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Dangerous Helene Races Towards Florida's Gulf Coast; Trump & Harris Attack Each Other's Economic Record; New York City Mayor Arrested; Higgins Deletes, Then Defends Derogatory Post on Haitians. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired September 26, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Thursday, September 26. Right now, on CNN THIS MORNING.

[05:59:40]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to have a plan, and you need to get out now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Catastrophic and life-threatening Hurricane Helene rapidly intensifying, expected to be a major storm when it makes landfall tonight.

And this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I have pledged that building a strong middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A direct appeal. Kamala Harris making her pitch to the middle class. Are undecided voters buying it?

And this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D), NEW YORK CITY: These charges will be entirely false, based on lies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Indicted. The mayor of New York facing criminal charges after an investigation into corruption and illegal campaign donations.

And later --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: So, Nevada, get out and vote. We win this state, we're going to win the whole thing. We win this, we're going to --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: In our battleground beat, taking a bet on red or blue. With only six electoral votes, Nevada could tip the election. The state's attorney general joins us live.

All right, 6 a.m. on the East Coast. A live look at Clearwater, Florida, on the West Coast of Florida as Hurricane Helene barrels through the Gulf of Mexico, gaining more and more strength through the day today.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

The latest update from the National Hurricane Center, just a short time ago shows Helene is getting stronger, now with 90-mile-an-hour winds.

The storm, though, expected to get much stronger than that. Helene is forecast to arrive as a major hurricane along Florida's Big Bend later this evening, bringing life-threatening storm surge and catastrophic winds.

Widespread power outages also expected. Recovery teams already mobilizing across the state to get the lights back on once the storm passes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Many people will lose power, depending on where you are in the state. So just prepare. Be prepared for that. Understand that that's something that could happen and have a plan in place, so you're able to weather that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Let's get to our meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, who's tracking all of it and has the latest. Allison, good morning. What are we seeing now?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Good morning, Kasie.

Well, we're seeing exactly what we expected to see. The storm is continuing to strengthen. It will continue to do that as we go through the rest of the day today.

Sustained winds right now, 90 miles per hour. That makes it a high-end Category 1 for some perspective, 95 miles per hour would be that threshold where we start talking about Category 2 storms.

Now the storm is over the Gulf of Mexico now. It is very warm water here. So, we anticipate that this storm is going to continue to strengthen, because this warm water is fuel for storms like this.

So, now what's expected to happen is it will continue to increase, eventually making it to a major hurricane, likely sometime today.

When it does, it's going to continue its track off to the North and make landfall late tonight somewhere along the Big Bend region of Florida.

Now, at the time of landfall, the forward speed of this storm could be around 25 miles per hour, or even faster than that. For some perspective, right now, it's moving at 12 miles per hour.

The thing is when it moves that fast, especially as it will at landfall, that means it can move pretty far inland before it weakens back down to a Cat -- or back down to a tropical storm.

You can see still expected to be a Category 1 hurricane across portions of Southern and central Georgia. This means a lot of cities that are hundreds of miles away from the ocean, like Atlanta, Greenville, Spartanburg, and even Nashville, are likely to pick up significant impacts from this storm.

Obviously, the highest impacts are going to be along the coast. You've got the potential for 15 to 20 feet of storm surge right there in the Big Bend region, not to mention incredibly heavy rainfall and strong winds through the day.

HUNT: All right. A lot to watch out for there. Allison Chinchar for us this morning. Allison, thank you very much. We're going to be keeping an eye on this storm throughout the hour.

But with just 40 days to go until election day, it's still the economy, stupid.

And Vice President Kamala Harris was in Western Pennsylvania, dee inn the Rust Belt in a must-win state, trying to explain to voters who say that they need to know more about her, just how she would handle the economy as president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I promise you, I will be pragmatic in my approach.

I believe we shouldn't be constrained by ideology and, instead, should seek practical solutions to problems.

Look, I'm a capitalist. I believe in free and fair markets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, that was some not-so-subtle pushback against Donald Trump's consistent attacks against Harris as, quote, "Comrade Kamala."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And then she's a Marxist, we're not ready for a Marxist president, and we never will be. We don't want Marxists to be running our country, because it's a short way to --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Socialism.

TRUMP: Well, no, we passed socialism.

She's a communist. Her views are communist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining us now to discuss: Anna Linskey, reporter for "The Wall Street Journal"; Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor; Karen Finney, CNN political commentator, former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton s 2016 campaign; and Marc Lotter, the former special assistant to President Trump and former press secretary for Vice President Mike Pence.

Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here.

Elliot, when I was listening to this speech yesterday and kind of reading some of the headlines, it really did strike me that she had these lines in there.

[06:05:06]

I mean, she called herself a capitalist. She used the word "pragmatic." The pushback against the way Donald Trump has been framing this race seems very clear to me. I thought it was very interesting. What was your take?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right. It's not a surprise that she used the word "capital." It's not a surprise that she mentioned last week, that she's a gun owner, speaking to a segment -- segment of the population that I think she thinks she needs to target.

I would also note that the speech took place in Pittsburgh, another part of the --

HUNT: Is that a coincidence?

WILLIAMS: Remarkably, the vice president happened to be in the swingiest city in the swingiest state in this election. And that -- that was deliberate, as well.

And so, it's part of a very disciplined message from the campaign. It really just depends on whether voters buy it.

A big criticism has been that voters don't know, and the media do not know enough about what the vice president's economic policies are. And again, it remains to be seen how much this moves the needle about whether people are comfortable with what they do know.

HUNT: Yes. I mean, it looks -- sounds like we've got an 80-page-plus policy book that they're now going to point to and say, well, here we have this. My question -- I mean, look, Hillary Clinton put out a lot of policy papers. Didn't mean that voters really kind of bought what she was selling.

ANNIE LINSKEY, REPORTER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": You know what? I haven't been struck by on the economy with these two candidates, is that both of them have degrees in economics, which is the first time in, certainly, modern history. They both went to college and focused on economics. So they have a -- both have a strong background.

And, you know, there are, in some ways -- and I know I might get some pushback from the panel here. They are both saying similar. They are both giving a similar message, which is investing in the country's manufacturing and industrial policy.

They're going about it very different ways, but they are both essentially saying that they want to bolster manufacturing and American jobs.

Kamala Harris is saying, we want to do this through tax credits. You know, Donald Trump is saying we want to do this via tariffs. But it's the same goal, right?

HUNT: So, forgive me, because what Annie just said is, in fact, correct.

But it does, in fact, sound as though Harris is the Republican in this scenario, and Donald Trump is the liberal, in terms of the nature of the policies.

I mean, Mitch McConnell, Marc Lotter, looks at Donald Trump's policies and says these are not conservative.

MARC LOTTER, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO DONALD TRUMP: Well, I also, I think the one thing when we talk about tariffs, we have to remember is he's talking about free and fair trade, reciprocal trade.

So, he will talk about tariffs if a country is not treating us fairly or if a manufacturer --

HUNT: Well, he's talking about tariffs on John Deere. Right? Which is an American company.

LOTTER: Or a manufacturer, if you take American jobs and then ship them overseas to Mexico and expect to sell it back here in the U.S. So, it's protecting American jobs.

But the thing I took from the speech last night with Vice President Harris, is she said she's a capitalist, followed up by government price controls and rent controls, which isn't capitalism.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Trump has talked about price controls as well. I think that the challenge in what he's talking about is, you know tariffs can work if it's very strategic.

He's not talking about them in a very strategic way. It's -- it's much more of a, like, what audience am I talking to? OK. You get something; you get something.

And think about it. If you think about a 200 percent tariff on John Deere, that's a tax on farmers, people who really cannot handle more taxes.

And, you know, he talks about tariffs in a way that doesn't actually clarify that the companies pay the tariff, which means they pass on the cost to us; versus, I think, what Harris is talking about.

And the other reason I think she wanted to lay this out as pragmatic was to say, look, I'll work with business. I'll work with, you know, the private sector. We'll work with economists to figure out what's going to be a smart strategy. Not I can't be don't want to be defined by, you think this is liberal, you think this is conservative, but rather well, what's going to make sense.

WILLIAMS: I'm sorry, go ahead.

HUNT: One second. I just want to play Mark Cuban was at this event that Harris held, right? And he was defending her, right, this businessman. I want to play a little bit of what he said after, and then Elliot, feel free to jump in. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CUBAN, BUSINESSMAN: Donald Trump really is the one that should be worried. When it comes to the economy, she was 20, 30 points behind 45 days ago. Now, the trend is her friend, and she's catching up.

Look at Donald Trump. He's threatening one of the most legendary companies in America, John Deere, with 200 percent tariffs that would make buying from China cheaper than buying from John Deere. That's insane.

So, he's looking to just throw -- just beat down American companies, while Vice President Harris is saying, Look, we want to work with you. I want to talk to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: Yes. So, a couple of things. What he's saying there, and it's a fact Kamala Harris has cut into Donald Trump's lead on the economy, which is -- which was, and certainly is to some extent --

HUNT: Look, if she's going to win the election, that's why. You know, like --

WILLIAMS: The point I was going to make before, is that tariffs sound like such a great idea when you frame them in terms of this is about protecting American business and American consumers.

The problems is that when you start talking about slapping tariffs on goods that might be coming from England and our allies, or countries that we trade a tremendous amount with. That that can carry, as Karen was saying, a tremendous cost to actual consumers in America.

[06:10:04]

LINSKEY: But -- but to your point, though, it does sound good. And this is about messaging.

HUNT: That's what Trump is great at, right?

LINSKEY: That's what he's great at. And when you -- when you start talking about tax credits, it's harder for people to understand.

And I thought her point of saying, you know, what Trump is saying is not serious, was an interesting one. It's a way for her to sort of ratchet down the rhetoric. We've talked about it before on this show, but also kind of poke Trump and get at this point that this is kind of a broad-based concept that he's trying to --

LOTTER: The one challenge Kamala Harris faces is that the American people's hopes and aspirations are to not get sticker shock at the grocery store and the gas station.

LINSKEY: Yes.

LOTTER: And she has no answer for that. And that's going to be really, ultimately, her undoing.

HUNT: I was going to be -- we, unfortunately, have to go to break, Karen. But, you know, she has been separating herself from Biden in certain ways. And I think some of the stuff maybe out of her direct control and is going to have a huge impact. I think you're right about that.

All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is defiant, insisting that he is innocent and refusing to step down after being indicted.

Plus, calls for a ceasefire. The U.S. and its allies are banding together, asking Israel and Lebanon to ease tensions.

And we, of course, continue to track Hurricane Helene. It's a monster of a storm, expected to have catastrophic consequences.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're expecting eight to 12 foot of storm surge. That is catastrophic, life-threatening floodwaters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:115:53]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAMS: These charges will be entirely false, based on lies. But they would not be surprising. I always knew that, if I stood my ground for all of you, that I would be a target. And a target I became. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: New York City Mayor Eric Adams, expected to surrender to authorities early next week.

Sources telling CNN he's being indicted on at least one federal criminal charge. The indictment follows a months-long federal investigation into possible campaign fundraising violations and foreign influence.

The exact charges are not known at this time. Some local leaders are calling on Adams to step down. Among them, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): It is a very unfortunate time. We do not want to see this happening in our city, but unfortunately it is.

And I think for the best of the city and so that we can continue to staff the administration of the city, it would be best for Mayor Adams to step aside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, Elliot Williams, what do we know about what's going on here, the foreign influence piece of this? And we've seen a number of resignations across his aides. I mean, this has kind of all fallen apart.

WILLIAMS: It's not just resignations. It's even before the resignations, the searches of people's homes, the searches of people's devices. The seizing of Eric Adams's own cell phones and personal devices and so on.

So, it was clear that something was brewing.

Now, what's going on is allegations, at least right now, the rumored allegations -- we haven't even seen the indictment yet -- of, in effect, influence peddling with the Turkish government. It's the fund raising and providing things to individuals there, including through some staff in his office.

You know, the thing that I was thinking about just this morning, anybody watch -- and you've got Baltimore connections, "The Wire"?

LINSKEY: Yes.

WILLIAMS: The TV show.

LINSKEY: Of course, yes.

WILLIAMS: No, I mean -- and not even joking aside, two things tend to really do big-city mayors in. It's the fundraising, as happened to Clay Davis in the show, but also the cronies around them that will not tell them no when people show up with bags of cash and asking for favors and so on.

Now, there's no bags of cash in New York, but it's the same general pattern of conduct. It's not getting in the way of either the mayors or other people's impulses.

It's happened before. And just given the proximity that we've seen to the mayor of the kinds of people that were being searched, charges here probably inevitable.

HUNT: Yes. I mean, this is just like a shocking -- when I woke up this morning, I was like, I'm sorry. They did what? They indicted the mayor of New York?

But Karen Finney, we're also apparently hearing that if, in fact, he does step aside -- first of all, I'm interested to know if you think he should step aside.

But we're also hearing that, if there's a special election, one Andrew Cuomo, according to our reporting, has been telling those around him, he would run if Adams left office, and a special election were scheduled.

If Adams resigns before the last week in March, the acting mayor has to put one on the calendar.

FINNEY: Yes. Good luck with that, Andrew. What a stupid idea. I mean, he's just jonesing for power or attention. I don't know. He doesn't realize it's like just shut up and go away. We don't -- we're not interested.

That being said, I'm sure I'm going to get -- you know, hear some blowback on that one.

HUNT: I was going to say, I think we just had a little -- little tweeted clip right there.

FINNEY: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

FINNEY: No, seriously. Because I know something about some of the -- the charges against him, and it's -- it was quite disgusting.

HUNT: Again, we're talking about Andrew Cuomo.

FINNEY: Yes, Andrew Cuomo.

With regard to the current mayor, I think, you know -- we don't know what's in the indictment, and we don't know the charges. I think with -- with more information -- I mean, I understand his instinct to try to do damage control and -- which is what you do. You go out, and you say if, you know, I'm being attacked and -- but if, indeed, the charges are as serious as they sound -- and this has been coming for quite some time.

As -- as Elliot pointed down, and we've seen also people around him, you know, with investigations and their homes being raided and such.

So, he might have to step down. I mean, it may get to that, particularly because, as tends to happen -- look at Bob Menendez -- it becomes such a distraction. And it takes away from actually doing the job.

WILLIAMS: Even in the absence of his getting charged, the amount of people around him, including the schools chancellor just yesterday or the day before, it puts a cloud over his administration, making it impossible for him to serve.

[06:20:07]

Ed Koch, who might be one of the more iconic modern American mayors in New York's history, served two very successful terms. But his whole third term was clouded by all this nonsense around him with the people around him all getting indicted. One man ended up committing suicide.

It was -- it was sort of a mess.

HUNT: Yes.

WILLIAMS: And when we look back at the Koch years, that final term, it's -- kind of becomes his legacy. And Eric Adams has to think of that.

LOTTER: The interesting things I'll be interested in, though, is in a special -- if this comes to a special election, I mean, Andrew Cuomo comes in with massive name I.D. and massive fundraising abilities. And in a shortened, compressed -- obviously, it's basically a Democrat primary, you know, are you able to sneak through that way? Because you have the name I.D. and the fundraising advantage that some of these other candidates may not have.

LINSKEY: We have a lot of important people in New York. I mean, you don't know who else is going to jump into the fray.

But I just kind of think, like, just taking a step back for a second here. I mean, you know, two years ago, Eric Adams was just flying so high, particularly in this town.

HUNT: Yes, he was.

LINSKEY: I remember seeing him at the Gridiron dinner. He was driving in the --

HUNT: He was at the U.N. with Biden last night, event in the Met.

LINSKEY: Was he?

HUNT: Yes, he was. And of course, the -- Merrick Garland, Biden's A.G., was busy indicting him.

LINSKEY: My gosh. Yes.

Right. And the Turkish government was there, too, I believe. I mean, not at the event, but in New York City.

HUNT: I didn't hear about that. But yes, I'm sure representatives are here for UNGA. Yes.

LINSKEY: Yes, yes, they're there for UNGA. So, I just kind of think about that. You know, he was -- a lot of Democrats saw him as a leader on messaging, on crime, and also on immigration.

Issues that they were having a difficult time craft -- sort of moving to the center on. And so, just for me, to see this, like, incredible fall from grace, where he was like a promising national leader. And then just -- it's incredible.

HUNT: It's really remarkable. It's a really good point. I'm glad you brought that up.

All right. Still to come here after the break, Hurricane Helene making its way to the Florida coast. We're tracking the latest on this potentially catastrophic storm. It's forecast to make landfall later on this evening.

Plus, the controversy over baseless claims on Haitian migrants continues on Capitol Hill.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:26:24]

HUNT: A live look right now at Crystal River, Florida, a city on Florida's West Coast, bracing for Hurricane Helena. The storm strengthening as it barrels through the Gulf of Mexico. It is currently about 350 miles Southwest of Tampa, expected to make landfall as a major hurricane later on this evening.

Officials warning the storm surge in some areas could get as high as 20 feet. We're going to keep our eye on it throughout the morning and the day today.

But let's turn now to this story from Capitol Hill. Republican Congressman Clay Higgins of Louisiana facing backlash after he posted this yesterday.

He wrote, quote, "LOL, these Haitians are wild. Eating pets, voodoo. Nastiest country in the Western Hemisphere. Cults, slapstick gangsters, but damned if they don't feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our president and V.P. all these thugs better get their mind right and their A-S-S out of our country before January 20."

Higgins deleted the tweet after his Democratic colleague, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Steven Horsford, confronted him about it, leading to a heated exchange on the House floor.

House Speaker Mike Johnson later weighed in on the controversy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): He was approached on the floor by colleagues who say that was offensive. He went to the back. I just talked to him about it. He said he went to the back, and he prayed about it. And he regretted it, and he pulled the post down. That's what you want the gentleman to do. I'm sure he probably regrets some of the language he used.

But you know, we move forward. We believe in redemption around here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Higgins, however, does not seem to regret the post. In a statement to CNN, Higgins said this: quote, "It's all true. I can put up another controversial post tomorrow if you want me to. I mean, we do have freedom of speech. I'll say what I want. It's not a big deal to me. It's like something stuck to the bottom of my boot. Just scrape it off and move on with my life."

The panels here. Punchbowl is also -- Punchbowl News is reporting this morning that a black colleague on the Republican Party, Marc Lotter, Byron Donalds, also told him to take this down. That's not CNN reporting, but it is Punchbowl reporting.

Is this -- I mean, why -- why do this?

LOTTER: No, there's no reason. There's no reason to do this. I mean, this -- I -- I get the larger argument about immigration and problems. This is it.

And I said last night with Jake Tapper's show, like this is a reason, as a communications professional, I never want my member or principle to be -- have control over their own Twitter account control.

FINNEY: Although you can't always control it.

No, its horrible. And you know, our own Gary Tuchman has done some reporting, talking to children in Springfield who are Haitian, and it's heartbreaking. They're terrified, and their parents are terrified.

And so, it just shows how this has gotten so out of control. It is so irresponsible, and it's spreading to the Haitian community in different parts of the country, frankly, where certainly, kids are, you know, thinking, do people think we do that? Do people -- and of course not. It's ridiculous.

And so -- but this is -- we have to be more responsible with our language. And someone who is an elected official was -- we say this -- we've said it before. We'll say it again. You -- you have to be responsible with your language, because you are putting people in danger when you act like this.

HUNT: Yes. And I -- unfortunately, I am sorry, we have to go. But I do want to just kind of underscore the impact that some of this language is having on our political debates. Because CNN asks people in our polls to say whether or not increasing the number of races and ethnicities and nationalities, whether it is enriching or threatening to American culture. And just look at what they say.

[06:30:00]