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Walz and Vance Debate Spar on Policy; CNN Poll: No Clear Winner Between Walz and Vance; Helene Death Toll Rises: At Least 180 in Six States; Helene Deadliest Hurricane to Hit U.S. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired October 02, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: The first and only vice presidential debate between Senator J. D. Vance and Governor Tim Walz turned out to be fairly civil, but it got contentious when it came to the January 6th insurrection and future threats to democracy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He lost the election. This is not a debate. It's not anything anywhere other than in Donald Trump's world. Because look, when Mike Pence made that decision to certify that election, that's why Mike Pence isn't on this stage.

What I'm concerned about is, where is the firewall with Donald Trump? Where is the firewall if he knows he could do anything, including taking an election and his vice president's not going to stand to it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Let's bring in CNN Political Commentator and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona and CNN Political Commentator and Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton. Shermichael, what did you make of that moment?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I mean, look, I think J. D. probably should have expected that question to be asked at some point. I probably would have prepared the vice presidential candidate to say, look, obviously we're running for a reason. We recognize who the president is and we're running to defeat this president because his policies have been horrible.

Now, Tim Walz probably would have chimed in during his one-minute rebuttal, and he probably would have asked what he asked, which was, will you certify the election? I know where Trump is on this issue. So, if I were Vance, I would have said, look, we're going to utilize whatever legal mechanisms we have if we think there are questions. And once we exalt those measures, whatever their ultimate results are, we're going to respect it, and then I would have moved on.

ACOSTA: Yes. Maria, what did you think? I mean, at one point Senator Vance -- I mean, this is when he dives into the question, said, well, we just want to focus on the future. Which is sort of what Corey Lewandowski was saying earlier on in this program.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes.

ACOSTA: They don't want to talk -- they just don't want to talk about this. They don't want to answer this question.

CARDONA: How can you focus on the future credibly if you can't even admit what actually happened in the past? And this is where they all just sink completely. And the problem with what my dear friend Shermichael just said is that they can't answer that. And even if they do answer that, it doesn't speak to what Donald Trump is doing now, which is even injecting, continuing to inject those lies, and even preparing for another violent insurrection, using the same kind of violent rhetoric that he did leading up to the election in 2020.

And so, that, I think, was the moment last night that crystallized everything, especially for independent voters across the country. We heard in dials, we heard in the polls, and, you know, a lot of the media out there essentially said most of the independent voters sided with Governor Walz on the overall debate, and they pointed to that moment in time.

ACOSTA: What's that? OK. Shermichael.

SINGLETON: Oh, wait a minute here, Maria.

ACOSTA: Go ahead.

SINGLETON: Wait a minute here. Look, I will give some credit to Governor Walz because even yesterday, and I believe it being honest. I did not think he was going to do well at all. I thought he was going to have a poor performance. He actually did OK. I think that J. D. Vance was a far superior debater. That was very obvious. And even in our CNN Poll, it was obvious. J. D. Vance had a strong command of the issues.

But I will give Governor Walz some credit as someone who's never been on this stage before, he did OK. But I do not think that most people watched that debate and believe that Governor Walz was a superior debater and overwhelmingly won. I think that goes to J. D. Vance, despite that one particular moment, Jim.

ACOSTA: Yes.

[10:35:00]

CARDONA: But here's the thing, Shermichael. What I said was that what Governor Walz did last night is he crystallized the difference between a Harris-Walz administration and a Trump-Vance administration, which is, one, acknowledges and understands the truth about what happened and is focused on solutions and another one cannot even acknowledge the truth of what happened in 2020.

And for independent voters and the majority of the dials, and Politico had it this morning, 58 percent of independent voters sided with Governor Walz last night. And that was the biggest indicator. But even if you look at all the other issues, Shermichael --

SINGLETON: No, Maria. Maria, on that one particular --

CARDONA: Hang on a second. Wait, hang on.

SINGLETON: OK. Go ahead, go ahead.

CARDONA: Even on all of the other issues, Shermichael, you know, J. D. Pence was very slick, but he was slick like a snake oil salesman.

SINGLETON: Oh, Maria. Maria.

CARDONA: He --

SINGLETON: No, no, no. Maria, wait a minute here.

CARDONA: He gave a beautiful smile, but lied on issue after issue.

SINGLETON: I would agree with you that Governor Walz had a decent performance on that one particular issue. But as it pertains to the nuances of foreign policy, as it pertains to the nuances of the economy and cost of living and inflation, as it pertains to the nuances of immigration, the governor did not do very well on those issues. Now, I'm not going to say he did terrible. I believe in being honest to our viewers. He did OK, but he could have absolutely did a whole lot better --

ACOSTA: Shermichael, didn't J. D. Vance kind of complain about the fact --

SINGLETON: -- responses that J. D. Vance gave.

ACOSTA: Didn't he kind of complain about the fact-checking though when they got into the whole issue of eating the pets in Springfield and immigration? I mean, when you're complaining about the fact- checking, that's not so good.

SINGLETON: I mean, Jim, that's one particular thing. I think that's a moment in time out of a 90 plus minute debate. Does that really matter to people in the grand scheme of things? I'm not convinced that it does. Overall, I think both men did well in the debate. I want to acknowledge that. I just happen to believe that J. D. Vance was a superior debate. The guy is a Yale Law School graduate. I'm not surprised by that.

And the way he responded to every question asked by pointing out what the problem was from his perspective, with a follow up, a response to a potential solution, showcases a very skilled debater, that's just a fact, whether you like him or not.

CARDONA: But the problem with that is that his responses were full of lies. He lied on energy production. He lied on current immigration and border situation. He lied about, oh, my God, Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, that was a doozy. He lied about wages currently and wages under the Trump administration. So, you can't say that he did well because he answered articulately when that articulate answer was full of lies.

ACOSTA: Do you think Tim Walz missed some opportunities though? Because, I mean, I don't think he brought up the childless cat lady's remark. I mean, there are a couple of moments where it seemed as though Tim Walz was missing some moments to land punches.

CARDONA: Yes, but you know what --

ACOSTA: What do you think?

CARDONA: Yes, I've heard that too. But you know what, Jim, I think what the American people are looking for is authenticity. And Governor Walz is a nice man. He's a decent man. He is not somebody who's going to go and attack you in your face. That's something that Donald Trump does. And frankly, J. D. Vance didn't do it either. It was very Midwest nice.

ACOSTA: It was.

CARDONA: But the problem with Midwest nice last night with J. D. Vance specifically, is that he had a very nice smile, but he lied every time he opened up his mouth.

ACOSTA: All right. Well, guys, just end on a nice -- can I end on a nice note -- real quick. Yes.

SINGLETON: I get the niceties. And look, Governor Walz appears to be a nice guy. I don't have anything against the governor personally. I think he probably is a pretty fine gentleman. But the reality is we're looking for someone who could lead the country if something were to happen to the president. That's one of the biggest potential objectives of the vice president outside of overseeing the Senate, right, as a tiebreaker. I don't think that Governor Walz showcase when compared to Vance that he would be that option. I think Vance was a better alternative. And I think many people are going to see it that way.

CARDONA: I disagree. I disagree. You can't lead the country if you can't even acknowledge the truth.

ACOSTA: Well -- all right.

CARDONA: On so many issues. You just can't.

SINGLETON: Oh, Maria, that's very nice.

ACOSTA: And speaking of nice, you're both very nice. I got to end it there though. We'll do this another time. You're both nice folks. We appreciate --

SINGLETON: Love you, Maria.

CARDONA: You're very nice too, Jim. Love you, Shermichael.

ACOSTA: All right. Coming up, it's the deadliest storm to hit the mainland U.S. since Hurricane Katrina. We've been focusing in on this all week. We're going to do it again. I'll speak to the FEMA administrator, Deanne Criswell, on long-term recovery efforts for the hardest hit areas. These folks desperately need some help. We're going to talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00]

ACOSTA: In North Carolina, hundreds of thousands of people still have no power and more than 25 water plants are estimated to be down at this hour. It's now been five days since Hurricane Helene hit the area. Many are still struggling to find cell phone service. CNN rode along with FEMA in one of the hardest hit areas. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can't get a signal. We're seeing for ourselves everything that the governor has been talking about, officials have been talking about. How big of a challenge communication is not just for civilians, but you guys trying to do these rescue operations?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. Yes. You don't have sales service, e-mail, text, all of that come challenge and can slow things down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tremendously, right? How frustrating is that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, you get used to it. You know, you get out of on enough of these but you just kind of adapt and overcome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:45:00]

ACOSTA: The storm has left at least 166 people dead in six states. Helene is now the deadliest hurricane to strike the U.S. mainland. Since Hurricane Katrina. Joining me now from Raleigh, North Carolina is the FEMA administrator, Deanne Criswell. Administrator, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

I know you're going to be with President Biden later today. When you brief him on these relief efforts, what's your top line? What do you tell the president first? This region has just been clobbered.

DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Yes, Jim, I think the biggest thing right now is making sure that he understands, you know, the extent of the damage here and how challenging it is because of the topography here.

As we look at the infrastructure damages to water, to the cell lines, to power, the ability to get those turned back on is going to be complicated just by the way Appalachia is configured. And so, we are going to continue to move resources in as we have been and we are bringing in additional personnel to help with that last mile delivery of food and water as we know that the repair of some of these facilities might take some time. I think as President Biden is working going to want to make sure is that we're bringing in every possible resource from the federal family to support this ongoing response effort.

ACOSTA: And do you have all of the resources that you need? Will you be asking the president for more resources? Would that require some action from Congress? Do we have the ability and resources to get what is needed to this region that is just still reeling?

CRISWELL: I think as you can imagine, Jim, we are identifying new challenges every day. We have a lot of resources here. We have over 3,500 federal personnel across the region and over 1,200 here just in North Carolina. We're continuing to send more in. And these are things like our search and rescue teams, the Army Corps of Engineers to do assessments, the Environmental Protection Agency to help with the water assessments, as well as Department of Defense resources like rotary lift helicopters to help move commodities and resources in.

We know that this is going to be a sustained operation. And so, what we're also doing and planning for right now is how do we continue to bring resources in that can sustain the need for the next several weeks or as long as it takes to get some of these critical services like water restored to these communities.

ACOSTA: And we saw just a few moments ago in that clip featuring our Isabel Rosales with one of your officials out surveying the damage that cell phone service is just a nightmare in some of these parts. And we're looking at some of the footage now of water rushing down through the mountains, exactly what you were talking about a few moments ago.

How soon do we know -- do we think until that cell phone service is re-established? Is it just going to be a case-by-case basis? Does FEMA work on that or are there other agencies involved?

CRISWELL: So, a lot of the cell service, obviously, is owned by the private providers, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and it's going to take them some time to be able to repair their structures. And so, what we do is we brought in satellite capability, put that in each of the counties that have been impacted. We're moving satellite radios or satellite phones into those counties as well to help with the local officials. And then, we're working with those providers to bring in portable cell on wheels, COWS as they call them.

ACOSTA: Yes.

CRISWELL: And so, we're moving those into the areas where there's still need. I was able to visit a couple of communities yesterday and we're seeing some cell phone service start to improve. But we know that it's still limited in so many different areas. And so, we're continuously moving more resources in. We'll have some where people can come and, you know, check their e-mail, check their voice-mail, and then we're going to move more in so we can broaden that accessibility.

ACOSTA: And, administrator, I mean, one final thing, and that leads me to this. I mean, obviously, you need cell phone service, you need communication capability to connect with people, loved ones and so on. That raises the question. Do we know how many people or do we have an estimate as to how many people are missing at this point or do you feel as though most folks are accounted for, or is that still an open- ended question?

CRISWELL: No, it's definitely an open-ended question right now. That's something that the state is working closely with the county emergency managers to get a better idea. The state has established where they have the 211 system. And so, what they're asking is anybody who has not heard from a loved one or their concern, they can call into 211 and then they're using that information to help account for everybody.

ACOSTA: All right. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, thank you very much for your time. Best of luck in all of these relief efforts. The folks in this region just sorely need anything you can give them. We appreciate your time. Thanks so much.

CRISWELL: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. And we'll have more after the break on Helene. Stay with us.

[10:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: And this just in, we have just learned that the death toll from Hurricane Helene has jumped to 180. CNN's Miguel Marquez is in Raleigh, North Carolina, where the president will be briefed. They're on the storm later today in the western part of that state. Miguel, you were in Asheville. I know it's just a heartbreaking scene there. What did you pick up on? What can you tell us?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is stunning to see the amount of damage and not just in places like Asheville, but the breadth of it. It is across such a wide swath of the country.

[10:55:00]

The need is everything, from electricity and water to food and gas. and diapers. It is unbelievable. The immediate needs that people need there. Look, Asheville, the River Arts District, it's a very -- it's a thriving community in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We spoke to some of the artists down as they were seeing their studios for the first time. They've seen floods before. It's right next to the French Broad River, it comes up, maybe up to their front doors, maybe a foot into their buildings over the years. This was two and three feet above the second floor of buildings along the French Broad River in Asheville. Here's what one artist said about where she can go from here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DENISE MARKBREIT, OWNER, ASHEVILLE PRINT STUDIO AND GALLERY: I don't think I can recover from this. MARQUEZ: How hard is it to look at this stuff?

MARKBREIT: It looks like a war happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: It's not even clear that a lot of people will come back from this at this point. And keep in mind, some communities, the debris and the water was so intense, it washed entire homes, businesses, livelihoods, completely off the face of the Earth. I think they are still looking for a lot of people. The president will see wide swaths of this today as he flies over there, and then he'll come here to Raleigh to be briefed and figure out how they can get enough resources to meet the immediate needs and then rebuild over the years. Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Simply staggering. Miguel Marquez, thank you for your reporting out there. We really appreciate it.

And people who live across Helene's 500-mile path of destruction still need basic necessities. For ways you can help. Go to cnn.com/impact. Thanks for joining us this morning. I'm Jim Acosta. Our next hour of Newsroom with Pamela Brown starts after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]