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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Judge Allows Special Counsel To Submit Hundreds Of Pages Of Evidence In January 6 Case, Some Described As "Substantial"; New CNN National Poll: Race Virtually Tied With 6 Weeks To Go; Harris Battleground Ad Push Promotes Her Economic Plans; Netanyahu Briefed On Security Situation In Northern Israel. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired September 24, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Now, also, this was Hamlin's first appearance in Monday night football since his collapse which just fed the fan frenzy over that interception.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAMAR HAMLIN, BUFFALO BILLS SAFETY: It was -- it was special. You know, we all know my last start on Monday night football and how that game went. So, to be able to, you know, come all the way back from that and to have a special moment like that, you know, this is all got it right there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: On top of that, the Bills remain undefeated after that huge victory over the Jaguars, final score, 47 Bills, Jaguars 10, very exciting stuff.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: So good to see that, yes.

KEILAR: It certainly is.

THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER starts now.

(MUSIC)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: We've got a brand new CNN poll on the presidential race, and we're going to dive in into it with you.

THE LEAD starts right now.

Exactly six weeks to the day before Election Day, new data revealing the strengths and weaknesses among different voting groups for Trump and for Harris. But did Vice President Harris just lose out on a key endorsement? A senator who backed Biden is telling her today, shame on you.

Plus, the explosive report on a New York congressman in a tight race for reelection, revealing that he reportedly put his fiancee's daughter and his lover on the payroll. And a Missouri death row inmate just hours away from execution, even prosecutors are saying, however, he might be innocent. So why is the state's governor essentially saying, tough luck.

Welcome to THE LEAD. I am Jake Tapper.

And we're going to start with a major development breaking in our law and justice lead today. Judge Tanya Chutkan, the federal judge in the January 6 case against Donald Trump, has ruled that she will allow the special counsel, Jack Smith, to submit hundreds of pages of evidence -- evidence against Donald Trump in this case.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is covering the breaking details.

Katelyn, do we know what's in this evidence which the Justice Department is describing as substantial.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Jake, we haven't seen it yet and the Justice Department says they're going to be things in what they want to show the court that no one has seen yet. This would be the first time this would mark up really major moment, especially before the election in this case against Donald Trump.

One thing, too, we know this may be about is the interactions between Donald Trump and Mike Pence, because the reason that we're talking about this is that the trial judge over this case, Tanya Chutkan. She has to figure out if there's presidential immunity while Donald Trump was in office as president, especially when he was doing things like interacting with Mike Pence.

So, the Justice Department wants to lay that all out. And what we do know about this filing and addition is its going to be hundreds of pages long. It's going to have exhibits, evidence attached to it, and also they're dumping out that thesaurus on how they're describing it, even though they aren't saying exactly what's in it yet. They say it's going to be comprehensive, substantial, detailed, exhaustive, extensive, thorough.

So we're not getting to trial. We're not getting a final report from special counsel Jack Smith before the election but, Jake, we are very likely to see as the public and through the court this filing, this large amount of collection of evidence that investigators have done from the special counsel's office against Donald Trump. We are likely to see that as part of the criminal proceeding against the former president.

TAPPER: Understandably, Trump's legal team has been trying to stop this evidence from being submitted. Do they have any other recourse before Thursday?

POLANTZ: Great question, Jake. From the sources I've talked to so far, there's not really a plan yet and its really unclear what they're able to do who at this point, too. Things are largely controlled in this circumstance by Judge Tanya Chutkan, at the trial level, she's moved very fast. She's demanded transparency in the case. She said, the election, don't care. This is the justice system, the

court system. We are separate from politics in this proceeding.

But I should be clear that there's always things that could happen in court that are unpredictable. And in this circumstance, the way this will work is the Justice Department will submit this filing under seal, so confidentially, to also give the judge or redacted version of the filing and say if you want to release this to the public, you can. And then there could be a fight over that. We don't know how that will play out. But Judge Chutkan will make those decisions.

TAPPER: Another wild development in election in 2024, Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much.

Let's go to the 2024 lead now. A brand new CNN poll just 42 days until Election Day. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump in this poll are locked in an exceedingly tight presidential race, the tightest at this stage in modern history. Among likely voters nationwide, 48 percent say they support Harris, 47 percent say they support Trump. That's within the three percentage point margin of error. So the two are virtually tied.

Our new CNN poll also shows a major shift in voters attitudes about each candidate, including that since Harris became the Democratic nominee, her favorability rating as skyrocketed to the highest level in CNN polling ever since before she just took office in 2021, but how does Harris, his public image compared to the real life issues that voters care about? And what might this mean for Harris now that she's lost an endorsement from a leading Senate moderate, Senator Joe Manchin, independent, former Democrat of West Virginia.

First, let's go straight to CNN's David Chalian, who's at the magic wall, ready to break down the latest poll.

David, what are the signs for Harris that are keeping her so competitive in this race?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, this one jumped out to me, Jake, when we asked, is your vote for Harris or Trump more about voting for your candidate of choice or voting against the opponent? Kamala Harris is now up to 60 percent of her supporters saying, no, my vote is for Harris, 40 percent say it's against Trump. When we polled this in July, it was 50/50. So among her supporters, she's getting to be a real cause for them to get out and vote.

Now Donald Trump is even -- have the greater advantage in this category, 72 percent say that their vote is for him, only 28 percent say against Kamala Harris is, you know, being for something is quite an appealing thing for a candidate to have in politics.

You mentioned the favorability ratings. You said they skyrocketed. She's still minus two, right? Forty-eight percent unfavorable, 46 percent favorable. But that is not bad given where she was throughout the entirety of the Biden-Harris administration thus far, she's also in a much better shape on favorability than Donald Trump. He is minus 13, 42 percent favorable, 55 percent unfavorable. And then we tested some key qualities that people look for in a

president. On temperament, Kamala Harris has a 20-point advantage over Donald Trump, 58 to 38 percent. On her background in life experience being what either exactly right, or close enough to what voters want in a president, she's got a 10 point advantage there. And on the empathy question, understanding people like you, she's got a six percentage point advantage there, Jake.

TAPPER: People like me specifically, like me or you, Jake like everybody out in America. Okay.

So what are some of Trumps strengths that are helping keep him so competitive?

CHALIAN: Well, first of all, there are still positive feelings about his administration in the electorate. So among likely he voters, 51 percent say that Trump's presidency was a success. 49 percent say a failure. That is a tick down from what it was a couple of months ago, but still a slim majority of likely voter support or registered voters for this one, I apologize, say that Trumps administration was a success.

Look at the Biden administration, 63 percent of registered voters say it is a failure only 37 percent call it a success. That's why you continually see the Trump campaign trying to tie Harris to Biden as much as they can. Among likely voters, the most important issue is the economy. 41 percent say so.

Next is protecting democracy at 21 percent. But issue number one, big time is the economy and that is a Donald Trump dominant category, 50 percent of likely voters say that they trust him to handle the economy. Only 39 percent of likely voters say that about Kamala Harris, Jake.

TAPPER: A source tells CNN that Vice President Harris is planning to visit the U.S. Mexico border when she's in battleground state, Arizona, Friday, no doubt this is an attempt to close the gap with Trump on the issue of immigration, where she trails.

How far behind does she trail Donald Trump on the issue of immigration?

CHALIAN: So, it is another Trump strength category on who do you handle, who do you trust to handle the issue better? Forty-nine percent say Trump, 35 percent, Harris, that's a 14 percentage point gap there.

Now remember, immigration does not rank nearly as high as the economy in the overall importance of issues for voters in our poll. But nonetheless, you see that this is still an issue that Donald Trump dominates on, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. David Chalian, thanks so much.

Let's bring in my panel of political experts. Gretchen, let me start with you. You just saw how much Harris trails Trump when it comes to the issue of immigration. What do you think she needs to do? Vice President Harris, when she goes to the border on Friday? What are the two sentences she needs to convey to the voters out there?

GRETCHEN CARLSON, JOURNALIST: She needs to talk about the fact that border crossings are lower than they've been since 2020. She needs to take over the narrative and talk about how Donald Trump torpedoed the bipartisan bill that would have helped immigration on the border tremendously. She needs to just reclaim the narrative and maybe step away a little bit from the Biden administration because she's not polling well at all. So obviously changes what she needs to do.

TAPPER: What do you think?

NAYYERA HAQ, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF CABINET AFFAIRS, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Well, she's not going to be able to change how voters feel about immigration, right? That -- that is set. This is a top issue.

Folks coming at it from either perspective of security, you know, some fear-based. So she will likely be, as Gretchen said, leading into somewhat Biden administration has done, but she'll probably go in that centrist direction and leave a lot of the leftist language behind.

[16:10:04]

We might even see a version of the Kamala Harris that went to the border saying don't come here.

TAPPER: What do you think?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Really, she visited the border, what, once, I believe so far. This would be the second time. I think the Donald Trump and the Republicans who argue, well, granted, she's not the president, but she is the vice president, and the vice president works with the president on this particular issue.

And once upon a time, the vice president, as senator, wanted to provide health to illegal immigrants. Once upon a time, the vice presidents support is some level of sanctuary cities in the country. That's going to be the message from Republicans regardless, if she goes to the border or not, Jake, to remind the American people that she spent three-and-a-half years with President Biden not handling this issue the way they would like to see it handled.

And then in 2022, you saw one of the highest levels of illegal crossings in the country in decades. That's also another point that I think the former president will make.

HAQ: Well, this is where it's going to then, right, come into the contact and the work that she's done with leaders on root causes. I mean, it's migration is not just coming because suddenly people got excited about Joe Biden. It's very much rooted in the challenges at this western hemisphere is facing. She has a strong national security record of working with leaders in the western hemisphere and overall in throughout Europe.

I mean, that goes to the idea of who do you actually want to be commander in chief and who can you take seriously those one-on-one relationships?

TAPPER: Gretchen, another top five issue, I think a top five issue for voters, abortion rights. Harris told a Wisconsin radio station that she favors changing the Senate rules to codify Roe versus Wade. Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe and get us to the point where we, 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

TAPPER: That stance, that announcement, although it's not a new position for her or for Joe Biden for that matter, but it does seem that her giving that interview and it making news today to have cost Harris the endorsement of Democratic senator turned independent Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who told Manu Raju, our reporter on the hill today, quote, shame on her. Manchin went on to say that getting rid of the filibuster will turn the Senate into, quote, the House on steroids and Senate insulting the House is understood, if it's not a compliment when the Senate is going to turn into the House.

Do you think that's a big deal, Manchin going away as a possible endorsement?

CARLSON: Well, let me talk a little bit about the filibuster first time intimately knowledgeable about this. I passed two laws on the Hill and the most hyper political time of our generation in last few years. I understand what it meant to have to get the 60 votes, I had to get ten Republicans and they were hard to get.

So I understand where he's coming from as a moderate because he wants to be able to cross the aisle and try to bring America back together. Look, this is -- this is -- what Kamala Harris is saying to her base right now because she's winning on abortion, she wants this to be a slam dunk when people go to vote.

The problem is that if they get rid of the filibuster when Democrats potentially are in charge, Republicans are going to do the same thing when they come back. And that's why I do not think it's real.

HAQ: You know what I love about that argument though, is that the idea that if Republicans had a majority in the Senate, that they wouldn't immediately first get rid of the filibuster, right? It is -- it has become an archaic tool that served interests at the time that were interests, not about representing the majority sentiment now, an educated population that is engaged. So if they weren't going to do it for voting rights, then I think

certainly for Democrats and their base saying that they are willing to do that for protecting abortion rights is winning on that side.

SINGLETON: Where does this end I suppose? I mean, are we going to end at any time? We don't like something and we want to change a law or voted law or vote a piece of legislation to change law?

HAQ: That's not we do. We change laws that don't work.

SINGLETON: I think -- I think -- I think Manchin is right on this. And I think Democrats would probably not be very happy if Republicans decide to do this in a way that they believe would negatively impact half of the country on a particular issue.

So I don't think this is the right way to do it. Bipartisanship is still important. Figure out a way to get things done without getting rid of the filibuster.

TAPPER: All right.

HAQ: Yeah. So, bipartisanship can also be 51 ad 52, right? It doesn't have to be get ten past into -- in a way that undermines what the majority of the people thinks.

TAPPER: Thanks to one and all of you. Appreciate it. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is going to be here in studio. I'll ask her about where what we're not hearing Vice President Harris and if we should hear more from Kamala Harris, 42 days out from election day.

And later the race to treat the wounded as Israel launches even more airstrikes at Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. CNN is on the ground.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:18:33]

TAPPER: In our 2024 lead, 42 days until Election Day, voting has already started in some parts of the country, Vice President Kamala Harris is targeting the seven battleground states with this TV ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I'll lower the cost of insulin and prescription drugs for everyone. And I will work to pass the first ever federal ban on price gouging on food. More than 100 million Americans will get a tax cut.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: This ad attempts to be a fairly straight-ward presentation and answering the question of how exactly she would address the cost of living crisis, which has not always been the case in some of these more unscripted moments that we've heard from the candidate herself. And interviews with CNN's Dana Bash or the Philadelphia's Channel 6 or

Oprah, Harris has been asked to outline some specific things she would do to help working people pay for things if elected. And each time she began -- well, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: When I look at the aspirations, the goals, the ambitions of the American people, I think that people are ready for a new way forward.

I grew up as a middle-class kid. My mother raised my sister and me. She worked very hard.

Yours is a story I hear around the country as I travel, and in terms of both rightly having the right to have aspirations and dreams and ambitions for your family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:20:10]

TAPPER: In some cases, it has taken nearly two minutes before Vice President Harris actually arrives at describing her policies.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is here with us to discuss.

Do you think she needs to be presenting more meat on the bones of -- I get that she's from a middle-class family. It's great. And I got that she feels people's pains, great. But what about like here are the five things I'm going to do directly for you? Does she need to be doing more of that?

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Well, she'll be doing some of that tomorrow, once she could put forth their economic plan. But people like to have a connection to whoever is running for office, that they share their experience, that they understand their lives. And I think that's what she is establishing.

But I never give advice to presidential candidates. The wisdom that they have, the astute -- political astuteness that they had to become the presidential candidate says they know something about the market out there.

But I do think that the one issue in terms of the cost of living, people want to hear something very specific. She has saying that in that ad, but also tomorrow on her economic plan.

I have no complaints about how she is going forward.

TAPPER: Not a complaint, but do you think that she needs to be mixing it up more? Having a press conference, more town halls, just out and about more -- you know, Oprah's the queen obviously, but that's not a tough interviews sitting down with Oprah. Oprah's endorsed her. She spoke at the convention. Does she need to be doing more of that sort of thing? PELOSI: She will make that decision in her campaign agenda and her

plan. What we're going to do though is make sure that we own the ground to get out every vote to elect her. That the message that has shaped is non-menacing, that it's uniting, all progressive and bold, but non-menacing, and that we have the resources, the three M's -- mobilization message, money -- to get the job done.

She will be herself. She will take it forward in the way that she has confidence to connect with the American people, show the empathy that she has. But make no mistake. I know her well as you know, she is a person of -- I know her personally, and she's a person of goodness, of deep faith, and that's why she cares so much about people, and their well-being.

Officially, I know her, policy-wise, she has strength. She knows the issues. She knows the strategy. She's eloquent in her presentation.

TAPPER: Well, I know she has your vote, but, you know, the -- it's neck in neck, it is -- I've never seen an election this tight at this point. Usually, somebody has an edge at this point that could change, but it's neck and neck. In the battlegrounds, it's neck and neck, so I do wonder, it seems like she's running kind of cautiously and I wonder does she need to take more risks?

PELOSI: Well, I would say since you said, you know, she has my vote, I wasn't speaking about myself because that's one vote. I'm talking about -- I -- I was in three states last week, not counting California and Washington where I began. And the enthusiasm out there is great for her.

TAPPER: Uh-huh.

PELOSI: But again, it takes us to a point and we have to get those other votes so no one is taking anything for granted. We assume nothing.

You know, the word assume it makes an ass of you and me, and I keep reminding people. Mobilize, get out every vote that is eligible to vote, and make sure they're accounted as cast. Message, non-menacing, uniting, bringing people together. Money, no wasted time, no underutilized resources, and no regrets the day after the election that we could have gotten out more votes.

TAPPER: I'm sure that you hear from progressive voters, Democratic voters who say as I hear from them on social media -- the media made such a big deal and of Joe Biden's alleged cognitive problems, why don't they talk about Donald Trump's cognitive problems?

Well, Donald Trump talked about that just a second ago, and I want to get your reaction. Let's run that clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They laugh at us, all over the world. They're laughing at us. And you know what they're really laughing at? Kamala, because they can't believe that she's going to be president. They can't believe.

You talk about cognitive problems. She's got bigger cognitive problems that he has in my opinion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Donald Trump saying that Kamala Harris says bigger cognitive problems than Joe Biden.

PELOSI: Why would why would you even cover that? This is a person who's not on the level. He is their nominee for president. He is incompetent. Let's not even talk about the silliness of it all and the weirdness of it all on the assault on women that it is. We're not going to talk issues, incompetent.

[16:25:00]

The only thing he did as president, the only thing he does present when he had the majority was to pass a bill that gave 83 -- tax cut that give 83 of the benefits to the top 1 percent at a $2 trillion to the national debt. The worst job creation record of anybody president since Herbert Hoover.

TAPPER: Because of COVID, yes.

PELOSI: Well, it's not because of COVID, we put $2 trillion into the economy when he was president, working with the -- Congress are working together. We put $3 trillion into the economy.

So don't blame it on, but what did you do with COVID? Denial and delay, responsible for thousands and thousands of people dying. So if you're going to forgive his job because of COVID, make sure you attribute many of those deaths to him as well.

TAPPER: Not, not forgiving anything, just noting -- just noting the --

PELOSI: Incompetent, you know, forget silly and crazy and crooked and all the rest, incompetent.

TAPPER: Let me just say, why do I run that clip? I run that clip it that could because that's the Republican presidential nominee. And I thought you might have a reaction to it.

I'm about to run another clip and this one is the House Speaker Mike Johnson and he today he was asked whether he'd follow the regular order when it comes to the election certification process if Kamala Harris beats Donald Trump in November. We don't actually have the clip. I'm just going to tell you what he said.

He said, quote: If we have a free, fair, and safe election, we're going to follow the Constitution. What do you think of that? The caveat?

PELOSI: Why should there be a caveat? Why don't we just all agree? Why don't we just all agree, whoever wins, we are for the peaceful transfer of power? He's trying again to wed himself to this fake conspiracy theory about the election. But you know what? We don't agonize. We organize and we organize and make sure that Hakeem Jeffries has that gavel on January 6th.

It's very essential, not only for the issues that we care about, our kitchen table issues, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, as we have done, lowering the cost of health care, which we have done, lowering the cost of childcare, which we did, but we have to renew, lowering the cost of so many things, housing as Kamala has put forth. That's all important.

But our democracy is very important. Kam -- Hakeem Jeffries now, we are working as we work to elect a Democratic president and vice president to elect a Democratic Congress, to make sure that we can't have this, a personal opinion when it's an absolute fact of numbers, as we win (ph) the election.

TAPPER: Are you worried -- are you worried about what might happen when Congress meets in January 6, 2025, under House Speaker Johnson, if he is the speaker, with -- I don't know what the results are going to be, but let's assume that he is still the speaker. Are you worried?

PELOSI: Well, first of all, Hakeem will be speaker. Second of all, if the Republicans, when they have their own fight on their hands and that may be what he's campaigning for there. But the -- but the fact is, is that the government, U.S. -- federal government has declared that a national special security day. So there will be increased security around the Capitol at that time.

TAPPER: So the mob won't be in the room. Well, nobody could ever foresee that the president of the United States disrespecting the office that he hold -- held would incite an insurrection in the Capitol, assaulting our capital, our symbol of democracy to the world, assaulting our Constitution, which called for peaceful transfer of power, assaulting the Congress of the United States violently, going after me with a bullet in my head and a noose for his own vice president who would not follow his instruction to ignore the Constitution and not honor his oath to protect and defend the Constitution.

The national anthem says, proofs through the night that our flag is still there. You've heard me say that again and again. And we -- this is our night. We have to prove through the night that our flag is still there.

I'll give you another Baltimore phrase.

TAPPER: Uh-huh.

PELOSI: It comes from horseracing.

TAPPER: Uh-huh.

PELOSI: We're here. We're going to whip to the lead and then we're going to whip the lead to victory. And we do not agonize. We organize. TAPPER: You organize.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat from San Francisco, always pleasure to have you here. Thank you so much, Madam Speaker. Good to see you.

Coming up next, the Republican congressman who served in the U.S. military is going to join me. He's going to take on the -- he's going to discuss the constant airstrikes in Lebanon, how far Israel should take its new military campaign against Hezbollah.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:33:28]

TAPPER: New Israeli attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon today have killed at least 30 people, according to Lebanon's health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its death toll. That is on top of the more than 500 people killed yesterday, according to the Lebanese government by Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delayed his travel to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. It's a trip that might not happen at all if this war continues to escalate.

I want to bring in Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw of Texas. He's retired Navy SEAL. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also on the House intelligence Committee.

Congressman, always good to have you on.

Israel is escalating its attacks on Hezbollah to the north in Lebanon while continuing to also fight Hamas in Gaza on its southwest. Today, in his final address to the U.N., President Biden said, quote, full- scale war is not in anyone's interest, unquote.

How are -- how concerned are you about Israel's ability to fight a two-front war?

REP. DAN CRENSHAW (R-TX): Great question, I think in Israel's mind, they're wrapping up a lot of their operations against Hamas. It is -- it is not the full-fledged all boots on the grounds have been operationally used to be. They've moved a few of those units up north to deal with it has been a continuous threat from Hezbollah this entire time. And if you're constantly receiving rocket fire and attacks member, there's like 80,000 Israelis displaced from northern Israel because of those attacks.

But at some point -- you have to say enough is enough and you have to take some kind of action and I think that's what they're doing.

[16:35:03] There is some logic to the idea that you're escalating in order to de- escalate. Now, they're also saying that they're fully prepared for a ground war with Hezbollah, should it come to that, they prefer not come to that. But it would appear to anybody observing that these could be shaping operations for those -- for exactly that.

When it comes down to it, you can't have a terrorist force on your border that is constantly using its territory to attack your people.

And so there -- there are -- there are no good solutions here, and I hate hearing platitudes like the quote you just mentioned from President Biden. War is not -- in no one's interests. Of course, it's in no one's interest but that's not the real world we live in, in sometimes you have to navigate a very complex gray area where bad guys are going to be bad guys and they're going to keep attacking you whether you appease them or not.

TAPPER: Yesterday, Prime Minister Netanyahu said this to the people of Lebanon.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Israel's war is not with you. It's with Hezbollah.

For too long, Hezbollah has been using you as human shields. It placed rockets in your living rooms and missiles in your garage. Those rockets and missiles are aimed directly at our cities, directly at our citizens. To defend our people against Hezbollah strikes, we must take out those weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: This is not a dissimilar argument from the one that Israel has made to the Palestinians about Hamas. Obviously, there are mass civilian casualties in Gaza thousands and thousands in addition to thousands and thousands of Hamas terrorists been killed. Also, you've been very supportive of Israel's right to defend itself in Gaza.

Do you support Israel's ability to do whatever they think they need to do to defeat Hezbollah in Lebanon?

CRENSHAW: Yes. I'm going to support them in doing what we would do the exact same -- in the exact same case. Lebanon's a complicated place. You know, it's not -- it's not like Gaza in the sense that in Gaza, Hamas is the governing authority. In Lebanon, Hezbollah has a lot of influence over a part of the government, right?

The Shia -- the Shia led a section of the government. But there's also a Sunni section of the government and there's a Christian sect of the government. The Lebanese armed forces aren't necessarily tied to Hezbollah.

It's a confusing and complicated picture. And if anyone knows the picture pretty well as the Israelis, they know what will be too far of an escalation. They know I think what the what the right measures are get to that point -- and that's a conversation we should be having with them, diplomatic levels as well, because I think Americans have a lot of opinions on that and they have theirs.

But in the end, you can't -- you can't exist in this state where you're constantly as Netanyahu just stated, constantly just receiving fire against your civilian locations from a terrorist organization backed by Iran. That's not a sustainable future. And there's no peace involved in that.

So, again, I hate the platitudes and the black comments about peace versus war, was a lot of gray area in between those two things that you have to navigate and complicated places like the Middle East.

TAPPER: How concerned are you about the civilian death toll? There are -- I mean, I don't know how many civilians have been killed in Gaza. I think Netanyahu acknowledged it might be up to 20,000 and then we have hundreds of civilians being killed potentially in Lebanon because of the attacks on Hezbollah.

Does that concern you?

CRENSHAW: Of course, it concerns us. I mean, we'd -- I'm a military guy and we work with the Israelis. We've -- we see what the measures they take to mitigate civilian casualties. The question is, who's to blame?

Nobody is unconcerned about civilian casualties, that surely includes Israelis. They go, they take great -- they go to great lengths to reduce civilian casualties by doing more precision strikes. They warned. They've been warning Hamas and the civilians there of when they would operate in certain neighborhoods, well in advance.

That's not good military tactics. It's kind of military tactics. You only use if you're trying to mitigate civilian casualties. So it's not like anybody is unconcerned with it. The question everybody has to ask themselves is -- given the realities we live in, who's to blame.

And I think the people to blame are the ones who start the war. And whether that's Hamas or Hezbollah, they're the ones who always start the firing onto civilian neighborhoods and Israel. And then they use their own people as human shields. And then they use that narrative to make it seem like it drill is this nefarious being that doesn't have any concern for civilian casualties.

So it's just when -- people think about this way too simplistically and I encourage everyone to understand the nuances about, about the history of all of these things happened.

TAPPER: Congressman Dan Crenshaw, Republican of Texas, good to see you, sir. Thanks so much.

CRENSHAW: Thanks.

TAPPER: Joe Biden was the first presidential candidate to flip Georgia blue since Bill Clinton in '92.

[16:40:00]

How are voters in that battleground state feeling now in 2024? CNN's John King went there to find out.

The next installment of his "All Over the Map" series is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:44:13]

TAPPER: And we're back with our 2024 lead and a closer look at a key part of the electorate in battleground Georgia. CNN's John King recently returned to the Peach State for his all over the map series. He talked with voters of color. That's a group that Joe Biden enjoyed strong support from in 2020, but that Kamala Harris must actually improve upon in order to win Georgia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Loyalty to President Biden runs deep in the Black community, but the switch to Harris flipped the 2024 vibe here.

LAKEYSHA HALLMON, GEORGIA VOTER: It doesn't feel so doomsday anymore. It actually feels hopeful and there's excitement.

KING: Four in 10 Georgia voters in 2020 were people of color, and Biden won 80 percent of them en route to his razor-thin win here. Harris needs to match that, maybe more, beginning with giant Black turnout.

HALLMON: Supporters of her, it really takes us to do something.

[16:45:03]

That means if it rains, get out and vote. That means if you have a car and your neighbor doesn't have a car, take them to the polls with you.

KING: Chantal Villano-Willis isn't sold, isn't sure the vice president is up to the top job.

CHANTAL VILLANO-WILLIS, GEORGIA VOTER: I've been a Democrat my entire adult life this has actually been the first year where I was considering voting Republican.

KING: Her mother isn't happy/

VILLANO-WILLIS: Never thought shed see a black person president, in her life. She did. Now, Kamala Harris is for president. My mother says she don't care what she does. Let's just get her in there, and I simply don't feel the same.

KING: Villano-Willis works a mix of gig jobs so she can care for her mother and a son with special needs. She likes when Donald Trump promises more oil drilling, and to promote cryptocurrencies, but she sides with Harris on abortion rights, and says Trump often talks down to Blacks.

VILLANO-WILLIS: Oh, and his favorite color is Black boy police, no.

We don't have the choices, period.

KING: Will you vote or their circumstances where you might skip it?

VILLANO-WILLIS: I'm going to vote because that's my civic American duty. Too many people fought for me to vote.

KING: Suresh Sharma lives in suburban Cobb County, calls himself a textbook independent, has a three-step test to pick a president.

Ability to govern is step one. Sharma says Harris is a blank slate, as he calls Trump a failure because he didn't keep big promises like replacing Obamacare, and shrinking the debt.

Ability to manage large projects is test two. And Sharma says neither candidate has done that.

He leans Harris because of tests three.

SURESH SHARMA, GEORGIA VOTER: Remember, president is a role model. Therefore, morals matter.

And what you see and what you do has real life implications. I can't tell my son that. Hey, would you like to be president like him?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING (on camera): Jake, the role model part comes up a lot among new immigrants, people who are immigrants or first-generation Americans, it comes up a lot because they came here for the United States and the great democracy. Our new national poll today showed Harris running a bit behind Biden in 2020 among Black voters and Latino voters, if that happens in Georgia, she can put that coalition back together again.

So it's a fascinating challenge in Atlanta and the suburbs around it.

TAPPER: Neck and neck. John King, always great to have you. Thank you so much.

An underground parking lot transformed into a makeshift hospital. This is the scene on Israel side of its border with Lebanon as an operation against Hezbollah escalate.

CNN's going to take you to that site, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:51:16]

TAPPER: Back to our world lead, along the Lebanese Israeli border where civilians in both countries are fleeing the intensifying Hezbollah and Israeli crossfire, this as Israeli officials just briefed Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on the security situation in northern Israel.

Jeremy Diamond is on the ground covering it all.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another Israel Israeli airstrike rocks, the Lebanese capital, once extraordinarily rare, it marks the third time Israel has struck Beirut in just the last week.

At least six people were killed and 15 others wounded, according to the Lebanese government. Israel says it was targeting a senior Hezbollah commander, in charge of the group's missile unit.

As Israeli jets continued to pummel Lebanon, Hezbollah fired volley after volley of rockets at northern Israel. Most of the more than 215 rockets and drones intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome system.

But in some Israeli communities, terrifying explosions, firefighters dispatched to extinguish fires caused by Hezbollah rockets, and on this highway cars pulling over amid air raid sirens nearly struck by rocket fire.

A casualty from one of those attacks soon arrives at Rambam medical center in Haifa. The man, a soldier in his 20s, is rushed into the emergency room with shrapnel injuries. He will soon join the hundreds of patients now being cared for in the hospitals secure underground facility. A dual use parking lot built with war in mind.

MICHAEL HALBERTHAL, DIRECTOR GENERAL, RAMBAM HEALTH CARE CAMPUS: We started to mobilized patients at 12:00 at noon, and by 8:00, 600 to 700 patients were underground, and we're fully operational in the underground.

DIAMOND: Dr. Michael Halberthal, the hospital's director, has been preparing for this war time scenario for years. For the first time, he is now putting that plan into action.

HALBERTHAL: We can be first self-sustain without any help from the outside for three days, right? If something happens, you know, electricity wise, what -- the oxygen, food, three days. We can stay here as much as we need, according to the scenario.

DIAMOND: Walking through the facility, it is hard to imagine this was an empty parking lot just two days ago.

HALBERTHAL: What we are seeing over here is operating rooms.

DIAMOND: Surgical operations are already underway, outpatients needing dialysis are getting care underground.

All of the hospitals departments now fully functional, capable of treating as many as 2,000 patients. Nine premature babies in protective incubators now also transferred to Rambam Hospital. Among several groups of vulnerable patients from other hospitals now

being treated at this war time facility.

Aboveground, the busy streets of Israel's third largest city have gone quiet, a day after Hezbollah targeted Haifa directly for the first time since 2006.

MARIAM RASHAD, HAIFA RESIDENT: This are also many people come to eat breakfast, to drink coffee. But now, no one you can see. We hope to end this war.

DIAMOND: Other restaurants and shops deciding to stay closed, waiting Hezbollah's next move.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND: And, Jake, all eyes are indeed still very much on Hezbollah tonight. The group fired more than 200 rockets at Israel today. But the question now is after having been battered by the most significant Israeli airstrikes since the 2006 war, over the course of the last week, do they still have the willingness and the capability to fire the kind of retaliatory strike that could pose a serious threat to the city like Haifa, where I am now?

[16:55:12]

That question, Jake, not yet answered, but maybe in the coming days -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Jeremy Diamond in Haifa, Israel, for us. Thank you so much.

We're minutes away from an update on what is expected to be a major hurricane hitting the United States this week. We'll bring that to you.

Plus, ballot challenges happening now that could impact results after Election Day and Election Day, of course, only 42 days away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

This hour, we're just moments away from a big update on tropical storm Helene, which is expected to become a major hurricane before slamming the United States later this week. So where is it headed? The CNN weather team is gathering all the new details to bring us the new forecast and track.

Plus, the state of Missouri is just two hours away from executing a man convicted of murder, despite new evidence. And the fact that the office that prosecuted him says they want his conviction overturned because they think he might not be guilty.