CNN Senior White House Correspondent Kayla Tausche joins us now live. Kayla, this has to be a surprise for the stenographers to be in the headlines. What happened?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, White House stenographers often say that they don't work in service of an administration, they work in service of the truth. And to establish that truth as a matter of record, there are very formal processes that they follow.

And according to e-mails obtained by the Associated Press earlier this week after the White House press office pushed out single handedly an edited transcript after conferring with the president to suggest that those comments where he described Trump supporters as garbage, where they said in their transcript that there was an apostrophe, that President Biden meant to refer only to the comedian speaking at the Trump rally, not to all of his backers.

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But according to one of those e-mails, here's what the stenographer said, if there's a difference in interpretation, the press office may choose to withhold the transcript, but cannot edit it independently. Our stenography office transcript released to our distro, shorthand for distribution, which includes the National Archives, is now different than the version edited and released to the public by Press Office staff.

Now, at issue is the presence of a supervising stenographer, which is usually the one who settles disputes, when there is a difference between the official transcript and what the press office suggests that the transcript should be, and that supervising stenographer, according to this reporting, was not available on an urgent basis following the president's comments. And so, there was this dispute over whether there should be an apostrophe in those comments. And clearly, stenographers are outraged, to some effect, by the fact that now the Press Office record is being treated as the official record, and there will be some editing that will need to happen behind the scenes.

But really, guys, you know, ultimately, it is problematic because it's up to the viewer. Biden's comments were on camera on Tuesday evening, meaning that regardless of what the official transcript says, it's up to the viewer to decide what they heard and what they believe Biden meant. Boris, Brianna.

SANCHEZ: Yes, absolutely. It's problematic for the Harris campaign because now they're talking about an apostrophe instead of talking about what they would rather be talking about. Kayla Tausche from the White House, thank you so much.

TAUSCHE: Sure.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, an Israeli military source says the IDF is that a high level of readiness for a response from Iran. It comes as a high-ranking source tells CNN that Iran could respond to Israel's attacks before the U.S. presidential election. We'll take you live to the region in just moments.

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