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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Trump And Harris Hold Dueling Rallies In Battleground Michigan, Trump Says Lincoln Should've Settled Civil War; Harris Holds Third Campaign Event Of Day In Michigan; Obama Holds Rally In AZ As Harris Holds MI Event; Elon Musk Campaigns For Trump In Battleground Pennsylvania; Israeli Sources: Sinwar's Body Seen As "Bargaining Chip" In Hostage Return Negotiations, Say Israeli Sources. Aired: 8-9p ET

Aired October 18, 2024 - 20:00   ET

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

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Meanwhile, Musk's next event is coming up tomorrow night in the Harrisburg area, seven o'clock -- Erin.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right. It's going to be interesting and he's doing this and whether that continues. All right, Danny, thank you so much, from Pennsylvania tonight.

And thanks so much to all of you for being with us as well on this Friday night. Let's hand it off now my friend Anderson Cooper and AC360.

[00:00:24]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Tonight on 360, with just 18 days left, the vice president and former president make Michigan their focus as she talks about Trump's alleged exhaustion and Trump earlier today says, Abraham Lincoln should have cut a deal to end the Civil War.

Also tonight, former President Obama campaigns in Arizona, one of two 2020 blue states where the Harris campaign is fighting up hill.

And later at the impact of Elon Musk's millions and his conspiracy theory falsehoods and support of the man he once dismissed.

Good evening. Thanks for joining us.

Take a look on the left, Vice President Harris expected to speak any moment now in all-important Oakland County, Michigan, which encompasses much of Detroit's northern suburbs.

On the right, that former president in Detroit, he was in Oakland County as well earlier today, the second of two Michigan appearances for him and the third for her.

In Grand Rapids this afternoon, NBC's Peter Alexander put her on the spot with a question she's been criticized lately for not fully answering. Here's how it went this time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED: President Biden said this week that every president has to cut their own path. What is one policy that you would have done differently over these last three-and-a-half years than President Biden?

KAMALA HARRIS (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I mean, to be very candid with you, even including Mike Pence, vice presidents are not critical of their presidents. I think that really actually, in terms of the tradition of it and also just going forward, it does not make for a productive and important relationship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: But she went on to lay out how she would differ on policy if elected pointing to her plans for Medicare, affordable housing and small businesses. Earlier today, she seized on reporting in POLITICO that her opponent turned down a recent interview with the Shade Room because reportedly of exhaustion.

Reading now from the POLITICO piece, " A Trump advisor told Shade Room producers that Trump was 'exhausted' and refusing some interviews, but that could change." At any time, according to two people familiar with the conversations.

When asked about it by POLITICO, the Trump campaign called the story "unequivocally false" as for the vice president who has talked to the Shade Room, here's what she said today in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I've been hearing reports that his team, at least is saying he's suffering from exhaustion and that's apparently the excuse for why he's not doing interviews and of course he's not doing the CNN Town Hall. He refuses to do another debate and you know, look, being president of the United States is probably one of the hardest jobs in the world. And so, we really do need to ask if he's exhausted being on the campaign trail, is he fit to do the job?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: But late today he had a reply.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What events have I canceled? I haven't canceled. She doesn't go to any events. She's a loser. She doesn't go to any events. She didn't even show up for the Catholics last night at the hotel. It was insulting.

All they are is soundbites. I've gone 48 days now without a rest and I've got that loser who doesn't have the energy of a rabbit. Tell me when you've seen me take even a little bit of a rest. Not only am I, I'm not even tired. I'm really exhilarated, you know why? We're killing her in the polls.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: Well, more on the former president shortly specifically his remarks today about the Civil War and how he thinks Abraham Lincoln should have cut some sort of a deal with the slave-owning states of the confederacy.

First, CNN's Priscilla Alvarez at the Harris event in the Detroit suburbs. What else has Harris said about form President Trump today?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, we're expecting the vice president only minutes from now, but certainly she has been trying to elevate and highlight his anti-labor comments going so far as to show clips of some of those comments, something that we have recently seeing the vice president do to put him in his own words.

Now, the vice president certainly ramping up her attacks of former President Donald Trump in three key counties, the counties that she has visited today, one of which voted for Donald Trump in 2016, then voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

Those other two counties, counties where Biden was able to widen his margins. And so, certainly the campaign is trying to emulate that and build on it.

So, the vice president is going to target her messaging not only trying to criticize the former president, but also trying to showcase her own agenda and trying to make inroads, especially in the suburbs with those white college educated voters. Somewhere where the campaign officials, I've talked to, say they see an opportunity to lock in her coalition, but also build on it.

Now, also, I tell you, Anderson, that the campaign is capitalizing on early voting. Tomorrow the vice president will be attending a get out the vote event with Lizzo bringing in that star power to again, get people to vote and vote early. Later in the day in Atlanta -- later in the day she will head to Atlanta and do a rally with Usher with a similar goal in mind.

So, now in the final stretch of this election the campaign clearly trying to fine tune their messaging attacks on the former president, painting him as unfit and what we've heard, the vice president saying before, "unhinged and unstable" and then also make sure that they can lock down their coalition and especially capitalize on the early voting in those states where they can -- Anderson.

[20:05:23]

COOPER: And what about next week, what's on her schedule other than the CNN Town Hall?

ALVAREZ: A source tells me that the vice president is expected to do a joint event with former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney.

Of course, this is part of this continued push to try to reach GOP voters. Now, this is going to be potentially a town hall or a moderated conversation. So again, this is part of a push by the Harris campaign to peel off voters from former President Donald Trump.

In addition to that, sources tell me she will be visiting those battleground states and doing multiple stops a day. So certainly, an aggressive travel schedule ahead as she tries to lock in this coalition come Election Day.

COOPER: All right, thanks very much. We're going to listen to vice president shortly.

First, in Detroit, former president's microphone does not seem to be working right now. These are live pictures. He seems just being kind of wandering around the stage, waiting for them to fix the problem. We'll check in with him a little bit later.

Joining us now, CNN political commentators Scott Jennings and Jamal Simmons; also, POLITICO's Meridith McGraw, and CNN senior data reporter, Harry Enten.

COOPER: Harry, what do polling --

HARRY ENTEN, CNN DATA REPORTER: Ari is fine, so whatever you want.

COOPER: You can feel free to wonder around the stage. What does the current polling in Michigan look like?

ENTEN: That would be quite a scene, wouldn't it be, right on your show, me wondering around.

Look, in Michigan, it can't get any tighter than it is right now, man. I mean, a month ago, Kamala Harris was up by two points, you look at the average of polls today, she's up by less than a point. If that holds until the final day of this election cycle, it will be the closest polled race in Michigan in history.

I went back in my spreadsheets, you know, I love doing that since 1972, there hasn't been a closer poll in the race than what we have going on right now in the Wolverine state. Now, in terms of --

COOPER: Do you actually sleep in a bed of spreadsheets?

ENTEN: It's actually true, I actually -- I have this -- a bed of spreadsheets, I actually fell asleep in my suit on a Wednesday night but that's whole other thing.

Anyway, look, Michigan is so important to both of these folks' map to 270 electoral votes. The chance that Kamala Harris wins if she wins Michigan is north of 80 percent. The chance that Donald Trump wins the election if he wins in Michigan is north of 90 percent. The bottom line is Donald Trump knows that if you can go into Michigan, win a state he won in 2016 that Joe Biden won in 2020, Kamala Harris' path to 270 electoral votes is awfully, awfully difficult.

COOPER: Jamal, I mean, you heard Vice President Harris once again, declining to say what she would have done differently from President Biden. This is the third sort of publicly time that she's been asked that question. Is her answer the right one at this point? JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, I think it is the right one because the attack on Kamala Harris right now is about comparing past statements to current statements. What is she? What does she believe? If she changes something about what happened with the president, the former or the current president, I imagine the Republicans will attack her about that, right?

So, the idea here, I believe, is that this is about loyalty and it is better for her to be loyal even if they think it might cost her a little something in the beginning, it doesn't open up another line of attack.

Here's what she is doing that's very good though, in Michigan, she's going after Donald Trump. She is on the front foot. She's going after him for being exhausted, she's going after him for not showing up. She's traveling around the state.

You know, when you're a kid in Michigan, you learn geography very easily. She started out over here in Grand Rapids. She went here to Lansing and now she's here in Detroit, right? She's been moving across the state. And that shows a level of activity out of the campaign and some of us were worried about a couple of weeks ago, the campaign, just wasn't doing enough events every day.

She's now doing two or three events a day and that I think is also going to compel the attention to what to the campaign that she needs.

COOPER: Meridith, essentially on Jamal's point previously, she just wouldn't answer what her different from Joe Biden initially and it seemed like that there was no difference.

Now, she's saying, well, this is a loyalty thing. I'm just not going to speak about it.

MERIDITH MCGRAW, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Well, it is a fine line that she has to walk and you saw it play out just in that clip with NBC, where she is trying to say, I'm respectful of the man that I'm serving with, but at the same time I am the change candidate. And who is the change candidate in this election? How voters perceive who it is, whether its Harris or Trump is really the whole ballgame.

And so, she is trying to convince voters that, yes, I'm the vice president, and yet I do have all of these policy differences with Biden. The question is whether voters are going to buy that.

COOPER: So, let's just see what if the -- I just want to see if President Trump is speaking. Oh, okay. So he's still on stage wondering. We'll come back.

SIMMONS: Just very quickly. In the Harris campaign analysis, this is about a change from Donald Trump, not Joe Biden. They've got to keep the attention on Trump if they think that she has a chance to win.

[20:10:11] COOPER: Scott, we mentioned the reporting that a Trump adviser told the Shade Room that Trump was, "exhausted" and backed out of an interview which Harris already seized on, the Trump campaign is denying it. I mean is that a mistake for him to skip out on multiple interviews with just a little more than two weeks to go or, I mean, it's a site this on Instagram that sort of targets an African-American audience. What do you make of that?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I don't really buy it. I mean, Trump's done more media interviews and he's done more events than Harris. Number one, number two, Kamala Harris herself didn't show up for the Chicago Economic Club. She bailed out on time.

I mean, look, I think what the campaigns are doing is they're picking and choosing what makes the most sense for them to spend their time at the end to the campaign.

It's not uncommon to schedule some things, take other things off the schedule. Trump looks pretty vigorous to me. He went to the Al Smith Dinner last night and did 30 minutes of stand up. Kamala Harris sent in another cringey video.

I think Trump is in fine shape and he's doing plenty of events and media opportunities right now, far more than Harris has done I don't really think he needs to lard up the schedule of his campaign doesn't think it's critical to winning.

COOPER: Harris --

ENTEN: Harris, Harry, whatever, man.

COOPER: Where does Harris, I mean, where do Harris and Trump need to pick up voters in Michigan?

ENTEN: You know, both are more in Oakland County today. Why were they in Oakland county?

Well part of it is, is that there are more Whites with a college degree he is in Oakland County than anywhere else in the state. And where is Kamala Harris doing very well right now, she is doing very well among White voters with college degrees, doing ten points better than Joe Biden did four years ago, Donald Trump wants to stop that bleeding, bring that back to where we were back in 2020 where of course he did lose the state, but the reason he wants to bring it back to 2020 is because he's doing better amongst other groups.

If you know anything about the great state of Michigan, you know, union households are so important in that state. And although Kamala Harris is still leading amongst those where in union households, her margin is smaller than it was four years ago at this particular point or small in Joe Biden's was at this point four years ago.

So the bottom line is, Harris is doing better among those with the college degree, while Trump is doing better among those in the working class, and it's going to be interesting to see how those two balance themselves out at the very end. Right now, they're balancing them out very closely. And that's why we have such a tight race number in the Wolverine state.

COOPER: Kamala Harris is just taking the stage in Michigan and I don't know. I don't think President Trump -- former President Trump is speaking at -- we'll bring you bring live remarks when they, when they both start speaking.

Let's go Alayna Treene who's actually at the Trump event. Alayna, what's going on?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Oh well, Anderson, just a couple of minutes into Donald Trump having taken the stage and beginning his remarks, he was in the middle of speaking when all of us sudden his audio completely cut out, you could actually see the former president trying to continue speaking and you couldn't hear anything.

And this has been going on now for over ten minutes. He has absolutely no audio. I watched his staffers here on the ground that brought him another mic, that one didn't work as well. I'm not sure if you can see behind me, but they have two screens, major screens flanking the stage where Donald Trump is. They have put up essentially an announcement saying that they are having technical difficulties.

In the meantime, the former president has just been kind of pacing around on stage, looking around at the crowd shaking his head but that's kind of the state of how things are right now. It's unclear when he is going to get audio back.

And yes also, just to give you a sense of what he was saying at the time he was trying to say that one of his favorite words or his favorite word in the dictionary is tariffs, but he didn't even get to deliver that final line before his audio cut out --Anderson.

COOPER: All right, if they bring back some audio, we'll play some of what he says. Let's go back to Kamala Harris, let's listen in a little bit with her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: As everyone know, this community has deep and proud roots in the Detroit metro area. And I am proud to have the support of Arab- American leaders like Wayne County deputy we need a medic. Okay. We need a medic. Let's figure out a way to part a little bit so that we can bring a medic in over here please. Okay, it looks like we need a medic over there too. Is that what we're saying --

SIMMONS: ...a bunch of candidates and people standing up, their knees, they're not, you know, these are not buckled. Her knees are not buckled or knees are not there, they don't have water --they don't make it so -- we saw this the other night with Donald Trump again here. I think we will see it more over the next couple of weeks.

HARRIS: We got a lot of folks in here, it's a little warm, let's just make sure we're looking out for each other okay.

[20:15:07] COOPER: Let's continue. In terms of she's -- she was just sort of talking about support among Arab-Americans in Michigan. Obviously, this has been a big issue for her. Where do you think she actually stands on in terms of support?

Because, I mean, there's a lot of people whether they're whether people who aren't and happy about the Biden administration's policy vis-a-vis Israel and Gaza, it's not clear would they vote for Trump or would they just stay home or vote for another candidate in protest.

SIMMONS: It doesn't look like they're going to move toward Trump. She is in danger of losing some of the Arab-American vote from what I'm hearing in Detroit and Detroit Metropolitan Area.

But in that area, you know, it's a very diverse community. There are people who are Arab-American or Muslim. There are Chaldeans who are Christians. There are people who are Lebanese. So, there are all sorts of people who are there and they feel differently about the issues.

It's about one percent, maybe a little bit less than one percent population in the state from the Middle East. So, let's say she loses 35 or 40 percent of that. That's going to matter in a very close race. But this community, I want you to know is changing a lot in Oakland County, one of the things Harry was just mentioning, the college educated Whites.

Detroit has lost a lot of population over the course of the last decade or so. A lot of those people now live in Oakland County. People like my brother and his family who left the city of Detroit, but they now live out in Oakland County, but she's not just talking to college- educated Whites, but also African-Americans, Arab-Americans who are, who have now moved out to more suburban area.

COOPER: We're going to take a quick break. Next, the former president weighs in on suggestion that Abraham Lincoln should have his word, settled the Civil War.

Later, more breaking news, well take you live to the event in Arizona with Former President Obama.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:20:42]

COOPER: The former president tonight in Detroit has fixed the audio difficulties he had, have been fixed. Let's listen in shortly.

DONALD TRUMP (R) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will be bringing for the first time in years and years and decades companies will be coming to us and they'll be coming back to Detroit and they'll love it.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Some say my defense of American jobs makes me a protectionist and yes, I will protect what is ours. I will protect our workers. I will protect their jobs and I will protect our borders. I will protect our families and I will protect the birthright of our children to live in the richest and most powerful nation on the face of the earth.

These pro-worker policies are among the many reasons and it's not protectionist, it is pro-worker, it's really not protectionist. We had people ripping our country for years, decades destroying, you look outside, you see all the hulks, you see the empty buildings for years and years, they've been ripping us off. Now it's time for us to get it back. We're going to get it all back.

COOPER: That's the former president is not yet in Detroit, he started his day in New York on the "Fox & Friends" couch where he suggested Abraham Lincoln should have cut some sort of deal with the slave- owning confederate states.

Trump said Lincoln should have settled the Civil War, this happened after a ten-year-old from Oklahoma asked Trump who his favorite president was when he was little. Trump said Ronald Reagan, who was president when Trump was 34-years-old, not a child, but then he turned to Abraham Lincoln.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So, I liked Ronald Reagan. I thought he was -- look, I didn't love his trade policy. I'm a very good trader. I have made some great trade deals for us. Lincoln was probably a great president, although I've always said why wasn't that settled?

You know I'm a guy that it doesn't make sense to win a Civil War --

BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST, "ONE NATION": Half the country left before he got there.

TRUMP: Yes, but you'd almost say like, why wasn't that -- as an example, Ukraine would have never happened and Russia if I were president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: The former president, as you know, says, he will quickly end the Ukraine war without actually saying how and recently blamed Ukraine's president for Russia's invasion.

Today's remarks about settling the Civil War, by the way, were not his first. Here he is back in January -- January 6th actually to be precise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So many mistakes were made. See there was something I think could have been negotiated to be honest with you, I think you could have negotiated that all the people died. So many people died.

Abraham Lincoln, of course, if he negotiated it, you probably wouldn't even know who Abraham Lincoln was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Again, he said that on the anniversary of the worst attack on democracy since the Civil War and separately, he also weighed in today on the people in prison for attacking the Capitol, comparing them to Japanese-Americans interned unfairly during world War II.

Scott Jennings is back, joining us also CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers, he's a former South Carolina state lawmaker.

Bakari, does it make sense to you that Donald Trump thinks Abraham Lincoln should have negotiated and settled the Civil War?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, nothing he said makes sense. I think what we're seeing is a very, very diminished man. I think that the person who is running for president of the United States today isn't the same person who ran for president of the United States eight years ago. I think he calls it the 'weave' but for most of us who are listening, it's nonsensical.

He referred to Abraham Lincoln as probably a great president. And in this morning, I mean, what he did was he went to his campaign headquarters and met with his campaign volunteers and called it Fox News.

Look, there's nothing about this campaign that makes much sense from Donald Trump but the unique problem is for the Harris campaign and my good friend and people in Democrats is that this is already baked into the cake. People know that he's not making sense. People know that he is sometimes unintelligible. People know that he doesn't have a grasp for American history.

People know that his makeup doesn't blend well. Like these are all things that people know. But yet and still Kamala Harris as a woman running for president of the United States has to run the one-ten hurdles and do a back flip in heels. And the standard is completely different and she recognizes that and she's going out and outworking him day in and day out. She's actually making sense.

While Donald Trump is meandering and doing the weave, talking about the Civil War, and how maybe they should have given a little bit of slavery away to the north. I mean this is just somebody who is not fit to be president of the United States. And no matter what pretzel anybody turns himself into, I mean our eyes can tell the truth.

[20:25:23]

COOPER: Scott, I mean, as Bakari said, this is baked in, this is not going to move the needle at all but, I mean, does it make sense to you that he thinks that Abraham Lincoln should have settled the Civil War?

JENNINGS: No, not really. I mean, look, I think he has a general disposition that war is bad and that he's running as an anti-war type candidate and he believes that you should try to avoid war. I think that's a general baseline position of his. I know he said this earlier this year as well. Lots of politicians did try to settle it, and there were compromises and punts and all the way down the field. And then obviously we had the Civil War for the very obvious reason of eradicating slavery.

COOPER: Right, because if he settled the Civil War it's he lets -- keep slavery in the Confederate States and not in -- it just seems like an odd thing to be arguing for.

JENNINGS: Yes. I mean, look, it's sort of this sort of irrelevant historical meandering. I mean, he got asked a simple question by a kid who's your favorite president? I mean I'm from Kentucky, I would say Abraham Lincoln, too and so that would also be my answer. Then I would have moved on to other Republicans that I revere like Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower.

So, look, it's sort of esoteric or irrelevant historical kicking around what could have been, might have been, should have been, but no it's not a conversation that I think is useful.

COOPER: And maybe that to somebody -- I like history a lot, but I mean, I know it's esoteric but he is running to be president of United States. And if the model is, if there's a, you know, if there are Confederate States that have slavery, which are seceding from the union, that should have been negotiated and settled.

Yes, if it was just a guy in a bar, are having this argument, it wouldn't matter but he is running to be the president of United States.

JENNINGS: Yes, I mean I don't know, maybe, look, maybe he thinks that politicians could have negotiated an end to slavery without the bloodshed. I mean, that would be a charitable look at this, right?

Maybe they could have settled it and gotten the south to agree to go. But again, look, were sitting here kicking around things that have happened so long ago and that have long has since been settled when we have so many pressing problems in this country, which is why he's actually winning the election today, because the pressing problems that people are blaming on Biden, that's why he's winning, not kicking around history, but kicking around the present day.

COOPER: We've got to take a quick break. Scott. Thank you. Bakari Sellers, please stick around. Coming up more breaking news from a former President Obama questions Donald Trump's mental fitness during a rally in Arizona.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:31:56]

COOPER: Played some of former President Trump speaking tonight. Let's listen in to Vice President Harris speaking outside Detroit.

KAMALA HARRIS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The same plant that our administration protected earlier this year, saving 650 union jobs.

(APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: And remember, Donald Trump encouraged automakers to move their plants out of Michigan so they could pay their workers less. And when the UAW went on strike, when the UAW went on strike to demand the higher wages that you deserved, Donald Trump went to a non-union shock. Remember?

And he attacked the UAW.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

HARRIS: And he said striking and collective bargaining don't, and I'm going to quote, don't make a damn bit of difference. That's what he said. About striking and collective bargaining. Well, Michigan, you know better, we know better. Strong unions mean higher wages, better health care, and greater dignity.

(APPLAUSE)

COOPER: Vice President Harris tonight. Former President Obama, meantime, is campaigning for her in Battleground, Arizona, where he once again went after former President Trump. This time raising questions about the Republican nominee's mental fitness for office.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is also a question of his competence. Have you seen him lately? I mean, he is out there. He's given two, two and a half hour speeches, just word salads. You have no idea what he's talking about.

He's talking about Hannibal Lecter. He's talking about this. He's talking about that. He held a town hall meeting where he just -- let me explain, because I've done a lot of town hall meetings. The point of a town hall meeting is to take questions.

He just decided, you know what, I'm going to stop taking questions. And then he's swaying to Ave Maria and YMCA for about half an hour. You would be worried if your grandpa was acting like this.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

COOPER: Both former President Obama and his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, are scheduled to appear alongside Vice President Harris at events in Georgia and Michigan next week. It'll be the first time either Obama will be on the same stage as Harris this election.

Back with me, former Democratic South Carolina State Representative Bakari Sellers and joining us, former Communications Director for Vice President Harris, Ashley Etienne.

So, Ashley, how important is it in your view for the -- President Obama -- former President Obama to be on the campaign trail giving speeches like this, Michelle Obama appearing with Harris next week?

ASHLEY ETIENNE, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR VP HARRIS: Yes, I mean, Kamala Harris is in this unprecedented position of having to do really two things at one time. Again, it's never been done before. She's got to persuade and she's got to do turnout.

Both of those things have to happen to the max. This is an example of how the short.

[20:35:00]

Again, it's never been done before. She's got to persuade and she's got to do turnout. Both of those things have to happen to the max. This is an example of how the short runway really works against her. And I think two of her greatest assets at doing that are the Obamas.

I mean, their, you know, Democratic royalty, their cultural icons, two of the most popular people in the nation. And what I see as sort of their greatest assets to her is one is their broad appeal. There's not many -- there's not any of these battleground states you can take them into and in front of any audience and they'll create value. I mean, their ability to reach diverse voters is off the charts.

Secondly, they're two of our most effective messengers. We've heard, you know, heard Michelle Obama at the convention talking about black jobs and hearing Barack Obama last week talking about his economy, not Donald Trump's economy.

They've got a way of giving it to you raw, biting and plain in a way that has great resonance. And they also go right to the source of the problem. And that's Donald Trump's ego. And that's what the president was just doing there. And I think that's what makes them two of the greatest assets to help her achieve these two things that she has to do. That's persuade and turn out.

COOPER: Bakari, I mean, a lot of young voters, they don't necessarily remember the Obama presidency all that well, if at all. There's certainly a bit of a challenge or, I mean, do you think it presents a bit of a challenge for him to try to motivate them, especially young men without coming across as lecturing?

SELLERS: I mean, yes, it is a challenge. But the simple fact is Barack Obama is the greatest political talent of our generation. And the weird part about it is he's probably the second best talent in his own bedroom because Michelle Obama is just that much better than even Barack Obama is. I think he would readily admit that.

So both of them out there together is just a dynamic duo for Kamala Harris. And let's juxtapose this for one for one moment. I mean, if you think back to 1990 and everybody who's run for president since, you know, 1990, when I was six years old, Anderson, you might have been slightly older than I.

But if you think about everybody who's run for president on the Republican side, there's only one person who's run for president or vice president who is standing on stage or endorsed Donald Trump. That's Sarah Palin. That's the only person.

And so when you have these people, whether or not it's Bill and Hillary Clinton or Barack and Michelle Obama, you have this talent, Al Gore, that are coming outside. Jimmy Carter casting his ballot from Truman to Kamala.

I mean, you have people under this tent who it's all hands on deck and the talent is immeasurable. Yes, Barack Obama is one of our greatest heroes and icons. But this team is like Thanos. It's a collection of rings and they're out there doing their best work.

COOPER: Bakari, for the record, I was 23 in 1990. And this is the last time you'll be on the broadcast.

Ashley, I want to play something else --

ETIENNE: Yes.

COOPER: -- that former President Obama said tonight.

ETIENNE: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

OBAMA: I understand why people are looking to shake things up. I get why sometimes folks are frustrated with politics. I'm sometimes frustrated with politics. So, I get it.

What I cannot understand is why anyone would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that is good for you. That, I don't understand.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

COOPER: Do you think that's at the core of President Obama's message to dissolution voters, acknowledging anger but saying Donald Trump is not the solution, Ashley?

ETIENNE: Absolutely. I mean, I think, you know, they're both going to lean into the message about what's at stake here, that Kamala Harris is ready. But what I would love to see both of them do, because I think they have a unique voice and an ability to do this, especially having spent time in the White House and leading this nation in the world, is really remind the -- well, pose this question to the American people, is this who we are?

We are not Donald Trump's America, that we're bigger and better than Donald Trump's America. And I think they both can convey that in a way that would really move that 1 percent to 2 percent of voters that are still stuck and undecided and really help galvanize our base.

But I want to go back to something that Bakari said. I think he's absolutely right about Michelle Obama. I was talking to her team and to your point about the question about young voters. They were telling me that her range goes so low as 20 -- she appeals to voters as young as 21 years old, to black women, to also educated white women, what I like to call the morning show demographics.

So she's got incredible range in how they utilize her. I'm curious to see.

COOPER: Yes.

ETIENNE: I would weigh in and say that they should be more creative in how they utilize her because she can show up in ways that politicians don't. And that's what really moves and appeals --

COOPER: Yes.

ETIENNE: -- to voters.

COOPER: I mean, certainly her convention speech was just an extraordinary display of --

ETIENNE: His fire (ph), yes.

COOPER: Yes, of her skills. Bakari, thank you. Ashley Etienne, thank you.

More breaking news ahead, Elon Musk hitting the campaign trail for the former President Trump -- for former President Trump in Pennsylvania tonight. The world's richest man has obviously become one of his most vocal supporters. The two obviously do not always see eye to eye.

[20:40:05]

Look at why Musk decided to dive into politics now. Why he's seems to spread so much misinformation, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tech billionaire Elon Musk appears to be all in on the former president hitting the campaign trail tonight near Philadelphia, holding what he describes as a series of talks throughout Pennsylvania. The two men have not always been allies, of course, with Musk tweeting two years ago, quote, "I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail into the sunset."

Around the same time, the former president posted on his own Truth Social platform, quote, "When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it's electric cars that don't drive long enough, driverless cars to crash, or rocket ships to nowhere, without which subsidies he'd be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and a Republican. I could have said drop to your knees and beg, and he would have done it."

They've certainly patched things up since then. Our Sunlen Serfaty has a look at how the world's richest man decided to wade into presidential politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

[20:45:07]

ELON MUSK, OWNER OF X, TESLA AND SPACEX: The focus right now is making sure that Trump wins the election. SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He is now fully and completely MAGA.

MUSK: We should only do paper ballots, hand counted.

SERFATY (voice-over): Elon Musk hosted his own solo town hall to help boost former President Donald Trump.

MUSK: I'm a technologist. I know a lot about computers. And I'm like, the last thing I would do is trust a computer program.

SERFATY (voice-over): Showing that he's not only bought into, but is fully committed to amplifying the most provocative and false parts of Trumpism. When you have mail-in ballots and no sort of proof of citizenship, it becomes almost impossible to prove cheating is the issue.

SERFATY (voice-over): Musk's MAGA integration has been quite the meteoric rise.

MUSK: As you can see, I'm not just MAGA, I'm dark MAGA.

SERFATY (voice-over): After publicly pledging to not endorse a candidate, it was after Trump's first assassination attempt in July that seemed to prompt Musk to endorse Trump that very night. In the three months since, the unmistakable cohesion between the two men has been palpable.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He saved free speech. He created so many different great things. Where is he? Come on up here, Elon.

SERFATY (voice-over): With Trump appearing with Musk on the campaign trail.

MUSK: And we had one president who couldn't climb -- flight of stairs, and another who was fist pumping after getting shot.

(CHEERING)

MUSK: Fight, fight, fight. Blood coming down the face.

SERFATY (voice-over): And Musk using his social media platform X to amplify all things Trump.

MUSK: I haven't been active, really active in politics before. I think you should support Donald Trump for president.

SERFATY (voice-over): Musk hosted Trump for a nearly two-hour live stream on X that drew over 1 million listeners.

TRUMP: It's nice to have a forum like this.

SERFATY (voice-over): And it spread numerous debunked claims, lies, and conspiracy about the election on X. Where he suggested falsely that Democrats are importing voters, accused FEMA falsely of diverting funds to assist illegal immigrants, and shared a mocking, manipulated video of Vice President Kamala Harris with an altered voice.

Musk even questioned why no one is trying to assassinate President Joe Biden and Harris, which he later went on to delete. Musk has also deployed what is perhaps his most powerful tool as the world's richest man, his money. According to the latest reports from the Federal Election Commission, Musk's Super PAC has now dropped a staggering $106 million into pro-Trump spending.

TRUMP: Well, he said that if we don't win, this country is finished.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SERFATY (on-camera): And in a move that election experts say walks right up to the line of illegality, Musk is now even offering to pay voters $100 out of his own pocket to sign onto a conservative-leaning petition, a push to get Trump voters to register in the crucial swing state. Anderson?

COOPER: Sunlen Serfaty, thanks very much.

We want to get perspective now from CNN Senior Correspondent Donie O'Sullivan. And back with us, Meredith McGraw, National Political Correspondent for Politico. And Donie, how big an impact do you think Musk is having on it?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think it's one of those -- these things, right, where despite how much we're all looking at this and covering this election, really might not be until after the election that we can really get our minds around just how big an influence Musk might have in Pennsylvania.

The amount of targeted, really, really targeted down to the street block ads that he's -- across social media. And then also, there's just this idea, too, of, you know, a few years ago, if we would have said the huge role these social media platforms and algorithms play in elections, if you were to say there is a partisan running one of these platforms who could easily tweak the algorithms, we have absolutely zero insight into what Musk could be doing in terms of elevating pro- Trump messages algorithmically on the platform and taking down pro- Harris messages. We just don't know.

COOPER: Meridith, how much do you think Trump is relying on Musk?

MCGRAW: A lot.

COOPER: Yes?

MCGRAW: You know, this is the world's richest man. He has poured over $75 million of his own money into a Super PAC that is, you know, playing a big role in the ground game for the Trump campaign. You know, the Trump campaign has really outsourced a lot of their ground game to these outside groups and PACs, Elon Musk's being one of them.

And, you know, he's there in the state of Pennsylvania that's going to be so pivotal. But I also think there's a big cultural impact here at play, too. You know, Musk has control of X. He's, you know, has a powerful influence on social media. But he's also really popular with young men.

If you look at polling, Elon Musk is popular with this demographic that the Trump campaign is really trying to target in the final stretch here.

COOPER: It is, Donie, remarkable the amount of just things that aren't true that he is pushing out.

[20:50:05]

O'SULLIVAN: Yes. I mean, even last night he was talking, just throw the word Dominion out there, you know.

COOPER: Dominion Voting Systems.

O'SULLIVAN: Yes.

COOPER: Right. Yes.

O'SULLIVAN: Yes. And --

COOPER: I mean, he's claiming there's no, you know, paper ballots. Dominion Voting Systems use paper ballots --

O'SULLIVAN: Exactly. Yes. It's just -- but I really think, you know, if you think about the role that Twitter, now called X, such a pivotal role it's played in both Trump's life, in terms of basically getting him into the White House, you know, giving him that megaphone. And now, of course, Musk.

But both of these guys have gotten -- they got addicted, right? They got addicted to the likes and the shares and the retweets. It's manifested in different ways. Musk ended up buying the platform. But, yes, you can really see that.

And Musk does this thing all the time. You mentioned it just before we came on air, Meridith, where something will be totally ridiculous and Musk will just respond to it, say, interesting. And immediately that gets posted, that gets elevated to potentially 200 million of his followers. And every single day it's happening.

COOPER: And, Meridith, I mean, Musk has obviously a lot of business interests that rely on U.S. government contracts, connections. If, I mean, he's putting a lot of stock that Trump's going to get re- elected, it would obviously benefit him hugely.

MCGRAW: Yes. I mean, when you hear Musk talk about the stakes that are at play in this election, he talks about how the fate of the Western Hemisphere is at risk, depending on whether or not Trump wins. But he has a lot financially at stake, too.

You think about all the government contracts that, you know, SpaceX has. You know, all of his different entities, how intertwined they are with our own government. And, you know, a lot of the research or, you know, space exploration that's going on, you know, Tesla and all of that, it's all tied up for him financially, too. COOPER: Donie?

O'SULLIVAN: And, look, I just think just this culture -- the cultural role he plays on it that you mentioned, you know, even back to the really ugly stuff about Paul Pelosi and everything like that, just elevating these conspiracy theories.

It's -- so we've never been in -- we've never been in a situation like this before, right, where you have such a pivotal person, one of the world's richest men, running one of the world's most powerful platforms, and now literally he's decamped. He is based in Pennsylvania for the next few weeks.

COOPER: Yes. Donie O'Sullivan, Meridith McGraw, thank you so much.

Coming up next, stunning new video from the Israeli operation that led to the killing of Hamas, the terror leader, Yahya Sinwar. Plus, how Israel may try to use his body as part of negotiations to get a hostage deal done.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:57:13]

COOPER: There's new video showing an Israeli tank firing on the building where the leader of Hamas was found dead. We also have new information on how Yahya Sinwar was hunted down and identified. Also, Israeli sources say they may use his body as a, quote, "bargaining chip" to try to get Hamas to release the remaining hostages.

Reporting from Israel tonight, here's Matthew Chance.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Latest images of the Israeli patrol that killed Yahya Sinwar. The Hamas leader troops apparently stumbled upon in the ruins of southern Gaza.

This is the tank fire the Israeli military says was part of the attack that ultimately killed the man who orchestrated the October 7th attacks. Shortly after, he was caught in this remarkable drone video, resting on a chair and lashing out with a stick, a last gesture of defiance as Israeli forces closed in.

CHANCE: OK, well, this is what's left of the neighborhood of Tel al- Sultan in the southern Gaza Strip. You can see --

CHANCE (voice-over): The Israeli military says it's the same area they took me to on a press trip last month. It was in the rubble of these same buildings. Israel's most reviled enemy briefly emerged and was killed.

Now the remains of Sinwar are being held at a secret location in Israel, according to local media reports. Israeli sources tell CNN they could eventually be used as a bargaining chip in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages. As Israel weighs how to create pressure quickly on Hamas in the aftermath of the Sinwar killing.

At Friday, prayers in Gaza, the Hamas leader was mourned in his battered hometown of Khan Yunis. Israeli sources tell CNN this concern returning Sinwar's body would rally supporters and risk his grave site becoming a shrine.

But across Israel, families of Israeli hostages are stepping up pressure for any deal to bring their loved ones home. That means swapping Sinwar's remains, says one Israeli source. Then fine.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

COOPER: Oh, before we go tonight, I want to note a special day for a very special person on this program. My senior writer, Marshall Arbitman, is 60 years old today. 60, which is weird to even say. I do not know how this happened. Maybe because I've worked with Marshall for the better part of 20 years. And in my mind, we're all frozen in time.

I first met Marshall when I began filling in on NewsNight with the great Aaron Brown. Marshall was one of his wonderful writers. I might feel like we're frozen in time, but we're not. And I'm thankful for every one of the days that I've gotten to work with Marshall, who's truly one of the most gifted writers I've ever worked with.

Happy birthday, my friend. And thank you.

The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now. Have a great weekend. I'll see you Monday.