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Harris Holds National Radio Town Hall Event in Detroit; Trump Challenged on Economic Plan at Chicago Forum; Harris Asked if Trump's Agenda is Fascism, Says Yes. Trump Threatens To Expand Military Use Against Civilians In U.S.; CNN Gets Inside Look At IDF Ground Operation In Southern Lebanon. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired October 15, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD, HOST, THE BREAKFAST CLUB: And so because, especially in a city with such high poverty, I've heard a lot about middle class, but I would love to hear more about stair-stepping from poverty into middle class so they can take advantage of the opportunities and the positives you're talking about.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: That's right, and that's real. So, for example, the child tax credit when we did it, when I first became vice president, we cut black child poverty by half. And, you know, when you, when you deal with poverty for a child, that's about the whole family, right?

When you look at the work that we have done that has been about dealing with prescription medication for our seniors, black people are 60 percent more likely to get diagnosed with diabetes and have. And when you look at what people are in terms of on the verge of bankruptcy, because of medical bills and medical debt, that's very real.

So, us capping the cost of something like insulin and prescription medication, not to mention the work that I've been doing to ensure that medical debt does not get included on your credit score, because medical debt comes about because of a medical emergency, nobody invites it upon themselves and back to the point about history and the reality of life. We also know the real disparities around access to meaningful healthcare, which are more likely to result in people facing chronic illness and in medical emergency.

So, my work has been, and included, working to get medical debt, not be on your credit score, so that that thing you did not invite upon yourself would not be the reason that you can't get a lease on an apartment or anything else. We have to deal with child poverty. We have to deal with poverty, period. And there are many specific ways to do it, including dealing with getting resources into the community that alleviate the burdens that hold people down.

Wait, but back to Detroit, so can you imagine, you go to a city and you say you want the votes of those people and then you disparage the city, and that's what he did in Detroit, and he has a tendency to mention cities that either have a historically black majority population or --

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We've been listening for almost an hour-long town hall, an audio town hall, hosted by Charlamagne tha God. We're going to continue to monitor this if it continues, although he just said he was wrapping it up.

You've heard a lot of questions during this national radio town hall event. It was in front of an audience in Detroit, Michigan.

I want to go to Detroit right now. CNN's Eva McKend is on the scene for us. Eva, first of all, you've been covering this campaign for us. What stood out to you from what we just heard over the past hour?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: You know, Wolf, this was perhaps the vice president's most wide ranging conversation on the campaign to date. She talked about building wealth in black communities. She answered a question on reparations, saying that the issue need to be studied. She talked about being a product of the black church, growing up in the black church. And she told voters that she is clear-eyed about the disparities facing certain communities even though that she is going to be a president for the entire country.

She also addressed misinformation as it related to her law enforcement background. There is, I think, the perception, at least in some corners, that she was especially punitive when it came to black men. And she told voters that is not so, that she actually was progressive as it related to prosecutions around marijuana and that she has been a longtime supporter of legalizing marijuana.

We also heard questions about foreign aid. The vice president said that she would continue to support America's position on the global stage as well as support social programs that would help everyday Americans.

So, a wide range of issues that we heard from the vice president and a unique opportunity to speak directly to black voters. Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes, it was a unique opportunity indeed. Eva, thank you very much. And among other things, she said, I'm going to win, but it's tight. She said, what's at stake right now is both profound and historic. And then she severely criticized Trump for all the recent things he's been saying.

Eva, stand by, we're going to get back to you.

I want to turn to our political experts who are joining us for some analysis right now as well. And, Van Jones, you heard Kamala Harris lay out her agenda in great detail and speak directly and honestly to black Americans. What did you think? Is this going to move the needle? How important was this one event?

VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, first of all, A- plus, A-plus-plus.

[18:05:00] I don't know how many pluses you can put on a report card with an A, but that was just awesome. She did extraordinarily well. There's stuff going on, if you're not from the black community, you may have missed when the pastor came off and he said, God is good. She said every day, all the time.

If you don't think Kamala Harris is black for her to know the way you answer a pastor when he says God is good, you answer all the time, she -- they're trying to say on online, if you don't understand this, that she's not black, she ain't really black, blah, blah, blah. She was comfortable in her skin. She was fluid. She talked about stuff that black folks really care about. She got to their prostate cancer that's going on. It's ripping us apart. She did a magnificent job.

And I just -- my only thing is put her out there all the time. Give her all the own radio show. The more you listen to Kamala Harris, the more you understand that she is nuanced on policy, she does know how to make these connections between what people are going through. I just thought she did a fantastic job. That's the best she's done since she ripped Donald Trump apart on the debate stage.

BLITZER: She was indeed very, very impressive. And Jamal Simmons, I'm anxious to get your thoughts as well. Do you think the vice president did enough to address the concerns from black voters, especially young black men who may be on the fence right now about voting in this election?

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I think there are a lot of different concerns that exist in the African American community particularly around Kamala Harris running, but I will tell you, black men should take a victory lap right now. These young black men who've been holding out and saying, I want to see more, I want to see something concrete, I want to know what your plan is, I want to know numbers, I want to see some real data, they should take a victory lap because they got that from the vice president. The vice president said, okay, fine. Is that what you want? Here you go. And she put out that economic opportunity agenda for black men.

And I think now we can see it, for whether it's a million, you know, small business loans forgivable up to $20,000, focusing on healthcare, things like prostate cancer and sickle cell that affect African- American men, there are all these little pieces in there that she has to try to get wealth, to try to help people do the pipelines for work, including for teachers, where you have 1 or 2 percent of the teachers in America are black men. I don't have a school age kid right now who had an African-American kindergarten teacher. He's the only black man, the entire elementary school teaching class.

So, I think this is something that's incredibly important for these kids and for black America. So, I think they should take a victory lap. They held the -- beats the fire of both sides, both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. And Donald Trump does not have the same kind of plan. He does not have a plan for African-Americans. In fact, he wants to put tariffs on, which I think people have said are going to lead to taxes. So, they just take a victory lap. And the person who asked that question, who said, is this just happened because of politics? Well, no, of course not. She's been working on this her career. When I was in her office, we were working on a black male initiative. This is something that she's been working on for a long time, but they should actually recognize that that is the point of politics. The point of politics is you hold a politician speaks the fire. They come to you with a plan and then now you have something to mark them up against going forward for the rest of their administration.

And last thing I'll say, African-American men need to know now she's supporting them. She put out a plan for them. It's time for, I think them to come back and support her and say, thank you for the plan. We'll vote for you. And we're going to hold you accountable to what it is you said during the campaign.

BLITZER: Yes. Brian Lanza on actions to get your thoughts. What did you think and what was your reaction to what we just heard from Kamala Harris?

BRYAN LANZA, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Listen, I think the struggle that Kamala Harris has is obviously an economic struggle, specifically with the men of color under 35. They sort of see her in the Biden administration as a path of hopelessness. They don't see a real hopeful future with their policies. And that's why President Trump's gaining support with that group, and that's why he continues to gain support.

So, it's not that Kamala Harris spent an hour talking to the black community, which I think is important, and I'm glad she's finally doing it and addressing some of their concerns, but they're looking for hope. They're looking for a change. They're looking for sequencing, you know, of their life that's different what it looks like now. And they see Donald Trump is that sequence, is that hopeful image.

And it's not Harris and her economic policies. It's the fact that they lived under Donald Trump's economic policies for three and a half years or four years. They remember what it felt like to have more money in their pocket. They remember what affordability felt like.

You know, it's funny to hear Kamala Harris speak about creating wealth for the black community. No politician has been more responsible for wiping out wealth to the black community than the Biden-Harris administration. So, whether it's an hour or ten hours, she still has a lot to account for and her plans are just not going to -- they're not going to cut it. They're not going to help the black community create wealth. They're not going to help the black community sort of move out and advance their community. We've seen it. She had the chance for the last four years and she failed to do it.

BLITZER: Gloria Borgia's with us. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I want to get Gloria Borgia's reaction, first of all. Gloria, Kamala Harris really did focus a lot of her answers on economic issues, on the economy.

[18:10:03]

She talked about her agenda to invest in housing affordability. She talked about child care. She talked about a whole bunch -- a whole lot more. Go ahead.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: And she talked about cutting childhood poverty in half, which is no mean feat. Look, I think she was very substantive. She spoke to the issues that she was directly asked about. But what was also interesting to me is that she managed to do that all the while taking on Donald Trump, all the while saying that he was weak, not a strong man, that he was trying to scare you, and that he incited a mob on January 6th.

So, in addition to talking about what she would do for the community and for the country, she also talked about Donald Trump as a human being, and what he would not do, and what the Trump campaign is trying to do, which is use scare tactics about her.

She didn't, you know, talk about the way he is insulting her personally, calling her dumb and stupid and everything else, low I.Q. She didn't have to do that, because I think her substantive answers to these questions really prove that she is anything but. And I think, you know, she did a terrific job in talking to that audience and answering the questions that she was asked, which if you look at Donald Trump's performance today at the Economic Club in Chicago, is just the opposite of what he did.

BLITZER: Van, I know you wanted to weigh in, so go ahead.

JONES: I see it differently than Bryan in that black wealth has actually gone up under the Biden-Harris administration and also our unemployment rate is the lowest it's ever been. So, I agree there are some good things that happened during the Trump administration, but I just think you're way overstating the case with what's happening with the black community.

Now, we need more, and I agree very much with the prior statement that for African-American men to say we need concrete specifics. And to get them, I think, it was great.

BLITZER: All right. Everybody stand by. We have a lot more to assess, a lot more to discuss.

Just ahead, the day's other big political interview, Donald Trump making news on several fronts today, including his relationship with Vladimir Putin, January 6th, and the gender gap in the 2024 presidential race.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:00]

BLITZER: Donald Trump is getting ready to hold an event in the battleground state of Georgia tonight, with only three weeks to go before the election. The former president began the day on the defensive over his economic policy and a whole lot more. CNN's Kristen Holmes is covering the Trump campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Donald Trump hoping to capitalize on voters concerns over the economy in the final sprint to the White House.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff.

HOLMES: Sitting down with Bloomberg's editor in chief at the Chicago Economic Club for an, at times, contentious interview over his economic proposals.

JOHN MICKLETHWAIT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, BLOOMBERG: The markets are looking at the fact you are making all these promises. People like The Wall Street Journal, who's hardly a communist organization, they have criticized you on this as well. You are running up enormous debts.

TRUMP: What does The Wall Street Journal now? I'm meeting with them tomorrow. What does The Wall Street Journal now? They've been wrong about everything, so have you.

HOLMES: The former president again refusing to commit to accepting the 2024 election results while continuing to falsely claim there was a peaceful transfer of power after his 2020 defeat.

TRUMP: And it was love and peace.

HOLMES: Trump also would not say whether he'd spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office.

MICKLETHWAIT: Can you say yes or no, whether you have talked to Vladimir Putin since you stopped being president.

TRUMP: Well, I don't comment on that, but I will tell you that if I did, it's a smart thing.

HOLMES: With just three weeks to go, Trump also seeking to broaden his appeal among women voters, with polls showing a wide gender gap in his matchup against Vice President Kamala Harris.

TRUMP: Women love my policy but they don't like me.

HOLMES: The former president participating in a Fox News town hall with an all female audience in battleground Georgia before holding a rally with supporters in Atlanta as early voting begins in the Peach State.

TRUMP: Let's not do any more questions.

HOLMES: This comes after Trump cut questions short at a town hall in Pennsylvania last night, instead swaying to music on stage for nearly 40 minutes.

Shortly after, Kamala Harris taunting Trump, the vice president writing, quote, hope he's okay.

It's just the latest in the back and forth between the two candidates as Trump faces public calls from his Democratic rival to release his medical records after the White House released a letter summarizing Harris medical history over the weekend.

HARRIS: He's not being transparent. So check this out. He refuses to release his medical records. I've done it. Every other presidential candidate in modern era has done it.

HOLMES: In an overnight post on social media, Trump baselessly attacking Harris' medical history, saying the vice president is, quote, dying to see his cholesterol, while claiming to have, quote, put out more medical exams than any president in history, despite not releasing basic information that presidential candidates traditionally make public.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES (on camera): And there's also been a back and forth between Harris and Trump over releasing cognitive tests or taking cognitive tests in order to be president.

Just really quickly, we are here in Georgia. Early voting has begun today and I'll tell you, we're here at this event and there are a lot of people, despite what Donald Trump has said about early voting, who are here wearing stickers that say, I voted. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Kristen Holmes on the scene for us in Atlanta, Kristen, thank you very much.

Our political experts are back to break all of this down for us. And, Bryan Lanza, first to you. On Trump spending last night about 39 minutes of that town hall swaying to several songs, including Ave Maria twice, YMCA, how do you explain that?

[18:20:03]

Even if it was just light hearted fun, is that the best approach with just three weeks to Election Day?

LANZA: Listen, I what you saw last night was two medical emergencies taking place and, you know, Donald Trump giving the time for the emergency respondents to come in and handle that. And so he played music while those medical emergencies were taking place.

I get it, the Harris campaign wants to try to paint something nefarious that took place, but he just didn't think it was appropriate while paramedics were dealing with medical emergencies. I thought that was very empathetic of him.

Now, you know, listen, we want to focus on the economy, we want to focus on inflation. We find it rather silly that we're having conversations about Donald Trump being respectful during a medical emergency. You know, let's have Harris talk about the issues that are actually going to have an impact on people's lives. Let's talk about immigration, which is having a devastating impact, you know, on our communities, her sanctuary city's positions.

But I really think talking about Donald Trump, you know, being respectful while a medical emergency took place is Harris' time or probably even this network's time.

BLITZER: Let me get Gloria to weigh in. What do you think, Gloria?

BORGER: Well, I think with all due respect to Bryan, the medical emergencies were over. Kristi Noem was ready to go back to questions. There were -- in the prompter, it said you can take a couple more questions or something like that, and Donald Trump just decided he didn't want to. And he'd rather play music. And that, you know, be on the stage and dancing.

Now, maybe that's his version of a joyful campaign rather than a dark campaign. But, you know, I think it was, I think it was his choice and the emergencies had been taken care of. I think at the beginning, yes, they played music. But I think as it went on and on, it was his choice.

BLITZER: Van, what did you think?

JONES: Well, I just think there's something wrong with this guy. I mean, he's getting more and more disinhibited in general. And I don't mean this in a -- I'm not just -- I'm trying to call this honestly. If we had a candidate that was behaving this way, we would acknowledge it. In fact, you know, when there were concerns about Biden, I spoke out and others spoke out. What's crazy is the way that Republicans just won't acknowledge the obvious.

This is not the same Donald Trump from even four years ago. He's way more disinhibited. He does way more bizarre, weird stuff. He's way more angry. He's incapable of answering questions. He's slurring his words. He's doing all kinds of weird stuff. And I'm not trying to be like weird. I know it's like the big buzzword of the summer. I just mean, this is weird. That was weird. He's sitting up there doing some -- that's weird, man.

So, if we had a candidate doing that, I think people would be very, very concerned, and I'm concerned.

BLITZER: Jamal, Kamala Harris has been ramping up her attacks on Trump in recent days, including calling him unhinged. But is this kind of erratic behavior from Trump already baked in for voters?

SIMMONS: You know, I don't think so. You know, at one point, voters knew a lot about Donald Trump being unhinged. They saw him on T.V. every day. They heard him. I think what Kamala Harris and the vice president's team are doing right now is reminding people of the Donald Trump they used to know, right, that they maybe have escaped because they haven't been watching his rallies on T.V. all the time. They haven't been listening to him on radio. And so now she's showing them at the rally. So, listen, you don't have to take my word for it. Look right here, play the clip. And then she shows Donald Trump being erratic on stage. Listen, I think there's a real concern, as Van just listed, about what's going on with this president, but I think we also have to think like maybe he's just -- this is what he really is, and when he says that he's going to treat people like enemies of the state and send a National Guard out to go round people up, like Adam Schiff and the Justice Department, I think that we have to take him very seriously, and the vice president wants people to take him very seriously. Because it's not just about what he did in the past, it's about what he says he's going to do if he gets back into the Oval Office.

BLITZER: It was interesting, Bryan, that we just heard Trump say that if he did, in fact, speak with Vladimir Putin, it would be a smart thing. But, as you know, a lot of national security experts have actually said the exact opposite, and that it could be actually illegal. So, was that the right answer from Trump?

LANZA: Listen, a lot of national security folks also thought Donald Trump stepping in Nord Stream 2 was a bad mistake and that we should let it happen. So, we have to have real concern when national security folks weigh in. You had over a hundred national security folks from the Clinton, Obama administration weighing on Hunter Biden's laptop and they lied about that. So, we have to be skeptical when national security experts come in and say something.

But at the end of the day, you know, what ends this war in Ukraine is going to be relationships, going to be relationships that President Trump has with President Zelenskyy, and it's going to be a relationship that President Trump has with the Russian president. But if you also step back and look at the chessboard in a geopolitical way, if we're ever going to be able to confront China, we're going to need the help of the Soviet, we're going to need the help of Russia.

[18:25:01]

And so, you know, Donald Trump is playing long ball. He's not going to be distracted by Democrats calling Russia, Russia, Russia all over again like Clinton did and lied to the American people. He's going to be focused on, you know, confronting the real challenges of tomorrow, and that's China. And the only way you confront China is by bringing in Russia to the loop and having a coalition there to confront China.

BLITZER: All right, guys, good discussion. We'll continue this discussion. Very quickly, go ahead.

SIMMONS: Yes, that's not the only way we confront China. We also confront China by making sure everybody in America is leveled up and ready to compete, that every kid in America has a chance to be able to do science and technology and math. And the way that Donald Trump treats other people who are different than him, other immigrants, is not the way that we make this country competitive to compete with everybody else on the planet.

BLITZER: All right. Guys, everybody stand by.

Coming up, we'll also discuss the first day of early voting in Georgia, shattering the record today as more than 250,000 people cast a ballot in the pivotal swing state. We'll talk with the head of the state's Democratic Party. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:00]

BLITZER: More now on the breaking news, Vice President Kamala Harris just wrapped up a town hall with the popular radio host, Charlamagne tha God. She spent much of the hour reaching out directly to black voters and harshly --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: -- been solved. I share a desire that everything should be solved, by the way. I think it is what we should all want.

But that doesn't, that shouldn't stand in the way of us also knowing we can participate in a process that's about improving things. And by voting in this election, you have two choices, or you don't vote. But you have two choices if you do. And it's two very different visions for our nation, one mind that is about taking us forward and progress and investing the American people, investing in their ambitions, dealing with their challenges, and the other, Donald Trump is about taking us backward.

CHARLAMAGNE: The other is about fascism. Why can't we just say it?

HARRIS: Yes, we can say that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. Let's discuss this and more with the chair of the Georgia Democratic Party, Congresswoman Nikema Williams. Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us.

What did you make of that answer from Kamala Harris, imploring people not to sit on the sidelines during this upcoming election and agreeing that Trump's message is a message about fascism?

REP. NIKEMA WILLIAMS (D-GA): No, Wolf, she's absolutely right. And we've said this time and time again, Donald Trump wants to take us back to a dark place in this country. Kamala Harris has a vision to move us forward in this country. That's why in this historic day of early voting in battleground Georgia, voters have lined up in mass because we're voting for our freedom and our future. That's what this election is about. There's a clear contrast on the ballot.

And I would even go further to say Vice President Harris said we had two choices in this election, but even not voting is a choice. Not voting in this election is a choice for Donald Trump because it's about -- it doesn't move us forward in this country to protect our freedoms and our future.

So, I would encourage people, you got to get off the sidelines, you got to get off the couch, and you've got to go and vote like the historic number of voters did today in battleground Georgia. BLITZER: In this hour-long radio town hall interview, Kamala Harris also laid out her policies in pretty great detail to help the black community from jobs and building wealth to decriminalizing marijuana. And she contrasted all of that with Trump. How far does that go in earning votes, do you think? And do you want to hear more on all of that from her?

WILLIAMS: I mean, these policies are absolutely critical to not only black man, but to our black communities. Wolf, I know that as a black person in this country, we have long been hindered by so many things that have kept us from building generational wealth. And Kamala Harris is our next president has a plan to address that, to make sure that black men and black families are no longer just getting by but have an opportunity to get ahead and build generational wealth and raise families in safe communities, communities safe from gun violence.

And we're hearing that on the campaign trail from voters that I'm talking to every single day. We had a big black men with Harris event last Friday night, hosted by Jermaine Dupri, right in the heart of my district. And we heard the same thing from voters right here on the ground, they want the ability to get ahead, investing in small businesses.

I represent the largest number of black small businesses in the nation. And I hear all the time about the money, the capital for startup and also to sustain those businesses as they grow. And our vice president has a plan to make sure that we can continue to grow those businesses that we know are the backbone of our economy.

So, I'm excited to continue this message of opportunity, economic opportunity, Wolf, on the campaign trail for the next 21 days in battleground Georgia.

BLITZER: Your state of Georgia is reporting a new record today for the opening day of early voting in your state, blowing out the previous number big time. Who do you think that favors?

WILLIAMS: So, I woke up this morning to pictures of people telling me, happy early voting day. And there were lines in my deep blue district down the sidewalk.

[18:35:03]

But also what I know, Wolf, is we've seen historic numbers, over 250,000 voters at 4:00 P.M. had already cast ballots, shattering every early vote record in the state.

But we know that this will still be a close race, Wolf. And we have to continue to have those conversations at the doors, meeting voters where they are, taking this message of freedom and opportunity directly to the voters.

So, while we've seen historic numbers today, especially right here in my deep blue district, we know that Georgia is a periwinkle state and we have more conversations to be held. The vice president is coming back to Georgia this week. I spent the weekend with President Bill Clinton. We have even heard that we're going to have President Obama right back in battleground Georgia. We have Gwen Walz coming to Georgia tomorrow, and we have Governor Walz coming to Georgia this week. It's fair to say that Georgia is on everybody's mind.

BLITZER: What about former President Obama? Is he coming back to Georgia?

WILLIAMS: He is coming back to Georgia. He will be here. We don't have an exact date, but I welcome you to come down with this, Wolf, and cover this story.

BLITZER: All right. Well, thanks so much for joining us. Democratic Congresswoman Nikema Williams of Georgia, I appreciate it very much.

Just ahead, we're getting new fallout to those threats from Donald Trump to use the United States military and the National Guard against American citizens with top Republicans, at least some top Republicans, now distancing themselves from the former president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:00]

BLITZER: Former President Donald Trump says what he calls the enemy from within, whom he defines as radical left lunatics, is more dangerous than China or Russia, suggesting it would be okay to use the U.S. military to handle any chaos on Election Day.

CNN's Brian Todd takes a closer look at other times Trump has considered using military power in rather alarming ways.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The vice president pouncing on the latest incendiary comments by her opponent, even playing them on the Jumbotron at a rally.

HARRIS: He considers anyone who doesn't support him or who will not bend to his will an enemy of our country. He is saying that he would use the military to go after them.

Donald Trump is increasingly Unstable and unhinged.

TODD: Kamala Harris' running mate, Tim Walz said this.

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The idea of sending U.S. military personnel against American citizens makes me sick to my stomach.

TODD: Walz called the former president a fascist for saying this to Fox News when asked about potential unrest on Election Day.

TRUMP: I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within.

We have some very bad people, we have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they're the -- and it should be very easily handled by -- if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.

TODD: Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, defended the former president's remarks.

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Is it a justifiable use of those assets if they're rioting and looting and burning cities down to the ground? Of course it is.

TODD: Trump's former defense secretary, Mark Esper, says we should take Trump seriously when he talks about using the U.S. military against American civilians.

MARK ESPER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It concerns me on many levels, not least of which is, you know, the impact it could have on American citizens. It's the impact on the institution of the military.

TODD: Esper was defense secretary in 2020 when then-President Trump pushed to use the military to crush Black Lives Matter protests, which the military resisted. Esper wrote in his book, A Sacred Oath, that at that time, Trump asked of a possible military response to the protesters, quote, can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?

Esper also wrote that in 2020, Trump asked him about launching U.S. missiles to attack Mexican drug cartels.

General Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump, told journalist Bob Woodward that Trump is, quote, a fascist to the core.

MERIDITH MCGRAW, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: We saw how Donald Trump tested the limits of what the military could do in his first term. But now, as he's looking at potentially a second term, he and his allies are raising questions about how they might be able to deploy the military on everything, from the border, to go after those enemies.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): Now, while the former president spoke about the threat from what he called the radical left, he downplayed any possible threat from his own voters around Election Day. Asked if he was expecting chaos, Trump said, quote, from the side that votes from Trump, even though it was, of course, his own supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6th. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Brian Todd reporting for us, Brian, thanks very much. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:48:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We're back with more on those very disturbing comments from former President Donald Trump. The Republican governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, is joining us live right now. Governor, thanks so much for joining us.

Listen to this.

GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU (R), NEW HAMPSHIRE: You bet.

BLITZER: This is what Vice President Harris said after Trump suggested using the U.S military and the National Guard to handle chaos from what he called the enemy from within.

Listen and watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He considers anyone who doesn't support him or who will not bend to his will an enemy of our country. Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Well, what do you think, Governor, can Trump be trusted to honor the U.S. Constitution?

SUNUNU: Yes, of course. Look, Trump speaks in hyperbole. This is nothing new.

He's not talking about attacking -- using the military to attack people who disagree with them politically or anything like that. Look, if anything, I watched that clip and you can see the Harris campaign is panicking. That lead that they had has completely shrunk.

All the momentum is back on the Republican and Trumps side. They don't know how to explain it. They've raised all this money, but they're being reminded every single day why she was some most unpopular vice president, right? Because she's not connecting with people.

So the fact that she's spending time at her rally putting pictures of Trump repeating his hyperbole. Look, this is nothing new and I don't like it. Don't get me wrong.

I don't like is hyperbole. I don't like his bluster -- blustery attacks on people and all that sort of thing. So this is nothing new and nothing that's going to move, move the needle.

He was president before he understands the Constitution, he understands those limitations so that that type of fear mongering that's the wrong way to go about this with the Harris campaign. I -- you know, I'm going to vote for Trump, but she need some better advisors if they're spending their time there.

BLITZER: I want you to watch, Governor, what Trump said today about a peaceful transfer of power. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MODERATOR: Will you commit now to respecting an encouraging, a peaceful transfer of power?

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, you had a peaceful transfer of power.

MODERATOR: You had a peaceful transfer of people -- you had a peaceful -- come on, President Trump --

TRUMP: You always have --

MODERATOR: You had a peaceful transfer of power compare to Venezuela, but it was by far the most -- the worst transfer of power for a long time.

TRUMPO: Thank you. I appreciate that.

The primary seen in Washington was hundreds of thousands -- a largest group of people I've ever seen spoken before, and I've spoken with and it was love and peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You support Trump, Governor. You support him for president.

Are you okay with what you just heard?

SUNUNU: Well, you -- you just turned the guy asking the questions. He was the one getting booed, right? So again, there was and there will be a peaceful transfer -- transfer of power.

Are we -- are we going to have some potential recounts and challenges on the election between -- in November and December? Could it be a bumpy road? Absolutely. When you have seven or eight swing states that are going to be within a percent, there's going to be challenges.

The Democrat Party alone has hired over 2,000 lawyers to prepare for their own challenges. I'm sure the Republican Party has done the same thing. It could be bumpy to make sure that every vote is counted.

But there will be a peaceful transfer of power. And I have to push back here, anyone insinuating that if there won't be is again just doing the fearmongering thing.

You know, if people think Kamala Harris is some sort of positive agent of change when she was asked multiple times in the past week, how are you going to be different? How what are you going to do differently from what Joe Biden did? She literally said, I can't think of anything.

She's not an agent of change, right? She's not bringing anything new to the table. And that is scaring the heck out of their campaign. They've got 30 days and they've got nothing.

So I get that they want to spend all this time trying to use Trump's hyperbole against him. Go back. That didn't work in 2016. It's not going to work today. They've got to make better connection with the voters on issues. The

voters are voting on. The voters are not voting on these issues, Wolf, they're just not.

And if they are, they've already made up their mind. The swing voters that are out there are getting their credit card bills. They're getting their electricity bills, they can barely afford the, you know, what they, what they could afford four years ago, they can barely afford today. That is that -- that is that driver that that anxiety, if you will, that drives people to make a change in the ballot box.

BLITZER: We shall -- we shall see.

Governor Chris Sununu, thanks very much for joining us.

And we'll be right back.

SUNUNU: You bet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:56:54]

BLITZER: -- is reporting from southern Lebanon under Israel Defense Forces escort at all times, CNN retained editorial control over this upcoming final report and did not submit any footage to the IDF for review.

Here's CNN's Jeremy Diamond.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the ruins of this southern Lebanese village amid flattened buildings, crumpled cars, and mountains of rubble, there are also Israeli soldiers. Two weeks into their ground operation, they now control multiple villages like this one, but for how long and how much deeper into Lebanon will they go?

Israeli Humvees now slice straight through the border into the rocky terrain of southern Lebanon. Arriving on the ground, it's immediately clear this village is now firmly in Israeli hands, supplies are being brought in, tanks are parked in a courtyard and troops have settled into homes where Lebanese civilians once lived.

So, we're about two miles inside of southern Lebanon. And you can see the destruction around us that's been wrought up by its ground operation also by Israeli strikes over the course of the last year, or what were also seeing is that this is a clear Israeli position has been established with artillery fire now firing off in the distance and its interesting because the Israeli military, of course, is describing all of this as limited targeted raid.

But we are also seeing, of course that they have established positions inside of southern Lebanon for an offensive that they insisted not going to go much deeper. This is an established Israeli military position inside of southern

Lebanon. How is this a raid?

COL. ROY RUSSO, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: Well as, as you can see in his walk by those, those outputs that we are right now holding are temporary. There's no outpost designed, built, and operated by the IDF. These are tactical, temporary, time limited.

DIAMOND: Colonel Roy Russo, the chief of staff of the 91st Division, says his orders are to clear the area closest to the border and nothing more.

RUSSO: There's no objective that was designed to us to go into Beirut or Dahiya or something like that. No, we need to eliminate the threat.

DIAMOND: Deeper inside this for former Hezbollah stronghold, Colonel Russo and his troops show us what they say that threat looks like.

COL. YANIV MALKA, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: You can see here anti-tank missiles. You can see rockets. You can see brand new AK47.

DIAMOND: Multiple stashes of weapons which the Israeli military says Hezbollah plan to use in attacks on northern Israeli communities a claim CNN cannot independently verify.

Israeli troops are now fighting to clear other villages like this one to remove what they say is a key part of the Hezbollah threat that is displaced some 60,000 residents of northern Israel.

Soldiers here say Hezbollah has shown itself to be a tough well- trained, enemy, carrying out tactical ambushes that have already killed ten Israeli troops. Israel's war in Lebanon already stretches far beyond the battlefield of these border communities.

More than 2,300 people have been killed in Israeli strikes across Lebanon, including several hundred women and children, according to the Lebanese health ministry. And more than 1 million people have fled their homes as Israel intensifies its attacks, ordering residents of a quarter of Lebanon's territory to evacuate.

And that is an enormous cost for this of ground operation. That kind of strikes that you guys are conducting.

RUSSO: Right. I think the responsibilities of Hezbollah, I think if they haven't launched an attack on October 8, we wouldn't be here.

DIAMOND: As the cost continues to mount for Lebanon civilians, Colonel Russo says he believes the Israeli ground operation will be counted in weeks not months.

But a smoke rises as beyond the tree line, a reminder that this war is far from over.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Our thanks to Jeremy Diamond for that report. "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.