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Final Sprint to Election Day; Vance Refuses to Confirm Trump's 2020 Loss; Analysts Examine Voter Registration for Clues; Israel Acknowledges Second Hit on U.N. Base in Lebanon; National Weather Service Confirms Milton Spawned at Least Two EF3 Tornadoes; Harris Campaigns in Arizona; North Korea Accuses the South of Dropping Leaflets by Drone; Migrant Workers Stranded in Lebanon; Sports Highlights. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired October 12, 2024 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
Kamala Harris is in the midst of a media blitz with less than a month to Election Day. How she's hoping to sway swing voters.
Donald Trump is doubling down on his plans for a mass deportation effort if elected. What he revealed about the plan dubbed Operation Aurora.
Plus, as Israel continues operations in Lebanon, the country's top leadership mulls over a response to Iranian strikes. We will go live to Tehran for a report on the growing regional tension.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from Atlanta this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: We are now 24 days away from the U.S. election, with both presidential nominees fighting to make their final pitches to voters in a very tight race.
Later today, Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to North Carolina for a campaign rally. She spoke to a group of Republican supporters on Friday at a stop in Scottsdale, Arizona, and expressed doubt about whether Donald Trump and his running mate would uphold their oaths of office if they win the election.
Harris also talked about her plans to lead the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I love good ideas wherever they come from. I love good ideas.
Right?
And so part of what I intend to do, Mayor, put some structure around, is creating a bipartisan council of advisers who can then give feedback on policy as we go forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The vice president's media blitz continues after a busy week.
She's appearing on "Vogue" magazine's digital cover for October, describing her as quote, "The candidate for our times." Harris will also travel to Detroit next week for a town hall aimed at reaching out to Black male voters.
Former president Donald Trump hit the campaign trail in Colorado Friday. He falsely claimed that migrant gang members are taking over parts of the state before heading to another rally in Nevada. CNN's Alayna Treene has more.
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ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fresh off his visit to Aurora, Colorado, on Friday, former president Donald Trump escalated his anti- immigrant and dark rhetoric during remarks in Reno, Nevada, where he repeated and amplified false claims about undocumented immigrants that have been refuted by Republican officials on the ground.
But during this rally, this speech really was billed by his campaign team as being focused on the economy. However, Donald Trump himself said that, while his campaign keeps telling him the economy is the number one issue, he actually believes that immigration takes precedent.
Then he delved into the visit on Friday to Aurora, where he claimed that the city had been invaded and conquered by Venezuela gangs and again called for the death penalty for any migrant in the country that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.
Take a listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: But I will round up the illegal alien gang members and they will be put in jail or thrown out of our country until not a single one is left. If they come back, it's an automatic 10 years in jail with no possibility of parole. Because we don't want them to come back.
They got to stay out. And I'm hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.
(END VIDEO CLIP) TREENE: Now Donald Trump's rhetoric regarding the blue state and really the blue city of Aurora, Colorado, has become such a focal point of his campaign that he not only went to that blue state on Friday but then brought that messaging to Reno, where he really made it a central theme of his remarks in the battleground state of Nevada.
And now, this type of fearmongering isn't exactly new to Donald Trump or his rhetoric. He also used that language in the leadup to the 2016 election.
However, I can tell you from being at many of his rallies, this type of stoking fears about immigrants and undocumented migrants in America has only ramped up in the final stretch of this campaign -- Alayna Treene, CNN, Reno, Nevada.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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BRUNHUBER: Vice presidential nominees are also busy on the campaign trail. In an interview with "The New York Times," JD Vance refused five times to answer the question of whether Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.
When asked how he and Trump would handle the outcome of this year's election, he said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Of course, we commit to a peaceful transfer of power.
We are going to have a peaceful transfer of power I of course, believed that peaceful transfer of power is going to make Donald Trump the next President of the United States. But if there are problems, of course, in the same way that Democrats protested in 2004 and Donald Trump raised issues in 2010 20 we're going to make sure that this election counts that every legal ballot is counted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Democrat Tim Walz took his case to voters in Michigan.
He called Trump one of the biggest losers of manufacturing jobs of any American president in history. He also criticized Trump for saying the country would end up like the city of Detroit if Harris gets elected. Here he is.
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GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If the guy would have ever spent any time in the Midwest, like all of us know, he'd know Detroit's experience in American comeback.
City's growing, crime's down, factories are opening up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Former president Bill Clinton and first lady Jill Biden are also expected to hit the campaign trail in the coming days, urging voters to get out and cast their ballots for Harris and Walz.
The latest figures show the presidential race is deadlocked in several key states, just weeks ahead of the election. New "The Wall Street Journal" polling shows no clear leader among registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin.
Trump holds a slight advantage over Harris in Nevada. Voters say they trust Trump more than Harris when it comes to handling economic issues. His lead grows when it comes to immigration. Voters surveyed put the issues of the economy and immigration at top of their list of importance, followed by abortion and inflation.
The Biden administration is suing the state of Virginia over its plan to purge voters identified as noncitizens. The suit says officials violated federal with systemic removal of voters from registration rolls.
Virginia's Republican governor gave an executive order 90 days before the election. But the law says any such program must be completed no later than 90 days before the election. So the Justice Department alleges a violation of the National Voter Registration Act.
The order is targeted at non-citizens voting, though instances of non- Americans casting ballots are considered very rare. Voter registration is something both campaigns are watching closely. And in swing states like Pennsylvania, the race is so tight, a few votes in each precinct could sway the outcome of the whole election.
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BRUNHUBER: Joining me now is Lara Putnam, a professor of history and the director of global studies at the University of Pittsburgh.
Thank you so much for being here with us so there was so much optimism and enthusiasm in the days and weeks immediately after Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden for Democrats. But there are some trends in terms of voter registration that might have Democrats worried.
Before we get to actually what that means in terms of the actual numbers, what have you been seeing in some of the swing states, aside from your own looking, let's say, at Arizona, North Carolina and so on?
LARA PUTNAM, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH: Sure. Well, in all of those places, really strikingly, the portion of registered voters who are Democrats has been declining since 2020.
And we can get into the details on that. But let's look at some specifics.
In Arizona, Republicans had a 2 percentage point advantage in 2020. They're at a 6 percentage point advantage now. But also it's notable in that time, independents registered in Arizona, the portion of Arizona voters who are registered as independents has gone from 25 to 29.
So it's really independents rather than Republicans per se who are picking up those Democratic losses. In Nevada, it's -- Democrats had a six percentage point advantage in 2020. And now they're down to only a two percentage point advantage.
But again, there, unaffiliated have gone from like 31 percent to almost 40 percent. Again, it's really the independents, people who don't identify with either party who are surging.
BRUNHUBER: Do we know why that is?
Because it seems like the number of people who are undecided, for instance, I mean, you can you can count them on one hand, basically, since Donald Trump has become the Republican nominee since 2020.
PUTNAM: Sure. On the one hand, yes, absolutely. This is a time of real political polarization. People are identifying, you know, firmly that with seeing the parties as more different than ever before but people are also really cynical about both parties.
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There are lots of people who feel like they're not well represented, who don't feel like they completely align with either. And that's why we see these large numbers of independents.
And I think -- political science shows us people who are registered as independents often do tend to vote consistently in one direction or another. But they're less likely to vote consistently.
So I think that's part of why polls are having a hard time predicting what's going to happen and what the electorate is going to look like, because independents are a little more up for grabs.
BRUNHUBER: Right. And so I asked to exclude Pennsylvania just so we could focus on that because it's going to be such a key state. Where you are, I mean, it seems even more worrying for Democrats. They're losing voters.
Is that right?
Take me through what you're seeing there.
PUTNAM: In the big picture, absolutely. In Pennsylvania, Democrats had an eight percentage point advantage in 2020 in registration. And that has fallen to about a four percentage point advantage.
But again, we see the same trend of it's really independents who are surging. So over the course of those four years, while Republicans have gained about 80,000 voters, the independent or third-party voters have grown by over 100,000.
BRUNHUBER: And in terms of the growth in Republican voter registration, do we know why that's happening?
I mean, Donald Trump's popularity, as I said, has remained pretty stable, kind of not going up and down, even no matter what he says, how many times he's convicted.
And why are Republicans gaining voters faster, particularly if one associates them with older voters and Democrats having younger voters?
PUTNAM: Well, in a state like Pennsylvania, there were lots of folks who registered as Democrats who are, who are now in their 60s, even in their 70s or older, who may have registered as Democrats when they were younger but who came to identify with Republicans and maybe have voted.
Maybe voted for Donald Trump in 2016, voted for Donald Trump in 2020.
But normal people don't usually think about politics probably as much as maybe you or I or even some of our listeners do. And it's unlikely the average person doesn't actually bother to go out and change their registration, even if they've already changed their vote.
And their identification or allegiance. So some of what's happening is that people who were already Trump voters but who are registered Democrats are moving over, shifting their registration.
BRUNHUBER: Interesting.
PUTNAM: That's one piece of the story here.
BRUNHUBER: Right. OK.
So before we go, this is the vital question here, Democrats will be perhaps wringing their hands at all of this but how worried should they actually be?
How reliable an indicator is voter registration in terms of the number of actual votes?
PUTNAM: Sure. So some point to Democrats, you know, they were losing over the last year up until when Kamala Harris became the nominee.
They were really hemorrhaging registrants. It was really a clear line downward. And Kamala's entering into the race has absolutely reversed that piece for Democrats. They've gone from losing to gaining.
They're not quite gaining as rapidly as Republicans in overall registration numbers but actually doing better than they were versus Republican numbers in summer 2020. And as well, no, in 2020, in fact, Joe Biden did win Pennsylvania.
BRUNHUBER: So I guess it's all to see whether that will actually translate into votes, so much is still up in the air right now. We'll have to leave it there but great to get your perspective, Laura Putnam. Thank you so much.
PUTNAM: Thank you. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Emergency responders in Gaza say overnight strikes in Jabalya killed at least 22 people. The group Doctors without Borders says thousands of people are trapped there, despite the Israeli military's orders to evacuate.
While some people are evacuating, the group says gunfire and bombings along evacuation routes are preventing others from leaving. Five members of the group are among those trapped.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme says no food has entered northern Gaza since October 1. The agency says 1 million people are at risk of starvation. Now CNN has reached out to the Israeli military about the lack of food and aid entering Gaza.
Gaza's ministry of health says more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began last year.
Israel admits it hit a United Nations peacekeeping base in Lebanon with explosives for the second time in two days. Several European leaders, including France, Italy and Spain, are calling the attacks unacceptable.
And human rights groups accuse Israel of violating international law. Two peacekeepers were injured in the incident on Thursday and two more on Friday. The U.N. says one of them was seriously injured with a shrapnel wound in the stomach.
In a statement, the Israeli military said that, on Friday, its soldiers identified an immediate threat and responded with fire toward the threat.
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It also said that threat was 55 yards from the U.N. base.
The head of Ireland's armed forces says the attack appeared deliberate. European countries with peacekeepers in Lebanon say these strikes shouldn't happen and they want an immediate ceasefire.
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GIORGIA MELONI, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): As you know, the headquarters of the UNIFIL mission in two Italian bases have been hit by gunfire shots fired by the Israeli forces. Therefore, I, even as Italy must condemn what has happened, it is unacceptable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, U.S. president and Vice President Kamala Harris is pledging to provide Israel with resources to defend itself from Iran. Israel is trying to decide how it will retaliate for last week's Iranian missile barrage. CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins us now, live from Tehran.
So Fred, what is the mood there in Iran as the country waits for Israel's retaliation?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Kim. Yes, well, from the Iranian government and those authorities, you hear a lot of tough talk here on the ground in Iran.
As far as the people are concerned that we're speaking to, there are a lot of people who are quite concerned about the current situation, less so about that potential Israeli retaliatory strike and more so about the general situation in the greater Middle East.
And especially all of this escalating and possibly becoming a situation where Iran and the United States could be directly pitted against one another. But as far as the Israeli strikes are concerned, Iran is saying that the Israelis needs to watch out.
That is, for instance, if the Israelis strike Iran's oil and gas facilities that then Iran itself could strike energy facilities in Israel. Now yesterday, we went to the main Friday prayers here in Tehran, which is usually attended mostly by conservative folks. And they had some pretty choice words, not just for Israel but for the U.S. as well.
Here's what we saw.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Death to America and death to Israel chants at the main Friday prayers in
Tehran as Iran awaits possible Israeli retaliation for their recent missile strike against military installations inside Israel.
(on camera): Iran's hardliners are trying to send a very clear message to both the U.S. and Israel. Iran doesn't want escalation but if escalation
happens, they're ready for a big fight.
(voice-over): Hezbollah flags in the crowd and a giant poster of the slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah recently killed in an Israeli airstrike
overlooking the prayers. Many here warning Israel to back off. They will see a very harsh response from the IRGC, the army and the people of Iran,
this man says. Be sure that this will happen. And he says, Israel has experienced this before and if they repeat this experience, they will definitely be
destroyed.
PLEITGEN: Iran hit Israel with around 200 ballistic missiles last week after Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, using several bunker-busting bombs and wounded thousands of Hezbollah members by making their pagers explode. Iran has vowed to stand by their long- time allies,
Hezbollah, providing medical help to many of those wounded in the pager attacks and even bringing some to one of Iran's holiest sites, the Imam
Reza Shrine in the city of Mashhad.
As a major military confrontation with Israel looms, Iran's new President on a diplomatic mission, trying to drum up support among Tehran's allies.
Meeting Russian leader Vladimir Putin as ties between the two U.S. adversaries are increasingly growing stronger.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT, RUSSIA (through translator): We are actively working together on the international arena and our views of events in the
world are often very close.
MASOUD PEZESHKIAN, PRESIDENT, IRAN (through translator): The situation in the region is difficult now and the U.S. and Europe do not want the
situation here to subside.
PLEITGEN: The situation that could soon escalate even more as Iran has vowed a crushing response to any attacks by Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PLEITGEN: And Kim, that major diplomacy by the Iranians continues. We obviously just saw the president of Iran there in Turkmenistan, not just speaking, by the way, to Vladimir Putin but also to other regional leaders as well in that summit in Ashgabat.
And then you also had the foreign minister of Iran, Abbas Araghchi, who, of course, this week met with Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.
And today we've gotten confirmation that the speaker of Iran's parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, is apparently in Beirut, pledging support for not just Hezbollah but also for the country of Lebanon with a message of support coming from Iran's leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
BRUNHUBER: Outstanding to get your reporting there live in Tehran, Fred Pleitgen. Thank you so much.
All right.
Still to come, we'll head back to the campaign trail for the first lady speaking this time to support Kamala Harris. [05:20:00]
And days after Hurricane Milton hit Florida, rescues are still taking place as water there continues to rise. First responders are helping residents who face new threats in the storm's wake. That's coming up, stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: There are new warnings in Florida about ongoing dangers in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. Officials are telling residents who evacuated to stay put, even though many who left are desperate to return home.
Thousands tried to make their way home on Friday to assess the impact of Milton's destructive force. The storm claimed at least 17 lives. Some places like Tampa are dealing with fuel and electricity (ph) shortages. Officials there are urging people to stay off the roads if possible.
Meanwhile, residents in other areas are being rescued or evacuated now as water levels continue to rise. The threat of flooding will continue in the hours and days ahead as the state's many rivers and lakes are expected to crest through the weekend.
The National Weather Service says Hurricane Milton spawned at least two tornadoes rated at EF3 strength.
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One of those tornadoes killed at least five people and carved a path of destruction more than 12 miles long. CNN's Isabel Rosales is in central Florida with more on the latest flooding threats.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RALPH GENITO, EVACUEE: I feel for everybody that's been through the same thing, really do. I never expect to happen to me. Nobody -- nobody expects it to happen to them.
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Hurricane Milton barreled out of Florida Thursday morning, Ralph and Tina Genito felt they had survived the worst of it. But late Thursday night, their daughter urgently woke them up, telling them get out.
GENITO: We left last night at 10:30 with 3-4 of water outside. So my daughter says it was going to come up even higher.
ROSALES: Milton's torrential downpour dumped 10 to 18 inches of rain around the Tampa Bay area. And as a result, rivers and reservoirs overflowed and the danger not yet over, as the rivers forecast to crest as high as 25 feet Friday night, a major flood stage. GENITO: This area is not supposed to get this way, it's not supposed to where the last row supposedly the floods but now it's beyond us all the way to Lithia.
ROSALES: Long after the storm was gone, Ralph and Tina unexpectedly forced to evacuate south thing, whatever they can carry into trash bags.
GENITO: It will be a long road. Everybody knows it, too.
ROSALES: CNN surveying the devastation firsthand by airboat with Hillsborough County's sheriff. His message, crystal clear.
SHERIFF CHAD CHRONISTER, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA: Please get out now, you know, were we have some people here that were rescue in that thought it would be OK. The water is not going down. The water is only going to increase.
So if you're on the fence on whether you should leave or not leave, please, let's keep everyone safe. Let's leave now.
ROSALES: There's so many people now burdened with the thought of recovery. Never predicting it would need a post storm evacuation. More than 2 million people remain without power, more than 75 percent of the gas stations in the Tampa area have no fuel.
Florida Senator Rick Scott visiting the hardhit area Friday to assure the community well leaders are doing everything they can to help with that recovery.
SEN. RICK SCOTT (R-FL): I'm here to make sure that federal resources are here. It takes you as an individual takes local and state and federal to work together. So I'm here to make sure that were going to do that.
ROSALES: And to make matters worse, there's another factor that's going to lead to these waters rising even higher. Neighbors here telling me they are angry, they're frustrated because the flood protection agency is releasing more water from a nearby reservoir that's full.
The agency says they have to do this to protect the structural integrity of a dam that, if that fails, that will endanger people. But neighbors tell me that this is just going to make their lives even more hellish for days to come -- Isabel Rosales, Hillsborough County, Florida, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: U.S. President Joe Biden says Congress needs to step up and pass hurricane recovery aid after the back-to-back storms of Milton and Helene. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Georgia and Florida officials about recovery efforts on Friday.
They promised the federal government would support all the victims of both recent storms. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We want everyone in the impacted areas to know we're going to do everything we can to let you -- to help you pick back up the pieces and get back to where you were.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Well, the third straight day, Biden called out Donald Trump for spreading misinformation about the government's response to the storms.
Meanwhile, the head of FEMA says the government will need supplemental funding from Congress. It's just a matter of when. The FEMA administrator said Friday the federal agency does have enough money to support the immediate needs of hurricane victims.
There's no indication from congressional leaders that they plan to call back members who are on recess until after the election.
Arizona isn't just a battleground state in the U.S. election. It's also a border state. Just ahead, how immigration and abortion are driving voters there. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are entering the final sprint to the U.S. election with just 24 days left. Trump hit the campaign trail in Colorado where he continued to spread lies and stoke fears about undocumented immigrants.
At a rally in Aurora, Colorado, he falsely claimed that Venezuelan gang members are taking over parts of the state. And he vowed to create a federal program aimed at deporting them if he's reelected.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: What the hell happened to Aurora?
I will rescue Aurora and every town that has been invaded and conquered, going to get them the hell out of our country.
These are stone cold killers, enemy from within. All the scum that we have to deal with, that hate our country, that's a bigger enemy and China and Russia. Very, very, very sick with highly contagious disease. And they'll let
into our country to infect our country.
Will not be conquered, we will not be conquered.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, Vice President Harris spoke to a group of Republican supporters on Friday at a campaign stop in Scottsdale, Arizona. But she's also getting some help on the trail from Jill Biden. The first lady kicked off a series of events for Harris in Arizona with plans to visit five key states in four days.
Now the battleground state of Arizona is at the epicenter of two major campaign issues, abortion and immigration. CNN's Jeff Zeleny talked to voters in the Grand Canyon State and he says, between now and November 5th, every day feels like Election Day.
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DONNA ROSS, ARIZONA VOTER SUPPORTING HARRIS: It was a right that we've had for 50 years. It's crazy to think that you can take it back right away. Who does that?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donna Ross is voting to protect abortion rights.
Candy Purdue is, too.
CANDY PURDUE, ARIZONA VOTER SUPPORTING TRUMP: Everybody on that issue. I believe has the right to decide what they want and what they can live with.
ZELENY: Beyond that, their views diverge sharply here in battleground Arizona, where Ross is supporting Kamala Harris.
ROSS: I'm very excited. She is so dynamic.
ZELENY: And Purdue is backing Donald Trump.
PURDUE: You darn right I am.
ZELENY: The scrambled politics of abortion are at the center of the first presidential race since the Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade. The fight has been an anthem of Harris'' candidacy.
HARRIS: So Arizona, we need to fight this battle on every front. And in this election, you have the chance on the state level to vote yes on Proposition 139.
ZELENY: Yet, it's far from certain whether Proposition 139, a measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, will give her a definite edge.
Abortion and immigration are colliding in Arizona.
[05:35:00]
Like few other battlegrounds, with both issues literally on the ballot. Proposition 314 would make immigration violations a state crime. Virtually no money has been spent on ads compared to abortion, which dominates the airwaves.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): You can end Arizona's abortion ban by voting yes on Prop 139.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA DENT, ARIZONA VOTER: It's something that resonates with independents, with Democrats, with Republicans.
ZELENY: Laura Dent help gather more than 800,000 signatures from Arizona voters to put abortion rights on the ballot.
As volunteers go door to door, three weeks before the election, Mayra Rodriguez has deployed an RV to spread the word against the measure.
MAYRA RODRIGUEZ, PRO-LIFE ADVOCATE: Obviously, we don't come with the money the other side does.
ZELENY: A former clinic manager for Planned Parenthood, Rodriguez now warns women against abortion. She's voting for Trump but with little enthusiasm.
RODRIGUEZ: I always tell people that Jesus is on the valor. He will -- they will all we have to choose always the lesser of two evils.
ZELENY: And the lesser of two evils is?
RODRIGUEZ: Right. To me, it's Trump.
ZELENY: Four years ago, Trump lost Arizona by 10,457 votes, out of more than 3.3 million cast, one of his narrowest defeats.
David Tapia sat on the sidelines in that election but has no plans of doing so again. He's 42, born and raised in Arizona and used his classic cars to entice others to register, to vote.
Trump drove you to be more politically aware.
DAVID TAPIA, ARIZONA VOTER SUPPORTING HARRIS: A hundred percent, Trump's a popular guy. So whether you like it or not, you're going to open your phone and you're going to see politics.
ZELENY: The more he saw the former president over the past four years, he said, the less he liked. He plans to vote for Harris. TAPIA: Looking at both sides, I mean, I'll be honest. I'm not a supporter of Trump. I'm just not.
ZELENY: He's been studying state races, too, including the abortion measure he plans to support.
TAPIA: My man, no ones ever told me what to do and I believe that women have the right to make the decisions on their own bodies.
ZELENY: Whether Tapia's views are widely held or the exception will help determine the outcome in Arizona.
And Arizona's 11 electoral votes, really are at the center of this race. Vice President Harris holding a rally there on Thursday night, spending Friday there as well.
Former President Donald Trump holding a rally there on Sunday. They've been blanketing the state.
There is no question now that both sides see this state as part of their strategies. Immigration and abortion are driving this race. There's no doubt about that. Every day is Election Day between now and November 5th -- Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Stock markets hit fresh highs on Friday in the U.S. The three major indices, the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite, all finished up for the week, with investors sending the Dow and S&P to record levels.
The market surge came on the back of strong bank earnings. Both JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo beat third quarter expectations.
Boeing's new CEO says the company will cut 10 percent of its total staff in the coming months. That's about 17,000 jobs. The troubled aircraft maker is contending with a month-long strike of hourly employees, which has delayed production of some of its jets.
Boeing has been experiencing problems for years, starting with two fatal crashes of its best-selling plane, the 737 MAX. That jet was grounded for 20 months worldwide. The company has reported core operating losses of more than $33 billion.
The world's richest man says the autonomous future is here. On Thursday Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled his long-awaited robotaxi at a glitzy event at the Warner Brothers Studio near Los Angeles.
Musk showcased the cyber cab in front of an audience. About 4 million others watched on X. The robotaxi has no steering wheel or pedals. Production is set to start in 2026 but Musk is known for over- promising.
Five years ago, he said the robotaxi would be available in a year. And Musk also showed off a robovan. It's a larger vehicle that he said could carry up to 20 people. He gave no timeframe for when that vehicle might be introduced.
North Korea is accusing South Korea of flying drones over its capital and dropping leaflets, describing a better life across the border. Now Pyongyang is threatening retaliation. CNN's Mike Valerio has details from Seoul.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE VALERIO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So the central question here is who exactly is responsible?
Is this the South Korean government's work?
Is this work from private individuals here in South Korea?
Or is this perhaps some other possibility altogether?
So let's take you through what we know, beginning with the photos that North Korean state media have released, showing what it claims to be are fliers from South Korea as well as a few still images of drones, it claims, are from South Korea.
[05:40:00]
So late Friday night, we got word from North Korean state media that, according to its claims, not on just one occasion but three occasions since last week, South Korea, it says, has sent drones over the heart of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, at least in one instance scattering leaflets over the North Korean capital.
And when we look at photos of the leaflets, they appear to say in parts that are not blurred by North Korean state media, hey, look at all the food that North Korean -- North Korea could buy if its economy were not beset by sanctions, if its government were not pursuing this nuclear program.
North Korea, describing this, what it says, incursion, what it claims to be incursion, describing it as a, quote, "grave military attack" for which South Korea must pay a dear price.
So we are certainly asking questions.
Why are parts of these photos blurred, specifically looking at the flyers and why don't we have video of these alleged drones instead of just still images released by North Korea?
This is all happening in the context of thousands of trash balloons that have been sent over from the North Korean side since May to here in South Korea, filled with trash. This is in retaliation for years of South Korean activists sending balloons to North Korea filled with mementos and images of what it's like to live in a free and open society.
Now late Friday night when this news broke, the defense minister of South Korea was with lawmakers.
And he was essentially asked, did we do this?
Are these South Korean drones?
And his rough reply was essentially, we did not but I need to assess the situation.
South Korea's joint chiefs of staff have neither confirmed nor denied if these are South Korean drones. We would not, I repeat, not call this an escalation of tensions. It's certainly a concerning development and an interesting tributary, an interesting avenue of where relations have gone between these two countries.
But we're certainly looking for more information from both sides of the border as to who is responsible -- Mike Valerio, CNN, Seoul.
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BRUNHUBER: Migrant workers in Lebanon are caught between a rock and a hard place. They came to the country for a job. Now they can't escape the conflict. That's coming up. Stay with us.
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[05:45:00]
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BRUNHUBER: Some people caught up in the brutal conflict in Lebanon now have no place to go.
They're migrant workers, often from Asia or Africa, who came to the country looking for a better life. But now that the fighting has begun, leaving isn't always an option. Jomana Karadsheh has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Baby Abdul's life has barely begun. And yet when he hears bombs, he points to the sky.
MARYATO SUWARI (PH): Maybe in the night, when the night, he just points up, like the sound.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): He and his mother, Maryato Suwari (ph), are one of hundreds of migrant families left with nowhere to go in Lebanon. They say
they've been abandoned by their employers.
SUWARI (PH): They go, all of them go. I don't know, I don't know where they go.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Night after night, day after day, Israel's missiles are raining down on the Lebanese capital of Beirut. They're
hitting the southern suburbs hardest. It's where Hezbollah has a strong presence but it's also where many migrant workers live.
Migrant workers CNN spoke to described how their employers fled for safety while they were left behind to fend for themselves without the means or
paperwork to leave.
The U.N.'s International Organization for Migration estimates that there are around 170,000 migrant workers in Lebanon and they're predominantly
women. The Kafala or sponsorship system used in Lebanon, Jordan and many Gulf countries gives employers almost total control over their freedom of
movement.
Some workers told CNN they were refused entry to official government shelters because they're not Lebanese. Many resorted to sleeping on the
streets. The Lebanese governments rejected any accusations of discrimination between displaced people.
LEA GHORAYEB, VOLUNTEER (PH): As you can see, some of them have all their stuff with them and some have literally nothing.
Hey, mama. Hi.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Volunteers like Lea Ghorayeb have stepped in where consulates and embassies have failed to respond, identifying buildings to
use as makeshift shelters in a country where so-called safe places are shrinking by the day.
GHORAYEB: So this is the area where we're going to call it the communal bedroom where everybody is sleeping.
[13:25:00]
KARADSHEH (voice-over): This group of volunteers say they're now helping almost 150 women and six babies from Sierra Leone, providing basic things
like mattresses, a place to cook and electricity to charge their phones.
GHORAYEB: If you need anything, come to one of us.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): But supplies are running out, resources overwhelmed. This family from Northern Syria are one of many who saw
shelter in a garden close to Marcher Square in downtown Beirut after their neighborhood in the southern suburbs known as Dahiyeh came under fire.
They're one of many Dara from Migrant Workers Action is seeking to help. DARA FOI'ELLE, MIGRANT WORKERS ACTION: A lot of the migrant workers that are now stranded are undocumented and have expired papers for, in some
cases, up to a decade. So even if there are attempts from the sending countries governments to evacuate their citizens, most migrant workers have
expired residency papers that need penalty fees paid. People don't have work anymore, so they can't afford paying these penalty fees that can go up
to several hundred .
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Across the city in the mountains, a thousand meters above Beirut, a convent has been turned into a temporary shelter for
these migrant workers, many from Ethiopia, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Three-year-old Zahara (ph) and her mother, Indrani Maniki, is only too aware how war has dominated her daughter's short life.
INDRANI MANIKI, MIGRANT WORKER (through translator): Our building was bombed during this war and the whole building was reduced to the ground.
We had nothing left. Just the clothes we had on.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Meanwhile, in the corner of the first-floor room, Asha from Ethiopia and her husband Khaled (ph) hold their four- month-old
twins, Amir (ph) and Amira (ph). The family were forced to flee their home in South Lebanon as Israeli bombing increased. The convent is only a
temporary shelter.
ASHA MOHAMMAD YASIN, MIGRANT WORKER (through translator): Everything happened suddenly. And if we want to go back to our home, there is now way
to get back there. We are suffocating in life here.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): The scale of the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon is growing. Authorities say over 1.2 million people have already been
displaced since fighting escalated last month. Living rooms now reduced to makeshift tents by the side of busy roads. Many of those who came to
Lebanon in search of a better life now want nothing but to leave.
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[05:50:06]
BRUNHUBER: We'll be right back.
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BRUNHUBER: As doctors World Series aspirations are alive and well. L.A. beat the San Diego Padres in dominant fashion Friday night. "CNN SPORT's" anchor Coy Wire joins me now.
And Coy, they won in spite of their biggest stars.
COY WIRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kim, this win or go home game show, that the Dodgers still have enough firepower to get it done, even when their brightest stars aren't shining.
History in game five, Yu Darvish and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, first two Japanese pitchers starting a playoff game, Dodgers getting to Darvish early. Hernandez blasting a solo home run in the second. It gives L.A. the lead. Then L.A., they would have their three former MVPs, Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts.
They combined for just one hit. Darvish retired 14 straight but then check out in the seventh. Oscar Hernandez sending another solo shot for L.A. Darvish was stellar except against news named Hernandez.
[05:55:00]
L.A. wins 2-0 back in the National League Champions Series. For the fifth time in eight years, they'll face the Mets. Here's part of manager Dave Roberts' locker room speech.
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DAVE ROBERTS, MANAGER, L.A. DODGERS: I've never believed in a group of men more than I believe in you guys and more importantly (INAUDIBLE) --
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: -- believe in each other. And when (INAUDIBLE)
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WIRE: Today we get the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians in a winner-take-all game five for a trip to the ALCS to face the Yankees. Now Detroit's ace Tarik Skubal, he'll be on the mound. Last time he gave up a run with September 18th, he's been on fire.
In game two, he was seen yelling at the Cleveland crowd to shut the you know what up. And his mom scolded him on social media. But he says, mom has no room to talk, listen.
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TARIK SKUBAL, PITCHER, DETROIT TIGERS: I'm just saying that my mom went to Twitter to say that because you should -- you should hear my mom when she grown up (ph). So I think that's -- I think that's interesting, yes, that she wants to make that comment.
But I've seen her get ejected out of plenty of high school basketball games. So I guess it might run in the family a little bit there.
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WIRE: All right.
A new era for U.S. soccer begins today as the men's national team kicks off against Panama. Former Tottenham, Chelsea and PSG manager Mauricio Pochettino makes his debut as the new head coach, bringing high expectations to the team ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
You'll be able to catch that Pochettino arrow unfolding on Max and TNT, today, as the U.S. take on Panama, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Appreciate that, Coy. Thanks so much.
Well, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. For viewers in North America, "CNN THIS MORNING" is next. For the rest of the world, it's "AFRICAN VOICES: CHANGEMAKERS."
