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CNN Live Event/Special
Polls to Open Soon on East Coast; Joe Rogan Endorses Donald Trump; Wet Weather for Battleground Voters. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired November 05, 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, November 5, election day. Right now on this special edition of CNN THIS MORNING.
[05:59:22]
Decision day in America. Polls open across the East Coast, and the very first votes have already been cast.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are we ready to fight for it?
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've been waiting four years for this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The wait is over. Right? By this time tomorrow we could know which of those two would be the next president, or not.
And --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY, MEDIA MOGUL: We don't get to sit this one out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Star power. Kamala Harris counting on Oprah and other celebrities to push her over the finish line in the final hours.
Also, Donald Trump's one-time primary opponent now an outspoken supporter. Vivek Ramaswamy joins us live on this election day 2024.
All right. The seconds are ticking up to 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. This is a live look at a polling site. There it is at 6 a.m. They are opening right now in New York. Other sites opening in New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, portions of other states here in the East on this election day.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. We made it, finally. Election day is here. And voters are voting on
this first Tuesday after the first Monday in America. Election day. At this very moment, polls opening up and down the East Coast in a presidential race that will mark an extraordinary moment in American history.
The events of this year, let's put it simply, they've been stunning. Donald Trump facing a felony conviction and then an assassination attempt.
Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket for just 107 days after President Joe Biden stepped aside.
And the way each is framing this race, the way each talks about America, sharply illustrates the choice facing our country this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'll start giving you some beautiful things to listen to. And some -- and honestly, some terrible things to listen to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: After nearly a decade of politics dominated by Trump, the former president held what might have been his final campaign rally ever in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It went like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Kamala is -- I mean, this is known. She's a very low I.Q. person. And we don't need a low I.Q. individual.
Crazy, horrible human being, Nancy Pelosi, who cheats like hell. She's an evil, sick, crazy -- oh, no.
But these are bad people. These are bad -- Adam "Shifty" Schiff.
No, they have to cheat. They have to cheat, and they do. And they do it very well, actually.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: His opponent, Kamala Harris, choosing a different tone, deciding not to mention Donald Trump by name here in the closing days. She ended her last day on the trail in Philadelphia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LADY GAGA, SINGER/ACTRESS (singing): I'm an American woman on the edge of glory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Lady Gaga, Oprah, the final headliners for Harris. The "Rocky" steps nearby, invoking the ultimate underdog. The symbolism of the location also designed to illustrate how Harris and her team view the stakes of this election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: It's good to be back in the City of Brotherly Love, where the foundation of our democracy was forged. And here at these famous steps, a tribute to those who start as the underdog and climb to victory.
We have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics that has been driven by fear and division. We are done with that. We're done. We're exhausted with it.
Tonight, then we finish as we started, with optimism. With energy. With joy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. On this election day, our panel's here: Annie Linskey, reporter for "The Wall Street Journal"; Alex Thompson, national political reporter for Axios, CNN political analyst; Bakari Sellers, CNN political commentator, former South Carolina state representative; and Brad Todd, Republican strategist.
Welcome to all of you. Thrilled to have you. We made it. It's here.
BRAD TODD, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: The Constitution says we must stop.
ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: D-Day, baby.
HUNT: God bless the Constitution.
TODD: It's a cherished freedom.
HUNT: Alex, let me start with you. I want to get kind of everyone's sense, as we head into this election day, of how, in your two cases, your sources are feeling, that you -- you're talking to your candidates are looking at this. I mean, Alex, what are you hearing from the Harris campaign this morning?
THOMPSON: There's -- they say optimistic, and they always caveat it with some different adverb: "cautiously," "fragilely." Why there is --
HUNT: Isn't "nauseously" also one of the ones --
THOMPSON: "Nauseously" is one. Yes.
HUNT: -- that keeps coming up?
THOMPSON: The -- they basically -- and most of them say they feel -- that I've talked to -- they feel they'll win, but they'll win narrowly.
There's some that think that they have a chance to win more. There are also some that still just sort of don't want to even predict, because they don't want to jinx it. But I think most -- most of the Harris people I've talked to just feel
the Blue Wall will hold, and that if the Blue Wall holds, she wins 270-268. Maybe she picks up one more state.
[06:05:04]
HUNT: Annie, what are you hearing?
ANNIE LINSKEY, REPORTER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Yes.
HUNT: How does the Trump team feel, if you've talked to them?
LINSKEY: Yes, I've talked to some of the Trump people. They were -- they were just flat-out optimistic a week ago. I mean, you know, people I was talking to were saying he is the president. Vance is the vice president. I mean, there was a confidence.
And that has shifted a little bit, at least in terms of the staff members that you talk to over there.
But on the Harris side, there is this sense that Donald Trump has basically made her closing argument for her. And some of the things that he's said over the past ten days.
And so, they've sort of -- sort of sat back a little bit. I think that if, at the end of the day -- and we don't know what's going to happen. Obviously, it's a very close election. But if, at the end of the day, she prevails, he really would have lost this election rather than the other way around.
HUNT: Brad, what are you seeing and hearing for viewers who may not know? I know you're really involved in that key center race in Pennsylvania. You're seeing a lot of data coming in on the ground. Does what you're seeing line up?
TODD: Well, the key take-away so far is the Democrat performance in early voting and absentee voting has been way, way, way off what they wanted it to be.
They have to do something today that they haven't done in 20 years, which is to get a massive performance from their base on election day.
Democrats through the Obama campaign, when I was involved, they shifted their voting to early voting 20 years ago. And they became masters at it.
They have not succeeded at that this year to the level that they wanted. So, they have to do it today. Can it happen? Of course. They've done it before. But it's been a long time.
HUNT: Bakari, is that true?
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No.
HUNT: So? SELLERS: I mean, we actually hit all of our numbers in early voting that we wanted to hit. I mean, if you look at Georgia, North Carolina, we kind of came on strong late, particularly in Georgia.
But I mean, we're going to be looking at -- we still need -- I mean, he is correct in the fact that we do need turnout today. But everybody is really confident about where we are.
I mean, Georgia is ripe for a Harris victory. I mean, particularly in these three areas that I keep mentioning where people still need to come out.
The thing I want people to understand is, in Georgia in particular, Republicans have exhausted all of their votes in Republican rural counties. They've exhausted 98, sometimes more than 100 percent of their voters.
But still, in these areas like Fulton County, right? Like Chatham County, like Richmond County. Savannah, Augusta, Atlanta. There's so much room there. And you're going to see those people show up to the polls.
In North Carolina we get 300,000 black voters today to show up at the polls, we win North Carolina. Is that a lot? No.
TODD: One thing I thought about Georgia, though. The fact that rural Republicans have already turned out in waves in early voting, records, tells you the Republicans don't have an enthusiasm problem. The fact that Democrats have not come out the way they did in 2020 tells you you might have an enthusiasm problem.
THOMPSON: Well, two things. Enthusiastic votes count as much as unenthusiastic.
TODD: Sure, absolutely. That's the story of 2012.
THOMPSON: But also, Democrats on the ground in Georgia that I've talked to, the one thing that does give them anxiety is, in 2020, you had Raphael Warnock on the ballot. You do not have a statewide, black elected, you know, like a senator that's been there for a long time. And that is --
HUNT: Or a Stacey Abrams that is organizing.
THOMPSON: Yes, exactly. You do not have them on the ballot this time. There's also just concern, not necessarily with Atlanta and the immediate suburbs, but sort of, you know, what do rural black voters do? What do rural black men voters do?
There's also a little bit of concern, because Trump finally made nice with Governor Kemp down there. Belatedly for sure, but he does have the -- he does have a little bit of that machine behind him. Does that make the difference?
You know, Bakari is not -- not wrong. I'm just saying, this is what Democrats in Georgia have anxiety about. HUNT: Yes. Brad, how much does the way Trump is closing impact -- I mean, you look at, say, Dave McCormick's Senate race. I mean, you can kind of extrapolate out to the presidential, right? I mean, how much does that rhetoric hurt him here in the final days?
TODD: It's not as much what Trump says; what he didn't say in the last couple of days. You know, I thought his rally yesterday was devoid of ideology.
I think the way to beat Kamala Harris is to say she's a California liberal who's further out of the mainstream. I didn't hear near as much of that in the last two days or so as I would have liked from Donald Trump.
I think that he's not an ideological person himself, and so, therefore, I think he doesn't --
HUNT: I appreciate your honesty.
TODD: He doesn't -- he doesn't project that the voters are going to be ideological in their decision making.
But that's Kamala Harris vulnerability. If I were Donald Trump, that's what I would have been saying the last two days.
HUNT: Bakari, what would you be doing differently if you were running the Harris campaign? Anything at all?
SELLERS: No. I mean, I -- look, you started July 21st. You're here. I mean, you raised one point -- raised and spent $1.2 billion. You kind of built this plane while you're flying, and you're running against -- the unique thing about Donald Trump is that he, outside of 2016, he hasn't won anything.
I mean, you can put Donald Trump in any light you want to put him in. 2018, walloped. 2020, got beat. 2022, you guys had us on here talking about this red wave that was coming. You know what happened to the red wave? It never showed up at the -- at the --
HUNT: Well, in fairness, in 2016, you would have been telling me that Clinton was going to win. So, it happens.
SELLERS: Well -- well, you went -- I mean, my point is he's won one out of the last four cycles.
TODD: Nikki Haley might argue he's won another one.
SELLERS: And actually, one of the things we saw last night that nobody is really talking about is the Dixville Notch voters. Right.
LINSKEY: Yes, yes.
[06:10:03]
SELLERS: And the thing about -- HUNT: The Dixville Notch. There's six of them. It was 3-3, split right down the middle, like the polling is showing. Continue.
SELLERS: Who did they all vote for in the primary?
HUNT: What's that? That, I don't have to hand. Go ahead.
SELLERS: Nikki Haley.
HUNT: Right.
SELLERS: So out of the six --
LINSKEY: To be fair if you look at how they voted -- I did examine the results this morning from Dixville Notch. And they did -- four of them voted for the Democrat in the congressional race. So, there's a lot of ticket splitting going on in Dixville Notch.
HUNT: Yes, it is, I'm sure --
TODD: And five for Kelly Ayotte in the governor's race.
LINSKEY: Yes, they voted for Kelly Ayotte.
THOMPSON: But it's four registered --
HUNT: But they all voted for Biden in 2020, and now they're split.
SELLERS: But my -- but my point is that there are four registered Republicans and two unregistered. There's not a singular Democrat in there. There's not a single registered Democrat of those six. You know what that means. I mean, that's --
HUNT: They are New England Republicans.
TODD: This tells you how desperate we are to talk.
HUNT: All right. We've got so much coming up ahead on this special election day edition of CNN THIS MORNING.
Donald Trump landing a last-minute endorsement from popular podcaster Joe Rogan. Is it going to help him win over voters who weren't already leaning his way?
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WINFREY: Every single vote. Every one is going to matter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Kamala Harris turning to some famous friends in the closing hours of her race.
And the gender gap. One last look at how this Mars versus Venus election could determine who wins the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We're running like everything's on the line, because it is.
MEGYN KELLY, PODCASTER: He will be a protector of women, and it's why I'm voting for him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:15:23]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE ROGAN, PODCASTER: They do it on the right; they do it on the left. They gaslight you. They manipulate you. They -- they promote narratives. And the only one who's not doing that is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You a fan?
ROGAN: Yes, I am a fan. Yes. He's the only one that makes sense to me. He's the only one that -- he doesn't attack people. He attacks actions and ideas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: An about-face from Joe Rogan. Just three months ago, one of the world's most popular podcasters thought RFK Jr. was the only option in the 2024 race.
But now, on the eve of the election, Rogan formally endorsing Donald Trump. He announced that decision after his interview with billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk.
Rogan wrote in a post on X last night that Musk, quote, "makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you'll hear. And I agree with him every step of the way. And for the record, yes, that's an endorsement of Trump."
Rogan's support comes as the Trump campaign has, of course, pushed to win over young male voters this cycle. The former president making numerous appearances on podcasts popular with that demographic, including "The Joe Rogan Experience."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: There's no reason not to think that Mars and all these planets don't have life.
Is cocaine a stronger --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes. TRUMP: Up?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes, yes.
TRUMP: A lot of wrestlers want to be. They want to do the UFC thing. But they can't take the shots.
I played football too. I didn't particularly like it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What position were you?
TRUMP: I didn't like it. I played tight -- tight end.
I'll tell you about TikTok. Trump is going to keep TikTok going.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: It looks so much more natural on TikTok. When you see it being filmed from the outside, the TikTok dance looks conspicuously out of place.
Look, I'm not in the camp of someone who thinks -- I don't really think endorsements tend to matter that much. I wondered about Taylor Swift, and I do wonder about Joe Rogan.
Brad, do you think that this actually moves the needle?
TODD: Well, I think Donald Trump's opponent today is not so much Kamala Harris as it is the Xbox. He needs people who are young males who might not think voting matters, and they think the Xbox more fun, to get off that couch and go to vote.
HUNT: It's a very interesting -- I mean, it's a very sharp way to put that.
TODD: And I think Joe Rogan is important in that demographic. I think Elon Musk is important in that demographic.
John Fetterman in Pennsylvania says that a lot of young males think that Elon Musk is Tony Stark. And so, I think that's actually a pretty important endorsement for him.
So, it's -- I do think it's been a unique strategy. You know, Donald Trump's interview with Joe Rogan has been downloaded 90 million times. That's a third of the country. That's a really, really big reach.
HUNT: What do you think, Bakari?
SELLERS: I don't think it matters, especially yesterday. The timing of it. I mean, having Joe Rogan maybe go on some college campuses and do those type of things.
But just simply sitting in your studio in Austin and saying, you know, go vote for Donald Trump, I don't think really matters much while you're talking to Elon Musk. I mean, frankly speaking, this is very personal for me. I'm just ready
to turn the page on the Elon Musks, the Bill Ackmans, the David Sacks, the people who have saturated this new campaign propaganda site known as Twitter and X.
And we'll see if that brings any value. But I don't know how that actually gets people out to vote.
But what we are seeing with young voters who are voting in astronomical numbers is that they're women. Young women are over indexing in Generation Z, because they understand what's at stake in this election.
LINSKEY: I feel like in an election this close, everything matters. And I think --
HUNT: It's fair.
LINSKEY: -- if you're Trump, I mean, you wanted this endorsement a week ago. And you wanted Joe Rogan to be talking, you know, about -- about his endorsement for, you know, a full seven days.
But you know, that being said, I think for Trump, better late than never. And these are the voters that are low-propensity voters that it's more difficult for them to vote. They tend not to. So, I think everything matters at the -- in this moment.
THOMPSON: I was just going to add that Rogan has really put his hand on the scale for Trump, not just as of yesterday but the last two weeks.
Not only did he interview Trump, then he interviewed J.D. Vance, and he also just interviewed Elon Musk.
I'd also say that their relationship has been sort of interesting, because in 2022, Joe Rogan said he was not a Trump supporter in any way, shape, or form; and he never wanted to have him on the podcast.
Then, the combination of the assassination attempt and also just, like, the UFC dynamic is what convinced Joe Rogan to change his mind, apparently. That's what Joe Rogan has said.
And so, sort of the way that they came to this place, you know, to Annie's point, any small thing can matter if there -- if, like, we see sort of young men come out in droves. It will be interesting to sort of chart that relationship.
SELLERS: Let's also talk about how pompous Joe Rogan is, just for one second. I've got a footnote from the Harris campaign and how Joe Rogan literally wanted the vice president of the United States of Ameria to come to Austin, Texas, to sit in his studio, when she actually said and agreed to do an interview, but she -- they had to do it for an hour in Washington, D.C., because she literally is the vice president of the United States.
"Call Her Daddy" actually created an entire studio in a hotel room to make sure that that worked. And so, for somebody to have the audacity to believe that the vice president must come to me, I think, is a pompous footnote that needs to be added. And I think a lot of --
TODD: She has a plane.
LINSKEY: Democrats are -- Democrats are always saying we meet voters where they are. And if that is not meeting them where they are, I mean --
TODD: It was a convenient way for her to get out of the interview. She's got a plane. She can go anywhere.
LINSKEY: I would go every --
THOMPSON: Just one thing. She was already in Houston around that same time. It was in Austin. I understand. I mean --
SELLERS: They're not the same city.
HUNT: If she wanted to do the interview, she could have.
THOMPSON: This is my point.
SELLERS: She can really -- first of all, let's back up. The -- Kamala Harris is not a candidate for president of the United States alone. Kamala Harris is also vice president of the United States of America. And we can't say, oh, well, that -- well, she could. It doesn't work that way.
HUNT: Final thought.
TODD: -- reaching 90 million people.
THOMPSON: I'm just saying, Donald Trump is also the former president, and he went to Austin.
TODD: Yes. And I don't really think --
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: He's -- he's currently unemployed.
HUNT: OK, OK.
LINSKEY: Not a lot of duties as the vice president.
HUNT: We've got to take a break, guys. I'm sorry.
SELLERS: Like she doesn't have a job.
HUNT: I love you. I love you; we're taking a break. Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, will rain depress turnout in some of the Blue Wall states? Your election day forecast up next.
Plus, we're going to hear from the Trump campaign. Vivek Ramaswamy joins us live as voters head to the polls. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:25:41]
HUNT: It's election day in America, and some battleground voters are going to need an umbrella. Let's get to our meteorologist, the weatherman, Derek van Dam.
Derek, in a race this close, quite literally anything could make the difference including, say, turnout in Detroit or Milwaukee.
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
HUNT: What are those voters looking at?
VAN DAM: Good point, yes. So, if you're in Michigan or Wisconsin, two battleground states, there's a lot of wet weather to contend with. So, you might have to go a little early this morning heading to the polls.
We've got an area of low pressure that's racing through the Midwest. And this will bring rainfall to those locations. Cold front extends as far South as the Mississippi Valley. So, that'll bring rainfall, as well.
So, let's get a little bit more gray, a little bit more specific. Grand Rapids, Michigan. My hometown and home state. Yes, getting wet right now across the big Lake Michigan. Milwaukee also anticipating rainfall.
So, the election day weather forecast for Grand Rapids to Detroit, unfortunately, it will be wet. You'll be battling some rain drops falling from the sky.
A little bit heavier, though, the further South you travel. Check this out. St. Louis to Little Rock, we've got flash flood watches and warnings in place that are valid through this morning. Anywhere you see the shading of red. That includes St. Louis downtown, as well.
So, this cold front advances Eastward. Maybe you're hitting the polls for your lunchtime this afternoon. You'll see the cold front impacting places like Chicago, Memphis.
But notice the East Coast. Stays dry. So, other battleground states into Pennsylvania, Georgia, the forecast looking fantastic. In fact, no reason [SIC] to get out and vote this morning for Philadelphia, Atlanta. Temperatures very tranquil in the upper 70s and low 80s, depending on where you're located.
And out West, a little bit of a different story. Nevada will be a bit on the cool side. And Arizona also cool but stays dry -- Kasie.
HUNT: I think you mean no reason not to get out there and vote. Because look at that. In most of these battleground states, it's a beautiful day to cast your vote.
VAN DAM: That's what I'm saying. HUNT: Derek van Dam. Exactly.
VAN DAM: Do it.
HUNT: Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.
VAN DAM: All right.
HUNT: All right. Polls, of course, already starting to open across the East Coast. At the top of the hour, they'll open in the critical swing state of Georgia.
They, of course, have already been dealing with threats and misinformation swirling around this election. CNN's Isabel Rosales joins us live in Atlanta with more.
Isabel, I know you're at a polling place. Tell us what you're seeing there.
But then there's also this question about misinformation and what impact they may have about -- on people coming to the polls. Questions perhaps in the aftermath, as well. Georgia the epicenter of Donald Trump's challenges to the 2020 election.
What are you hearing?
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they were battling that back in 2020 and still today in 2024. The Republican-led secretary of state's office working around the clock to counter disinformation campaigns. A lot of the deeply held mistrust coming from within their same party.
So let me talk about Georgia, the Peach State, that is so critical for both parties here. Democrats, of course, hoping to keep it blue after managing to flip it back in 2020, the first time they'd been able to do that in nearly 30 years since Bill Clinton.
I am in Fulton County, the most populous county in the state, home to Atlanta. And this is what we're looking at, one of 177 polling locations at this library. About 30 minutes out to polls opening. Six, seven people in line so far, starting to trickle in.
At 7 on the dot, Kasie, all 159 counties here in the Peach State can start tabulating all absentee mail-in ballots and early voting.
And then, 12 hours later, by 7 p.m., polls close.
Now, we are anticipating here in Georgia to get an early indicator, early on in the evening, of which way this battleground state possibly could be swinging, depending on how close those margins are. Because they count the votes so quickly.
There's, in fact, a new state law that aimed to speed up the counting. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger saying that by 8 p.m., Kasie, we should have 70 to 75 percent of all votes cast in Georgia tabulated.
Of course, we don't -- that may not be the case for the rest of the country. That could take days more.
HUNT: Yes, well, Georgia is really going to provide us kind of an interesting indicator there at the beginning of the evening. It could be a long one. But if, for whatever reason, Georgia showed signs that Harris was going to overperform, it might be a shorter night.
Isabel Rosales, thank you very much for that report.
All right. Still coming up after the break, Donald Trump trying to make up ground with women voters. However, that didn't stop him and his allies from using some choice words to describe some of his female rivals in the final days of the campaign.
[06:30:00]
