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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Obama Campaigns For Dems In Blue Wall State; Prosecutor Considers New Evidence In Menendez Brothers' Case; How Harris & Trump Would Help Families With Aging Parents. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired October 22, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I am asking you to vote for your Congressman, Mark Pocan, for your Senator, Tammy Baldwin, and for the next president of the United States of America, Kamala Harris.

(APPLAUSE)

[16:00:12]

And I know you've heard it about -- I don't know (AUDIO GAP) if you haven't voted yet, I won't be offended if you just walk out right now. Go vote. Go do it. Return your absentee ballot, that's fine. Just remember to bring your photo ID if you're voting in person.

If you need to register to vote you can do it at your local clerk's office from now until November 1st or when you vote on Election Day, Tuesday, November 5th. And if there's any confusion, if you need to know where your early voting site is or a drop box location, then go to wisdems.org/vote, wisdems -- well, they're cheering for wisdems.org/vote. Don't wait.

I voted yesterday. I did. I was down Chicago. I got my ballot, filled it in, sealed it, signed it, then I walked which I don't always get a chance to do and Secret Service got nervous but I said no let's walk to a mailbox and -- and my younger staff was like -- like what's that blue thing? And I said, that's a mailbox, and you put stuff in it and then it goes to the place you're sending it. They weren't familiar with mailboxes.

Once you voted, then you have to help your friends and family make a plan to vote, too, because together, we've got a chance to choose a new generational leadership in this country and start building a better, stronger, fair, more hopeful America.

Now, we know this election is going to be tight. It's going to be tight here in Wisconsin. It's going to be tight all across the country.

And it's going to be tight because a lot of Americans are still struggling. You know, as a country we've been through a lot over the last few years. We forget sometimes we a historic pandemic wrecked havoc on communities on families, on businesses.

And then disruptions from the pandemic caused price hikes. They put a strain on family budgets and people started feeling like no matter how hard they worked, they were just treading water. So I understand why folks are looking to shake things up. I get it.

What I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that's good for you. That I do not understand.

Because there is absolutely no evidence that this man thinks about anybody but himself. I've said it before, Donald Trump is a 78-year- old billionaire who hasn't stopped whining about his problems since he came down that golden escalator nine years ago. And when he -- I mean, and it's he's complaining three in the morning, he's texting, what's he doing?

When -- when he's not complaining, he's trying to sell you stuff. Have you noticed that? Who does that? Yeah, you're running for president and you're hawking merchandise. Gold sneakers, $100,000 watch, supposed to be Swiss watch he says, the best watch.

Why are you selling a watch? What are you doing?

My favorite is the Trump bible. True story, true story. I mean, it's embossed with his name right on it, Donald Trump edition, right next to Matthew, Luke, Donald.

And I'll give you one guess where those bibles are made. He's Mr. Tough Guy on China except when it comes to making a few bucks. You cannot make this stuff up. You really can't.

I -- if some of this stuff happened on "Saturday Night live you'd be like all right, that's going too far. That's -- that didn't really happen. But it did. And he's doing it because what he cares about is his ego and his money and his status. He's not thinking about you.

[16:05:04]

He sees power -- he sees you as a means to his ends. He wants the middle class to pay the price for another huge tax cut that would mostly help him and his country club buddies. He doesn't care if he costs more women their reproductive freedoms because apparently, it doesn't affect his life.

Most of us -- most of all, Donald Trump wants us to think that this country is hopelessly divided between us and them. Now, for him, us means the, quote, real Americans who support him. Anybody who doesn't, they're -- they're them.

And he employs this strategy like politicians have for millennia because having people divided and angry boosts his chances of being elected. That's his -- that's his focus, is this going to help me, not is it going to help you? And along with those intentions, there's also as -- Tim talked about -- there are questions about his competence.

I mean, there are -- he's out there given two-hour speeches, it's like Fidel Castro, just keeps on talking. It's just word salads.

The other day he had a town hall meeting. Now, I've been -- I've done my share of town hall meetings. My experience is the goal of the town hall meeting is you meet with your constituents, with citizens, with voters. You answer their questions.

He decided, no, I'm not going to answer questions anymore. Let's just play music for half an hour. So he's standing there and he's swaying "Ave Maria", "YMCA" and you know, the governor from South Dakota, she's standing there with this weird look on her face like she doesn't really know what's going on. She's like it's like a hostage video.

Can I -- can you imagine if Tim did that or Kamala did that or I did that? Now, our playlist would be better but -- but you would say to yourself this is odd behavior.

He called himself the father of IVF. I have no idea what that means. You don't either. He said January was a day of love. Hey.

You're going to hear this from me -- do not boo, vote. They can't hear your boo, they can hear your vote. That's the way to send the message.

So, look, my point is you'd be worried if grandpa was acting like this. Right? You -- you'd call up your brother, you'd call up your cousins you say have you noticed?

But this is coming from somebody who wants unchecked power. So, Wisconsin, we do not need to see what an older, loonier Donald Trump looks like with no guardrails. America is ready to turn the page. We are ready for a better story, Wisconsin. We are ready for a President Kamala Harris.

And the good news is Kamala Harris is ready for the job. This is a leader who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice and need a champion, somebody who's raised in a middle class family who actually worked at McDonald's, when she was in college to pay her expenses, didn't just pretend like he worked at McDonald's when it was closed.

Someone who believes in the values that build this country, and who is as prepared for the job as any nominee for president has ever been.

So the point is, the point is Kamala knows you. She knows your life. She -- she knows what it's like to scrap and to strive and to work hard to see her -- her mom worry about the bills. So does Tim.

So if you elect them, they will be focused on your problems. They understand that too many folks here in Wisconsin are struggling to pay the bills and understand wages have been steadily growing. Unemployment has been dropped -- has dropped. Inflation is finally slowing, but the price of everything from healthcare to housing to groceries is still too high, and it hurts.

So the question is not do you want to see better, the question is who's going to actually do something about this. So par for the course, Donald Trump's plan is to give another massive tax cut to billionaires and big corporations, and I've talked to some folks and they'll say, yeah, but you know, I do remember the economy was pretty good when Trump first came in office.

And I said, yeah, because it was my economy. I -- I had spent -- I had spent eight years cleaning up the mess that the Republicans left. I had spent eight years getting the auto industry back on track, reopening factories.

So when I handed over 75 straight months of job growth to Donald Trump, all he did was give a tax cut to people who didn't need it, drove up the deficits in the process. So don't have nostalgia for what his economy was because that was mine. And now he wants to do it again.

When it comes to healthcare, when it comes to healthcare, Donald Trump's got one answer and that is to end the Affordable Care Act not because he's got a good reason for it, but because it's Obamacare, right? So a couple weeks ago -- but the problem is -- the problem that he's got now is that it's popular because million people have used it and are still using it.

And so -- so when he was asked about it when his running mate was asked about it uh during their debate -- the guy's got the nerve, the chutzpah to say Donald Trump salvaged the Affordable Care Act. Now, come on, man. Donald Trump spent his entire presidency trying to tear it down and he couldn't even do that right.

And now, eight years after elected, you know, some of y'all watch the debate, eight years at -- eight years later, he's asked about it during his debate with Kamala and they say, well, you want to get rid of Obamacare. Do you -- what would you replace it with? He says, well, I've got concepts of a plan.

I want you to think about this for a second. So let's say your boss gives you an assignment says I need it by Friday. Friday rolls around, and your boss says, so did you finish that project I asked for? You say, well, I haven't actually started, but I do have a concept for a plan.

Or you could try it at home, honey, did you do the dishes? Not yet, but I do have a concept of a plan for doing the dishes. How's that going to go?

If it wouldn't work for you, it shouldn't work for the president of the United States.

So -- but the good news is Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, they don't have concepts of a plan. They have an actual plan to make your life better. Tim just talked about it.

They're going to bring down cost by going after corporations that unfairly jack up prices. They're going to make it more affordable to build a home and to buy a home. They're going to limit out of pocket health care costs. They're going to give a tax cut to 100 million middle class and working class Americans.

$6,000 tax credit. $6,000 tax credit, if -- if you're having a child, that first year of life, and that helps. Those of you who've had kids, that's expensive. Six grand, you know, that helps with a car seat, crib, diapers.

I remember diapers. I remember changing Malia and Sasha's diapers.

Do you think Donald Trump ever changed diapers?

It'd be like, jeez, jeez, change that diaper. He have somebody else do it.

But so -- so that's who Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are. They've got actual plans. That's what they stand for not concepts of a plan. Now, if you challenge Trump or Vance on these concepts, they'll fall back on one answer: blame the immigrants.

He wants you to believe that if you let him round up whoever he wants and ship them out, all your problems will be solved. Now, I want to -- I want to talk about this, this is serious.

We have a real issue at the borders. We're a nation of immigrants and we are a nation of laws. We've got to make sure the system works the way it's supposed to, in an orderly fashion. So there's work to be done there, but when I keep on hearing from these guys, I have to -- I scratch my head because they like to talk about Kamala being vice president for four years. Well, wasn't he president for four years?

I know it's shocking. I know there's some PTSD going on, and people are blocking it out. He was.

So if this concept of a plan of rounding up and deporting millions of desperate people, many of them women and children, was the answer to everything -- well, why is it that the number of undocumented immigrants was basically the same when he left office as when he took office?

And I'll tell you why, because he did not have a real plan. He had a concept of a plan and it was a mean and ugly concept. You know what would actually help bring order to the border and fix our immigration system? The bipartisan deal that Kamala Harris supported even though it was written by one of the most conservative Republicans in Congress.

And I want you to know, hear me out now, hear me up because there are a lot of people here in Wisconsin and around the country who are actually concerned about this, I cannot emphasize this enough, Democrats and Republicans, conservative Republicans came together with a concrete plan that would have put more enforcement at the border, more judges to process issue, all this stuff Donald Trump lobbied actively and told Republicans to vote against it because he figured it was better to have an issue that he could run on for his presidential campaign.

He was not interested in actually trying to s problem. Do not boo. Do not boo. Vote. We do not need --

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right. Former President Barack Obama, speaking there, something of a stem winder in Madison, Wisconsin, the battleground state, taking on Trump, extolling the virtues of Harris and Walz.

We're going to squeeze in a quick break and then we'll be right back.

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[15:22:55]

TAPPER: We're back with our 2024 lead and our political panel and everybody. We're just listening to former President Barack Obama in Madison, Wisconsin, campaigning for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

Let's discuss. Does this do anything, a former president coming out, going to Madison, Wisconsin? What does that achieve?

MARGIE OMERO, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: Well, first of all, you have to think about that location. Madison is the home of a big university in Wisconsin, there are same-day registration in Wisconsin, so you can just go and turn out and vote. You don't have to be registered or think about it far in advance.

You can just turn up on that day, which is really great for students so having Obama come and have a lot of energy can really make a difference for that process, and just remind people what the stakes are. Make it -- make it something that young people in Madison, very liberal, young area of the state, like feel excited to be part of it.

TAPPER: So, Karen, let me ask you. Barack Obama is on the stump today. You know who's not having a public event today? Vice President Kamala Harris.

She's doing -- it is one of my favorite topics because I find it -- I find her campaign curious. I don't understand why she's -- I mean, I covered the Obama campaign in 2008 and on this day in 2008, he held to huge rallies in Virginia, which was then a battleground state today.

She's doing -- she's not doing nothing. She's doing an interview with Telemundo. She's doing an interview with NBC.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah.

TAPPER: But you don't think these kinds of rallies are important for her to be doing every day?

FINNEY: Well, I think doing events is absolutely important as are the interviews, but just to emerge who was time, I think one of the benefits we have with being able to have Bill Clinton in one location and barrage Obama and Tim Walz and Eminem in Detroit tonight, is it's a force multiplier. It means on the days when she's also out there, we have multiple cities and multiple communities at the same time hearing the message, something that Trump has not been able to achieve.

And we all, it also means because, look, I was in Pennsylvania over the weekend, there are people who really are undecided --

TAPPER: Oh, yeah.

FINNEY: -- for whom are there still learning the information about. Frankly, even both sides, which is really interesting. TAPPER: So let me turn my table Republicans here.

So let's just play a little bit of Barack Obama, because he was not only extolling the virtues of a Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

[16:25:05]

In fact, he probably was spending more time attacking Donald Trump than he was praising the Democrats. It seemed that way to me anyway. Here's one of those excerpts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: So, Wisconsin, we do not need to see what an older, loonier Donald Trump looks like with no guardrails America is ready to turn the page. We are ready for a better story, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Your thoughts?

MATT GORMAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Turn the page? She can't answer how she's different from Joe Biden, number one. And you're right, because she's not out there today, we're doing shifts apparently.

We're two weeks out. She's clocking in and out with Barack Obama and Eminem tonight. So I guess I'm flummoxed to your point again, why were two weeks out, her first event is a 3:40 interview with NBC and there's no events in the morning. Nothing. I don't understand it.

BRYAN LANZA, SENIOR ADVISOR, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: We'll take it. I mean, listen, she clearly doesn't want to campaign. She feels what she does interviews, he underperforms. We prefer her to do more interviews, but we're going to make our message clear to the American people.

This -- this election is going to be about the economy and it's going about immigration. And we're going to talk about that every day. She's going to hide or maybe she needs 10 hours to prepare for a couple of interviews. So that means that this racial probably have what, six more interviews between now and the end of the campaign. She's clearly avoiding the media and there's reasons why she can't defend her record.

TAPPER: Thanks to all.

We'll have more panel in a few minutes.

Let's bring in Dan Pfeiffer, who worked as a senior adviser for President Obama. He's now co-host most of the popular podcast "Pod Save America".

Dan, 16 years ago, you and I were on the same airplane traveling all over the country. I was covering Obama. You were working for him. On this day, Obama did too huge rallies, one in Leesburg, Virginia, the other in Richmond, Virginia, just for the kids out there, Virginia at the time was a hotly contested purple state and now it's more blue.

But today, Harris is not doing any -- can you explain the strategy? Can explain why she's not doing two or three rallies a day as Obama did back then?

DAN PFEIFFER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Well, look, I am with you and that she should be doing as much as you possibly can. Politics has changed a lot since then. You now can reach people in ways you could not be for. Local media was the dominant way in which you communicated with voters back then. So being in a battleground state was a massive importance because you were dominating local TV. Being on the front page of local news favorite was hugely significant back then, less so now.

So, she's been out there a lot in this also stands in contrast to Trump, who did have one event which he fell asleep in during this morning and then can't -- was so exhausted. He canceled his RFJK Jr./Tulsi Gabbard town hall.

Now, as a Democrat maybe I wish he hadn't canceled that, but look, she should be doing more, but she's doing a lot more than Trump and she's been out there a lot over the last few weeks.

TAPPER: We should note that Donald Trump has last week, but canceled a number of interviews. He was supposed to do an NBC interview, a CNBC interview, he canceled "60 Minutes". So it's not as though -- he's the -- that Kamala Harris is the only one that I have questions about.

But let me ask you another question which is a baton out her seeming inability to say how she's going to do anything different than Joe Biden. Do you think that she's so hesitant to do that and was unable to do so in "The View" interview because the Harris campaign is afraid of upsetting Joe Biden and team Biden, that if she tried to differentiate herself, that that might set them off, because it seems to be the best thing that could happen for Joe Biden for his legacy would be for her to win.

PFEIFFER: The -- I can't speak to whatever the internal dynamics there. She did not answer it well in "The View". We all know that. She answered it better in several interviews last week, saying -- declaring, I'm not sure by an amping it forward to how her experience with different including the fact that she has not someone who has spent a lot of time in Washington.

But I'm sure there is some sense like she is for the administration. If she were to just turn around and doing a lot of commentators are asking her to do, I mean, just like take a hard swipe at them, that's going to look inauthentic, right? And so, the key here is she has to be able to show that she participated in the decisions here, but going forward is going to do think differently because she's a different person than Joe Biden. But it's not an easy question and answer.

TAPPER: One other thing I want to ask you about, you spoke with "The New York Times" recently in an opinion conversation called why Kamala Harris has "Call Her Daddy" strategy might not be enough, and I wonder, what more she -- she -- should she be doing? And also, do you think that the Democratic Party is paying enough attention to men and specifically young men?

PFEIFFER: The context of that conversation was about the need for Democrats to reach out to Gen Z men in particular, and using the platforms in which these men consume news, which is not CNN, it's not necessarily "Pod Save America" for some of them.

And right around the time I did this. I did. I had that conversation. She did that interview with "All the Smoke, a podcast hosted by two former NBA players that targets that exact group, particularly young Black men. But I think we have to be doing more to reach out to Gen Z men both for this election and over the long term because this is what Trump is doing every day.

He may be canceling his events. He may be canceling CNBC and NBC, and all the other things. What he is doing is every day sitting down and doing a podcast with some podcaster who, whose audiences largely young men.

[16:30:08]

And that -- that's where he has made gains this election, we have to push back on that.

TAPPER: All right. Dan Pfeiffer, thanks so much.

This programming, CNN's presidential town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris is tomorrow. It starts at 9:00 -- 9:00 p.m. Eastern, moderated by Anderson Cooper. I'll be there to help lead analysis before and after the town hall.

Again, that's all today, tomorrow, and tomorrow night here on CNN. We will be live from Delaware County, PA.

Up next, the case of the Menendez brothers, I'm going to talk to the prosecutor who could decide whether or not their murder conviction might get a second look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our law and justice lead today, a renewed and intense push to possibly get two of the nation's most infamous convicted killers out of prison. Erik and Lyle Menendez shot and killed their parents at their Beverly Hills home in 1989. They were found guilty of first- degree murder in 1996.

[16:35:03]

But now, 35 years later, some of their family members and celebrity turned criminal justice reform advocate Kim Kardashian and others say that the Menendez brothers life sentences should be re-examined and Netflix drama and a documentary also, both profile the brothers who say they killed their parents after years of brutal abuse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lyle was the only person that had ever protected me. What happened that night is very well known, but so much hasn't been told.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Now, a letter written months before the 1989 murders has become a crucial new piece of the brothers' new fight. And it's in the hands of the Los Angeles district attorney, George Gascon, who joins me now.

District Attorney Gascon, thank you so much for joining us.

I want to start with that letter, in 1988, the year before the -- shootings, Erik wrote his cousins saying in part, quote, I've been trying to avoid dad. It's still happening, Andy, but it's worse for me now, on quote, the letter goes on to read, quote, I never know when its going to happen and it's driving me crazy every night, I stay up thinking he might come in, unquote. This is a reference to sexual abuse.

Now you recently posted that letter in Instagram, then you took it down.

Do you think that that letter should have been admitted as evidence originally because it was not?

GEORGE GASCON, LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Hi, Jake. You know, I believe that he probably should have been. I think it was up for a jury to decide the value the evidentiary value of that letter. And, you know, this is a trial that occurred twice, right?

Originally, the trial -- the jury couldn't come to a conclusion or at home. Then in the second trial, that was a lot of evidence that was not present, that was presented on the first trial, that was not presented in the second trial. And they were found guilty.

And there's no question that they murdered their parents. However, we are reviewing two different possibilities of relief, right? Approximately a little over a year ago, their defense team brought in what we call a habeas claim, which basically is, hey, there was evidence that should have been presented to the jury that wasn't if that evidence were to be presented, the outcome might have been different.

That's one way up potential relief. And then there's another way in the California law says, hey, you have people that have been in prison for a very long time. They have rehabilitated, they are safe to be reintegrated in the community and then the question is, should that occur? Either one little vehicles has to be evaluated by a court and approved by a court. And I'm looking at both.

TAPPER: Theoretically, I mean, we can speculate, we don't know for sure. But if that letter had been admitted, it's possible that they could have gotten a lesser charge like manslaughter, for example. I mean, there are times when rape victims kill their rapists and go to prison, but not for as long as they would if they had just killed some random guy off the street, some totally innocent person, right? GASCON: That -- that is correct. And frankly, had that occurred, there would have been out of prison probably at least a couple of weeks ago. Also, you know, this was the first trial was -- the first one of the few trials that have been televised at that point. And we heard some comments from one of the prosecutors. That was concerning about men could not be raped, you know, I think there's a history of men been raped in prisons and in churches and other places.

So I think also that probably play a role if you will, and certainly implicit bias that took place at that time. Perhaps may have had an impact in the way the case was presented to the jury.

TAPPER: Do you believe that they were raped by their father and how soon do you plan to make a decision about re-sentencing?

GASCON: Look, I'm not sure. I'm evaluating. There's actually two different camps in my office. I have a group of people, including some that were involved in the original trial that are adamant that they should spend the rest of their life in prison and that they were not molested. I have other people in the office, I believe actually that they probably were molested than that you serve to have some relief.

I plan to have a decision by the end of this week, which is what I promised when I was we started getting a lot of inquiries. We have been looking at this case is for over a year, by the way, we had a court time late November on the habeas.

But given the public attention to this case, I've decided to try to come up with a decision earlier than that, and I will.

TAPPER: District Attorney Gascon, consider this an invitation to come on the show Friday to explain to us whatever decision you made. Thank you so much for joining us.

GASCON: My pleasure. Thank you. Take care.

TAPPER: How fake electors from the 2020 election are now motivating the 2024 campaign and a candidate in battleground, Georgia.

Stay with us.

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[16:43:47]

TAPPER: More now in our 2024 lead, one of the schemes to undermine the election four years ago involved fake electors. That's people chosen, Trump supporters before the election who were supposed to serve as real electors if Trump won. But he lost. And at the behest of the Trump campaign, these electors signed phony certificates, falsely claiming that Trump won their states anyway, Arizona and Georgia, Pennsylvania, and on and on.

Trump then tried to use those fake certificates to stay in power by pressuring then Vice President Mike Pence to reject Biden's electors on January 6 in Congress. And then to recognize the fake Republican ones.

Republican Georgia State Senator Shawn Still is one of those fake electors. He's running to keep his state sentence seat in Georgia. He was one of the 18 indicted last year in the Georgia election interference case, along with Donald Trump, charged after he filed -- he filled out paperwork claiming falsely, illegitimately, that Trump carried Georgia in 2020.

Still's opponent Democrat Ashwin Ramaswami joins us.

Ashwin, thanks for joining us.

So you worked on election security at CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. You did that for more than three years, then you decided to run for office for the state Senate seat.

Is there something that you experienced at CISA trying to protect cybersecurity that made you feel like running for office, was the next step?

ASHWIN RAMASWAMI (D), GEORGIA STATE SENATE CANDIDATE: Yeah.

S what I saw is after the 2020 election, Donald Trump fire the director of CISA, Chris Krebs. That's the moment when I realized that more important than just securing our elections are making sure that we have people in power. We're going to do the right thing. And that's ultimately why I decided to run because what I saw was a threat to democracy was greater from my own hometown in Johns Creek.

Shawn Still has been criminally indicted for trying to overturn the election results. And whereas we need folks are going to focus on things like overturning are abortion ban, protecting children in schools. And I couldn't stand by and see my community representative by someone with such poor judgment, such port character.

Not only is he criminally indicted, he also lied about being a veteran. He's been attacking me based on my race and I think its very clear for our voters what the choice looks like and how we need people to focus this on the future and on the issues that actually matter to our community.

TAPPER: In 2022, Shawn still beat the Democratic candidate Josh Uddin by about 10,000 votes, even though it was well known at the time that Shawn Still was under investigation for election interference. He hadn't been indicted, but people weren't unaware of the fact there were some shady business going on with him.

What makes you think that you can beat him in a way that your prior the previous Democrat was not able to?

RAMASWAMI: Honestly, because this election is about values. One is never too young to actually go and do the right thing. What we've been seeing in this district is a market shift. This district was a 48 Biden district in 2020. In 2022, Raphael Warnock won the seat by just one point in the runoffs, and Asian-Americans in particular have gone from becoming the marginalized population in this area to now be becoming the margin of victory.

And for these folks, what they really care about is honesty, integrity in government. They care about ensuring we have reproductive health care, and ensuring that we were students are safe in our schools. And those are the issues which it everything on. And if you go to ashwinforgeorgia.com, you can learn more about why I'm fighting for those issues. And that's exactly what voters are seeing when they're seeing the contrast between me and my fake elector opponent.

TAPPER: All right. Ashwin Ramaswami, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, we're breaking down policy proposals from both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. How they plan to handle what could be one of the most sensitive times in your life.

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[16:51:31]

TAPPER: Our health lead today comes with juice of politics, focusing on an issue of huge concern to so many families, especially young and middle age Americans, who are taking care of their aging parents at their homes. Each year, more from the demographically huge pool, from the baby boom generation, those individuals increasingly enter the aging parents' category every year and study show the past age 75, they will become frail and need assistance at some point.

The key phrase here is at-home. Survey show older people want to stay home, not in long-term care facilities. And their adult children lose time and income when they take on the role of the caregiver.

CNN's Meg Tirrell takes a look now at how both presidential candidates are promising to help.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Six years ago, Dawnita Brown became a full-time caregiver for her elderly mom, Joan.

DAWNITA BROWN, FULL-TIME CAREGIVER: Are you ready to eat? Are you hungry?

TIRRELL: Joan had a debilitating stroke while Dawnita was serving overseas in the Peace Corps.

BROWN: I was on a flight home from Eswatini, Africa. And when I landed on U.S. soil, August 7, caregiving became my life.

TIRRELL: Dawnita said she's glad to be taken care of her mom at home, preparing her meals, managing her medication but she's also worried about retirement and her finances.

BROWN: I am an only child. I don't have children of my own. What does that mean for me? You know aging, how do I prepare for my future?

TIRRELL: It's an issue for millions of Americans and its now gone getting attention on the campaign trail.

HARRIS: We will expand health care in a way that makes Medicare cover home health care for seniors.

TIRRELL: This month, Vice President Kamala Harris introduced a plan called Medicare at home. It would extend Medicare coverage to home care for seniors and people with disabilities on the program who need it -- an announcement she first made on the talk show, "The View".

HARRIS: People are declining skills to some extent. But their dignity has -- their pride has not declined. They want -- they want to stay in their home. They don't want to go somewhere else.

Plus, for the family to send them to a residential care facility to hire somebody, it's so expensive.

TIRRELL: The policy would be the first major expansion of Medicare since prescription drug benefits were added in 2003, according to health policy research group KFF, which estimates bates that almost 15 million Medicare beneficiaries could be eligible. Harris proposes to pay for it in part with savings from expanded negotiations by Medicare over prescription drug prices. The plan would need to pass Congress.

Former President Donald Trump has also weighed in with a line and the Republican Party platform saying he'd, quote, shift resources back to at-home senior care and support, unpaid family caregivers through tax credits and reduce red tape.

For Dawnita, caring for her mom is a labor of love and they both get through with a healthy dose of humor.

BROWN: You think it will make, it made a difference if I wasn't caring for you.

DAWNITA'S MOM: Dead.

BROWN: You'd be dead. Yeah, we agree.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TIRRELL: And, Jake, Dawnita has started a nonprofit to support caregivers like her. She's also started a company that sells merchandise supporting caregivers. But she says she would really welcome some extra help from the government. The average Medicare beneficiaries income is much less than any kind of long-term care costs, Jake. And while there are Medicaid programs available, they're not available to everybody.

[16:55:03]

Jake, it's something that a lot of people are hoping comes into play.

TAPPER: A big issue in our policy focus today.

Meg Tirrell, thank you so much. We're covering another important campaign related issue affecting the elderly. This one involves deceptive fundraising targeting the elderly, see how it's misleading older Americans into giving away money. Sometimes their entire life savings. A must-see CNN investigation and it's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

This hour, the former CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch under arrest and in court today on charges of sex trafficking. Sources telling CNN that the indictment details how he and his associates allegedly targeted young aspiring models. We're breaking down all the accusations.

Plus, Rudy Giuliani facing the consequences of his actions around the 2020 election. A judge now ordering the Trump ally to turn over all of his valuable possessions to two election workers whom he defamed.

But what about those Yankees World Series rings? Does he have to turn those over? What about the place in Florida? I have questions.

And leading this hour, we're only 14 days -- that's right -- two weeks from Election Day. And today, both candidates are making their pitch to undecided Latino voters.