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Major Shakeup In Mark Robinson Campaign After CNN Report; Four Dead, 17 Injured In Birmingham, Alabama Mass Shooting; Senior Hezbollah Leader Claims "Battle Without Limits" Against Israel Now Underway; Rural Democrats Mobilize In Battleground Michigan; Dan Quayle Versus Murphy Brown. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired September 22, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:22]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in New York, and we begin this hour with breaking news.

Multiple staffers have just quit the campaign from Mark Robinson. He's the embattled Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina. The campaign telling CNN tonight four of its top operatives have stepped down from their roles. Those exits coming just days after a bombshell CNN report uncovered racist, sexually graphic, and lewd comments made by Robinson on a porn Web site years ago.

Robinson, writing in a statement tonight, quote, "I appreciate the efforts of these team members who have made the difficult choice to step away from the campaign. And I wish them well in their future endeavors. I look forward to announcing new staff roles in the coming days."

CNN KFile senior editor Andrew Kaczynski, who broke this story, joins us now with more details.

Andrew, what are you hearing tonight?

ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Well, that's right. CNN has learned that four top operatives to Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson's campaign have all resigned in the wake of our story including the campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, finance director, and top consultant and senior adviser.

This is leaving his campaign right now with essentially out a senior staff heading into the last month of the election. And now I think the question is, where does this campaign go from here? Are more staff going to resign? And this is just the latest fallout from that story that we published on Thursday.

DEAN: Right. And when you talk to him, I know you interviewed him. He denied a lot of what you laid in front of him with a lot of evidence. But what did you get any indication at that time that there might be changes in his campaign or is this a surprise to you? KACZYNSKI: Well, it's a surprise to us. We had actually heard rumors

ahead of our interview with him because people might have seen that our story started to leak out before we even published it. Somebody on his campaign staff was leaking that somewhere and we had heard rumors that some of his campaign staff had resigned. And I asked him directly in that interview we've heard that staff on your campaign have resigned and he said to me, in that interview, I believe that none of his campaign staff have resigned.

So since then, I don't know if this happened before then. Now we know that in fact all or many of his top operatives on his campaign have just all resigned in mass.

DEAN: Yes, we're talking about a senior adviser, the head of the campaign. It's a lot of senior staff members.

Andrew, just for people who maybe don't remember all the details, didn't get to read the report, give us an outline of what you all found.

KACZYNSKI: So we found that between 2008 and 2012, Mark Robinson commented on the forums of a pornographic Web site where he calls himself a, quote, "black Nazi." He said that he preferred Hitler to U.S. leadership. One of the most disturbing comments we found was him saying that he supported reinstating slavery. Robinson has also run as a very harsh anti-transgender candidate for office.

And we found a comment in our story where he said he enjoyed watching transgender pornography. He's running as a socially conservative candidate, very anti-abortion. We found a comment where he said that he didn't care if a woman had an abortion. There was a lot of very sexually graphic stuff that we couldn't even publish in our story. And then we also found, you know, a whole number of comments like where he said he got sexual gratification from a memory of spying on women in public showers as a teenager.

So just a whole lot of disturbing stuff there that we were able to trace to Robinson because he's used both the same username all across the Web that he used on that forum that is actual -- his name was listed on that forum. A whole bunch of stuff that pointed that -- to that user being Mark Robinson and Mark Robinson only.

DEAN: Yes, it is incredible reporting and now we are seeing the real- world fallout here.

Andrew Kaczynski, thank you so much for being with us, walking us through all of that.

I want to bring in our panel now. CNN political commentator and Republicans strategist, Shermichael Singleton. Also joining us Democratic strategist and founder of Lift Our Voices, Julie Roginsky.

Thanks to both of you for being here with us.

Shermichael, I just want to get your thoughts first and foremost as a Republican, as someone who I know talks to the Trump campaign, North Carolina is going to be quite a tight race if these polls are correct. And I was just talking to Doug Heye, who of course is a North Carolinian, also former communications director for the RNC.

[18:05:01]

And I asked him about this theory of the case I had heard yesterday from someone else on one of our panels that maybe in other situations where there's a big blowout in a state, it may not matter something like this to the presidential election, but when it's going to be one on the margins most likely, is this something that can move those margins just enough? And I'm curious what your thought is kind of through that lens.

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, its typically not the norm, but I mean this is an unprecedented campaign to the premise of your question, it's certainly possible, right? But also number two, Jessica, it forces the Trump campaign to spend dollars in a state that under the ordinary set of circumstances you would expect a Republican to win and those resources could be spent and utilized in Pennsylvania, which we all know is a must-win state, not only for the vice president, but also for the former president, if they're trying to get to that magic number of 270.

With that said, I am not surprised that the senior staffers of Mark Robinson have resigned. I mean, this guy is a disgrace to conservatism. He is clearly not authentically conservative. The Republicans in North Carolina had an opportunity, and Jessica, I keep saying this on our airwaves for days now, to nominate and go with former congressman and pastor, Mark Walker, someone who is a conservative, who would've ran an incredibly competitive race and particularly could have even won. I don't know.

But yet they decided to go with Robinson. And from my conversations with people in North Carolina, many people knew that this guy had a troubled background, and yet they still risk not only the seat, but they also potentially risked the presidency by nominating this guy with a deplorable background. Now you run the risk of turning off Republican voters who may say, you know what, this is just too much chaos. I'm just going to sit this out.

What are the implications for something like that for the top of the ticket, that being the former president Donald Trump? You also have to keep in mind the implications for the battleground -- for the lower tier tickets. Congressional races, state Senate, state House seats, all of those things are going to unfortunately be impacted by this one man and all he had to do was step down several days ago. And his arrogance and his ego made him decide not to.

DEAN: And Julie, we've seen the Harris campaign already cut an ad tying the former president to Mark Robinson, former president Trump had endorsed him, although when he was at the rally on Saturday Trump did not say his name and Mark Robinson was not there.

Do you think that's going to be effective for the Harris campaign in persuading potentially new voters to come her way? JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Of course it will because of

course Donald Trump has yet to criticize Robinson even after all the horrible things that Andrew Kaczynski uncovered, and all the horrible things that we knew about even before Andrew Kaczynski covered them.

Look, let me just say this, because this is so reminiscent of what happened to the Trump orbit back in 2020. All of a sudden Mark Robinson looks like he is not going to win. So his staff en mass decides they're going to resign not because they're offended by what he said because let's be very clear, he has said incredibly offensive things before as Shermichael pointed out, but because now it looks like they don't want a lost, they don't want a big L on their record.

This is so similar to what happened in 2020 where Trump's staff stayed with him and stayed with him and stayed with him after Charlottesville, after all of the comments that he made throughout his presidency, and only after he lost, January 6th gave them the excuse to say, oh, we just (INAUDIBLE) from this guy. He's a bad guy. Well, listen, if you are with him throughout the entire four years of his term when he was doing unconscionable things, trying to open fire on protesters, I mean, the march down the White House after his loss, you know, the holding up the bible, if you were there for Charlottesville, and yet you stuck around.

And after January 6th, when you knew that he wasn't going to get certified, you didn't want that loss on your record, suddenly you had some sort of moral epiphany about him. Same thing happened here with Mark Robinson. This staff resigning today I think is kind a disgrace because they had no problem sticking with him when he said that the holocaust was kind of not a big deal, when he said that some people, quote-unquote, "need killing." Talking about I guess his own constituents.

You know, to me, this is a little bit disingenuous and it's so completely symptomatic of the illness going on in our politics right now. And I just don't know why more people don't talk about this.

DEAN: And we are hearing from some Republicans who just talking more generally about, the situation there in North Carolina about Mark Robinson as a candidate, about the impact he could potentially have. We did hear from Senator Tom Cotton earlier today before this news broke. He was on the Sunday shows. I think we have that clip we can play.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): I've seen these allegations, Jake, and they're concerning allegations. He owes the people of North Carolina --

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: TAPPER: The shekels thing was under his name on his Facebook page.

COTTON: He owes the people of North Carolina more answers about it. But we're talking about the presidential race here that matters to everyone, not just the people in one state.

TAPPER: Do you think that Trump should still support Mark Robinson in North Carolina?

COTTON: I'll leave that to President Trump and most importantly I'll leave it to the people of North Carolina.

[18:10:01]

That is one state. We're talking about a presidential race that is going to affect every American at a time when a third of Americans can't even afford their groceries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And again, that was Senator Tom Cotton with our Jake Tapper on "STATE OF THE UNION."

Shermichael, I just want to get your reaction to kind of what the senator was saying there.

SINGLETON: Yes. Look, no, I think he's right. I was looking at that recent NBC poll that came out today that everyone is sort of talking about. And while it certainly is good news for Vice President Harris because it does suggest that the momentum we've seen is certainly moving in her direction, and it has provided her, what, a 4 percent, 5 percent boost ahead of the former president.

But when you actually start looking beneath that top line numbers, there are a couple areas where the former president does fairly well, immigration, there's a 21 percent, 22 percent or point difference. You look at the cost of living, the economy, Donald Trump has an advantage. You look at crime, Donald Trump has an advantage. And one number that goes to Tom Cotton's point about people being concerned with just about cost of living, the economy, maybe even their futures, 66 percent said that they are afraid or worried about what future looks like for them economically.

So while the top numbers look great for Harris, if I'm on the Trump campaign, I'm trying to figure out how do I articulate a message to voters who are concerned about the issues that I just laid out, particularly in a state like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, those really crucial states that the former president absolutely must win if he wants to go back to the White House.

DEAN: Julie, what are your thoughts?

ROGINSKY: You know, I want to actually go back to what Thompson or Cotton just said.

DEAN: Yes.

ROGINSKY: Is it really that hard just to say the guy is a disgrace and no, Donald Trump should not be supporting somebody who calls himself a black Nazi, somebody who says that slavery, you know, would not be a bad thing to bring back as maybe he'd buy a few? Is that really that difficult for Senator Cotton to say? Is it really that difficult for Thom Tillis, the senator from North Carolina, who said, well, if this isn't true, then I guess that Mark Robinson should sue CNN and if it is true then he should I guess resign?

Why not have said that before? Why not just say point blank this is not the kind of rhetoric we need in the Republican Party, and we distance ourselves from it? And we also think the president -- the former president should distance himself from it, too? Because Donald Trump has yet to say anything negative about Mark Robinson, and so these people are so desperately terrified of Donald Trump that they won't criticize him for not distancing himself for his own good from Mark Robinson, potentially to win the state of North Carolina/

Even at the expense of losing North Carolina, they're so afraid of him that they won't say that he needs to distance himself from somebody who said he wants to buy slaves. A black man saying he wants to buy slaves. I mean, is this really where the Republican Party is today? Look, I'm a Democrat, has been a lifelong Democrat, but I strongly, and I agree with Shermichael, we need a strong conservative party because we need two strong parties in this state.

What the Republican Party is today is a cult and you just saw that with Tom Cotton saying what he said. This is not a party that has any kind of values other than whatever the president, former president of the United States wants to espouse. And I think it's sad, it's tragic. Now just for the Republican Party, it's tragic for the American political system.

DEAN: Shermichael, why do you think it is so difficult for so many of these Republicans to say we don't agree with this, its objectively not what we want?

SINGLETON: Well, look, I think a lot of them are looking at the electoral odds here, and you need a lot of the voters who supported someone like Robinson in North Carolina, and by that, I mean people who more than likely sort of fit the profile of him, populist, nationalist, and sort of their ideological temperament.

And I would imagine, at least from some of the things I've seen on social media, so this is sort of anecdotal at this point, but a lot of those folks have questioned, well, is this stuff really real, are the stories true, if they were true, why didn't they come out before? And so I think a lot of those politicians are aware of this, Jessica, and are trying to sort of walk the line of not offending them, but pivoting to things that they believe most voters are ultimately concerned with.

But look, I just want to say quickly, most conservative people, most Republican people, I do not believe were in a cult. I think there are a lot of Americans who are conservative, who are Republican, and they're good, decent people. Now, we can sort of raise the question of why certain voters would support someone like a Robinson, and that's complicated conversation we haven't have enough time for, but I don't want to insult every single American who happens to be Republican, who happens to also be conservative.

I take the point that was made but I think we should just sort of be careful with that type of rhetoric.

DEAN: I do want to --

ROGINSKY: You know I'm not suggesting -- sorry quickly.

DEAN: Go ahead, Julie. Go ahead.

ROGINSKY: Really quickly, I'm not suggesting that they're in a cult. I'm suggesting that people like Thom Tillis and Senator Cotton are in a cult because they are supposed to be leaders. They are supposed to be the leaders, the young leaders of the Republican Party. And yet they don't have the backbone or the courage to say, you know what, yes, President Trump, like the rest of us, should distance ourselves from somebody who wants to join our Senate Republican caucus.

[18:15:00]

This is a man running to be their colleague, and yet they are -- you know, in this case, I guess he wants to be governor, but somebody who wants to be a leader in our Republican Party, and we disassociate ourselves from this kind of rhetoric in the Republican Party, but they won't say it because Donald Trump won't say it. That's the cult. It's them, and they are the people who are supposed to be the leaders of the Republican Party and they refused to say it.

I'm not blaming the rank and file. I'm blaming them because they are the people that the rank and file is sensibly should look to except for the fact that apparently Twitter is wagging the dog in this case.

DEAN: And so to that point, we have not --

SINGLETON: Point taken, Julie. Julie, thanks for that clarification. Thank you for that.

DEAN: And we have not heard anything from former president Trump who did endorse Mark Robinson. I do want to play a clip. This is what he has said about Mark Robinson in the past. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is Martin Luther King on steroids. I think you're better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two. One of the great stars of the party. One of the great stars in politics, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Shermichael, when do you think or do you think we will hear anything from the former president distancing himself from Mark Robinson or condemning his actions?

SINGLETON: You know, that -- that's a really, really good point, Jessica. So I remember when you had Doug Mastriano on a couple of other really fringe candidates and the Trump campaign or the adviser to the former president sort of distanced him from those individuals, but he never really directly came out and said anything. And so based upon that history, I really doubt that Trump will say something negatively about him. Maybe he'll say, you know, he's a weird guy, or he's an odd sort of guy.

I mean, that's probably the best we're going to get out of the former president in that regard. But look, I think if you're looking at North Carolina and the data suggesting that this state is becoming more competitive to Julie's point, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to more directly and aggressively distance yourself from someone like a Robinson because you don't want to turn off some of those independent voters who may actually like Trump on the issues of the economy and immigration, and may strongly be considering voting for him but for Mark Robinson.

And so there's a bit of a calculus here that I think the former president could at least at a minimum consider.

DEAN: Yes. Julie, do you want the last word?

ROGINSKY: Yes. The only thing I'd say to the Mastriano point is that's a great analogy, and except for the fact that Mastriano lost in a blowout, and Josh Shapiro is now the incredibly popular governor. And the same thing is going to happen in North Carolina because Martin Luther King is not out there and had never been out there during his lifetime talking about how we should reinstate slavery because, you know, he might want to buy one or two, which is exactly what Mark Robinson is saying.

And if Donald Trump can bring himself to distance himself from a guy like that, that's a really low bar. I mean, that's not a hard thing to distance yourself from. And yet he's still can't do it which, you know, what kind of message does that send, not just to the people of North Carolina, what kind of message does that send to the people of Pennsylvania, to the people of Michigan and so on?

DEAN: All right, Shermichael Singleton and Julie Roginsky, our thanks to both of you for your time today. Thanks so much.

We're going to have more breaking news when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:22:54]

DEAN: New tonight we've just learned the White House is now coordinating with state and local officials following a mass shooting in Birmingham, Alabama. At least four people were killed, at least 17 others injured in last night's shooting that happened in Five Points South, it's a popular entertainment area there. A manhunt is now underway for multiple gunmen believed to be involved.

CNN's Rafael Romo is live in Birmingham.

And Rafael, we understand police believe the shooting was a targeted hit.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Jessica. That's what Birmingham police chief Scott Thurman said earlier at a press conference. He says they believe it was a targeted hit on one person, one individual, and the other victims were caught in the crossfire. Police say four people died and 17 others were injured in the shooting. Three of the victims, two men and one woman, were found deceased here at the scene, and another man died at the University of Alabama Hospital, according to police.

Police are now looking for a group of individuals who arrived in a car here at the scene, opened fire and then fled in the same car. And the shooting was also shocking because it happened in this area known as Five Points South, as you mentioned. It's a popular place known for its restaurants, nightclubs, pubs, and live music venues located near the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus and downtown.

This has been a very violent year for the city of Birmingham. There was a shooting at a nightclub in July that left four people dead and 10 others injured. In February, four men were shot and killed outside of public library. Some residents say, what happened here last night is that only sad for the Five Points South area, but for the entire city of Birmingham. And one of them told us that panic and the chaos that ensued after the shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAJON SINGLETON, LIVES IN BIRMINGHAM: It was people everywhere. People crying, screaming, some people are running. So it was very busy and it was a lot going on. Just like the grieving type screaming, like, you know, I know someone is hurt or had passed away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[18:25:05]

ROMO: And Jessica, just to put it in perspective, at the national level, the incident just among 404 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, the archive like CNN defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.

Now back to you.

DEAN: Rafael Romo for us there in Birmingham, Alabama. Thanks so much.

And I talked earlier with the mayor of Birmingham, Randall Woodfin, and he told me city officials are doing everything they can to end what he has classified as an epidemic level of gun violence in Birmingham.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RANDALL WOODFIN, BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA: Requires support of federal partners and a change in laws at the state level. City of Birmingham and all of the municipalities in the state of Alabama don't have all the rule, and so it takes partnership, collaboration, and down in the statehouse in Montgomery to change laws that are stricter and tougher to give Birmingham Police the tools to take shooters off the streets prior to an incident like this. I will say that my heart goes out to the victims that are deceased and

for those victims who are alive, I do want to express that they recover well and we're thinking about them, but our focus and our priority is literally on capturing the shooter or shooters who committed this heinous crime to make sure we can take them off the street.

DEAN: And at this point, the shooter or shooters are still at large. What more are you learning about this? Our reporting indicates, and it came from officials there in Birmingham that said one person was being targeted and one is one too many. But this is just incredible -- incredibly horrible collateral damage here.

WOODFIN: It's unacceptable. I think you're in a situation where you had these assault weapons that are being used at a higher proportion. In addition to that, you have conversion and Glock switches that are used on the semi-automatics to make them automatic so when you pull the trigger that you can't even handle the gun, all the bullets are released at one time. We're talking about a crime scene that unfortunately had over 100 shots, and so in situations like this, there are preventable measures prior to if police are giving tools by state law and-or federal law.

You know, my position is a nonpartisan position. And so I don't want to politicize a matter where life has been lost. And too many people today have to wake up with a new normal where they don't have their loved ones. But I will say this does require a political shift at every level. It does require us to roll up our sleeves and make commonsense laws that actually saved lives. When you're partisan, you get to just pick a side and stay on your corner. But in my position as mayor, we only want to solve not only this problem but prevent things like this from happening, not just in Birmingham, but all over our country.

DEAN: And I want to ask you about the weapons used in the shooting, you mentioned they were believed to have these conversion devices or these switches that allow the weapon to override the trigger mechanism on a gun. So it essentially functions as a machine gun. You mentioned over 100 casings. I know the U.S. attorney's office in Birmingham announced an initiative cracking down on those illegal devices in July.

You're talking about political will to change laws. What more are you hearing about people being willing to take steps to ensure the safety of people in Birmingham in Alabama?

WOODFIN: Listen, I want to thank the U.S. attorney. I want to thank our federal partners, ATF, FBI, not only for assisting in this crime, that's an open active investigation, but other crimes we've had where there have been mass shootings. I want to make this very, very clear related to these conversions. It is federally outlaw. They are illegal federally, but not at the state level. But at the exact same time where the federal government have outlawed them, they've also decreased ATF budget.

ATF is the agency we need to investigate those who are making these conversion devices, who are selling these conversion devices. But if you strip their budget, you tie their hands behind their back and prevent them from taking these types of devices off the streets that are in people's hands who only want to hurt and kill people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: And that was Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. We thank him again for his time.

The U.S. is urging Israel to lower the temperature when it comes to the tensions between attacks between Israel and Hezbollah as the back and forth grows more intense and more destructive. We'll have more on this.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:34:20]

DEAN: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has landed in the United States to present what he's calling a victory plan for his country's war against Russia. Zelenskyy saying he'll meet with President Biden and other allies this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through text translation): This fall will determine what comes next in this war. Together with our partners, we can strengthen our positions as needed for our victory, our shared victory, for a truly just peace. In the United States Ukraine will present its plan for victory and the U.S. president will be the first to see it in full.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Tonight Zelenskyy is scheduled to visit a Pennsylvania ammunition factory.

[18:35:03]

A battle without limits. That's how a top ranking Hezbollah official describes its conflict with Israel following a week of stunning attacks across the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Ben Wedeman has the latest now from Beirut.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, it has been six days of skyrocketing tensions between Israel and Lebanon. And there aren't any signs either side, Israel or Hezbollah, is prepared to back down.

Early Sunday, Hezbollah launched the first of three volleys of rockets deeper inside Israel than any time since the beginning of hostilities last October. Hezbollah claimed the targets included the Ramat David Airbase and a defense factory outside Haifa. But it appears those rockets that weren't intercepted hit other areas, causing a few injuries and some damage to property. While Israel continues to strike targets in southern Lebanon, more than 300 between Saturday and Sunday.

In Beirut, Hezbollah held a funeral for Ibrahim Aqil, one of the group's senior commanders killed along with more than a dozen other militants in an Israeli airstrike on southern Beirut Friday. The strike also killed more than 30 civilians including women and children. At the funeral, Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem vowed that Hezbollah's strikes deep inside Israel are an installment in what he called a battle without limits, and said, despite the pager and walkie-talkie attacks and Friday's airstrike in Beirut, the group will continue to fire into Israel.

Israeli officials are making equally dire threats toward Hezbollah with Israeli army chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, saying, our strikes will intensify -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Ben Wedeman in Beirut, thank you very much.

Still to come this evening, we are taking you deep inside rural Michigan, a crucial battleground state, of course, where Democrats are slowly but surely trying to gain a foothold in a traditionally red county.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELAINE MAYER, DEMOCRAT, MENOMINEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN: If people can change here, they can change just about anywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:41:54]

DEAN: The battleground state of Michigan is a must-win for both campaigns. Donald Trump, of course, winning Michigan in 2016, Biden taking the state in 2020 by just over 150,000 votes. Now Democrats are hoping to make gains there, not only in cities and suburbs, but in the rural areas as well.

CNN's Miguel Marquez reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What's it like to be a Democrat in a place that is so conservative?

MAYER: I really keep a good sense of humor.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Deep in Trump country, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, something is stirring with Democrats.

MAYER: More people are starting to come out now that they know that I'm Democrat and I throw these signs up. My neighbors who I would have never thought were Democrat would go by and honk the horn, thumbs up. People are starting to step out and say, you know, I'm glad you're doing that. I'm kind of afraid to put a sign out, but I'm for you putting it out there.

MARQUEZ: In the 2024 race, Michigan is again a battleground prize. Donald Trump hoping for a repeat of his narrow 2016 win of the state.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A margin of 10,704 votes.

MARQUEZ: Kamala Harris looking to repeat Joe Biden's victory from four years ago.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Joe Biden will win the state of Michigan.

MARQUEZ: Despite that loss, Trump performed slightly better here in Menominee County.

Why are Democratic votes in rural Michigan so important to winning the state in November?

PAUL HAUPT, DEMOCRAT, MENOMINEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN: Well, every vote counts. If we get 30 or 40 extra votes in the county here with our work, that possibly could make the difference in Michigan because Michigan is going to be close.

MARQUEZ: You are?

VICKIE KNUTH, CHAIR, DEMOCRATIC PARTY MENOMINEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN: The chairman of the Menominee County Democratic Party.

MARQUEZ: The big, massive Menominee County, Michigan, Democratic Party.

KNUTH: Yes.

MARQUEZ: How many members now?

KNUTH: We have close to 80, pretty much tripled our membership this year.

MARQUEZ: This is a small county, about 12,000 votes at play here. To have 80 active Democrats in the party, what does that say about where things are right now here?

KNUTH: Well, to me it says that there are Democrats in this county that had been hidden for a while.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Hidden no more.

GRACE GORRINGE, DEMOCRAT, MENOMINEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN: Was it President Obama at the DNC or maybe it was Michelle who said --

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY: Don't sit around and complain about things, do something.

GORRINGE: That has been in my brain, kind of repeating itself over and over since I heard that do something.

MARQUEZ: It's like a Democratic coming out.

GORRINGE: It is. I even said, we're coming out. We're putting our Democratic signs out.

MARQUEZ: How popular are Harris-Walz signs?

KNUTH: Well, they're popular.

MARQUEZ: And you don't have any signs.

KNUTH: Well --

(LAUGHTER)

MARQUEZ: You have no signs to give.

KNUTH: Yes, that's true.

MARQUEZ: Do you have a Harris-Walz sign at your house?

HAUPT: Well, we have a hybrid one. It said Biden-Harris and we folded it over and now it just says Harris.

MARQUEZ: So this is as good as you can do now?

MAYER: Yes.

MARQUEZ: And I can see the little "Made by the Menominee County, Democratic Party."

MAYER: There it is.

MARQUEZ: Why do places like this matter to what happens in Michigan in the country?

MAYER: Well, if people can change here, they can change just about anywhere.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[18:45:04]

MARQUEZ (on-camera): Look, Democrats seem buoyant in this little corner of Michigan. Two other things that they are saying that they haven't seen in the past. One, the Trump signs. There are a lot of them out there, but they say they're not as many as there used to be in previous election cycles. The other thing they say is that female voters, whether they're Democrats or independents, or Republicans, women in this part of Michigan they say are ready to vote for Democrats.

Back to you.

DEAN: Miguel Marquez, thanks so much. Still ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM tonight, President Biden says the U.S.

is doing everything it can to avoid an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah as they trade their most intense attacks in nearly a year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:50:21]

DEAN: The new CNN Original Series "TV ON THE EDGE, MOMENTS THAT SHAPED OUR CULTURE" explores how key cultural events changed a generation of viewers.

In 1992 Vice President Dan Quayle publicly criticized the hit TV show "Murphy Brown" for its depiction of single motherhood, setting off a cultural debate as America broadened its attitudes toward family values. And the questions sparked by these nationwide debates are still present in America's political and cultural consciousness today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KORBY SIAMIS, WRITER AND CONSULTING PRODUCER, MURPHY BROWN: I never thought something that I wrote would lead to a culture war.

DIANE ENGLISH, CREATOR AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: That's really what sparked a huge public debate about what the meaning of family values was.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you reject it as a political issue?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They care about the same family values that we care about. It is a political issue. The only question --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're not hearing that when they listen to you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let her finish.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The only question is, whose values are you talking about?

BARNET KELLMAN, DIRECTOR, MURPHY BROWN: And that is the frame of the culture wars that we're fighting today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And joining us now to discuss the climate of that tumultuous year and the culture wars that stemmed from it and beyond, Dr. Todd Boyd, professor of cinema and media studies at the University of Southern California.

Thanks so much for being here with us. I appreciate it.

DR. TODD BOYD, PROFESSOR, CINEMA AND MEDIA STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: If you will, tell us a little bit about the America in 1992? What was the state of play at that moment, the biggest political and cultural moments?

BOYD: Well, 1992 was of course a year for presidential election. Ronald Reagan had served two terms and his vice president, George H.W. Bush had been elected in 1988 and was running for a second term himself. So you had three Republican administrations and the Bush administration was hoping to make it four. And so much of that year I think is really defined by that, you know, presidential election.

Bill Clinton, who became the Democratic nominee, of course, you know, famously played the saxophone at Arsenio Hall that year. And also he decided to criticize a rapper by the name of Sister Souljah in a way that became very political also. And of course, on the other side, you have Vice President Dan Quayle choosing to criticize "Murphy Brown" in a way that led to this very prominent moment that would come to be known as one of the opening acts in a larger cultural war.

DEAN: Yes. And so talk a little more about that specific moment. Dan Quayle, the "Murphy Brown" conversation, and how it opened up what became that broader cultural war.

BOYD: Well, you know, Dan Quayle was a figure who was often ridiculed during this time for a variety of things, but he criticized a popular television show "Murphy Brown in a speech that was actually focused around his comments about the L.A. riots in the response to the Rodney King verdict. But for a vice presidential figure to choose a popular network television show to criticize it drew a lot of attention and kind of set out some of the conflict on various sides of the issue around lifestyle, around Murphy Brown, the character's choice to raise a child without a traditional nuclear family, and so anytime you have a vice presidential figure criticizing a television show it's the sort of thing that's going to draw attention. And this one did and, you know, I think it still resonates today.

DEAN: Yes, that's such a fascinating moment in time.

Dr. Todd Boyd, thanks so much for that context. We appreciate it.

BOYD: You're welcome.

DEAN: "TV ON THE EDGE, MOMENTS THAT SHAPED OUR CULTURE" premieres tonight at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific only here on CNN.

And stay tuned, we are following two breaking stories on this Sunday night. In politics a major shakeup involving embattled Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson. We have key members of his campaign calling it quits tonight after a bombshell CNN report. We're going to tell you what sources are telling CNN.

Also, Republicans have unveiled a new plan to avoid a government shutdown that could just be days away.

[18:55:00]

What House Speaker Mike Johnson is now proposing and does it go against former president Trump's wishes? More on that when we come back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

DEAN: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM, and I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

We have breaking news tonight. Multiple staffers have just quit the campaign for Mark Robinson. He's the embattled Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina. The campaign telling --