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Former GOP Officials Ask DOJ to Probe Musk's $1 Million Giveaways; Soon, Trump Meets With Latino Leaders in Florida; Harris Focusing on Reproductive Rights in Race's Final Sprint. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired October 22, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Two weeks to go and the candidates are pulling out all the stops in the final days. Next hour, former President Donald Trump will be speaking with Latino leaders as he works to earn their vote. Vice President Kamala Harris, she's hoping former GOP Congressman Liz Cheney will help sway voters still on the fence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): It's not about party. It's about right and wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Plus, pressure builds for the Justice Department to investigate Elon Musk over his million dollar giveaways to voters. Now, former Republican officials are weighing in.

Good morning. You are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

All right, let's get right to it with Republican Congressman Byron Donalds of Florida. He is a Trump surrogate. Congressman, thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

Let me ask you first about what Elon Musk is up to. Former Republican officials are calling on the attorney general, Merrick Garland, to investigate Musk's $1 million a day giveaway to swing state voters if they sign up with his political organization's petition. Obviously, Elon Musk is a very vocal Trump supporter. Do you think this is legal?

REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL): Frankly, I don't know. I think that's something that Elon and his legal team are going to get into. But let's be very clear, what Elon Musk is doing is not associated with the Trump campaign. It's its own political entity that's operating.

We have a lot of political entities that actually operate all around the country. At least you know that Elon Musk is the person doing this with his resources. There are many billionaires on the Democratic left who funneled their money into a bunch of blind super PACs, we call it dark money, where the Democrats basically are spending two to one against Republicans all across the country, if not three to one, depending on some of these battleground states. So, there's a lot of dark money. At least Elon Musk is out in the open about what he's doing. A lot of these Democrat billionaires don't want anybody to know who they are, how much money they actually spend.

ACOSTA: Well, there's a lot of that going on, on both sides.

DONALDS: It's about the issues facing this country, about our border, about our economy and about our foreign policy. Those are the issues that truly do matter, not what Elon Musk is doing with his own personal money in Pennsylvania.

ACOSTA: And so you would be all right if a Democratic billionaire was handing out a million dollar prizes, that would be all right with you?

DONALDS: We already know that Democratic billionaires hand out money directly to workers, whether they're canvassing neighborhoods all across the country, registering people all across the country, pushing propaganda all across the country. They've been doing it, frankly, for more than a decade in our politics.

I think the reason why you have some, quote/unquote, "Republicans," and let's be clear, they're probably never Trumpers anyway, who are upset is because Elon Musk is helping Donald Trump. Nobody really cared that Zuckerberg put in $400 million of his own money in 2020 behind Joe Biden. Nobody cared about that then, but they care about it now.

But that's not what matters. What really matters, Jim, are the issues facing the American people. Who has a plan to fix our border? Who has a plan to actually have a strong economy where people can get ahead? Who has a plan to bring jobs back from overseas? That person is Donald J. Trump. Kamala Harris has proven that she has no plan, which is why she has to go to Usher and to Lizzo.

ACOSTA: And, Congressman, I want to ask you about former President Trump calling his political opponents enemies from within. He keeps repeating it. Let's talk about it. Let's listen to this.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people. But when you look at Shifty Schiff and some of the others, yes, they are, to me, the enemy from within. I think Nancy Pelosi is an enemy from within.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Congressman, do you consider Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi to be the enemy from within?

DONALDS: I know that Adam Schiff, when he was chairman of the Intelligence Committee, was leaking information to the press that was classified information, supposed to be held in a SCIF. This is the reason why then Speaker McCarthy kicked Adam Schiff off of the Intelligence Committee, because he abused his purposes for political reasons. That is dangerous. It's a very dangerous thing.

ACOSTA: So, you consider Adam -- Congressman, did ask you yes or no question.

DONALDS: And what Maria Bartiromo was asking about is, unrest in the streets, what would you do?

[10:05:02]

Are you concerned? And he said, yes, I am concerned about that. Because if you just go back to the summer of 2020, the summer of love, like the left likes to talk about, you had riots in every major cities in the country. That is very dangerous. It's something that --

ACOSTA: So, you would be okay with Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi being deemed the enemy from within? Would you go along with them being rounded up? What would you go along with, him being arrested?

DONALDS: Absolutely not. And listen, let's be very clear. Donald Trump didn't even say that. He said he was concerned. He said that, yes, you have somebody like Adam Schiff who would use his position as chairman of the Intel Committee, who has access to information that even members of Congress don't have access to, and to leak that into the press.

Remember what Adam Schiff did in 2016. He was laundering phony intelligence into our political system. He did that in 2016, 2017, 2018. That is very dangerous, in my view. It's very dangerous to use your position as the chairman of Intel to launder phony information into the body politic saying that Donald Trump was a Russian plant. We all know that was a lie. It was a blatant lie. But Adam shifted that. You should have him on your program and ask him about it.

ACOSTA: Okay. So, Congressman, so I'm asking you, if Donald Trump orders people inside this country, citizens, like Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi to be arrested, you're saying -- I think I just heard you a few moments ago saying you would not go along with that. So, why not denounce what the former president is saying when he calls them the enemy from within?

DONALDS: Jim, first of all --

ACOSTA: Shouldn't that be denounced?

DONALDS: Let's be very clear. Donald -- are you going to let me answer your question? Here you go. Donald Trump's been president for four years already. When he was president of the United States, did he weaponize the Justice Department against his political rivals? No, he did not. When he was president of the United States, did he order the National Guard or Secret Service or the U.S. military to go after his, quote/unquote, "rivals"? No, he did not.

As a matter of fact, there's been two attempts on the life of Donald Trump. ACOSTA: Congressman, I've been at a lot of Trump rallies where they were chanting lock her up about Hillary Clinton.

DONALDS: Jim, you want an answer, I'm going to give you an answer. You may not like it.

ACOSTA: But it has to be in line with reality, Congressman.

DONALDS: The reality is --

ACOSTA: You've been to Trump rallies when they chant lock her up about Hillary Clinton.

All right, I do want to ask you about something else. He's also made a lot of crude comments lately talking about the golfer, Arnold Palmer, talking about Arnold Palmer's genitalia. Is this the way a president should speak?

DONALDS: Jim, with all due respect to the question that you just asked me, none of that matters to what the American people are going to deal with in 13 days, in 14 days, excuse me. Because over the next 14 days, voters are going to decide, do they want a president who's actually going to have a sound economy where prices are under control? Do they want a president who's going to secure our southern border and hold for this one so that young girls are not raped by the drug cartels in the journey to our southern border? Because that's what's happening right now, Jim, you have young girls who are being victimized by the coyotes and by the drug cartels, simply because Kamala Harris and Joe Biden could not do the right thing, which is to secure our southern border.

So, if you want to talk about a story he told about Arnold Palmer, or the fact that young girls are being sold into sex slavery today because of Kamala Harris' wide open borders, I will tell you, give me a story about Arnold Palmer. But secure the country and save these young girls from being victimized by the drug cartels because Kamala Harris doesn't care about that.

ACOSTA: Yes, okay.

DONALDS: She's not lifted a finger to secure our southern border.

And so where are the stories?

ACOSTA: I guess my question, though, Congressman --

DONALDS: Where are the (INAUDIBLE) about the young girls who are given plan B, who are put on birth control because they're being trafficked into the United States by weak border policy? That's the issue that the American people are having to deal with right now, not this story about Arnold Palmer.

ACOSTA: But doesn't it -- I guess my question is -- the larger question is, when you have a president, a former president, somebody who's running for president, talking about Democrats as being the enemy from within, when he's making lewd comments about professional golfers, doesn't a candidate's character matter? Does Donald Trump have the character in your view to be the president of the United States?

DONALDS: What was -- let's examine that. First of all, I will say, yes, he does. You know why? Because he's been president and the country was better off when he was president. The world was actually safe when he was president, where there were no new wars when he was president. So, he did a very good job. The American people remember that.

Let's compare that to his opponent, Kamala Harris. She's running around the country telling the American people that these rich people need to all pay their fair share meat and taxes. Meanwhile her boss, Joe Biden, his son is a tax evader. So, she's going to try to lecture the American people about paying their fair share, but she didn't say a word when Hunter Biden was evading taxes.

[10:10:00]

What does that say about character, Jim? I'll ask you that question. Because it's about what you do when you're in office. It's about the policies you pursue. It's about how effective they are in the lives of the American people. And, yes, it is about keeping our troops safe and not being the last person in the room when Joe Biden signed off on the most disastrous withdrawal in the history of our country. We lost 13 soldiers.

And, by the way, let's talk about Kamala Harris' character. She wasn't even there at the dignified transfer when those 13 soldiers came home. She wasn't there, and Joe Biden was busy checking his watch.

So, if you're going to talk about character, Jim, let's really talk about it. Let's not talk about stories about Arnold Palmer. Let's talk about the reality of leadership and the lack thereof from Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. This is why Donald Trump's going to be the next president of the United States.

ACOSTA: I mean, do you find it entertaining when he's making these kinds of comments? I mean is that something you want kids to hear?

DONALDS: Jim, what I want is a president who's going to do the job of commander-in-chief. What I want is a president who's going to follow the law and execute the law, not run around the law like Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have done.

I want a president that's going to make sure that, yes, we are energy dominant on the world stage, that the American people have jobs where they can actually get ahead in life. That's what I want in a president. And, quite frankly, that's what the majority of our country wants in a president.

You could talk about stories about Arnold Palmer all you want, but that does not matter when people got to put food on the table. That's stuff for your show, it might be good for your show. It's not good for the American people. ACOSTA: Well, I'm just asking, Congressman, because, you know, a president of the United States is a role model. And is that the behavior of a role model, would you say, talking about Arnold Palmer, talking about Democrats as being the enemy from within, is that a role model?

DONALDS: And I will tell you right now, we don't have that now. We do not have success. We have failure. And Kamala Harris is just a new face on the same failure, and that's why she's being rejected by the American people.

ACOSTA: All right. Congressman Byron Donalds, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.

Still to come, former President Donald Trump will be meeting with Latino leaders. Coming up next, how both campaigns are appealing to this key slice of the electorate. We'll be right back.

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[10:15:00]

ACOSTA: All right. In the next hour, former President Donald Trump will meet with Latino leaders in Florida as the campaign is trying to boost support from Americans in this key voting bloc. Polls show that they favor Vice President Kamala Harris, but Democrats' advantage with Latinos could be shrinking.

Joining us now to talk about this is CNN en Espanol Chief Political Anchor Juan Carlos Lopez and CNN Political Analyst Laura Barron-Lopez. Guys, thanks so much.

Really important subject, and we're going to be showing Trump with these Latino leaders in the next hour, I believe, or so. Let's play a clip from the last time you spoke with Latino voters. It was the Univision town hall. Let's play that clip and talk about the other side.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to give you the opportunity to try to win back my vote.

It was a little disturbing to me, you know, what happened during January 6th. And the fact that, you know, you waited so long to take action while your supporters were attacking the Capitol.

TRUMP: We had the most successful country we've ever had, and I hope someday maybe we'll get your vote. It sounds like maybe I won't, but that's okay, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Yes. Juan Carlos, I mean, one of the things that I took away from that town hall, not so much -- I mean, that, that gentleman's clip obviously went viral, and that was very interesting to hear all of that. But when they panned the crowd, I mean, I'm sure you guys saw the clip, and there are these ladies in the audience sort of looking quizzically, you know, when Trump was referring to January 6th as a day of love and so on, that event did not go over well for Donald Trump.

Are we overstating this storyline out there that perhaps a lot of Latino voters are hemorrhaging from Harris to Trump? Where do you see things right now, Juan Carlos?

JUAN CARLOS LOPEZ, CNN EN ESPANOL CHIEF POLITICAL ANCHOR: I think if we look at where the race is, we're only 14 days out, they're trying to get anyone they can. Now, with Latinos, if you look at the numbers, 60 percent of Latino voters are Mexican American. So, he's in Florida right now. Florida might be important, but Biden won without Florida.

So, I think they're going to try everything, they're going to say everything, but I don't know if they have time to convince, if he has time to convince people that he has a different message, which he doesn't.

ACOSTA: Yes. What do you think, Laura?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, this is a game of margins, right? So, he's attempting to win over specifically more Latino men across age demographics at the margins. Now, is he going to get more than he got in 2020? I haven't necessarily seen the full evidence of that when I've been out in the field. I was just in North Carolina. I was in Arizona and Nevada before that. And I spoke to Latinas, young and older ones, who were both pretty motivated by the abortion measures on the ballot in both of those states.

So, Harris' campaign is looking to really drive up support amongst Latinas potentially more than young Latino men, because they're more likely to vote. They have a history of voting in bigger numbers, and they're really motivated by a lot of these issues, like abortion and reproductive rights.

ACOSTA: Right. And, I mean, we haven't even gotten into Trump's promise of mass deportations. I mean, yesterday he talked about invoking a 200-year-old law that would speed up deportation of undocumented immigrants. Let's listen to this.

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TRUMP: I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1800, of 1798. Think of that, 1798. That's when we had real politicians that said we're not going to play games. We have to go back to 1798 to target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil.

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[10:20:03]

ACOSTA: Juan Carlos, I mean, one of the things that folks don't realize is that a lot of families, Latino families in this country, are mixed status, and meaning that some folks in the household might be undocumented or maybe in the process of getting documented while there may be U.S. citizens in the household, the grandkids, the parents and so on, grandparents may not be.

What are you hearing from Latinos out there? Are folks in that community zeroing in on Trump's rhetoric about using, you know, 200- year-old laws to round up and mass deport immigrants in this country?

LOPEZ: The short answer is no. I mean, it's so nonsensical to talk about a law from 1798 that can be used to arrest people who are legally in the country. And then if they were paying attention, they would have paid attention to the poisoning of the blood. They would have paid attention to the bad genes. They would have paid attention to all this rhetoric that obviously pushes the community away. But people, I guess, are focused on work and paying the bills and not listening to everything that Donald Trump says.

BARRON-LOPEZ: One thing that that kind of rhetoric appears to be doing, and having an impact on specific mixed status family households, is that when I was just in North Carolina, I was talking to immigrant advocates and voters. And there are American citizens who are in mixed status families whose parents are telling them maybe you shouldn't vote because then our names will be on the record, your name will be on a record, and then maybe I'll get deported if Donald Trump ends up becoming president.

So, there's a bit of a fear. There's a fear going around with some mixed status families about maybe our American citizen family members shouldn't vote because then our families will be targeted if Donald Trump were to win the presidency.

ACOSTA: And, I mean, she is talking about some policies aimed at this constituency. I think we have some of it up on screen, targeting Latino men, including training proposals for career advancement, expanding partnerships with high schools so students can start working toward careers, investment programs for workforce development among Latino veterans.

This goes back to what you were saying, Juan Carlos, which is, yes, there's a lot of fear about what he might do in terms of mass deportation. But a lot of Latino voters are going to be voting on those bread and butter issues.

LOPEZ: And one of the issues with the message she has is women. And I think Latina women and Latino voters in general aren't very different from other American voters. If you can vote, you're a U.S. citizen or you're an American by birth.

I was talking about Mexican-Americans. Most of those 60 percent of the voting bloc are second, third, fourth generation. Many of them don't even speak Spanish, but they're focusing on their daily lives. And I think that's why this rhetoric on both sides hasn't caught on.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Laura, I mean, you know, Trump keeps doubling down on a lot of this anti-immigrant rhetoric. I mean, is that resonating, do you think? Is that is --

BARRON-LOPEZ: With some Latino voters? Sure, it does. I think the ones that have been here for more generations --

ACOSTA: Where they heard it so many times that they're just --

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yes, that they don't think it will happen to them or to the family members that they know.

Does it have an impact with more moderate Republicans who there's also Latinos that are moderate Republicans? It does. And those independent moderate Republican voters don't necessarily like that anti-immigrant rhetoric.

ACOSTA: All right, guys. Thank you very much. Laura and Juan Carlos, thanks so much. I always appreciate it.

Still ahead, we're getting brand new reporting about Harris' strategy with just two weeks to go while she has been campaigning around the country in lots of battleground states. She is heading to deep red Texas. We'll tell you why, next.

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[10:25:00]

ACOSTA: Abortion access is front and center for the Harris campaign in the final stretch of this election season. On Friday, the vice president heads to Texas. Her team is calling it ground zero for extreme abortion bans.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is in Madison, Wisconsin, where Tim Walz and Barack Obama will be speaking later on today. Priscilla, let's talk about Harris' trip to Houston later this week. Is she trying to turn Texas blue? Might this have something to do with a certain Senate race down there, maybe all of the above? What can you tell us?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's certainly an unusual stop to go to Texas in the final days of the election, but, certainly, what it tells us is that the strategy going into these final weeks is going to be honing in on reproductive freedom.

Of course, Democratic officials and campaign officials believe this to be a galvanizing issue for voters. They've thought that since the beginning of the year when the vice president launched her own tour on this issue, and that is exactly what they're going to double down on now in this final stretch.

Now, of course, Texas, according to sources I've spoken with, they all see this as the epicenter of the abortion bans. It is a state that has effectively banned abortions, and the vice president on the campaign trail has frame this as a, quote, health care crisis and featured women in ads who have been affected by this, including, for example, Kate Cox.

Now, this is also came up in moderated conversations yesterday with Liz Cheney basically creating a permission structure on this very issue, especially among those white college educated voters that typically lean Republican. But the vice president and her team are also trying to double down on this stakes of the election and underscoring that. Certainly, we'll see more of that, especially with reproductive freedoms, and doing so through a podcast.

On Friday, she'll also be with Brene Brown, who has millions of followers, so continuing those appearances on traditional and nontraditional outlets. Jim?

ACOSTA: All right. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you very much.

Let's bring in Mitch Landrieu. He is the co-chair of the Harris-Walz campaign and was the mayor of New Orleans. Mayor Landrieu, always great to talk to you, I really appreciate it.

[10:30:01]

MITCH LANDRIEU, CO-CHAIR, HARRIS-WALZ CAMPAIGN: Hey, Jim.

ACOSTA: Why is Vice President Harris going to Texas? Does she think she can turn Texas blue?