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Harris Appears on SNL; Trump Races Through Southern States; Death Toll Climbs in Spain. Aired 3-3.30a ET

Aired November 03, 2024 - 03:00   ET

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

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ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to CNN Newsroom. I'm Anna Coren live from Hong Kong.

Ahead this hour, just two days to go until the U.S. presidential election, and Vice President Kamala Harris makes a surprise trip to New York to appear on Saturday Night Live.

Her opponent, former President Donald Trump, blazes through several southern states, making his pitch to voters in the final days of the campaign.

And rescue crews in Spain brave water up to their necks after devastating floods claimed more than 200 lives.

We are just two days away from the U.S. presidential election, and later today, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will be wrapping their last weekend on the campaign trail. Trump is set to make his final pitch along the East Coast, stopping in Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina. Meanwhile, Harris is expected to be in Michigan as she works to maintain the blue wall. The contest remains very tight.

But a surprising new poll in the Des Moines Register has Harris leading Trump by three points among likely voters in Iowa. Well, that could signal a flip after Trump handily won the state twice before. The result is within the margin of error, but has raised spirits among Democrats in the homestretch. As of now, more than 71.5 million people have voted already.

On Saturday, the nominees raced through different states, including North Carolina, where both held rallies. Well, CNN's Alayna Treene was traveling with the Trump campaign. But, first, let's go to Eva McKend with more on Kamala Harris, who was pushing for unity during her stop in Atlanta earlier. CNN's Eva McKend has more.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: The vice president's closing message trained on unity and bringing people together, even those who disagree with her, as she tells voters she's running to be president of all of America. The vice president also routinely touting her love for Gen Z and putting great emphasis on first time voters both here in Georgia and in North Carolina having them introduce her. But this all comes at a time when many Americans say they are dissatisfied with the direction of the country. We asked her about this in an exclusive interview in Atlanta. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I know grocery prices are still high. The folks who are watching this interview right now know groceries prices are still high. We need to bring them down. We need to deal with the cost of housing. We have a supply shortage. Part of my plan is not only to work with the private sector to cut through the tape so we can build more housing in America, but also to get first time homebuyers the $25,000 down payment assistance so they can just get their foot in the door.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: And we're seeing Vice President Harris pick up a slew of celebrity endorsements, some artists appearing at her rallies in the battleground states, and the campaign will tell you that that's all aimed to gin up excitement and get people excited about this process to turn out to vote. And it matters in places where the margins are so slim.

In 2020, President Biden won the state of Georgia by just under 12,000 votes. Vice President Harris trying to replicate that success here in Georgia and the other battleground states.

Eva McKend, CNN, Atlanta.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, former President Donald Trump, with just three days left until Election Day, spent his Saturday holding three separate rallies, two of which were in different cities in North Carolina. The other one was in Salem, Virginia.

But, look, the big focus for Donald Trump and his campaign. campaign right now. It's all about turnout. When I talked to Trump's campaign, they argue and they say that they acknowledge that there's really not much they can do at this point with just three days to go until November 5th. Really, the goal right now is to get all of their supporters out to the polls.

Now, we did hear some themes on Saturday that Donald Trump has been, I'm told, fixated on behind the scenes, and one of those is about the gender gap.

Now, we know that Donald Trump has struggled for months now to try to close that gender gap with Kamala Harris, who is performing better with women voters. And the reason that is such a challenge, and it's even I think more prominent of a challenge now, is when you look at the early voting data, you see that women are actually outpacing men when it comes to turnout in early voting.

Now, Donald Trump addressed that at his first rally, his first stop of the day in Gastonia, North Carolina.

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Listen to how he put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: And these horrible people back there said, well, Trump is soft with women. I don't believe I'm soft with They said, Trump is soft. He's very good with men. I don't know. Thank you, men. Thank you, men. No, I'm through the roof with men. She ain't catching us, men, let me tell you. No, I'm great with men, but I'm sort of, like, soft with the women stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, I actually spoke with some of Donald Trump's advisors about this, including his adviser, Jason Miller, who told me that they've also been closely analyzing this early voting data, and there are some things that led them to confidence. One is, they argue that they are feeling encouraged by the fact that black voters are not voting or not turning out in the early voting data as much as they had thought, something they thought could hurt Kamala Harris given that she performs better with black voters.

They also argued that Donald Trump is doing better when it comes to male voters than Harris is when it comes to women voters. We'll see a lot of this talk right now from both sides, both campaigns, is that pre-election spin. But that is what they're trying to argue to reporters behind the scenes.

Now, I do want to mention something that happened Saturday night at his final rally of the day in Greensboro, North Carolina, because it plays into this whole conversation about gender.

Now, when I talked to Donald Trump's team, they acknowledge to me, behind the scenes, they frequently tell me that they recognize Donald Trump has a problem with women, that women don't necessarily like his rhetoric, but they think that he should be able to win them over when it comes to the issues, particularly the policies around crime, the border, his whole line about wanting to not have men be allowed to play in women's sports. They believe that those are the policies that could play well with female voters. But the rhetoric is the issue.

And we did here on Saturday at one point Donald Trump was claiming that Kamala Harris had never worked at McDonald's and then you heard a supporter in the crowd scream that she had worked on a corner. Now, Donald Trump kind of looked around, the crowd was laughing, and then he later threw up his hands and said, this is amazing, isn't it? Referring to the rally crowd. And then he said, remember, they said it, I did not. So, I think that just shows you how sometimes that rhetoric doesn't necessarily play well when he's trying to court that specific demographic of female voters.

Alayna Treene, CNN, Greensboro, North Carolina.

COREN: When U.S. citizens live outside the country, their right to vote has always been considered sacrosanct. And not just for members of the U.S. armed forces, but also for civilians abroad, who now outnumber those in the military. Well, this expatriate voting bloc is now enormous, about 6.5 million people around the world, potentially enough to swing election results. And, typically, it's proven more favorable to Democrats, so it's now the target of Republican-backed lawsuits.

For more on this, we're joined by Susan Smith Suinat, president and CEO of the U.S. Vote Foundation. She joins us from Munich, Germany. Thank you for joining us.

As we say, 3.5 million American voters overseas, 1.6 million of them from battleground states. I mean, if they actually do cast their votes, they could potentially move some of these swing states.

SUSAN DZIEDUSZYCKA SUINAT, PRESIDENT AND CEO, U.S. VOTE FOUNDATION: Good morning, and it's great to be with you today to talk about this important topic. I agree, absolutely. The overseas vote is that pot at the end of the rainbow. It really is something to go after. The issue we have is that it's not a last-minute thing to reach for. We've seen some of the campaigns issue letters or videos. but this is a long-term thing. And so it remains to be seen whether their efforts really do, these last-minute efforts really do change anything.

COREN: Tell us about how these campaigns are immobilizing, these voters.

SUINAT: There's been greater investment this year in reaching out to overseas voters. They're truly hard to find. When we go overseas, we're not requested or required to register with a U.S. consulate or embassy. So, it's just very hard to know where we all are. So many of us are overseas temporarily as aid workers, missionaries, teachers, families that are overseas for a year or two. It's difficult to find them when they're out there. And many of them don't realize that when they leave the U.S., they're carrying their right to vote in their pocket.

So, these new outreach efforts were very much online, a lot of webinars and advertising efforts. We'll see, I guess, in the long- term, if they actually work because this is, as I said, a long-term effort, you have to be addressing these voters well in advance.

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They need to register and request their ballots early on in the year to be sure to receive those blank ballots on time to return them.

COREN: I was going to say, is something that, that is quantified early voting, is that available to American expats? And do we have a percentage of how many have already cast their vote?

SUINAT: By default, we are all early voters because we are, by default, absentee voters. And we must sign up to vote using one specific form, which does wonderfully two things at the same time. It will both register you as an overseas voter and request your absentee ballot because we all need those absentee ballots. It should be done as early as possible in the year. And then, as of 45 days prior to the election, those ballots start going out. So, that was September 21st of this year. Most overseas voters will have cast those ballots quite quickly. Definitely, if they're not already in, you're kind of out of luck.

COREN: Susan, overseas ballots, as we mentioned, they have been found to be favorable for Democrats. And, interestingly, there are multiple GOP-backed lawsuits against them, suggesting voter fraud. Will this stand up? And could it cause problems for this election?

SUINAT: I think there are a lot of generalizations made. Really, overseas voters are very diverse. You can't assume that they all vote for one party. That's a mistake fundamentally. These lawsuits have cast attention onto our ballots, onto our votes, which is great. There's a good side to it because more awareness is a good thing. But they also have cast doubt on whether the ballots will be counted, which is an old, old myth that we've tried to tackle over the last 20 years.

And I hope with the reaction to these lawsuits and the blowback, which has been really bipartisan, I mean, the overseas voting laws historically have all been bipartisan as well, so the blowback was pretty equal. And it has brought with it the idea that your ballot maybe won't be counted. That's reared its ugly head once again. But I hope people have seen the fierce reaction that we have had. We have banded together. Overseas Americans are organized. We've come together and we've fought these accusations quite effectively.

COREN: Okay. Well, Susan Suinat, we're going to have to leave it there, but thank you for joining us.

SUINAT: Thank you too.

COREN: Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live's cold open sketch, giving her Maya Rudolph lookalike a pep talk and poking fun at herself a little bit too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYA RUDOLPH, ACTRESS: It is nice to see you Kamala.

HARRIS: It is nice to see you Kamala. And I'm just here to remind you, you got this. Because you can do something your opponent cannot do. You can open doors.

RUDOLPH: I see what you did there, like to a garbage truck, right?

HARRIS: I don't really laugh like that, do I?

RUDOLPH: A little bit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: You must watch the whole clip, and be sure to tune in to CNN's live coverage of Election Night in America. It all starts right here Tuesday 4:00 P.M. Eastern. That's 9:00 P.M. in London. We're turning now to southeastern Spain. At least 211 people are now confirmed dead from the catastrophic flash floods that hit the region earlier in the week. Rescue crews could be seen in water up to their necks, searching for some of the hundreds still missing, some of the teams specializing in underwater rescues.

Despite the odds, hope remains. Here you can see a woman and her dog getting help in one of Valencia's many. Devastated neighborhoods.

Well, let's now go live to Atika Shubert, who has been following the floods for us from Valencia. Atika, explain to us where you are and what's going on.

ATIKA SHUBERT, JOURNALIST: Yes, I'm at the Main Volunteer Coordination Center, which is bringing hundreds of volunteers out into the affected areas. In fact, the sheer number of people that have been coming out has been a bit of a problem for the government. They've had thousands of people walking on foot to affected areas to try and help with the cleanup.

And while it's an outpouring of community, it's also a show of how many people here are frustrated and angry with the government's response to rescuing people, to helping clear the roads. It's been far too long, far too little too late for many people here.

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And that's why you see people just picking up and trying to do something to help their neighbors.

In the meantime, there are still a number of people missing. I saw yesterday when I went into some of the areas that police were still searching for bodies. There have been some remarkable rescues, but, unfortunately, hope is really running out for many of those who are still missing.

COREN: And, Atika, let's talk more about that anger towards the government. We were discussing it yesterday, but, clearly, it is palpable. People are furious.

SHUBERT: Yes, they're furious for a number of reasons. One, a lot of people here feel that they weren't alerted in time. I spoke to residents, for example, who saw the flood heading to them an hour before they got an alert on their phone of possible floods. And then once the devastation had occurred, it was very difficult for the government to put out the kind of help they needed. They raised it to a level two emergency, which means that only local authorities can really help out here. It means the federal authorities at a higher level in Spain aren't really able to mobilize yet. That didn't happen until yesterday, several days into this disaster. So, yes, a lot of anger and frustration here, Rosemary (ph).

COREN: Atika Shubert, joining us from Valencia, thank you for covering the story.

Well, United Nations marks another devastating day in Northern Gaza. We'll have the latest in a report next.

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COREN: UNICEF says more than 50 children were killed in Jabalya in Northern Gaza over the course of 48 hours. The agency also says a staff member working to vaccinate children for polio came under fire as she was driving her car. The U.N. resumed its polio vaccination campaign on Saturday after suspending it because of security concerns.

Meanwhile, a large crowd turned out in the Deir al Balah area as flour was distributed for the first time in months. This was the scene as the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees gave out 5,000 bags of flour. This week, the U.N. said the situation in North Gaza is apocalyptic because of the lack of food and health services.

Well, CNN's Melissa Bell joins us now from Paris with the latest. And, Melissa, tell us what more are you learning about the dozens of children killed in Jabalya?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 50 children over just 48 hours in Jabalya, Anna, and this comes as UNICEF calls it one of the darkest chapters in a dark period of this terrible war.

What we've seen since October 6th and ever since the IDF launched this renewed ground offensive on these parts of Northern Gaza are not just these series of strikes that have had such a high civilian toll.

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Remember that it was on Tuesday that a residential building was struck in a neighboring district to Jabalya, just next door, drawing condemnation from the United States, the U.N. demanding explanations and that campaign has continued.

Now, that means not just as we heard from UNICEF today the deaths of the 50 children in just 48 hours, but the dire conditions in which so many -- tens of thousands of people are now living. That renewed ground offensive has led 70,000 people to flee to Gaza City but about 100,000 believed still to be trapped in these neighborhoods with no food and no access to any of the services that have been switched off as a result of the offensive, so no functioning hospitals, no food distribution and, of course, these continued attacks.

Now, as the vaccination campaign you mentioned, it resumed Saturday after being stopped for security fears. What UNICEF is saying is that an attack, a strike rather, near a vaccination center has injured three children. There's also been this attack on one of the cars of a UNICEF worker. For the time being, the IDF saying that it is not aware of being responsible of those particular strikes, Anna.

COREN: Melissa Bell in Paris, we appreciate the reporting. Thank you.

The environmental stakes of America's election outcome couldn't be greater. Just ahead, we take a look at how the nominees would tackle the world's climate crisis.

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COREN: A warmer than usual autumn and the hottest summer in decades have led to a first in Japan, Mount Fuji without snow. On average, snow caps begin to form on October 2nd, but this is the first time the sacred mountain has been snowless at this time of the year, since records began rolling in 130 years ago, and it's fueling fears about the impact of climate change.

Well, whoever wins the U.S. presidential election could have a significant impact on climate policy for at least the next four years. Most voters will likely choose between two candidates that could not be further apart on the issue. One plans to build on the clean energy growth of the Biden administration while the other calls the issue a hoax.

CNN Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir explains what's at stake for the planet.

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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): On the devastated west coast of Florida, where back-to-back hurricanes have upended life for so many, Susan Glickman takes stock.

SUSAN GLICKMAN, V.P. OF POLICY AND PARTNERSHIPS, CLEO INSTITUTE: Before Hurricane Helene, we had huge sand dunes here, and those all washed out to sea,

WEIR: And she swirls with both worry for the future and anger over the decisions of the past.

GLICKMAN: In 1965, President Lyndon Baines Johnson, three weeks after his inauguration, said this generation is altering the composition of the Earth's atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. So, in anybody's book, we have known about this for a very long time

WEIR: After an early career fighting the tobacco industry, Susan now works in climate education and sees how decades of deliberate misinformation by polluting industries has filled her neighbors with confusion and doubt.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe it's just 100 year cycle or, you know, some kind of a cycle that we go through.

WEIR: Even though all the scientists are telling you this is what climate change looks like?

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, that's the point. I'm not sure all the scientists are agreeing.

WEIR: That skepticism mirrors former President Donald Trump.

TRUMP: It'll start getting cooler. You just watch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wish science agreed with you.

TRUMP: Well, I don't think science knows, actually.

WEIR: Two years after Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie- breaking votes on the Inflation Reduction Act, there are tighter regulations on polluters, and hundreds of billions of public and private investment are flowing into the climate fight, mostly in Republican districts. Solar, wind, and storage are now so cheap that Texas leads the nation in clean energy installations.

But Trump is vowing to undo as much of it as he can on day one, which concerns one of the world's most active climate investors.

You lobbied for the Inflation Reduction Act. How would you assess it's working now?

BILL GATES, FOUNDER, BREAKTHROUGH ENERGY: I'd give it a high grade so far. We need, you know, we need some understanding of what constant policy looks like because stop and go, for things that involve 20, 30- year plant investments. You'll just scare the whole industry away from a country that's inconsistent.

GLICKMAN: It's very simple. This is about parts per million of carbon in the atmosphere and that's warming the gulf. It's supercharging storms. It's melting glaciers and ice sheets and raising the sea rise. And here we are.

WEIR: Bill Weir, CNN, New York.

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COREN: So much is at stake. Well, it looks like flying cars may be a step closer to reality. A Japanese company recently made its first test run of an electric vehicle that takes off and lands vertically. It's called an eVTOL. Joby Aviation says its air taxi seats for passengers and it combines the technology of helicopters and drones.

It's working with Japan's Toyota Motor Corporation to develop the hovercrafts. The goal is to have air taxi flights up and running for Expo 2025 next year in Osaka.

Well, people can glean all kinds of information from fortune tellers and psychics, so people gathered at a Shanghai market over the weekend to learn about their pets. It was part of Halloween festivities and many pets came dressed in costume. Some people asked about their pet's health and well-being. Others asked for insight into whether their pets like their new human partner in a relationship. And some home to check in -- hope to check in with a pet who had passed away. Why not?

Well, thank you so much for joining me. I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong.

Visionaries is next, then Kim Brunhuber will be here in 30 minutes time with more of CNN Newsroom.

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