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Hurricane Milton Strengthening as It Approaches Florida; Trump Refers to 'Bad Genes' of Immigrants. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired October 08, 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 Tuesday, October 8. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

[05:58:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JANE CASTOR (D), TAMPA, FLORIDA: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you're going to die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A dire warning. Tampa's major -- urging people -- mayor urging people to take Hurricane Milton seriously as they brace for a potentially catastrophic storm.

Plus, four weeks and counting. Where the race stands just a month from election day. And this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via phone): We got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: "Bad genes." Donald Trump, once again, turning to dark rhetoric as he hammers Kamala Harris on immigration and crime.

And later.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have a Glock, and I've had it for quite some time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Harris, the gun owner. What the campaign might be hoping to accomplish by highlighting her use of firearms.

All right, 6 a.m. on the East Coast, a live look at Tampa, Florida. Mass evacuations underway as Hurricane Milton, an incredibly dangerous hurricane, is closing in there. Thankfully, that traffic is moving.

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

We're following breaking news this morning. The new update on Hurricane Milton out just a short time ago. Right now, Milton, a Category 4 hurricane, but that could change.

It's expected to regain strength this morning after slowing down some overnight. The storm expected to make landfall tomorrow evening near Tampa, the second major hurricane for Florida's coast in just two weeks.

And now Florida officials are bracing for impact while still clearing debris from Hurricane Helene, distributing sandbags, and encouraging people to evacuate.

Tampa's mayor issuing this blunt warning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASTOR: Helene was a wake-up call. This is literally catastrophic. And I can say without any dramatization whatsoever, if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you're going to die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Very stark.

Let's get to meteorologist Derek Van Dam with the latest.

Derek, what are we seeing from the storm at this hour?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Kasie, those are some sobering words, but taken right from the National Hurricane Center, West Central Florida is facing the potential of the most destructive hurricane in its history.

And this is something that I've never seen before. A police escort of debris removal on Treasure Island in advance of the second major hurricane to impact the state of Florida.

The time is not on their side, unfortunately, and we need to get that debris away from the area from Helene, which was two weeks ago, as quickly as possible.

This is the latest: 155-mile-per-hour Category 4 storm. The storm timing has remained more or less the same. We're still thinking late Wednesday night into early Thursday morning timeframe. It will likely make its way into as a major landfalling hurricane.

But one thing that's important and explicitly noted within the 5 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center, the tropical-storm-force and hurricane-force wind field will double in size as it approaches the state of Florida.

There will be a period of time, as this makes landfall, where hurricane-force winds will be felt from coast to coast, from the Gulf all the way to the Atlantic. That will, of course, push up the water, as well.

Now, so many of our evacuation orders are based on this storm surge potential. Remember, we need to nail down exactly where that eye makes landfall.

But 10 to 15 feet of storm surge, Kasie, that's over double my height.

HUNT: Wow. Stark -- stark way to put it. Derek Van Dam for us this morning. Derek, busy time ahead for you and, of course, a very scary time for all those residents of Florida. We'll be checking in with you throughout the day, I'm sure.

And that storm is, of course, just one of a number of major issues facing voters and candidates as the election -- as election day nears. There are now just 28 days, four weeks until November 5.

This just in this morning. A new poll from "The New York Times" and Siena College finds Kamala Harris making some progress among likely voters, Harris with support from 49 percent to Trump's 46 percent nationally.

In that same poll last month, the two were tied.

In previous polling, voters have indicated they want to know more about Harris's policies. In an interview with "60 Minutes" that aired last night, she was pressed on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: In the last four years, I have been vice president of the United States, and I have been traveling our country. And I have been listening to folks and seeking what is possible in terms of common ground.

I believe in building consensus. We are a diverse people geographically, regionally, in terms of where we are in our backgrounds. And what the American people do want is that we have leaders who can build consensus, where we can figure out compromise and understand it's not a bad thing, as long as you don't compromise your values, to find commonsense solutions. And that has been my approach.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Trump was also invited to sit down with "60 Minutes." CBS says he canceled after they declined to promise not to fact-check him. And because they refused to apologize for the interview that they conducted with him before the 2020 election.

Instead, Trump spoke with FOX News in a town hall event that aired last night, where he said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How will you restore faith in our justice system? A lot of people will say, well, he's just going to do to them what he -- they did to him and get back at them and --

TRUMP: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And they're --

TRUMP: A lot of people say that's what should happen, you want to know the truth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, what I think --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Our panel's here to discuss: Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst, national political reporter for Axios; Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor; Leah Wright Rigueur, CNN political analyst and historian. She's also an associate professor of history at Johns Hopkins University. And Mike Dubke, former Trump White House communications director.

Welcome to all of you. Good morning.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.

HUNT: Mike, let me start with you --

MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Yes.

HUNT: -- on the new polling. This -- the most interesting thing here to me, polls are snapshots in time. We get it. National poll, not battleground state polls. It's really battlegrounds that matter at this stage.

But does show some movement in Harris's direction. What do you make of it?

DUBKE: Well, you took away all my talking points. That it's a snapshot, and we need to look state to state.

I'm not -- I'm not necessarily surprised. I think these polls are going to rise and fall. We've seen -- I was talking to a -- a Democrat yesterday about Nevada.

HUNT: Yes.

DUBKE: As one example of where Harris had made these advances over the last a couple of weeks. And the latest poll that they had coming out showed Trump up. So, I think we're going to see this ebb and flow of polling as we go forward.

I'm not necessarily surprised that the national numbers are shifting this way. I think that takes -- that encompasses the states in which there are going to be runaway winners. Trump's going to win North Dakota. Harris is going to win New York state. I feel really confident in saying those things. But if we focus on the seven states and watch that back-and-forth,

that's where it's mind-boggling -- mind-bogglingly, which I mispronounced twice. At this point.

[06:05:11]

HUNT: Yes. No, it's -- I mean, it's -- I mean, Alex Thompson, when you talk to your sources in the Harris campaign and Biden world, where do they feel this race is right now?

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I was talking to someone just yesterday, and they just said, it's so tight.

And like, listen, they're nervous. Now, obviously, their line is we're the underdog, we're the underdog. At the same time, the strategy is more of, like, they're protecting a lead in terms of being a little bit more risk averse.

The thing is that they basically believe that any sort of outside events could really shake up this race in a significant way. Maybe it's a hurricane. Maybe it's something else the next four weeks.

HUNT: Can I ask you about the hurricane, because they -- there was this back and forth between Ron DeSantis and Kamala Harris. She tried to call him, reportedly, and he refused to take the call, saying she doesn't have any to do with it.

But then Republicans are also trying to hang failures in response or slower response times around -- you know, try to blame Democrats for that.

How much of this do they see as a potential major issue, like, problem for them?

THOMPSON: I think we should really stop having elections in hurricane season, because -- because the fact is that now a very serious storm, now the second serious storm is becoming incredibly politicized.

And this has happened -- this happened in 2012, but it basically happens every single time. The fact that -- that there are politics now involved in what is really just a -- a natural disaster, where people need emergency help and rebuilding, is not surprising but disappointing.

HUNT: So, Elliot, some of the other numbers in this poll. One of them is who is more fun? And Kamala Harris gets 43 percent to Donald Trump's 35 percent.

WILLIAMS: Look, an important primary that happens. And you might have heard the term of the beer versus wine primary. And when it's a question of which candidate would you rather have a glass of beer with versus the candidate that you want to have a glass of wine, often the beer candidate wins. Oddly enough, going back -- HUNT: I'm sorry, the beer is opposite to the wine now? Like --

WILLIAMS: Everybody should just drink. THOMPSON: Yes, yes, yes. Beer dad versus the wine mom. It's 2024.

WILLIAMS: Beer versus wine in 2024. But it's -- it's the quintessential, you know, Romney versus -- or McCain versus Obama, right?

Now who do you want to have a beer with? Who do you want to have a glass of wine with?

Americans often cast part of their vote on who they feel more comfortable with, who you think you could socialize with.

Now, look, is Kamala Harris going to be the president of the United States because people think she's more fun and does more TikToks and killer banging, dank memes? No.

However, it's something that's on people's minds. People assess personalities.

Keep a straight face. You knew --

DUBKE: Those words coming out of your mouth as soon as you say call -- "Call Her Daddy," I will --

WILLIAMS: But --

HUNT: It's 6 in the morning.

WILLIAMS: -- the "Call the Daddy." Let me talk about it. The "Call Her Daddy" was brilliantly made.

DUBE: See, I made you say, "Call Her Daddy."

WILLIAMS: You did make me say "Call Her Daddy." But no, but that but that's brilliant, given that it's an audience of 5 million people, many of whom are women, many of whom are young women. And that's a constituency that Kamala Harris needs to double down.

We can goof about it. It's sort of silly because of how much of the other content on the program. But -- and I think a lot of people picked on her about it. But it was a really smart interview to do.

HUNT: As we wrap up here, Leah, one of the other -- possibly the most important number here in this polling is who more represents change, which Harris has a two-point edge over Trump in, in this latest "New York Times" poll, 46 percent to 44 percent.

This often -- I mean, if you talk to anyone who worked for Bill Clinton back in 1992, right, change was the -- and Obama in 2008. This can be really determinative.

LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND HISTORIAN: Absolutely. I also would say the economy.

But with regard to, I think, change, part of what we know is that going into this election, whoever's perceived as the change agent, whoever is perceived as the outsider, the insurgent, that is the person that is going to win the election. That has been consistent over and over again, except in moments when there are mass crises, massive wars, these kind of large overarching issues where Americans tend to prefer the incumbent or whoever has been in charge for a very long time.

But this is a change election. So, I'm not surprised to see that there were kind of positioning. We're having this moment where we're positioning people as outsiders.

One of the most remarkable things about Kamala Harris's very kind of explosive short campaign is how she has managed to position herself as an outsider to all of these places in a way that the American public has deeply responded to.

So, if she can do that in these swing states, when these places were really at the margins, where that's where the election is going to be decided, she will win the election.

HUNT: All right. Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, defending her record.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: It's a long-standing problem, and solutions are at hand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Kamala Harris pressed about the Biden administration's immigration policy and her promise to be tougher at the border.

Plus, Georgia's six-week abortion ban back in effect as the state Supreme Court weighs an appeal.

[06:10:05]

And we continue to track Hurricane Milton, now a major hurricane, barreling towards Florida's Gulf coast. The former director of FEMA here to discuss the challenge ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're talking about storm surge values higher than the ceiling. Please, if you're in the Tampa Bay area, you need to evacuate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right, welcome back.

Immigration, of course, continues to be a leading issue among voters in the presidential election. Both candidates discussing it on Monday.

[06:15:04] During an appearance on "60 Minutes," Vice President Harris called illegal migration a long-standing problem. She was pressed about border crossings under the Biden administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL WHITAKER, "60 MINUTES" CORRESPONDENT: But the numbers did quadruple.

HARRIS: And the numbers today, because of what we have done, we have cut the flow of illegal immigration by half.

WHITAKER: Should you have done that -- should you have done that --

HARRIS: We cut the flow of fentanyl by half. But we need Congress to be able to act to actually fix the problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Trump has made immigration a central part of his campaign in all three of his bids for the White House. Now, he's suggesting there's something wrong in the genes of some of the migrants coming to the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: She has no clue. How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers. Many of them murdered far more than one person. And they're now happily living in the United States.

You know, now a murderer -- I believe this -- it's in their genes. And we've got bad -- a lot of bad genes in our country right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: "Got a lot of bad genes in our country right now."

Elliot Williams --

WILLIAMS: Yes.

HUNT: -- this is sort of -- there's been a lot of this underlying his --

WILLIAMS: Yes.

HUNT: -- remarks. And now he's just flat out saying it.

WILLIAMS: Yes. So, there's a couple of big things going on. And set aside the allegations of whether you want to call it blood libel or eugenics that underlie these comments about bad genes. It's bigoted. It's racist. We don't need it in this country.

But we're used to it from the former president.

The thing sort of that strikes me, and remember, I worked at ICE for five years. This horribly misleading statistic about 13,000 murderers running around in the country.

HUNT: Yes, OK.

WILLIAMS: Free in the United States.

HUNT: Help us explain -- understand.

WILLIAMS: So, once those -- any -- whatever the number is, ICE does not track people who are not in federal ICE custody. Now, those people, many of whom might have been convicted or charged with murder, are very well in state -- state and local prisons. So, they are locked up.

And after they're released from prison, because of the nature of the felonies they have, they're kicked out of the United States.

But the idea that there's somehow 13,000 people that America knew were murderers that they let in, that are now running the streets, is simply inaccurate.

Now, that took me about 30 seconds to explain, and I think that doesn't really work on a campaign trail. And you can garble it really easily, saying there's 13,000 murderers from Mexico that are going to come in and kill your daughter. But that's just not the fact -- that's just simply not the case. Most of them are incarcerated and will be removed from the United States when their time's up.

HUNT: Leah, I mean, there's a very long history in the -- I mean, you kind of ran through some of this -- of immigration being an issue that -- that comes into the conversation in a way that is very bigoted, as Elliot -- to use Elliot's word.

What do you see in where we are in this conversation in our country today?

RIGUEUR: Well, you know what? Donald Trump promised to make America great again, and I think one of the things that we're seeing is that we're -- we're actually experiencing a return to 1936, maybe 1924, right? All of these moments where xenophobia and these kind of replacement theory, eugenics, right, all of these really deeply bigoted ideas about migrants and immigration are coming to the surface.

And they're rising to the surface for a very specific purpose, because it is -- has turned out to be in very good political strategy for addressing the anxieties and the fears and generating outrage around the issue of migration.

The problem is, is that it doesn't offer a solution. And so, the -- instead of what we have -- instead of having actual solutions to the crisis or the problem of migration in this country, many of the structural issues that come about from it, what we haven't said is eugenics and eugenic theory.

We have replacement theory. We have a candidate on the campaign trail, former president of the United States, who is actually saying things that are deeply dehumanizing and degrading and that actually do, I think, instill a kind -- a sense of dehumanization -- dehumanizing that ultimately leads to violence.

We saw this with Haitian migrants in Springfield a couple of weeks ago. We're seeing it again, particularly around these issues of Mexican -- Mexican migrants.

I think this is a really dangerous moment that were in, but it also hearkens back to really dangerous moments that we've been in, in this country before. And we've seen what the outcomes of that have been. It directly ends up targeting, I think, deeply dividing the American people, but also really ginning up violence against people who are migrants in this country.

HUNT: Mike Dubke, I mean, just -- I just want to give you the last -- the last word here. I mean, this is obviously a challenge for so many of these communities, right?

DUBKE: Absolutely.

HUNT: There is a problem here. And voters are telling us that they believe that it's a problem.

DUBKE: And they're living the problem.

I mean, first of all, thank you for playing the whole clip. He's talking about murderers, not migrants, necessarily in that clip.

Secondly, Bill Whitaker had it right. Quadrupling of the number during her administration. When they finally decided to crack down in May, June of this year, that number decreased. She's right about that, as well.

But she had it in her power -- and Biden did -- to crack down on this.

If she comes basically back to the White House, I think it is fair to call her -- she's going to be the new Bob Barker of the border, meaning that "Come on up."

Migrants listen to this. They listened to Biden's rhetoric during the last campaign and flooded the border. And until we cracked down and said, we're cracking down, then it stopped. We're going to see the exact same thing in a Harris administration.

WILLIAMS: Just really quick. I will say, I think there's one answer that all of them can give, which is that it's on Congress to fix it. The problem is, that requires so much explanation.

DUBKE: And time.

HUNT: Do you have any idea how many times I've covered --

(CROSSTALK)

HUNT: -- an effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform?

WILLIAMS: And how many times I worked on it. 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013.

At a simple point, that's the answer, but it requires her too much explanation, and it's too easy for the other side to sort of demonize. It's just --

HUNT: The politics of it are impossible.

WILLIAMS: You just can't win.

HUNT: All right, coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, the Gulf Coast of Florida, preparing for catastrophe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASTOR: The Tampa Bay area has never seen anything like this before. People need to get out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: We're on the ground in Tampa as mass evacuations are underway ahead of a monster storm.

Plus, North Carolina picking up the pieces from Hurricane Helene. Just four weeks from election day, officials say they won't let the damage stop voters from casting their ballots.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:52]

HUNT: Hurricane Milton quickly approaching Florida's Gulf coast as a major hurricane, forcing thousands to evacuate. The storm expected to bring historic storm surge flooding to areas around Tampa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATHLEEN PETERS (R), CHAIR, PINELLAS COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS: We have the time, the knowledge, and the resources to make sure everyone can make it through this storm alive. But our time to act is very short.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: In about 90 minutes, Florida's governor will give an update on how the state is preparing. One Florida meteorologist who's covered some of Florida's worst storms, got emotional when he saw just how fast Milton intensified.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MORALES, WTVJ METEOROLOGIST: It has dropped -- it has dropped 50 millibars in ten hours. I apologize. This is just horrific.

HUNT: All right. Joining us now with the latest on the ground in Tampa, CNN news -- Newsource correspondent Ivan Rodriguez.

Ivan, good morning to you. What are you seeing down there?

IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN NEWSOURCE CORRESPONDENT: Kasie, a lot of people are still trying to get out of the Tampa Bay area. And we've been hearing it all morning long and also yesterday. Officials pleading with millions of people that now was the time to evacuate and do so before conditions began to deteriorate.

We want to show you these live images here of traffic, bumper to bumper, getting out of this Tampa Bay area.

We know that across the state of Florida, tolls have been suspended on these major highways, as well, to assist with the evacuations. And also, the state is allowing for hurricane evacuees to drive on the shoulder in order to keep that traffic moving.

All day yesterday, Kasie, we saw traffic also backed up on several highways here in the Tampa Bay area. And it really seems like people are taking this seriously, especially on the heels of Hurricane Helene, which caused so much devastation across the Florida Big Bend region, specifically, here, as well.

But another concern from officials is also all the debris that is left behind in so many neighborhoods here in the Tampa Bay area. When Hurricane Milton does make its landfall, all that debris could end up in the air and as a projectile. So, that's something to keep a close eye on here, as well.

HUNT: All right. Ivan Rodriguez for us this morning. Ivan, thank you very much for that.

Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, new 2024 polling showing a very close race, but some movement for Kamala Harris.

Plus, politics complicating storm preparations as Florida braces for a direct hit from a second hurricane. The governor and vice president publicly feuding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: It is selfish, and it is about political gamesmanship.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: I'm not worried about playing her political games.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:00]