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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump Team Scrambles To Limit Fallout From Comic's Vile Remarks; Hunt On For Suspect Who Set Fire To Ballot Drop Boxes; Neil deGrasse Tyson Versus Musk. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired October 28, 2024 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:31]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
In the gutter. A vulgar campaign finale at Trump's mega rally. Harris not letting it go tonight as we have new reporting that the Trump picked comedian who made the vulgar comments had something far worse planned.
And breaking news this hour, a federal investigation into who set fire to those ballot drop boxes in two different states. We know now hundreds of ballots have been destroyed, as the Pennsylvania secretary of state worried he's next, and we're going to ask him along with when he thinks we'll know who wins Pennsylvania.
Plus, famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson taking on Elon Musk's musings about aliens on Earth.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight on this Monday, Trump reeling. The former president's campaign making a rare cleanup attempt tonight, huge deal from a campaign and a candidate that never admits to mistakes.
Trump's big closing argument at Madison Square Garden last night featuring craft and vile comments about Puerto Rico and Latinos in general, comments that could cost Trump the election if he pays the price in Pennsylvania where Latino voters could decide the race.
Kamala Harris tonight highlighting Trump's crass and vile rally.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump's event in Madison Square Garden really highlighted a point that I've been making throughout this campaign. He is focused and actually fixated on his grievances on himself and on dividing our country.
What he did last night is not a discovery. It is just more of the same and maybe more vivid than usual. Donald Trump spends full time trying to have Americans point their finger at each other fans the fuel of hate and division, and that's why people are exhausted with him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. She was referring in part to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY HINCHCLIFFE, COMEDIAN: I don't know if you guys know this but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now, yeah. I think it's called Puerto Rico.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now I'm going to stop there and just play that part. I do want to note that the man you saw there, his name is Tony Hinchcliffe, made even more vile and sexually explicit remarks about Latinos and we thought long and hard about whether to play them decided not to that they are too vulgar and graphic for me to play here.
But our Danny Freeman spoke with Latino voters in Philadelphia about those comments and the voters he spoke to are angry, which is important for Trump's campaign because the latest polling in Pennsylvania shows Trump up by one point. Obviously, that's well within the margin of error, and according to Pew Research, there are more than 600,000 Latinos eligible to vote in the state of Pennsylvania. That's a massive amount just objectively but relatively this makes the point, the margin of victory in Pennsylvania in the presidential race was less than 100,000 votes.
So when you look at 600, you realize how big that could be even if just some of them are moved by what happened. So as a result the Trump campaign tried a little bit of clean up. A campaign spokesperson claiming: This joke does not reflect the views of president Trump or the campaign.
Of course, this was a comedian appearing by invitation of Trump in the campaign at a Trump rally. And Trump himself has remained silent. No apology, no separating, nothing, even though the crass comments bring to mind something Trump himself did mean remember when Hurricane Maria slammed into the island of Puerto Rico and Trump famously threw those paper towels into a crowd before falsely denying the storm's official death toll. Of course, thousands of people died.
So Trump's silence today after the comedian made that joke calling Puerto Rico an a floating pile of garbage may speak volumes. But even as he is silent, Trump's running mate J.D. Vance is taking it head on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I haven't seen the joke. I -- you know, maybe -- maybe it's a stupid racist joke as you said, maybe it's not -- I haven't seen it I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the joke but I think that we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America. I'm just -- I'm so over it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. The fact about this though one thing that's just undeniable is this, it was totally avoidable by Team Trump.
According to "The Bulwark's" Marc Caputo, even though staffers say that the Puerto Rico joke about garbage was ad-libbed into the bit it, so they say, well, they didn't know about it because it was ad-libbed.
[19:05:00]
Prior to it they had had a chance to look at a script and they did know that totally disgusting jokes were in the planned script from the comedian. I mean, here's one example, a campaign insider tells Caputo that the comedian actually quote had a joke calling Harris a C-word. Trump staffers saw that they said no whoa, whoa, bridge too far, asking Hinchcliffe to cut that remark when they saw the draft.
You'd think when someone has a joke calling someone the C-word in their -- their bit, that'd be a red flag, but it wasn't. And Marc Caputo is going to be with me in a moment with more reporting, because here's the thing, even as those staffers tonight insist to Caputo that they did not spot the other horrific comments in Hinchcliffe's prepared remarks, many more comments were said at that rally about Harris and others like these.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRANT CARDONE, CEO, CARDONE CAPITAL: Her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.
DAVID REM, REPUBLICAN POLITICIAN: She is the devil whoever screamed that out. She is the antichrist.
SID ROSENBERG, RADIO HOST, "SID & FRIENDS IN THE MORNING": She is some sick bastard that Hillary Clinton, huh? What a sick son of a (EXPLETIVE DELETED). The whole (EXPLETIVE DELETED) party, a bunch of degenerates.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Those were other speakers all invited all of whom scripts had gone through an approval process.
Danny Freeman is OUTFRONT in Philadelphia.
And, Danny, I know you've had a chance today to be just -- just talking to voters in the in the immediate aftermath of that to get their reaction. What are they telling you?
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erin, quite frankly we spoke to a lot of Puerto Ricans here in Philadelphia today and they told me that they're mad. They're frustrated. Many of them told me that they took these remarks personally. And listen, Erin, we're in a Democratic city speaking with a normally Democratic coalition. So it's not that surprising we'd find some outrage but I was surprised that the level of outrage that we really did see because we spoke to not only Democrats, we also spoke to an undecided Puerto Rican voter, also a Puerto Rican voter who already voted for Trump, and they told me their frustration with these remarks was palpable as well.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREEMAN (voice-over): Vice President Harris's campaign wasted little time Monday morning.
MAYOR EDDIE MORAN (D), CITY OF READING, PA: They did us a favor. They woke up. They woke up. They woke us up. They woke us up.
FREEMAN: Assembling a host of Puerto Rican surrogates in Philadelphia.
COUNCILMEMBER QUETCY LOZADA (D), CITY OF PHILADELPHIA: I hope that people are as angry and they turn that anger into -- into vote.
FREEMAN: Pennsylvania has more than 480,000 residents of Puerto Rican descent according to 2002 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. That's the most out of any of the battleground states and the Philadelphia metro area is among the top regions with Puerto Ricans outside of New York and Florida.
Philadelphia City Council member and Harris supporter Quetcy Lozada knew she had to speak up after last night.
LOZADA: I think that what folks don't realize is that Puerto Rican -- when Puerto Ricans get angry, we turn into action mode very quickly.
FREEMAN: Around Philly's largely Puerto Rican Fairhill neighborhood, voters we spoke with had heard the comments.
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
FREEMAN: He doesn't know what he's talking about. Puerto Rico is a beautiful island.
Thirty-two-year-old Christian Hernandez is voting for the first time this year for Vice President Harris. The Trump rally remarks only solidified his vote.
You think Puerto Ricans heard those words from last night?
CHRISTIAN HERNANDEZ, PENNSYLVANIA VOTE: Yeah, for sure. A lot -- a lot of Puerto Ricans, they're mad and disappointed.
FREEMAN: Marcos Pagan didn't like the comments at all.
When you hear stuff like Puerto Rico is a floating island of garbage, what goes through your mind? MARCOS PAGAN, PENNSYLVANIA: To be honest, I feel disrespected because they -- he doesn't know what we go through, you know? We've been through a lot.
FREEMAN: But Marcos still is not sure who he's voting for.
When you hear comments like that, does that change your perspective about who you might vote for?
PAGAN: No.
FREEMAN: That's not enough.
PAGAN: I'd rather see you to believe it, you know? Everybody (INAUDIBLE) words.
FREEMAN: Fernando Santiago already cast his vote for former President Donald Trump, but now, he and his whole family are mad about last night's remarks.
What did you think about him calling Puerto Rico a floating island of trash?
FERNANDO SANTIAGO, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: This -- this my stop because that's my island, you know? I don't want to -- I don't want to people talking like that, you know? This -- this not right.
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
FREEMAN: You think he's not going to go far because of this lack of respect towards Puerto Ricans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREEMAN (on camera): Now, I will say, we reached out to the Trump campaign specifically in Pennsylvania to speak with someone about what happened last night. They just pointed us to the statement that they released last night saying again this joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.
I will note though, tomorrow, former President Trump is expected to be in Allentown, Pennsylvania, another city here with an enormous Latino and especially enormous Puerto Rican population, we'll see if he addresses it -- Erin.
BURNETT: Yeah, that is going to be fascinating and so important. Thank you very much, Danny.
Actually, speaking to those voters, everyone's here with me now.
Van, let me start with you. So I know you're very close to the Harris ground operation in Philly, so you really know what's going on there on the ground. I know that there have been some challenges for her there, but does this change the game -- that joke about the floating pile of garbage made by that comedian last night. Does that change the game at this late hour? VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It energizes certain kind of voter. Look, if you're a Trump voter, you've forgiven him for so much stuff that it's almost an automatic thing. What you have though are people who are for Kamala Harris but they have questions and they're lukewarm. This is -- this is a couch propulsion device like in a cartoon just is pushing people off the couch to be like, hey, hold on a second, we're not going to just be insulted.
You know, he insulted the city of Detroit. That also was a couch propulsion device. So him going around being an insult comic, hiring insult comics and acting this way is it's not turning people one way or the other, but it's motivating people who already don't like him and who -- who now feel that it's a matter of personal pride to stand up to him.
BURNETT: Couch propulsion device, a new -- a new term.
All right. Marc Caputo, you were first to report that the comedian there wanted to call Kamala Harris the C-word and that had actually been in the script, the campaign requested that came out. So it did, then they're saying that this specific line was ad-libbed in, but then were others that I -- the one I referred to the incredible graphic -- incredibly graphic sexual comment about Hispanics coming into the United States.
What are your sources telling you about how the jokes that that did make it through got through? Are they trying to say every one of them was ad-libbed?
MARC CAPUTO, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE BULWARK: Well, we're able to figure out just kind of parsing what happened or kind of calculating out what happened is the Puerto Rico joke, the trash island joke was ad-libbed allegedly, the Black person carving watermelons for Halloween was ad-libbed. These are words I never thought I would say on cable news.
BURNETT: Yeah.
CAPUTO: And there's -- there's a divide over whether they knew about the crude joke that compared sexual completion let's say with Latino migration into the United States. I guess that's a very difficult way to describe it.
BURNETT: But I think that's accurate though. We all know what you're talking about, yeah.
CAPUTO: Right. So -- so there a divide about whether they knew about that or not. But the other jokes, Palestinians throwing rocks, Jews being potentially greedy or liking paper, a reference to Haitians -- the false story of Haitians eating cats and dogs in Ohio, a joke about the Trump assassination attempt -- all of those things from what I was told did make it through.
The broader story here is this is that the Trump campaign wants to be norm-busting, abnormal. It wants to do new and edgy things and so they invited a roastmaster comic edgelord to give a speech at a presidential campaign in the waning days of the campaign, in the waning days of the race, and the guy did his comic edgelord routine, and this is what it looks like is some things are appropriate for podcasts, which he has killed. Tony's a very popular podcast, and he's very funny if you like that sort of humor, but it didn't mix with a presidential campaign event and that's what you're seeing currently.
BURNETT: No, no, and there is a tone that people expect even in the context of the Trump campaign and the way that this been the consistent behavior. I mean, Lulu, as I said Trump has so far not distanced himself from this even though the campaign has tried to.
J.D. Vance also though did bring it up today and let me just play what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's telling that Kamala Harris's closing message is essentially that all of Donald Trump's voters are Nazis and you should get really pissed off about a comedian telling a joke. Maybe it's a stupid racist joke as you said. Maybe it's not. I haven't seen it.
I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the joke but I think that we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America. I'm just -- I'm so over it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, Lulu, you had a chance to interview Vance recently. So what he just did there the saying Kamala Harris is saying every one of you is a Nazi. So in that context, one bad joke even if it's racist let's put it in context. That's essentially what he's saying there.
You interviewed him and understand how he speaks and how, you know, his mind works. What do you make of this response in the speech?
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I mean, Senator Vance can run but he can't hide from that. It's classic, right? I didn't hear it, maybe it's true, maybe it's not true, but what about this other thing? And it's just -- the classic rhetorical circular um argument that doesn't address the issue at hand which was incredibly offensive language.
I mean, there's reporting from my colleagues at the New York Times that say that, you know, the Trump campaign is extremely worried about this.
You know, one joke possibly you can excuse. Two jokes you can say all right maybe it was a bad call. But as Marc Caputo has just said, there were a series of these uh and I don't think they should be lauded for actually striking out the C-word and, you know, having the sitting vice president and the first potential female president of this country being called that name.
So I just -- I don't think that there's anything that they can say at this point but I would -- if indeed former President Trump wants to make amends to the Puerto Rican community, perhaps he might say perdon, you know? I'm sorry. It'd be a good start.
BURNETT: So, Machalagh, what -- we -- the Trump campaign made a comment. Trump has said nothing, but you just heard Danny Freeman talking about how Trump's going to be in Allentown, which is home to a huge number of voters, Puerto Rican and Puerto Rican descent and Hispanic voters, and that that's going to be a moment tomorrow where he has a choice.
So what do you think? Do you think that he should and do you think that he will somehow distance himself from these comments? I hesitate to use the word "apologize".
MACHALAGH CARR, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO SPEAKER KEVIN MCCARTHY: Yeah, I don't -- I think what Marc said was really interesting, right? Like this was an interesting call to even have a comic at an event like this. It was I think admitted. I think it was an unforced error.
Whether or not it's survives this 24-hour news cycle, I -- I really don't see it. I -- with due respect, I think there will be much effort to make this, be the only thing that anybody talks about for the next six days but the reality is, is -- it is serving right now to stop people from talking about the disastrous policies and so in that respect, it was a gift to the Harris campaign which we didn't really I think -- think the Trump campaign wanted to give them at that time.
BURNETT: So, Van, I mean, to the point Machalagh is making, fascist, Hitler, John Kelly was 48 hours of intense intensity for some people, then -- and you still have "The Washington Post" situation going on with the denial of endorsing Kamala Harris. Now you have this.
So is this just going to be a thing and then pass or could it have more staying power?
JONES: You know, it just -- it will -- it will pass for us, but if you're on the ground and you're in Philadelphia and you're trying to get turnout, unless Trump comes out tomorrow and he'll say, oh, beautiful Puerto Rico, I love Puerto Rico. He'll do something. He'll -- he's not going to apologize, he'll do something and that may tamp it down a little bit.
But what you're doing is you're giving people who got tired legs and sore knuckles a reason to go out there again tomorrow morning and you give them something else to say to their own community. And so, it is a gift and even though it passes with us, stuff lasts longer on the at the grassroots level than it does on air.
BURNETT: Lulu, it also comes as the pro-Trump super PAC launched by Elon Musk and you know posted and then deleted -- so I want to say posted and then deleted, so everyone understands that they knew that this was not something that they should continue. Here is the video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AD NARRATOR: Kamala Harris is a C-word. You heard that, right? A big old C-word. That's right. She's a tax-hiking, regulation-loving, gun- grabbing communist. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: They pulled it, Lulu. They pulled that. So they were aware I suppose that at some level, it became aware after that was cut and put together and all the time and money was put into it that that they were going to that was too far?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: This is the question that I have about all this. I get the edgelord stuff. I understand the tactics of wanting to appeal to the basest level of the male population and try to gin them up.
Bt you know, I -- I do wonder especially how this plays for women which they have a lot of trouble with -- if you are a mother or you are a daughter, or you are a sister, do you think that this is something that you want to see?
If you're trying to tell your kid, hey, you got to be nice to people, you got to respect people, please respect your teacher. Do you think that this is something that really is the kind of language that everyone wants to embrace?
I just find the political strategy slightly baffling frankly and it is the product of Elon Musk. I mean, if you look at his, you know, X feed, this the stuff that he posts. This is from his mind. This is the kind of thing that he enjoys.
Now, is this going to actually gin up the vote and get Trump elected? We'll wait and see.
BURNETT: Machalagh, have they given up on a certain group of women who would find this offensive?
CARR: I don't think it's about giving up. I think that there's just a reality which is that no matter what, this is a very, very close election and people have made the decision and we see this continuously in the polls that whatever kind of thing is being said, whatever negative thing is being said, either that anybody that disagrees is a fascist Nazi or some questionable language that I won't say myself, you know, that's just not what people are making their decision on.
[19:20:07]
People are making their decision on their policies, and if I was wrong about that, we wouldn't be stuck at a 48-48.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: But, Machalagh, these two things are not the same. I mean, you know, one thing if someone's calling former President Trump a fascist, that is a political determination that people who served with him have made. The other thing that Elon Musk just did and others, that is -- that is a very different kind of attack. That is about gender.
CARR: You and I think that they're not the same.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: That is her -- that is about her gender. CARR: But the voters are not deciding it based on this. That's just what the polls are showing us and we'll see in a week but neither one of those arguments is convincing to the American people.
BURNETT: All right. We'll hit pause there. Thank you all very much.
And next, Elon Musk sued over his millionaire a day giveaway. Is it impacting the race and breaking the law? I'll ask Pennsylvania's secretary of state.
And Republicans were already preparing to take back the Senate but a new poll just out is dashing their hopes. Harry Enten is OUTFRONT tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:25:33]
BURNETT: All right. Breaking news a search underway for whom ever set fire to two ballot drop boxes in two different states. So the fires were in Washington state and Oregon, and destroyed hundreds of ballots. And authorities at this hour believe the two fires are connected, and they' actually identified what they say as a suspect vehicle tied to the incident.
That is according to the latest reporting out of the "Associated Press" this hour. And it actually comes days after a mailbox fire in swing state of Arizona damaged multiple ballots. Tonight, the FBI and the DHS are warning of, quote, domestic violent extremists who want to terrorize the voting process with election workers being potential targets.
OUTFRONT now, Pennsylvania's Republican secretary of state, Al Schmidt.
And, Secretary Schmidt, I'm sorry to be to you under these circumstances and I know we're going to be talking a lot over these next weeks as this all plays out.
I want to start with these fires. How worried are you about them? Are you worried Pennsylvania could be a target of these sort of drop box fires?
AL SCHMIDT (R), PENNSYLVANIA SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, I've certainly seen reporting on these incidences. In Pennsylvania, all drop boxes that we have, and again they are county board of elections drop boxes have video surveillance on them. They are secured into the ground or and usually or and oftentimes staffed by people to make sure that voters can return their ballot directly to their county in a way that's safe and secure.
BURNETT: So when you hear the FBI and the DHS, first of all, I'm glad to hear about the cameras and the putting it into the ground -- I mean, details that we wouldn't necessarily even need to talk about, but I'm glad we are because it's important but when you hear the FBI and the DHS warning of domestic violent extremist with election workers being potential targets, what are you even able to do to protect election workers, so many of whom of course are volunteers coming out to help their community.
SCHMIDT: And the most important people on Election Day, it's not the secretary of state, it's not even a county commissioner. It's those friends and neighbors who volunteer essentially for a 14-hour day in Pennsylvania to make sure that when you show up to vote, you can make your voice heard at your local polling place.
The Shapiro administration last year set up an election threat task force so that we have clear lines of communication with federal, state and local partners in law enforcement and election administration to make sure that if any of these ugliness returns that we saw in 2020, everyone knows what everyone else's role is, and we can make sure that if there's any threats targeting our voters or our poll workers or our polling places or our county election staff that will be prepared.
BURNETT: So, Secretary, in Pennsylvania, in Lancaster County, officials there say they stopped suspected fraud in as many as 2,500 voter registration forms, that some of these margins of victory in many states last time, that this could be everything, those applications had showed inaccurate addresses mismatched signatures several forms with the same handwriting and they say this was what they call a large scale canvassing operation.
That's what was responsible. What more can you tell me about that?
SCHMIDT: Well, I'm eager to hear the full report from the county. They reached out to us right away. We provided guidance to them for how to handle this sort of situation. It was that they received a significant number of registrations as a group and some number of them they believe to not be legitimate.
So at the end of that investigation, we'll hear from them the degree to which they have found evidence of voter registration fraud.
I just want to be clear voter registration fraud is separate from voter fraud, and while the two can intersect when you apply to register to vote in Pennsylvania you're providing a driver's license number, or you're providing a social security number.
So when someone files a fraudulent voter registration application and it's not legit, it's easy to identify and -- and flag.
BURNETT: All right. So -- so then do you feel that you know the full extent of this is it on other counties? I mean, do you feel like you have a sense of how big it is?
SCHMIDT: It's really at the county level and I'm confident that the county will report out to the Pennsylvania Department of State and everyone else, the extent to which they have found evidence of this at all.
BURNETT: All right. So, I want to ask you about Elon Musk.
[19:30:01] You know, he's being sued now by the district attorney in Philadelphia over that $1 million a day giveaway that he's giving to voter -- registered voters in swing states like yours. They say that it's an unlawful lottery. They want it shut down.
Do you think Elon Musk has broken the law, Secretary?
SCHMIDT: Well, I can certainly see why it would be concerning. The Pennsylvania Department of State is not a law enforcement agency. So I would really leave -- leave that up to our partners in law enforcement to make a determination about whether that's lawful or not.
BURNETT: I'm curious when you -- you know, there's been all this talk about whether Pennsylvania will be able to have results on election day, I know you have cautioned against expecting that even though you have machines that will help open some of those mail-in ballots that are designed to open the outer ballot, the inner ballot, all of that. But now, you're getting a sense for how many people are voting early, do you have a better feel every day secretary with how quickly you'll be able to tell the country who won Pennsylvania?
SCHMIDT: Well, Erin, every election, whether you have mail ballot voting or not always comes down to how close an election is before you know who won and who lost and while our laws unfortunately have not changed since 2020, that prevent counties from processing mail ballot envelopes before 7:00 a.m. on election morning, some things have changed new equipment at the counties a lot more experience than they had in 2020, and fewer voters voting by mail, even though it's widely embraced during that peak COVID environment, we certainly had a lot more voters choosing to vote by mail.
So with those three things, I'm confident that our county partners will process mail ballots expeditiously and with integrity.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Secretary, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.
SCHMIDT: Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: And next, the breaking news, Trump just attacking Michelle Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You know what's nasty to me? Michelle Obama.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And Republicans panicking over new signs they could lose a safe Senate seat, one that could cost them the Senate majority.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:36:03]
BURNETT: All right. Breaking news, dueling rally is happening right now. Election Day, of course, now, well, a week away since Monday night. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz together at a rally in Michigan, must win for them as they see it and Donald Trump is speaking in Georgia, which is must win for him.
Just moments ago, Trump going after the former First Lady Michelle Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: With your support in November 5th, you know what's nasty to me? Michelle Obama. Ooh. I always tried to be so nice and respectful. Ooh, she opened up a little bit of -- a little bit of a box. She opened up a little bit of something, that she was nasty, ooh. Shouldn't be that way, that was a big mistake that she made.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. That attack coming two days after lines like this from Michelle Obama, as she urged voters not to support Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY: For Trump -- we -- we expect nothing at all, no understanding of policy, no ability to put together a coherent argument, no honesty, no decency, no morals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. Everyone is back with me.
Lulu, Michelle Obama obviously still extremely popular and then this weekend when she came out in the campaign trail, you know, that was her big first her big in these final days choosing to come out. And, you know, obviously she was very aggressive in her attacks against Trump, but then he's coming out and saying that she was nasty to him and obviously the word nasty brings back the memories of nasty women and the t-shirts that we all still see people wearing around who were Hillary Clinton's supporters.
Was it a mistake for Trump to use the word, or do you believe it was fully purposeful?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: No, clearly fully purposeful. He's used those words before and also, he's launching them against Michelle Obama because she is a very effective messenger for the Democrats. I mean that speech was a powerful speech. Some would have urged her to come around sooner because people like Michelle Obama, she pulls often times even higher than her husband. You know, she's a best-selling author, people identify with her.
And so you know when Trump takes her on he's doing that deliberately because she is very effective for the Democrats as a political messenger especially in this election, especially about reproductive rights.
BURNETT: So van does she you know respond to this, I mean, in the whole, you know, when they go low, we go? Or is this just a whole different game and she should seize on the whole use of the word not nasty and what it you know conjures up for some voters?
JONES: Look, Michelle Obama has been taking Donald Trump to the woodshed every time she's been on a microphone for eight years and he has never spoken her name because he's terrified of her strength, her power. Everybody has a nickname. He's -- I mean, you can't talk bad about Donald Trump without getting jumped on.
This is the first time he's even said her name and his response was pretty muted because he knows if he steps hard against Michelle Obama, he's going to bring the roof down on his head. So, even he knows better than to take on Michelle Obama.
I love Obama and her husband and so does America.
BURNETT: So, Machalagh, you know, Hillary Clinton was called nasty. He's called Kamala Harris nasty as well.
But, you know, you heard Van say -- Van, what was the word you said, muted? A bit muted?
JONES: Muted.
BURNETT: Muted, okay.
So, Machalagh, do you agree? I mean, you know what's nasty to me, Michelle Obama, and then he said she was nasty, oh, it shouldn't be that way. That was a big mistake she made.
Do you also think that's muted? I mean, he's -- given some of the other things we've heard him say, it would appear it is, right? He could have --
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: He don't want none -- he don't want none from Michelle Obama and if he goes further than that, he's going to regret it.
BURNETT: Machalagh?
CARR: I mean, he prefaced it with I was always nice to her. I think what's interesting here is, look, trying to shame people into voting for your candidate, I don't think is really effective, whether it's kind of presuming that people that disagree with you are racist or misogynist if they're going to vote for the guy you don't like --
[19:40:09]
JONES: Why is that then?
CARR: When the country -- when the country is this div she literally said that you are going to be -- you have the -- you know, health of women and there could be your daughters or your sisters or your mothers and they're going to be the one in trouble.
JONES: That's not calling somebody racist. That's not calling someone racist.
CARR: Well, Van, what she said was that she was speaking specifically to the men and she said it's going to be your daughters and if you vote for this guy, I don't understand this country. I might not have the pitch perfect, but she admitted that she doesn't understand that half the country disagrees with her, and I think we should be giving people a reason to vote for something, not only saying that they don't like the other guy and I think that that's not effective and we'll find out.
BURNETT: Lulu, is this -- is that a fair criticism of the Democratic strategy right now?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Well, it might be a fair criticism of the Democratic strategy if we didn't just in our previous session talk about all the things that were said at that rally in New York. So I -- you know, it's very hard the pot calling the kettle black when you know -- when we've just seen this kind of festival of hate.
So -- yeah, I don't think it's necessarily fair criticism. At the end of the day, I do think though people are tired of the name calling and the ugliness of this campaign and many people just want it to be over, me included.
BURNETT: Yeah, I think I haven't heard anybody who hasn't just said just get it over, and then, you know, you don't need to say anything else, don't really care what they -- which way they're going. They just -- everyone is united and wanting it over.
All right. Thank you all very much.
And next, incumbent Republican senator at serious risk of being knocked off by an independent challenger. And this is crucial because it could kill the GOP's hopes of retaking the chamber and affect the total balance of power. Harry Enten at the magic wall.
Plus, Trump making a big promise on the campaign trail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We will land an American astronaut on Mars.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Neil deGrasse Tyson is OUTFRONT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:46:10]
BURNETT: OUTFRONT tonight, reality check. Republicans facing the real possibility that they could be losing a Senate seat that was once considered very safe, and with that loss, their dreams of winning back the Senate could be dead, too. Nebraska Republican Senator Deb Fischer facing a real challenge by independent candidate Don Osborn, a mechanic and a Navy vet vowing to fix the, quote, broken politics of D.C. He has taken Republicans by surprise just two points behind Fischer in a new poll out today which we call a dead heat because it's with inside the margin of error.
And Harry Enten is OUTFRONT live from the magic wall.
So, Harry, you know, we've talked about a lot of important Senate races people even talking about Ted Cruz. This is not one that has on many people's radar, but it's incredibly close and it could be hugely significant for Republicans odds of taking control of the Senate.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: What a shocker that poll was that took my mind. Woo.
Let's just talk about the Senate math, right? All right, the seats that GOP needs for Senate control, they need one -- a net pickup of one if Trump wins, but two if Harris wins, right, because right now Democrats have 51 seats or at least caucusing with the Democrats compared to the 49 seats for Republicans.
But here's the deal when you look at the Senate math at this point. If you're talking about the race ratings, right? What do we see? We see that Republicans actually get up to 51 seats, why? Because go to the great state of West Virginia, take me home West Virginia, Jim Justice, a solid Republican pickup for Joe Manchin, of course, former Democrat now the independent.
Another seat that Republicans have been doing quite well with we're going to go all the way out west to Maury Popovich's home, in the great state of Montana, where the incumbent Jon Tester is an underdog at this point to Republican Tim Sheehy.
But, of course, what happens? What happens if we go to Nebraska and change the Senate math in the great state of Nebraska? What if we go here right between Fischer and Osborn and, all of a sudden, we take that and we go from red to independent, the Republicans drop down to seats and, all of a sudden, the Senate math gets awfully shaky for Republicans, Erin.
BURNETT: I mean, it's incredible. I mean, how surprising would it be when you look at this race that a lot of people were not focused on right with you have an independent candidate and we've all been beaten over the heads for the past year that, you know, everybody wishes that there could be a third way in this country but there isn't.
But an independent candidate to actually unseat not just someone from a major party, in this case a Republican, but an incumbent Republican?
ENTEN: I'll tell you, it would be quite the shocking thing. Why? Well, let's talk about this. The last time an independent senator was elected outside the great state of New England, Erin, look at this, you have to go all the way back since 1976, it was Harry Byrd from Virginia.
And he, of course, was actually an incumbent himself so the idea that you might be able to defeat an incumbent my goodness gracious, but it's not just that, because it's also about the fact that if we look at Senate races and presidential races in the Trump era, states voted the same way in Senate and presidential races, 68 out of 69 times so the idea that Nebraska would vote for Trump and also not vote for Republican for Senate, that is quite the shocker, Erin.
BURNETT: That would be quite the shocker whether we're splitting this ballot -- seeing ballot splitting or you know if it goes the Democratic way, whether then that means a sweep for the Senate and the House and all these things would require just scenarios in certain states that right now nobody has on their bingo card as we like to say.
ENTEN: Shockers sometimes.
BURNETT: All right. Harry, thank you.
ENTEN: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, Neil deGrasse Tyson on aliens, sending humans to Mars and Elon Musk's latest assertion.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:53:37]
BURNETT: Tonight, Donald Trump opening the door to the possibility of alien life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: There's no reason not to. I mean, there's no reason not to think that Mars and all these planets don't have life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Elon Musk, of course, now big Trump supporter, taking it a step further.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELON MUSK, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Maybe the aliens will come visit us, maybe -- maybe they are here right now. I haven't seen any like sort of green aliens with antennas on the head or anything like that, and maybe they are -- they just very subtle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now -- you may hear chuckling -- famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. The head of the Hayden Planetarium, host of "Star Talk" and just wrote the newly revised edition of his first book "Merlin's Tour of the Universe". We were talking about the beautiful color there -- cover there.
So, Neil, okay, Trump has talked about putting an astronaut on Mars. And, you know, he has said, you know, in one of his comments that he that the U.S. will be the first nation to land an astronaut on Mars.
Now, we know in the lexicon of Trump, that could you know just be absolute nothing. Is this a real possibility or not?
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, ASTROPHYSICIST: You have to ask why would one do that. And we have a very capable -- multiple capable -- one of them is an SUV-sized rover on Mars that, in fact, carried a helicopter. So in terms of scientific exploration, you don't really need people, but it's fun to send people because they can come back and you give them parades and you name schools after them.
[19:55:04]
BURNETT: Right.
TYSON: So I don't have a -- I don't have a problem, I don't have an issue against sending people, but the only time we've ever done that is when there's a geopolitical motive not simply because it felt like the next thing. We should do and one thing about Elon commenting about aliens with antennas, the generation of aliens with antennas was back when our TVs had antennas.
BURNETT: That's probably where it came from.
TYSON: Think about. We don't draw aliens with antennas anymore. This is just the fact that our imagination flows out of our culture, not out of any real data that's coming from the universe itself.
BURNETT: Well, that's -- there's a lot of comments I can -- none of them are positive about the current state of social media and discourse. I'll keep them to myself. Elon Musk when it comes to talking about why one would -- would do this, and he and Trump now obviously are you know very tightly tied together politically. He has made the argument as to why.
Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUSK: We can actually build a permanently occupied science base on the moon. We can build a city on Mars. We can be multi-planet species, and out there among the stars. It's very exciting.
We want to make Starfleet Academy real, you know? And go out there and visit other those star systems eventually, and see if there are alien civilizations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I just want to note and maybe this is a moment because I know a lot of people have strong feelings about Elon Musk. Some people really like him, a lot of people despise him right now. He's saying that on the campaign trail. That is a really odd rare thing that anybody on a campaign trail would be talking about that sort of thing in that sort of detail campaign.
TYSON: They want you to think about the future and that's a future path. The question is whether how real that is.
BURNETT: Right.
TYSON: And I'm saying when we went to the moon, our cleansed memory of that episode was, oh, we're explorers, we're discovers, we're Americans and you part the curtains. It was we were at war with the Soviet Union and they were beating us in every checkpoint in space.
The first satellite, the first human, the first --
BURNETT: The first dog.
TYSON: The fist dog, first non -- yeah, non-human dog, the first space station, the first woman, the first Black person that was a Cuban, all right? So they beat us at everything that we got to the moon before them and we said we win, and then we looked over shoulder and they weren't there and then we stopped going.
That's a -- that's evidence that we didn't go to the moon just to explore, we went there to beat the Russians and we succeeded and the geopolitical drivers for that evaporated.
BURNETT: Are they there now between China?
TYSON: A little bit -- a little bit -- yeah, because China -- oh by the way, why didn't we stay on the moon in 1972 or go back in 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010? There was no perceived geopolitical threat.
China says, hey, we might put some taikonauts on the moon. All of a sudden, NASA says, oh, let's have let's have the Artemis program and put humans back on the moon.
BURNETT: All right. So, you know, and in all this, of course, there's the embarrassment of Boeing, what it's been going through. Elon Musk obviously has been a bright shining light for the American space and rocket program again, whatever you think of his politics, that is for sure.
But one thing about space right now --
TYSON: Oh, by the way, pause for a minute. We know you're in the future if one space vessel doesn't work, you just choose another one. That's pretty -- you know you're in the future, that's good.
BURNETT: That never used to be the option.
TYSON: That was the case, yeah, it would have been stranded astronauts forever. Yes.
BURNETT: So Elon Musk on the campaign trail and on the campaign stage making those comments. Trump talking about putting an astronaut on Mars.
In a sense, this is the most nonpartisan thing either one of them say. Kamala Harris leads the National Space Council. She leads the National Space Council and here's what she has said, Neil.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Space is a place of extraordinary opportunity. So our task, dare I say our duty as nations, must be to work together to make that opportunity real, and to preserve it for future generations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TYSON: Yeah. Space has hardly ever been partisan. So I'm happy to report that fact. NASA has 10 centers, scattered into eight states, states that variously vote five, red, three blue, five blue, three red. And so, if you had a strong opinion about NASA one way or another, it would not correlate with your politics. That's a good fact.
BURNETT: It's a great.
TYSON: Yes.
BURNETT: It's a great fact in time we can all feel quite down.
So, now, in your book, I love it because it's just it's questions. I was -- I mean, I just am looking through so many about the moon, stars exploration, cartoons drawn by your brother.
TYSON: My brother's an artist. He went to the high school of music and art back in the day here in New York City.
BURNETT: LaGuardia?
TYSON: Well, became LaGuardia, became they merged Ma and Pa (ph), the high school music and art and performing arts and it became LaGuardia.
BURNETT: Well, the cartoons are great and their character Merlin explains all these ideas and answers people's questions. One of which you someone asked about it's impossible for there to be two full moons in February but then there's leap year. So explain to me how.
TYSON: Yeah. Still can't squeeze them in the time between full moons is 29-1/2 days, can't squeeze it into February even when you -- even when you give it an extra day.
BURNETT: Even with the help.
TYSON: The fun part about the Merlin character that takes the reader through is it, it's Merlin has -- is quirky and Merlin existed for all of time, so recalls conversations with famous characters like Isaac Newton, it's a conversation between them and Isaac Newton explains gravity.
So it was -- it was -- it was -- it was fun to just re-inhabit that character from so long ago in my life and then bring it to the present day.
BURNETT: Well, I love it and I -- I -- it's -- I hope everyone will get this new copy of it, especially because it is quite a beautiful cover. TYSON: Yeah, thank you.
BURNETT: All right. Neil, thank you.
And thanks to all of you.
Anderson starts now.
