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Trump Speaks In NC On Final Day Of Campaign; Harris: It Is Time For A New Generation Of Leadership In America. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired November 04, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: -- because we had a Congress that was not behaving. I said, I don't care, this is an invasion of our country. I'm taking it out of the military. And I took it out of the military because I gave them -- I gave them $725 billion. I say, congratulations fellas. I'm taking out 10. What is it for, sir? It's called a wall because we're being invaded by Mexico.

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TRUMP: But now we president in Mexico. I suppose they're very, a very nice woman, they say. I haven't met her. And I'm going to inform her on day one or sooner that if they don't stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country, I'm going to immediately impose a 25 percent tariff on everything they send in to the United States of America.

(CHEERING)

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TRUMP: And the reason I delayed that, you're the first ones I've told it to. Congratulations North Carolina.

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TRUMP: And it's only got a 100 percent chance of working because if that doesn't work, I'll make it 50. And if that doesn't work, I'll make it 75 for the tough guys and I'll make it 100 -- then I'll make it 100. And at some point they'll have so many soldiers on their southern border. You know their southern border is where they come in. They come right through.

And by the way, it has 100 percent chance of working. It's only a question. I'll start off at 25 percent. That's a lie. Do you know Mexico is our number one trading partner? Do you know what that costs? They make a fortune. They've taken over our country in a way since there's Biden, Harris people, they became our number one trading partner. And they're ripping us off left and right. It's ridiculous. They're not going to rip us.

They wanted $3 billion to meet with my -- they wouldn't have said that with me. I would have said, oh really? You want $3 billion to meet? I'd do the opposite. If you don't give us $3 billion, I'll impose the biggest freaking tax.

(CHEERING)

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TRUMP: You know, I've never told you any of this and I wanted to wait until the day because I don't want to have her. She's a low IQ individual. I don't want to have -- I don't want to have her say, you know, I had an idea last night while I was sleeping, turning, tossing, sweating, because I sleep, I turn and I toss and I sweat, da, da, da, da. I sleep like, no -- I don't even sleep, you know.

You know, I've gone through 62 days -- 62 days without a day off. Every single day --

(CHEERING)

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TRUMP: -- every single day. And you know what? She takes a day off every, I mean, every other day. Last week she -- she makes a terrible little, you know, she has these press conferences that last for about two minutes and then she takes the day off. You know, when you're running for the President of the United States and you want to do it because you have to fix the country, that's the way I'm doing. Otherwise I wouldn't do it. I could be the most gorgeous beaches in the world right now. But I'd much rather be with you people because you people are -- I like you people better. I'd much rather be with you. No, I would. No.

And we're doing something historic. You know what we're doing? This has never been done before. They'll never have rallies like this. You know, we had -- we went to Milwaukee the other night and we're doing great in Wisconsin, by the way. We could have filled that arena. What do they have, 28,000 seats, including the floor, fully pact. We could have filled that arena three times, maybe four times, the people outside, thousands and thousands of people. There's never going to be that.

In four years you're going to have a candidate, Republican, Democrat candidate, and they're going to come to North Carolina, right? And they're going to say, how many are there? And the consultants back there that make a fortune because they think they bring these people, you know, they don't bring. Nobody brings anything. We bring them. We together bring them.

But you know what they're going to say. And the same people, they'll be represented, very smart people. They're very good people. You have to, you know, can't give them too much leash. We can't give them too much. But they're going to have 250 people come. And that's standard. See the ladies of North Carolina, they've come. They've come. Those beautiful, beautiful ladies. They're looking -- they're looking better and better all the time.

These beautiful ladies. And I think they're very well to do. I mean, I just -- they're always so beautiful, beautifully coiffed. Look at that. They're -- they're just -- but here's what I love. They're great Americans. They love our country. They love North Carolina. They come from North Carolina. Isn't it nice? Where you can sort of be closer still traveled to California.

[11:05:09]

If I went to Hawaii, they'd be in Hawaii. I think they're loaded. You want to know the truth? I think their husbands, the reason I never see their husbands is because they're working, like hell? Because these wives are traveling all over the place 257 -- there've been at 257 rallies. And --

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TRUMP: -- their husbands are going to be so happy when this ends.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, you've been listening to former President Donald Trump on this final day of campaigning before elections day. There he is at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. Let me go out to Daniel Dale, our fact checker who's going to walk us through a couple of things we heard from the former president a few moments ago.

One of the things I heard, Daniel, and you and I have talked about this a number of times. He repeats the same lies, the -- the same falsehoods over and over again. So it -- it makes your work a little easier. But he talked about releasing prisoners from their jails from all over the world. I mean that was a comment that he made, you and I have talked about this a number of times.

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: We have. He says it over and over. It's still wrong. There is zero evidence he's provided, none that any country, let alone countries all over the world are releasing criminals from their prisons to have them come here as migrants. He talked about the global prison population being down under Biden and Harris. I've spoken to a world expert on this. It's actually up under Biden and Harris.

He spoke of these 13,000 immigrants with murder convictions he claims came in under Biden-Harris, actually that number is about people who came in over 40 years, including during his own administration. He talked about 21 million people coming over the border under Biden and Harris. The total number of so called encounters at the southern border is just over 10 million. And even if you add in so called gotaways, you don't get anywhere close to his figure.

So it is the same immigration nonsense at rally after rally. And yes, it does make our life easier, but it's not good for the public discourse. ACOSTA: No, absolutely not. And -- and Daniel, what else stands out to you in terms of what he has said? He's been talking about immigration pretty much this -- this whole section of the speech that we've been listening to.

DALE: Yes, let me see. I -- I made a list here. No, I think those -- those are the false claims I heard in the first part of the speech.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, he also said that if Harris wins, she'll have open borders. The first, I mean, that is -- that's not the case. But let me talk to the rest of our panel about this. Laura Barron-Lopez is with me here, Bakari Sellers, Adam Kinzinger, Brian Todd, Republican strategist. And let me go to you first, Adam. I mean, your sense of where we are right now as a country one day before Election Day.

ADAM KINZINGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the country is extremely tense. There's this like, nobody really knows what's going to happen, but everybody feels like their life depends on the results of tomorrow's election. So there's a lot of tension. I -- I do worry about, like this, whichever side loses, there's going to be kind of this outpouring of anger, particularly if the Trump side loses, because they've already shown that they have the ability to produce anger and overthrow that.

But I think there's just a lot of tension. And I think tomorrow will be kind of cathartic for people to actually get through Election Day. And I feel actually that Harris is in a pretty strong position, even though the polls show it's tight. I feel like the fundamentals are favoring her right now. And in a literally 49-49 race, those kinds of fundamentals will make the difference.

ACOSTA: Yes, Bakari, I mean, we saw that Iowa poll over the weekend that felt like a tea leaf that -- that a lot of folks were weighing in on and seizing on. Yes.

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I think that people looked at that Iowa poll for Iowa. But the fact is there's nobody from the Harris campaign going to Iowa to campaign. But that poll did tell you a lot about college educated white women. It told you about independent women. It told you about voters who are 65 and above. And it was a shot across the bow into Wisconsin.

So, you know, we will get the results from Wisconsin Wednesday morning, Wednesday-ish. And I believe that's going to kind of give us the -- the roadmap and we'll be able to see what this election will look like. I think people need to take a chill pill, go outside and touch some grass, right? I think that it is time.

ACOSTA: After this program.

SELLERS: Yes. After the program is over. But, yes, it is cathartic for a lot of people. I am going to go Saturday. If President Trump wins, then I will call him President Trump and I will watch my son play little league flag football on Saturday morning. Like the world will not end. But there is a lot of emotion that is in this. And I do have a feeling that the 45th President will act out like calling himself a victor before votes are counting or stop the count. And that is just something that is beyond the pillars.

ACOSTA: Brian, what do you think?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think first off, I know everybody's stressed out, but, you know, one of our constitutional guarantees is that the election will end tomorrow. And I know people cherish a lot of their constitutional freedoms and they should cherish the fact that this must stop. You know, we must be coming to an end tomorrow.

I think that, you know, the task is going to be strong no matter who wins, to try to keep the country together and try to I don't think anybody needs to rearrange their Thanksgiving plan. They need to welcome in their family members that voted different from them tomorrow. That's what makes this country great. That's the task ahead of us. We may have a tense couple of days here. I don't think the race has changed much in the last eight days. I think the polls basically froze.

The Iowa poll is a little bit of an outlier. There's some methodological reasons why, but I think most people made their mind up and they were done about eight days ago.

[11:10:04]

ACOSTA: Were there some numbers in there that worried you a little bit, though, in that Iowa poll? I mean, there's also this "ABC" poll that we've been showing throughout the program where it shows just a massive gender gap for Kamala Harris. Women voters really seem to be coming out.

TODD: Well, there is a gender gap. It goes both ways.

ACOSTA: Yes.

TODD: And the challenge for the Trump campaign tomorrow is win men by more than they lose women by. And there are plenty of polls that indicate they could do that, including the "NBC" poll that came out yesterday that showed the national popular vote tied. That's the strategy for both sides. You know, I like to say that Trump's enemy tomorrow, or his opponent tomorrow is not really Kamala Harris. It's the Xbox. He needs a lot of younger men who don't care much about politics and like video games a little bit more to come.

ACOSTA: Basement.

TODD: Yes.

ACOSTA: And, Laura, I mean, it's no surprise here that he is closing on immigration. I mean, this is how he started his race back in 2015, when he was running in 2016. It was about what he sees as an invasion of migrants coming across the country. I mean, in -- in to a large degree, it has worked in the Republican Party. All right, control rooms tell me we're going to listen in for a minute. Let's listen for just a moment. Sorry, Laura. I didn't mean to tee up there and cut you off. TRUMP: Seven miles up and then go a mile left and just drop them at the opening in the gate. OK, thank you. Can you believe this? This is Kamala.

(BOOING)

TRUMP: So all that stuff ends very quickly. We'll get that thing built. But they could have -- they could put up 200 miles. Oh, you know what they did with that expensive stuff and that's expensive. They had it laying in the sand, laying in the mud. It was all there to be put up. All they had to do is flip it up. It goes like. They put it up real fast. Three weeks, the whole thing. We would had 750 miles of wall. Think of it. And boy, walls work. Walls work and wheels work. You know, they never get obsolete, right? The computers, in about two minutes, they're obsolete.

And but we have the best computer guy there is, right? We have Elon, and he loves it. And you know where Elon is right now? Elon is right now. He's in Pennsylvania campaigning because he thinks. He thinks it's the single most important thing he's ever worked on, Elon Musk. And we want to thank him. He's an amazing guy.

When I saw that rocket came down, when I saw that sucker come down 22 stories, by the way, you know, people think it's like five feet high. It's 22 stories. That sucker's coming down and it's -- those engines were blowing.

ACOSTA: Yes. We're continuing to listen to Donald Trump there in Raleigh, North Carolina. Laura, I'm going to go to you first because I -- I cut you off. Didn't mean to do that. But he was just there praising Elon Musk a few moments ago. And I do want to get a reaction from the rest of you as to how much we really think Elon Musk is making a difference in Pennsylvania.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, he's been clearly -- Donald Trump has outsourced a lot of the door knocking.

ACOSTA: The get out the vote. Yes.

BARRON-LOPEZ: To get out the vote to people like Elon Musk, to turning points action. And that could be a big risk ultimately. How successful are they? Elon Musk has never done that before. So it kind of remains to be seen how successful it'll be. But your earlier question that you were asking, Jim, about his final message, I mean --

ACOSTA: On immigration, yes.

BARRON-LOPEZ: -- on -- on immigration is anti-immigrant message. Within that is also something that Elon Musk is pushing, which is that this lie about noncitizens voting in massive numbers. And so that's really laying the groundwork. His -- his final message is anti- immigration, but also laying the groundwork of potentially being able to say that the election was stolen because noncitizens voted in massive numbers.

ACOSTA: Yes. Bakari, your sense, I mean, can Elon Musk get out the vote? Can places like Turning Point, there -- there's been some anecdotal evidence that they're lagging behind the Harris-Walz campaign, which has a -- just a turbo charge, well financed effort.

SELLERS: I mean, respectfully to my friend Brian down there, we're whipping their ass in terms of ground game like all across the country, say for Nevada, because that's from the Governor -- Governor Lombardo is running an amazing operation in Nevada because they gave him that operation. But in Arizona, no ground game. Michigan, you see, you read the stories about people coming up in vans, they're getting fired, they don't have food, don't have housing.

Pennsylvania, the same thing. North Carolina, Georgia, Brian Kemp does have some operation, but is that going to be enough? And so I think one of the biggest, I think Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles have done a yeoman's job. Justin Miller, excuse me, Jason Miller, yeoman's job with what they have.

But one of their biggest mistakes in this race when we go back and do the postmortem will be outsourcing this or allowing Elon Musk who's never done this. It's different. He's smarter than all of us combined maybe, except, say for you.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you.

SELLERS: And he can build a rocket, right. But that's different than actually getting people from their couches or Xboxes to the polls and there are people out there that can do that work. There's one other just small tidbit that I wanted to point out. We spent a lot of time on T.V. talking about black voters and all of a sudden these black voters are going to Trump. There's literally no poll that's bearing that out.

We saw "The New York Times/Sienna" poll. He was polling at 9 percent African American voters which was less than 12 in the exits, Georgia and North Carolina hitting those marks. I mean I'm voting --

[11:15:05]

ACOSTA: Are you showing that we fell for a narrative once again?

SELLERS: Yes, I was on here all the time, like, saying, no, black men are not going out to vote for Donald Trump because of gold sneakers. Like, I don't know where that narrative came from.

ACOSTA: And the -- and the polling has moved a little bit in her direction, Adam. And I just kind of wonder, you know, are we seeing something that's just happening in real time in the final days of this campaign?

KINZINGER: Yes. I mean, here's the big question is, you know, the old kind of political adage is the undecideds go two-third for the challenger at the very end, right? You always kind of do that. And you can take that to the bank. The question is, who's perceived as the challenger right now? You know, you would say, well, it's Donald Trump because Kamala Harris is currently in office. Well, the reality is everybody knows everything about Donald Trump. They don't know everything about Harris. And so I think she's kind of seen as the challenger in this case. And so you're seeing undecideds are breaking to her because they're saying, even if they don't know everything about it's been a three month campaign, for God's sakes. Like, even if they don't know everything about her, they know everything about Trump.

And I think that's where you're seeing these polls break.

ACOSTA: And Brad, you're -- go ahead. Yes, go ahead.

TODD: I had a poll in Pennsylvania two weeks ago with 800 people in it. There were literally five humans out of 800 --

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: Who are these undecided?

TODD: Right. So if -- if you are undecided on this race, you are truly a freak, you know, and like, we need to face up to that. One thing I'd go back to Bakari's point, though. I don't think the Democrats are kicking the Republicans butt on the ground everywhere. You know, in Philadelphia, the Republicans are already at their early vote number that we had in 2020. Democrats are 95,000 votes off in the city of Philadelphia.

They may get them out tomorrow, but Democrats have to do something in large cities tomorrow that they haven't done on Election Day since 2004. That's a challenge. Maybe they'll do it, but that's what they have to do.

ACOSTA: But you're all about on message, Brad. I mean, I have to wonder what your thoughts are in the final week of this campaign. You know, having a Madison Square Garden rally where there's a comedian, so called comedian joking about Puerto Rico being an island of garbage. Donald Trump out there saying, you know, I'm going to be your protector for women, whether you like it or not. The stuff he was saying over the weekend about shooting through the media and so on, I mean, Susie Wiles, you were mentioning, Susie Wiles, Chris LaCivita, I can imagine their heads just exploding.

TODD: But we also joked that maybe Dave McCormick might shoot him too in the same rally. So this is Donald Trump's entertainment.

ACOSTA: Well, He was in North Carolina and thought Dave McCormick was there and he wasn't there. I mean --

TODD: This is his -- this is his way of entertaining a crowd. And Joe Biden, let's not forget, Joe Biden also called half the country garbage, you know, which was not exactly a unifying message last week.

ACOSTA: He's not on the ballot. But no --

TODD: Well, he is on the ballot. I would guarantee you he's on the ballot. That's why we have a wrong track. That's if -- if with Joe Biden's presidency had been a failure and his vice president would be the nominee, this would be a very different election.

ACOSTA: Yes.

BARRON-LOPEZ: In terms of the impact of that last week, Jim, I mean, of course the Harris campaign says that undecideds are breaking for them in the last week, but I was talking to Puerto Ricans in Allentown, in Pennsylvania, and then women who said that they were undecided. One was a two time Trump voter in Arizona, and they cite the Madison Square Garden rally when you talk to these voters. They say that they didn't like what they heard, that they didn't like the racist remarks and that -- that solidified their vote for them.

ACOSTA: Fascinating. All right, let's listen to Trump. He's talking about Putin.

TRUMP: You let Keystone go forward and you close up the Russian pipeline. But he did -- he did the opposite. And then they said, oh, Trump loves Russia. Trump loves Russia. It's the biggest project they've ever had. I closed it up. Then he came in the first day he was there, he let him build it. So what is that? Oh, that sounds so cute. I love dogs. I love dogs.

(CHEERING)

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TRUMP: We love dogs. You know Lara Trump, by the way, you happen to know, she --she's married to my son and she's the vice chairman along with Michael. They -- they're doing an incredible job. But she --

(CHEERING)

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TRUMP: -- would come into the office and she loves dogs and pets.

ACOSTA: That was Donald Trump there. We dipped in for a moment to see if he was talking about Vladimir Putin, but he did say he loves dogs, which, you know, I --

BARRON-LOPEZ: I don't know if that was in relation to his earlier comments about Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs.

ACOSTA: We -- we don't know. Yes.

TODD: I think this is grounded in data. You know, dogs are more popular as Republicans than cats.

ACOSTA: Should have been talking about that a long time ago. But, you know, Bakari, one of the things I do want to talk about, because we are getting really close to election night in America, and that is what we saw the last election night in America back in 2020, I was at the White House when Donald Trump went out there and claimed victory, when he was on the verge. He was on the verge of losing by almost 7 million votes in this country. I mean, are you worried that he's going to do that again? I suppose you might think he is going to do that again. And what happens next after that?

SELLERS: Yes. Yes, there is a fear and a worry that Donald Trump will claim victory. We do believe that he's going to try to file litigation to stop counting the ballots. The -- the Harris campaign, I'm sure they will tell you this, wants every single ballot counted, right. And if there's fraud, root them out, put them in jail, whatever you need to do. But we need every single ballot counted in this country. That's why we have a participatory democracy.

[11:20:04]

The earlier point about major cities, though, is actually spot on. You know, you can tell what's going to happen in Michigan tomorrow if Detroit gets 50 percent turnout. If we get 50 percent turnout, Kamala Harris wins Michigan. You know, Hillary Clinton got 48 and some change, and she lost. Joe Biden got 49.5 or whatever it is and won by 100,000 votes.

The clerk of the city of Detroit recently just said they expect 51 percent turnout, which bodes well. The same thing is, can you do that in Pittsburgh and can you do that in Philadelphia? Can you do that in Milwaukee? That's where you have to have somebody. And I -- I mean, frankly speaking, I trust Plouffe, O'Malley, Dillon, and Tony West over Elon Musk on this.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Adam, I mean, you know, Kamala Harris could have a very good night tomorrow night. But regardless, Donald Trump may go out there and say that he won this election.

KINZINGER: Yes.

ACOSTA: I mean this -- this is in your wheelhouse. I mean, you were on the January 6th Committee. We saw where all of this, you know, poppycock led us the last time around.

KINZINGER: Yes.

ACOSTA: And it -- and it led to violence. It led to the interruption of a peaceful transfer of power.

KINZINGER: And this happens when you convince a significant amount of the country that an election was stolen. I mean, we're a country that was founded on this idea. We fought a revolution over taxation only if you're represented. And so if somebody comes out and says they're stealing your vote. Look, if I actually believed that my vote was stolen, I would have been on the Capitol in a different capacity that day. That press conference that you were at, I remember that's where I'm like, I can never defend this guy ever again.

ACOSTA: Yes.

KINZINGER: And I'll tell you just real quick, the thing I worry about is we're not talking enough about what used to be called the red mirage. Now, could be a red or a blue mirage, where it looks like somebody's ahead in a state and then they start counting early votes and it shifts, particularly Pennsylvania. That's going to count them late. And he's going to use that to feed into his narrative. Look, it's being stolen in real time.

TODD: Allegheny county clerk says they'll be done by midnight. I think that's a really good thing to watch and you compare it to how it went 2016, 2020, that where Pittsburgh is in Pennsylvania. It's a key swing county. It's not a swing count. It's a Democrat county. But relative performance to last time, I think that's a key thing to watch.

ACOSTA: Yes. Honoring the vote. Very important. Everyone, thank you so much. We're going to keep monitoring this Donald Trump rally in North Carolina. We'll be right back.

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[11:26:38]

ACOSTA: Vice President Kamala Harris is heading to the battleground of Pennsylvania for her final day out on the campaign trail. And CNN's Eva McKend is in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Eva, very important place where you are, Allentown, Pennsylvania. It's also very much a center for the Latino population in Pennsylvania. And I have to think Kamala Harris is going to be reaching out to those voters today.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: She sure is, Jim. But let me take a step back here a little bit. It is noteworthy that the vice president did not mention the former president by name at her rally last night. And what I'm told from the campaign is they are being really intentional about closing out on a hopeful, optimistic message really centered in this idea of a new way forward.

Now, can she credibly make that argument given that she is currently the Vice President? Can she convince voters? Time will tell. But this is what it sounds like on the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have the momentum because our campaign is tapping into the ambitions, the aspirations and the dreams of the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: And so she begins the day here in battleground Pennsylvania, in Joe Biden country in Scranton, where she's going to rally up canvassers. She then comes here to Muhlenberg College in Allentown. As you mentioned, a heavy Latino population, more than 30,000 Puerto Ricans. Fat Joe will be in the mix. After this, she goes to Reading, Pennsylvania, where she's going to campaign with perhaps the most prominent progressive in the Democratic Party, Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, as well as Governor Shapiro.

And then she ends the day with two big rallies, one in Pittsburgh, one in Philadelphia. She's telling supporters, come off of the sidelines. We don't want to wake up the day after the election feeling like we didn't do everything we possibly could to bring home to victory.

ACOSTA: Yes. It is so fascinating, Eva, that she is spending basically her entire day, this last day before Election Day in Pennsylvania. It's such a critical battleground. Eva McKend, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Stay safe out there. Best of luck to you. Thanks for all your hard work.

[11:28:51]

Coming up, we'll take you inside a county election center in battleground Georgia and how they're preparing for tomorrow. That's next.

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