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Latino Vote Helped Fuel Trump Victory; Iranian Foreign Minister: U.S. Election Provides "Opportunities" To Reconsider "Ill- Suited Approaches"; Ukraine's Zelenskyy Confirms Deadly Clashes with N. Korean Troops; Kremlin: Trump's Claims He Could End Ukraine War Overnight An "Over-Exaggeration"; Fed Cuts Interest Rates By Quarter Point As Democrats Grapple With Decisive Trump Victory; Report: 2024 On Track To Be Warmest Year Ever. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired November 07, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: OK, so how do they address that? Sometimes in the past, I mean -- I remember covering the Obama administration and he said famously, once, basically we didn't talk about it right or it was a messaging thing.

And there's always -- whenever you say that, people say, it's not just about how you talk about it, it might actually be the thing.

But you really feel it's a messaging issue. So is that what you're saying it's how they're connecting with this voting bloc.

KRISTIAN RAMOS, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, CONGRESSIONAL HISPANIC CAUCUS: So over the last four years, Democrats have created millions of jobs in the construction space. Millions of jobs bringing manufacturing back, creating manufacturing hubs in places like Phoenix. Bringing Dell back to Phoenix. Again, creating jobs for these people.

Latino men, they hear nothing about those things from Democrats. They don't hear about the work that they've done to help create constructions jobs and to create more equity and opportunity for them. That's the opportunity going forward as we continue the conversations.

Because Republicans, again, have passed none of those laws. In fact, Donald Trump will make life much better for the mega-wealthy, but for actual workers, none of that stuff will work.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Sabrina, there's a sound byte I want to play for you. This is from a D.J., Victor Martinez, from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR MARTINEZ, LATINO RADIO SHOW HOST: It was a Latino man who decided that they were going to vote for Donald Trump. And I will dare to say that it is the Latino man who wouldn't want a woman president. And that is unfortunate. But that's part of the Latino culture, right? Where the Latino, the man is the one, the provider, and we are the boss. And we still, unfortunately, have a lot of Latinos with that mentality, where the woman belongs in the kitchen.

That is a reality of the Latino male chauvinist culture, and I think that's exactly what happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: There are some data points that would contradict that, namely that a majority of liens voted for Hillary Clinton when she ran in 2016. I think like 66 percent. I'm curious to get your reaction to that.

SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Look, Boris, I don't put sexism and racism past the United States. I think that for some people, that was a factor.

I have been out for months talking to Latino voters across the country and some people did say that. Some people did mention outright to me, to me, a Latina woman, that they would not vote for a woman, that they didn't want to see a woman in office, that they didn't think that she could be strong enough as a president.

However, I think it would be shortsighted to just say that is the reason why this happened. This is years of Donald Trump's messaging. I mean, Donald Trump's campaign focused so heavily on targeting men, not just Latino men, but men across the board.

We had conversations leading up to the election about black men and we've seen so much is focused on going on Joe Rogan's podcast and going to talk to young white men on college campuses.

But with Latino men, there was this focus about, you know, as he was saying, the economy and how he's going to be better for you, and how he's going to provide for your family, and how things were so much better four years ago when he was president.

And objectively, anyone that goes to the grocery store knows that things are more expensive. Anyone who's paying rent knows it's more expensive. So for a lot of people, that was a compelling argument, even if it wasn't necessarily backed up with him outlining policies.

SANCHEZ: Kristian, your reaction to that clip?

RAMOS: We have a lot of work to do to reach those voters. We've done a lot of incredible things to make that gentleman's life better. Does he realize it was Democrats that do that? Did we take that credit and a conversation that was culturally relevant to him? I don't know what we did. That's the opportunity coming ahead.

KEILAR: Kristian, Sabrina, thank you so much to both of you. We really appreciate the conversation.

SANCHEZ: The duchess of Hialeah. KEILAR: That's right.

(CROSSTALK)

RODRIGUEZ: You have to get it in.

SANCHEZ: Fix this introduction.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: We've got to out-put it in the Chiron.

Thank you, Duchess. Appreciate it.

Still to come, why Ukraine's president says hugs with Putin won't help end the war with Russia amid fears of what Trump's second term will mean for Ukraine's future.

And more voter reaction to Trump's election victory. Here's what one Harris supporter had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It definitely kind of hit really hard that people would choose, you know, a campaign basically run on hateful rhetoric over somebody with a level head on their shoulders.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Where do we go from here?

[14:34:33]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I can say is, buckle up, because it's going to be a wild four years.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Some new international reaction to Trump's White House win. The Kremlin pushing back against Donald Trump's claims that he could quickly solve the conflict in Ukraine. They're calling those claims an overexaggeration.

SANCHEZ: Meantime, a spokesperson for Iran's foreign ministry says the U.S. election provides opportunities to reconsider ill-suited approaches.

And while we hear that from Tehran, Donald Trump's former Iran envoy tells CNN that he believes that Donald Trump will seek a policy to isolate Iran diplomatically and weaken it economically.

We're following the international reaction with CNN's Nic Robertson in London and Fred Pleitgen in Berlin.

Nic, let's start with you.

You've been talking to sources within the Trump camp about this Iran strategy.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, this is something that is not new within the sort of orbit of the Iran Mideast experts who give advice to President-Elect Donald Trump. This is something that they've been thinking about for some time.

And they would characterize it this way. That Donald Trump believes that he can achieve his foreign policy goals, a lot through essentially what we would see as economic coercion.

In this case, in the case of Iran, is would go back to maximum pressure, maximum sanctions, but this time, make sure the sanctions really stick. Prevent Iran from exporting oil as it does to China. These are sort of some of the things that Iran could face.

[14:39:55]

So I think when we hear from the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson saying that the elections provide an opportunity for the United States to change it's sort of ill-suited agenda to Iran. It does seem they're playing more to a domestic audience and the reality they might actually face.

When President Trump gets into the White House, it's very likely that Iran is going to face a challenge, even if it had been Kamala Harris that made it to the White House.

Iran's actions in the Middle East, with its proxies, have caused enough international concern that this is a serious issue, a serious issue here in Europe for the Germans, the French, and the British to want to get together with whoever is in the White House to figure out how to tackle Iran.

And part of that agenda will be very much driven by how close Iran is getting to being able to produce a nuclear weapon. So this is going to be a big issue.

And Iran knows that coming up. So I think what they're -- what Iran faces is political -- is exactly as Brian Hook has laid out, are those very strong economic sanctions that, over time, are really going to cripple it.

And without intending regime change, there'll be many that hope that it will bring that.

KEILAR: And, Fred, I do want to ask you how Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy is responding to the Trump win in the election.

But I also just want to note that he has just said or confirmed that North Korean soldiers have taken part in hostilities against the Ukrainian military and he says that there are losses.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he certainly did. He said all of that is taking place in the Kursk region. That, of course, where Ukrainians have been conducting that incursion into Russia territory. And Ukraine, for several days now, have been saying that North Korean soldiers are present there.

One of the interesting things, Brianna, that he also said today, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, this was at a conference in Hungary, is that he claimed that North Korea was essentially invading Europe, was waging war in Europe.

And if they European countries and, of course, the United States don't stand up to Russia, on their side as North Koreans are fighting, that all of this will only intensify.

So certainly, there is a lot of concern on the part of the Ukrainians as to what this new administration can bring.

One of the things that Volodymyr Zelenskyy also cautioned was not to play too nicely with the Russians. I want to listen to some of what he had to say today at that conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: We need weapons, not support in talks, hugs with Putin will not help. Some of leaders have been hugging him for 20 years and things are only getting worse. He thinks only about wars and will not change. Only pressure can put limits on him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: Some pretty direct words there coming from the Ukrainian president.

Of course, one of the things that President-Elect Trump has said during the election campaign and specifically after meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the U.S. General Assembly is that he wants to end the war as quickly as possible.

And that he believes that his good relations not just with Zelenskyy, but with Russian President Vladimir Putin, will help do that. He has praised his relations with Vladimir Putin.

Well, Vladimir Putin has now essentially done the same thing. Just as we we're going on-air, I was in the on the sideline watching Vladimir Putin at an event in Sochi, in southern Russia, and he for the first time congratulated Donald Trump on winning the U.S. presidential election.

I just want to read that real quickly.

He said, that "Regardless of what he said about his desire to rebuild relations with Russia, to facilitate an end to the war in the Ukrainian crisis, I think this deserves attention, at the very least, and I would like to take this opportunity to offer my congratulations to his election as president of the United States" -- guys?

KEILAR: All right, Fred Pleitgen and Nic Robertson, thank you to you both.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, a destructive and rapidly growing wildfire in southern California, just the latest example of severe weather potentially fueled by the climate crisis as President-Elect Trump returns to the White House with promises to pull out of international agreements on fighting climate change.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:47:57]

SANCHEZ: We're following breaking news into CNN. The Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by a quarter point, marking the second cut of the year. It comes as Democrats grapple with this week's stunning election losses, with millions of voters citing the economy as their top concern.

Let's discuss with pollster and communications strategist, Frank Luntz.

Frank, great to be with you, as always.

The Wednesday morning headline, "Voters hand Republicans a mandate." Do you think that this outcome was inevitable given the truncated amount of time that Kamala Harris had to run a campaign, along with the economic headwinds?

Or is there more that she could have done in those 100-ish days she could have done to get elected?

FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER & COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIST: There absolutely is more. And this is significant. Because, in the end, they're trying undercut Trump's victory, which was significant.

It wasn't a mandate, because it's still an only 3 percent or 4 percent victory. But it was significant. It was meaningful and measurable.

First, she could have told people exactly what she wanted to do in the first hour, the first day, the first week, the first month.

Second is that she could have explained much better why her positions have changed. The public doesn't like flip-flopping, but they do appreciate when you learn something, when you're not the same person now that you were five, 10 or 20 years ago.

And third, when she was positive that whole first half of her campaign, right up to the debate, when she was joyful and energetic and enthusiastic with the crowds, and she talked about what she wanted to achieve, that was significant. And you saw it in the polling numbers, and you could feel the energy.

But when she turned against Trump and attempted to redefine him, I heard the phrase from the campaign that they wanted to make sure that no America had Trump amnesia.

Well, guess what? We know everything there is to know about Donald Trump, good and bad. We know who he is, where he is, we know where he stands. We did not know her.

I think that when all of this is said and done and the tears have been shed and the crying ends that she will look at her campaign as a horribly missed opportunity to have a genuine conversation with the American people. That's why she lost.

[14:50:13]

SANCHEZ: Frank, what about the fact that Donald Trump, for the first time that he's run, is on track to win the popular vote? I mean, you just said that a lot of Americans -- that Americans know everything there is to know about Donald Trump.

How is that the case given that he's more popular than ever, and yet he uses rhetoric that is offensive?

LUNTZ: For some people, what's offensive to others -- and I'm not a supporter of his rhetoric. But for some people, what's offensive for other people is telling it straight.

And I do have a problem with the language that he used. I think it's not appropriate. I would like our president to be a role model in addition to a political and economic leader. And obviously, the person that leads the Army.

I think that what a president says and what a president does absolutely matters. And that we should be trying to aspire to something greater.

But that said, he was explicit, he focused on the things that mattered to him, particularly on immigration. And in the end, the public compared his immigration record and his proposals with Vice President Harris' record and her proposals and they found Trump better than Harris.

Make no mistake. If you asked a person who they liked better as a person, Vice President Harris won that comparison.

But if you asked people who could better handle affordability -- because it's really not the economy, it's about prices and costs, affordability and immigration, which is more about safety and security, they, by 10 points or more, gave that edge to Donald Trump.

And once again, that's the reason why he won.

SANCHEZ: Well, Frank, there's a lot of finger pointing within the Democratic party. Moderates are blaming progressives. Progressives are blaming moderates. What do you think the path forward is for the Democratic party?

LUNTZ: So I'm eager to bring these focus groups -- And you all have used them frequently. Because we talk to these voter groups.

And Vice President Harris did worse among men, particularly middle- aged men, particularly men who had voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. And they felt like the Democratic Party had left them.

This is no embrace, no bear hug of either Trump or the Republican Party. But they felt like Vice President Harris only cared about young women. And you saw it in the ads, you saw it in the rallies, you saw it in all the sound bytes and the clips visually.

That clearly, she wanted to be a role model. And that's perfectly appropriate. And in fact, it's courageous to give young women a role model.

But you don't do it at the expense of men, who have been voting Democrat, working hard, playing by the rules, paying their taxes. And there are too many of these men who abandoned the Democrats in 2024.

And frankly, they'll have to focus on how you can still appeal to women, but not reject men or they will not be the majority part again.

SANCHEZ: Frank Luntz, always appreciate your analysis. Thanks so much for joining us.

LUNTZ: I appreciate it. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: There is a wildfire raging in southern California, a late- season hurricane tearing through Cuba and threatening the U.S. Gulf Coast, and also record autumn heat across the country. These are now just some of the realities of climate change.

The question is, how will the U.S. respond to it under a second Trump administration?

KEILAR: Yes, there's a new report that finds 2024 is on track to be the warmest year ever. I know we're feeling that in Washington, D.C., today --

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: -- for sure. And it may cross a red line that scientists are really worried about.

CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir is here with more on this.

Bill, 2024 will be the first calendar year to exceed the Paris agreement threshold. What does it mean for the planet?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that line, that 1.5 degrees Celsius or 3 degrees Fahrenheit, was the idea that anything beyond that would just be so hard to adapt and to do it in time.

But once we hit 2 percent, if you think things are bad now, imagine the hell on earth that would be 3 degrees of global warming.

Well, Donald Trump is basically saying, go to hell. Go to that hell. Because he doesn't want to even acknowledge the existence of the problem.

He won with a promise to supercharge the economy and fix the border and heal America, but climate change is the hole in every one of those buckets.

Making it that much harder to deal with streams of immigrants coming from Central America after storms or droughts down there, dealing with the economy in places like Asheville, North Carolina, completely devastated.

We'll put up a map of the ocean temperatures as well hitting records around the globe, especially around the United States, around the Atlantic and the gulf there.

[14:54:54]

That, of course, makes hurricanes stronger and faster. It moves water cycles in much less predictable ways. It affects everything from insurance rates -- there's a crisis on that -- to supply chains.

And the wildfire that you're talking about now in California, this warmer planet, it dries things out faster, makes a more flammable earth.

And so at the absolute time science is saying humanity must rally together, decarbonize as quick as humanely possible and brace for the pain that's built in, the United States has elected really the most notorious climate denier in the public eye these days.

Next week, at COP-29 in Baku in Azerbaijan, the world is supposed to meet to talk about finance for developing countries, helping them adapt and get green in time.

But we're already hearing that diplomats may not be going because of the clues from the United States that the Trump administration not interested in certainly global climate diplomacy.

For the countries that take this seriously, that's a major issue. But there may be enough built-in momentum with the clean energy projects, especially in Republican districts, Brianna and Boris, that it will be hard to claw those back here in the United States.

KEILAR: All right, Bill Weir, thank you so much. It will certainly be something to watch here.

Ahead, as the country prepares for the return of Trump to the White House, his transition is looking at who he might want to put in his cabinet. We'll talk to someone who could have a role and might put the election results in depth after a quick break

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)