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SpaceX Crew to Embark on Historic Spacewalk; Harris, Trump Campaign after Debate; Local Officials Debunk Trump's Claim on Immigrants. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired September 12, 2024 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:00]
KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: The spacecraft has to be hardened, as well. And so back on Earth, they did what's called a bake-off. And they brought the whole spacecraft down to a vacuum on Earth, so that a lot of the metals that the spacecraft is made of don't emit toxins during this spacewalk.
So, now here we are. Should be getting started any minute now.
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, and we're -- this is -- we're seeing kind of the feed from -- from SpaceX here. They're -- it's going to be eventually mission control, but they sort of provide this, like, live narration, which is what you're seeing on your screen.
FISHER: Yes.
HUNT: Kristin, can you just explain why this is different from how NASA does it? Because when NASA conduct spacewalks, there are still astronauts inside who are in a pressurized environment, no?
FISHER: Yes. So, these are similar suits, but they're new suits. I mean, these are just new-generation EVAs, right?
So, NASA has been using these spacesuits, the same spacesuits that were used during the shuttle program and now up at the International Space Station for about 40 years now, right?
So, SpaceX said, we want to make new spacesuits that are cheaper to produce, faster to produce. And so, this is the first test of them.
HUNT: I just mean in terms of everyone involved in the mission being exposed to the vacuum at the same time.
FISHER: I see. Yes. So, what's different about that is the entire spacecraft is opening up. So, even if you're not venturing out of the spacecraft, only two of the four crew members are actually going to go outside.
Because the whole spacecraft is opening up. Even the two crew members that stay inside are still going to be exposed to the vacuum of space. So, they all have to be wearing their spacesuits, and that's --
HUNT: We can see them there, too. So, this is a live look -- FISHER: Oh, yes. There they are.
HUNT: -- at the interior of the spacecraft as, again, they are preparing to, in a half an hour or so, open up this -- this door and have a couple of them walk outside.
All right, Kristin. Thank you very much.
FISHER: Yes.
HUNT: You're going to be back. We're going to talk a little bit of politics, but we're not going to miss this incredibly historic moment.
All right. Let us turn, though, back to the fallout from the debate. With perhaps -- with the first and perhaps only debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump now over, both candidates trying to spin up momentum in the wake of the showdown in Philadelphia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people, so let's be clear about that. And clearly, he is having a very difficult time processing that.
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She's been there for three and a half years. They've had three and a half years to fix the border. They've had three and a half years to create jobs and all the things we talked about. Why hasn't she done it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: There was a break in the bitter campaign on Wednesday, even if it was just for a moment. Both Harris and Trump were back in the same place, shaking hands again.
This was at the 9/11 memorial in Lower Manhattan yesterday.
Later in the day, though, Trump declaring victory in the debate and casting doubts on whether he'd do another one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're looking at it, but you know, when you win, you don't really necessarily have to do it a second time. So, we'll see. When you don't win, it's like a fighter. When a fighter has a bad fight, gets knocked out, or loses the fight, the first thing he says is we want a rematch.
So, we won the debate according to every poll, every single poll. I think that are we going to do a rematch? I just don't know. We'll think about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: So, we learned yesterday that more than 67 million people watched the debate. That was a 31 percent jump from the June showdown between Trump and President Biden, which drew about 51 million viewers.
That is a lot of people who saw Harris continually bait Trump into going off-message.
Starting today, the vice president is trying to keep North Carolina in play with a stop there. And tomorrow, she'll be back in Pennsylvania as she urges her supporters not to get complacent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: We've got some work to do, because listen, I think that we think today was a good day. And it kind of was. But we have 56 days to go. And guys, we're still the underdogs in this race. It's tight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Joining us now to discuss: David Frum, staff writer at The Atlantic"; Isaac Dovere, CNN senior reporter; Bakari Sellers, CNN political commentator and former South Carolina state rep; and Mike Dubke, former Trump White House communications director. Welcome to all of you. Thank you all for being here.
Isaac, let's kind of start with the big picture here.
I was just talking to Debbie Dingell, who kind of laid it out as saying, yes, I was as thrilled as any Democrat was by Kamala Harris's performing. She was riding high.
Then she said she got on the phone with somebody that she really trusts in Michigan, who brought her back down to earth. She identified immigration as an issue that she thinks is one that is keeping this race as close as it is. What are you hearing?
ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, immigration continues to be a big issue. And one of the things that surprised the Harris campaign was that Donald Trump didn't come back to it more and didn't beat her up more over it, over the course of the -- the debate.
[06:05:02]
But there is no one who is looking at any numbers -- external numbers, internal numbers -- who doesn't think that this is a tight race.
A lot of the people who are in and around the Harris campaign right now look at this and say yes, she had a good debate on Tuesday night. They're obviously much happier with it than they were with the Joe Biden debate in June.
But that, if the election were held tomorrow or this coming Tuesday, I've talked to a number of people who think that she would still lose, and that this is -- for all of the enthusiasm there, that they're -- that that worry is there. HUNT: Yes.
DOVERE: That doesn't mean that they think that she will lose in November. They think that there is a lot that needs to be done in between now and there -- then to get there.
HUNT: Well, and David Frum, you've been a consistent critic of Donald Trump for many reasons that we have discussed on this show.
I'm curious what your diagnosis is in terms of why it is that the race is so close for -- for all these reasons.
DAVID FRUM, STAFF WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": I think two things are driving this rise.
First is, in every democracy, we can see that incumbent governments have been damaged by the inflation of '21-'22. The -- Biden/Harris. The conservative government in Britain just lost a big election. Justin Trudeau in Canada. Very different politics. His numbers are terrible.
Everywhere you go, if you were there in '21 and '22, voters are mad at you. Because prices went up a lot, and they went up faster than wages did. And we can offer all kinds of explanations. Well, the economy was coming back to life after COVID. What did you expect? They -- not this. I didn't expect this. That's issue one.
And then issue two, I think, as -- as Isaac just said, the immigration issue. I wrote in January of '21, when President Biden relaxed many of the Trump border controls, this was going to be the most important mistake of his presidency; that it was just -- that numbers had surged during the early part of the Trump presidency. They put some measures in place in the later part, and then came COVID. And America got a little holiday from this mass border crossing where people abuse the asylum laws.
And President Biden, for his own political reasons, decided to undo a lot of those restraints and got the influx that was predictable in January '21. And people don't like that either.
So, those are the two big things that override genuine strength of the American economy in 2024. And of course, the threat to American democratic institutions posed by former President Trump.
HUNT: Bakari, what does Harris need to be doing on these fronts as she heads -- I mean, we're in the final days here.
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There are a couple of things.
The first thing is both Isaac and David are very correct about their analysis of where we are. I think the latter part of that analysis is all economic indicators suggest that we're actually having a softer landing, and when you compare it to every other country that David mentioned, we're actually coming out of COVID, we're coming out of this inflationary period, a lot sooner, a lot faster, and a lot softer because of Biden and Harris.
You asked a good question, what does she need to be doing? I -- I don't necessarily agree with Isaac on this -- you're such a Debbie Downer in the morning. I don't know anybody in Kamala Harris land that is saying, Oh, my God, if the election was today, we'd lose. Right? There's nobody --
HUNT: Do you think --
SELLERS: There's nobody --
HUNT: Do you think she'd win, perhaps, today?
SELLERS: There's nobody that says that. I think that there are a lot of people who say this would be a very, very close race, but people are optimistic. I mean, people are very hopeful.
People are saying -- everybody I talked to says, look, you know -- because the difference is one of the differences between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump today is Kamala Harris has two paths to the White House. Donald Trump has one.
Donald Trump has to run an inside straight on November 5. He has to win Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania to be president of the United States. And Pennsylvania to be president of the United States.
HUNT: You reversed that. She -- she loses all her paths without Pennsylvania.
SELLERS: No, she doesn't. Not at all. Not at all. Not at all.
HUNT: She loses quite a few of them.
SELLERS: No, she doesn't.
HUNT: If she's losing Pennsylvania, she's probably also losing North Carolina. So --
SELLERS: That -- no. So, what happens is, if she loses Pennsylvania, and she wins Georgia or North Carolina, and Nevada, or Arizona, she's president of the United States.
HUNT: OK.
SELLERS: I mean, that is the math. And so --
HUNT: Sure.
SELLERS: -- we have a poll that says that Mark Robinson is down 14 points, the gubernatorial candidate in North Carolina. That gives you a great deal of hope.
She's going to Greensboro today. She's going to Charlotte today. I mean, North Carolina is one of the states that's in play.
And so, I just -- HUNT: I do love your obsession with North Carolina. It's -- you bring it to the set every time, every time you show up. It's fascinating. It's fascinating to see you turn out to be right.
MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: -- North Carolina obsession that he has.
SELLERS: It is a Carolina obsession. I'm just saying that, you know, it's God's country. And that's what we're here for.
DUBKE: What is the opposite of Debbie Downer?
SELLERS: I don't know, but it's --
DUBKE: That's what you are right now. You're -- you're -- you're on this high. I think --
SELLERS: I'm high on life.
DUBKE: OK.
HUNT: Well, at least again, his shirt is buttoned today. This is the second time this week I've said this on the air.
SELLERS: You got me here at 6 a.m., so just keep it going.
HUNT: Mike Dubke, you were raising an eyebrow while Bakari was talking.
DUBKE: Well, I can't remember at which point I was raising an eyebrow. There were multiple points.
And I've got to believe Isaac is threatened. That there is at least one person in the Harris campaign that thinks they're going to lose. There's got to be.
And if not, that --
[06:10:05]
DOVERE: That's not what I said. Not that they're going to lose. They think that --
DUBKE: They could lose.
DOVERE: -- the election -- that right now --
DUBKE: If it was held today.
DOVERE: -- things are still --
DUBKE: Yes.
DOVERE: And Bakari is right. Not -- not everybody feels that way. There's a lot of enthusiasm and positiveness (ph).
But just that there are people who look at this and say if it were today, that she is still behind.
FRUM: Can I add a footnote to that? Because I think we need to be more specific about what mean by lose.
Obviously, within the rules of American politics, with the Electoral College, this is a very tight race. I don't think there's anybody anywhere who thinks that Donald Trump will actually get more votes than Kamala Harris.
I mean, everyone understands what we're talking about is --
DUBKE: It's not the rules of the game.
FRUM: Those aren't the rules of the game, but it's a weird game. Where we just had -- we all talk about this as if there's this mass movement behind Donald Trump.
We need to start with our awareness that Donald Trump is a 46 percent candidate; always has been, always will be. There was not a single day in his presidency when he had even a 50 percent approval rating in any reputable poll. Not a damn day where he had half the country behind him. Even now.
So, what we're always -- and of course, those are the rules. They were written in 1787. Maybe they're wise, maybe they're stupid. Probably they're stupid.
But -- but the United States has this unique situation where 46 percent of the country is bidding to command the entire executive branch.
That's one of the reasons why this race is so dangerous and upsetting, because we know -- we've always known that theoretically, that could happen. But in the Trump years, it really happened. And then the power was abused to run the most corrupt and authoritarian administration in American history with 46 percent of the people.
That's -- that's what we're struggling with right now. Will a minority govern in an abusive way? And that when we say it's close, we mean that there are states of contact where local majorities are going to be able to overwhelm the national majority.
HUNT: All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, the fallout continues after Donald Trump falsely claimed that migrants in Ohio are eating people's pets.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They're eating the dogs. The people that came in, they're eating the cats.
GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): Mayor Rue of Springfield says, no, there's no truth in that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: How the city and the state of Ohio are trying to clear up this rumor.
Plus, longtime pollster Frank Luntz is here to discuss if the debate moved the needle for either candidate.
And we're watching live throughout the hour as four civilians are set to embark on a very risky spacewalk.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:16:47]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Trump's repeated falsehood about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, is now being disputed by local officials; and Ohio's Republican governor, Mike DeWine, is backing them up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEWINE: This is something that came up on the Internet, and the Internet can be quite crazy sometimes. And look, the mayor, Mayor Rue of Springfield, says, no, there's no truth in that. They have no evidence of that at all.
So I think we go with what the mayor says. He knows his city.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, Mike Dubke, I just I think I keep coming back to this question of, like, there are plenty of things that Republicans have to say about immigration --
DUBKE: Yes.
HUNT: -- that would 100 percent resonate with voters, who say they trust Republicans more. Why this thing --
DUBKE: Well --
HUNT: -- from the president, former president of the United States?
DUBKE: So, I -- I think immigration is the major -- is the major issue that he should focus on. I wish he had talked more about immigration. I wish he had talked more about the 10 million that have already crossed the border that we know of.
But on this, there is a -- Donald Trump's an unconventional politician. We all know that. We all accept that. It's -- it's part of his allure. On this -- on this question, there -- there are tens of thousands of migrants in Springfield, Ohio, that have overwhelmed the social services system.
There is -- French Creole is the -- now, almost a dominant language in the schools. There is this reaction by the citizens in that area against this heavy influx of migrants.
I don't know why, when -- when -- when individuals are dispersed --
HUNT: I'm not -- I'm not disputing any of that.
DUBKE: Let me get to the point.
HUNT: It's just --
DUBKE: But this is -- but this is an unconventional way to bring that point up.
Now, Ohio is not a state --
HUNT: Unconventional is a very generous way to -- to put it.
DUBKE: This is -- Ohio is not a state that is -- it's going to go for -- for Donald Trump. I wish there was a Springfield, Pennsylvania, or a Springfield, Michigan, where he was talking about this.
But it is an unconventional way to bring it up. But there is --
SELLERS: In other words --
DUBKE: This is true, on-the-ground --
FRUM: Unconventional. If you're serious --
DUBKE: True, on-the-ground issues.
FRUM: If you're serious about getting control of this border situation, here are the things you have to talk about. You have to talk about revising asylum laws and international treaties which bind the United States government.
You have to talk about enforcing legal workplace status in the workplace, the way Mitt Romney did in 2012.
And you have to talk about how you're going to find workers for American industry. Because one of reasons -- one of the reasons people are coming is there's this giant "help wanted" sign over the United States.
But the reason Donald Trump -- he's not an unconventional candidate. He is a candidate who's uninterested in solutions. What he -- he's interested in mobilizing fear and hatred and contempt.
You know, the fallback position of J.D. Vance on the dog and cat story is, OK, maybe they're not killing people's dogs and cats, but some of these migrants are killing ducks and geese.
So, I remember in 2016 when Donald Trump was so proud of his endorsement by the "Duck Dynasty" people. They became famous by hunting ducks. That -- that was good. Why is this bad?
[06:20:02]
SELLERS: I think -- I think one of the things that we fail to do is call a thing a thing. Right? That's first.
And I love Mike Dubke, because he's probably the smartest person I'm on TV with, day in and day out.
HUNT: That's very generous, Bakari.
SELLERS: Could you just watch his struggle with that this morning?
DUBKE: That's sound (ph).
SELLERS: That's how we do it. They -- you got it in.
DUBKE: I got it in.
SELLERS: That's what we do in South Carolina. We just -- we just prop you up before we stab you in the back. But did you watch him just struggle with that? I'm wrapping up. I know.
But -- but I think -- I think that Donald Trump, for a long period of time is using a phobia and racism as political currency. And that's what this is. There's nothing more, nothing less. This isn't unconventional. This is who Donald Trump is.
HUNT: OK, with that, straight ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, we are just moments away from witnessing history in space. Mission Control just gave the thumbs-up for two members of the Polaris Dawn SpaceX crew, about to embark on the first ever civilian spacewalk, to get their preparation started.
Plus, this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP (via phone): I was not a Taylor Swift fan. It was just a question of time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Donald Trump not too excited about Taylor Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:25:25]
HUNT: All right, 24 minutes past the hour, five things you have to see this morning. Happening right now, the crew of SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission is preparing to open the hatch and step out into space.
Mission Control just gave the go to start moving forward. And if successful, they'll make history with the first civilian spacewalk in human history.
The rock legend Jon Bon Jovi, helping a woman to safety after he spotted her on the ledge of a bridge. Nashville police releasing video showing Bon Jovi, along with one other person, speaking with the woman and helping her back over the ledge.
All right. Heart-stopping video out of Arizona. Thirty people were injured when a driver crashed a truck into an Elks Lodge.
Police believe the driver was under the influence. Wow.
Take a look at this woman narrowly escaping the Airport Fire in Orange County, California. Fire officials reaching her just in time as she struggled to cross the Ortega Highway and escape the flames. We're glad she got out.
Tropical Storm Francine making its way further inland. Stunning video here showing a person being rescued from their pickup truck live on television in New Orleans yesterday.
Even though the storm is weakening, a flood threat continues across the Southeastern U.S.
All right. Still to come after the break here, just days after the first presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, we're going to talk to pollster Frank Luntz for his assessment of where the race stands.
Plus, we're monitoring live, SpaceX making history. The first group of non-government astronauts taking part in a commercial spacewalk.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:30:00]
