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Trump Vows to Protect Women, Whether the Women Like it or Not; Harris, Trump Campaigns Head West Five Days Before Election Day; Elon Musk Not Attending Pennsylvania Court Hearing Over $1 Million Giveaways. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 31, 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: Good morning. You are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

We begin with a stunning news statement from Donald Trump out on the campaign trail last night, when the former president said he would be the protector of women, quote, whether the women like it or not. The comments could backfire for Trump, who has faced decades of allegations of abuse from multiple women, and, of course, it was the former president who placed three justices on the Supreme Court, which overturned Roe vs. Wade, sending the question of abortion rights back to the states.

Here's what Trump had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Four weeks ago I was saying, no, I want to protect the people. I want to protect the women of our country. I want to protect the women. Sir, please don't say that. Why? They said, we think it's -- we think it's very inappropriate for you to say. I said, Why?

They said, Sir, I just think it's inappropriate for you to say. I pay these guys a lot of money. Can you believe it? I said, Well, I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. I'm going to protect them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: The remark comes five days before Election Day, as both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are crisscrossing the country in search of those remaining undecided voters who will determine the winner of the race for the White House.

The former president donned an orange vest and climbed into a Trump branded trash truck in a photo op aimed at seizing on the garbage gaffe from President Biden. Of course, that may also remind Puerto Ricans that a Trump campaign-approved comedian recently called the island garbage. Let's discuss that and more with CNN Political Commentator Margaret Hoover, former Republican governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman, Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha and former Republican Strategist and Pollster Lee Carter.

Margaret, let me start with you. Your reaction to what Trump said last night.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Jim, we all have heard enough from Donald Trump in our time to turn the page. It's no surprise he's going to double down on the crazy, going to double down on the offensive, and going to double down on the things that are going to rile up his base. Because what he needs right now is to get every single one of those people who voted for him in 2016 dropped off in 2020. And that's in Pennsylvania, that's in those blue wall states, and all across these battleground states. They will come out. The crazier he gets, the more offensive he gets because that's what they need to hear.

So, that's his formula. So, if you want negativity, if you want trash talk about our country, that's what you're going to get listening to Donald Trump's closing argument.

ACOSTA: And, Lee, women are outpacing men in early voting in battleground states so far. Abortion rights, of course, are a top concern. Was that a smart comment of the former president to make last night? I mean, setting aside, I mean, the history that Trump has with women, which we talked about a little earlier, just from a strategic standpoint, does that make any sense?

LEE CARTER, FORMER REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST AND POLLSTER: I mean, I think I understand what he was trying to say there. He was trying to talk about a broader issue and he ended up making a sound bite that we can play over and over again. And it's really going to just focus not on the broader point, but it's going to focus on women, whether they like it or not, I'm going to force this on them. And I think that's an unfortunate sound bite for him.

But I think the whole thing is it's not what you say that matters is what people hear. If you hate Donald Trump, you're going to listen to that and say he is terrible, he hates women, he's a misogynist, this is more evidence of hate. If you love Donald Trump, you're going to hear that and say, you know what, that's just Trumping Trump. And I understand you're trying to talk about something different.

So, I'm not sure ultimately how much this is going to have an impact at the end of the day. I think people have already decided what they think about Donald Trump and his numbers have reigned relatively strong throughout all of this. It's Kamala Harris' numbers have been going up and down.

ACOSTA: Governor Whitman, I wonder you were governor of New Jersey, a Republican who no longer supports Donald Trump, doesn't support Donald Trump, I do wonder, though, about those wavering centrist Republican women in places like the suburbs of Philadelphia and so on.

[10:05:02]

Let's show a poll from over the weekend. This is choice for president ABC News/Ipsos poll, Harris, 19 points. She is leading Donald Trump among women. That is above where Biden was against the president at that time in 2020. Your thoughts, Governor Whitman.

FMR. GOV. CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN (R-NJ): Well, frankly, that comment of his, whether they like it or not, is just infuriating. And I think there are a lot of women who are still somewhat hesitant. Those women who are on the fence to whom that will be extremely offensive, and it will sway the vote. And I don't know why we're still talking about the trash thing of the fact that Joe Biden mentioned that when Donald Trump has been denigrating people, men, women, minorities, they're calling them trash, calling them vermin, you know, poisoning our blood, we have to stop talking about the things he's talking about and say, look at the things that he's done and how his language is affecting the way we look at this election, the undermining of the public's confidence in the electoral system, it's all part of this package.

And I do agree that his base loves this, but there are still amazing to me number of people who haven't quite made up their mind. And it's comments like he's going to take care of women whether they like it or not that just makes you clench your fist. It makes me clench my fist. I want to smack him across the face. He's not taking care of me, or my body, and everything that he's done thus far has told me that that's what he wants control of. I mean, he promised us that he would appoint conservative justices to undo Roe v. Wade and that's exactly what he's done.

And now we've had women who have had to go out of state, women who have lost their lives, women who have been put in danger of losing their lives because doctors are afraid to act because their states have put these total bans on abortion, the whole picture is one that tells you exactly who he is and what he's going to do. And the more he says things like that of I'm going to take care of you whether you like it or not, the more I think he will sway those voters who are still undecided to say no, we don't want this kind of a person in the White House.

ACOSTA: Yes. Chuck. I mean, you know, when Governor Whitman says she'd like to slap Donald Trump across the face, I mean, I got to think if you're a Democratic strategist this morning, you must think that, you know, Trump had this day yesterday where he's, you know, riding around on a garbage truck, he's wearing an orange vest, he's trying to capitalize on what President Biden said, and then he goes out to a rally and says he's going to do something, whether women like it or -- whether the women like it or not.

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween, Jim Acosta. And this is nothing but like a costume that he's put himself in every day.

Now, I'm in my normal business, casual Mexican redneck costume, and every day, Donald Trump tries to dress himself up as a champion of women. And guess who ain't buying it. Women ain't buying it. That's why you see the largest gender gap in this election than I've ever seen in my 35 years of running campaigns.

There's not a big surprise to a bunch of hairy legged men out there that women are smarter than men and they're not buying this for a second. And that's why you see what you're seeing in these battleground states. He can put on all the orange vests he wants to. He can serve all the French fries that he wants to. Women ain't buying it.

ACOSTA: Yes. Margaret, let's listen to a little bit of what Trump had to say last night about Harris and the Democrats trying to seize on this garbage thing. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If Comrade Kamala Harris gets four more years, you will be living a full blown banana republic ruled by an anarchy and a tyranny.

It's the people that surround her, they're scum, they're scum, and they want to take down our country. They are absolute garbage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: I beg your pardon, I teed that up incorrectly. I said that was something he said last night. That is what he has said in the past about Harris and Democrats calling them garbage, calling them lots of different things.

To the governor's point where she was saying a few moments ago, Margaret, that Trump has used this kind of language himself.

HOOVER: Of course he has. I mean, the contrast between that and Vice President Harris at The Ellipse talking about how the United States of America is the greatest idea humanity has devised, and that it is a it is a an idea great enough to encompass all of our dreams, and so we can transcend our differences in order to pull together. I mean, you couldn't have more stark of a contrasting closing message between the two. And I think Americans are glass half full of people were optimistic people we believe and in the shining city on the hill still. And that's why her message is so much more potent.

One more quick note, Jim, and this, this echoes everything the previous panelists have said, women are turning out in extraordinary numbers in the early vote.

[10:10:01]

And there is no evidence that pollsters have yet figured out how to poll this country in a post-Dobbs election. We haven't seen a single time where abortion has been on the ballot, and by the way, make no mistake, this abortion is on the ballot in 50 states this time, in three days, 50 states. We haven't seen a single election where the pollsters have gotten it right every single time, from Kansas to Virginia, to Ohio, to Kentucky. Women have voted for control over their own bodies.

ACOSTA: And, Lee, do you think that is something that the polls just don't show at this point? We saw those abortion referendums in Ohio and Kansas go in favor of abortion rights in margins that we just didn't anticipate. The pollsters didn't anticipate, the pundits didn't anticipate. Might that be an X factor in all of this? We're just not seeing ahead of time. We're just going to have to see how it plays out on Election Day.

CARTER: I mean, I'm surprised that the pollsters are getting it wrong. I mean, seven and ten independent women say it's going to be a primary decision-maker for them. So, I wasn't surprised at the results in Ohio. When you look at the ten states where abortion is going to be on a ballot, I think that actually has a large impact, especially because there's two swing states there.

But the thing that we don't know is, yes, this is going to drive women's turnout, absolutely. But there's another unknown factor. Donald Trump is really gutting after young men in a way that we haven't seen, sort of record numbers of young men are registering to vote. They're not going to be likely voters because the first time they're going to vote. And we don't know what kind of turnout we're going to have there.

So, there is a huge gender divide. It's a huge story, but we're having a hard time understanding exactly who is going to turn up on Election Day.

ACOSTA: And, Governor Whitman, I mean, I do want to talk about the Latino vote. I want to ask Chuck about this as well. But the Harris team is releasing a new ad in Spanish today focused on Puerto Rico after that so-called comedian at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally called the U.S. territory a floating island of garbage. We should note, of course, we have before we'll do it again. Those are Americans who live in Puerto Rico. There are Puerto Ricans who live in this country, a lot of them live in Pennsylvania. But you can see the ad there right now. I'm just wondering what you think about how this is playing out. I mean, I know you were the governor of New Jersey, sizable Latino population there. Your thoughts.

WHITMAN: Well, it does infuriate them. The thing we don't know is how many voted before this happened, before he said this, and that will have an impact because a lot of people, as you have noted, have gone out and voted early. And I was listening to one Puerto Rican man saying that that he had voted early. This changed his vote. He was sorry he had, but he was now calling all his friends to say, if you haven't voted yet, this remark should push you away from Trump.

And the other thing is on the polling, we haven't captured any of those people who did register right after Kamala Harris became the nominee and are still registering. There's no way to capture them. So, we really don't know what's going to happen on Election Day and who is turning out for whom.

But I think a lot of what we see, and I wish we'd stop talking about this, playing this thing about the, what the comedian said, it was so bad. And, oh, by the way, it was let go through. He was allowed to say that by the Trump people, because, apparently, there were some worse things he was going to say that they took out of his routine. So, they knew what he was going to say, and they were okay with it because it's the language that Donald Trump has been using right along.

And we need to remember that. That's who you -- what you see is what you get. And my hope is that a lot of people are going to see that the positive message we're getting from Kamala Harris put aside the Joe Biden remark. I mean, that was unfortunate. It shouldn't have happened, but pete sakes, anyone who knows Joe Biden knows he doesn't think that way. And that that was a one-off when you have the present presidential nominee of the Republican Party saying it every day in 100 different ways. So, what you see is what you get but we don't know and we won't know until well after this election is over.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, Chuck, you know, one of the things that I know Democratic strategists have been waiting for is an issue to animate Latino voters. And there's been a concern with Latino men. And, you know, I mean, we were playing clips from John King yesterday in Nevada with Latino men in Nevada who are not Puerto Rican, who are pissed off. I mean, there's -- and they're still angry. I mean, I'll just be very -- I'll use blunt language. They're just angry. They're furious that this happened at this rally on Sunday, and it's just sort of simmering and still there and they're not over it. I mean, are we overstating how this could be a galvanizing thing or might this really be a game changer?

ROCHA: This is the most influential, self-inflected wound I've ever seen a politician or their campaign do to themselves in my long history of doing this.

[10:15:07]

There's three rules of Puerto Rican Fight Club. First, you never talk about their island. Second, you never talk bad about Bad Bunny. And, three, we don't talk about Puerto Rican Fight Club.

Puerto Ricans are very, very sensitive about their homeland. Not that, I mean, as a Mexican is not, not that Cubans are not, not that other folks aren't sensitive, but Puerto Ricans and the island of colonialism and all the things that they've been through with hurricanes and the way the government's went in down there, all of the things make them super sensitive.

So what's really happened is WhatsApp groups that people aren't tracking, people sharing messages to messages, and on Monday morning, after those comments were made, my PAC, Nuestro PAC, as you know, Jim, we've talked about this, we texted that video to every Puerto Rican voter in Pennsylvania, and it was crazy how good the response was, like, oh my God, this is what I needed to see. We're out of here for Donald Trump.

ACOSTA: Yes. Lee, what do you think? I mean, obviously, the Trump campaign, Trump supporters seized on the president's gaffe but I just -- you know, as you were saying earlier, a lot of these feelings are hardened and baked in, but maybe not so much with the Latino community after that rally on Sunday night. I mean, how do you view it?

CARTER: Well, I think the news cycle has changed as we've shifted from the rally on Sunday, and now we're talking about the garbage. And so I think that, yes, that's going to have an impact. But when I look at Donald Trump, one of the things that -- I've been trying to figure this out for a long time, like how do people still love him when he says these kinds of things? You just talked about some of his rhetoric. You played a clip. People actually like Donald Trump because he's a bully, because he says the tough things, because he's going to rage against the machine, because he's going to fight back. So, this language is baked into what he says.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have promised a very alternative view. They said that they're going to be the party of unity, that they're going to talk to everybody and everybody is included. And many Trump supporters question whether or not they mean that. And a lot of Republicans say, you know what, they mean it for everybody except for us.

And so the garbage gaffe actually does have an impact because it makes you seem not like you don't -- you know, that you're going to be a very inclusive party for everybody except anyone who supported Donald Trump. It's very similar to the basket full of deplorables comment. It's taking hold. It's going viral. Before Donald Trump showed up in the garbage truck, people were talking about Halloween costumes being garbage. This is the kind of thing that that a lot of people who support Donald Trump hold on to because they know that the elites and other people look down on.

ACOSTA: Yes. but, you know, Governor, I'll give you the last word here. I mean, you know, there is -- I think there is something to be said for there's a double standard. I mean, and if Donald Trump can turn on the fire hose and call people scum and the enemy day in and day out, how that possibly is outweighed by one gaffe by President Biden, who's not on the ballot, to me, just seems like, you know, we're just not even trying to look at things in a critical way.

WHITMAN: I agree 100 percent, Jim, and the thing is, stop talking about it. Let's stop talking about the garbage. Let's go on to things like he's going to take care of women whether they want it or not. Let's stop playing into him. He drives the media, and then you see what's happening, too. I worry about freedom of the press, should he become president, when you have two major newspapers whose independence was overridden by their owners because they're afraid of retribution should Trump become president? Is that the kind of country we want to live in? I mean, there's a whole lot at stake here, and I think that we should move on from the garbage.

We've done it. That's out there. It's been communicated to those people who feel really offended by it, which should be, frankly, all of us. I mean, I do. And look at some of the other things that are being said. But it is definitely a double standard one time out of the current president's mouth in a private group, not into a huge rally, and day after day after day from this man, Donald Trump.

ACOSTA: All right. Governor, Margaret, Chuck, Lee, great conversation. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it. Good to see all of you.

Coming up, ordered to appear in a Philadelphia court over his $1 million voter sweepstakes. We're talking about Elon Musk. Apparently he didn't show up. We're waiting to see if he shows up. It doesn't look like he's going to show up. What happens now as we look closer at his case moving to federal court, that's coming up.

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[10:20:00]

ACOSTA: Right now in Philadelphia, a hearing is underway over Elon Musk's $1 million giveaway to voters. Musk is not present, was not present, despite being ordered to be there. Late last night, his lawyers filed paperwork to move the case to federal court in a bid to essentially pause the proceedings. Musk was sued by the city's top prosecutor, District Attorney Larry Krasner, who says the tech billionaire and his super PACs giveaways to registered voters violate state law and amounts to an illegal lottery. Those giveaways are still happening despite legal challenges with Musk's PAC announcing the latest winner just an hour before the hearing.

For more on this, I'm joined by longtime Republican Election Attorney Ben Ginsberg. Ben, I also want to ask you about this election we've got coming up in five days and, you know, all of the challenges and claims and so on that are being made. But I do want to ask you about this Musk situation. How do you view it?

BEN GINSBERG, REPUBLICAN ELECTION ATTORNEY: Well, he his lawyers made a smart move and filed a removal petition which would take the case from state court to federal court on the grounds -- this is really an election interference case and not a state lottery case. There's some merit to that.

[10:25:00]

It's going to be before a federal judge. If that federal judge denies removal, it will come back quickly to the Philadelphia court and the hearing will proceed on the judge's order.

ACOSTA: And, I mean, do you think that this is illegal? Where do you come in on this handing out big checks to people and so on?

GINSBERG: Well, they have it carefully lawyered. Were I still practicing law, I would not advise a client to do this. But they have a colorable claim that's going to be played out. I suspect you'll hear some rousing first amendment rights language sooner or later about this, because that seems to permeate every case that we've got this cycle of this of this nature.

I mean, it's unfortunate that the Justice Department only sent a letter if they really think this is a violation, because now you've got the situation of a politically ambitious local prosecutor trying to impose this law, which is not a great look for the system as a whole.

ACOSTA: And, Ben, you're a longtime respected Republican attorney who focuses on elections from time to time, and I'm just curious what you think. The Trump campaign is already ramping up voter fraud allegations in Pennsylvania. That's despite the fact that officials there say they're still investigating potential issues. How concerning is it to you that he is pushing these claims before the investigations are even done? He's just throwing out wild claims of ballot fraud and so on.

GINSBERG: Yes, they've been doing that all along in the form of filing more than 100 cases in the battleground states around the country alleging various things. Those cases are noteworthy in that there's not a lot of evidence with them. In fact, there's like no evidence with them. So, they are kind of placeholders and this Pennsylvania effort sort of follows in that tradition.

And, Jim, what's important to remember that in 2020, there were 64 court cases filed by Donald Trump and his supporters. None of them succeeded in providing the evidence that you need to actually make the case. And it looks like we've got a repeat of that playbook. And so the relevant part is what evidence is there.

In the Pennsylvania investigation so far, it is noteworthy that the counties that were the subject of the false registrations caught it and are prosecuting it. So, in a real sense, what happened with the fraudulent ballots going into the Pennsylvania counties is that it shows the system works, that this stuff is caught.

ACOSTA: But it doesn't necessarily -- I mean, it doesn't prove what he was saying back in 2020. I mean, he made all these wild claims in 2020 and they never presented any evidence and his own attorney general, Bill Barr, said that it was B.S. I mean, we could go on and on if we go down that rabbit hole. But why do you think he is -- yes, go ahead.

GINSBERG: Well, I was going to say, it is interesting that the Republican National Committee and Trump campaign say they will have 200,000 poll workers or poll watchers in the polling places. That means any of the relevant jurisdictions where there could be actual evidence of real fraud, they will have people on the ground to produce it. So, you're either going to hear about that evidence on Election Day, or it is pretty good evidence in court that none of the charges of fraud have any evidence behind it.

ACOSTA: And I do want to get your reaction to this big decision at the Supreme Court allowing Virginia to purge suspected noncitizens from voter registration rolls. Were you surprised by that decision and the court weighing in right before the election?

GINSBERG: I was most surprised by the court weighing in before the election. I mean, the decision itself may result in some people who are actually entitled to vote not being able to vote. But the safeguard of what happened is that those individuals in Virginia can register on Election Day or vote by provisional ballot.

So, the overall timing of the court weighing in sort of went counter to what they call the Purcell principle, which is don't rock the boat right before the election, yet they did. ACOSTA: Right. And then there's the issue of are noncitizens voting in droves to the degree that Donald Trump alleges is happening and that Republicans alleged that is happening across the country, and that's just not the case. He made this claim back in 2016. He said there were these noncitizens voting in California. That's why he lost the popular vote.

[10:30:00]

They investigated that. There was nothing behind that. Yes.