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Trump's Rhetoric on Migrants; New Polls Show Haley Gaining Ground; Trump Claims Migrants are Poisoning the County; Austin Meets with Israeli Defense Officials; Driver Hits President's Motorcade. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 18, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:56]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The largest deportation operation in American history. Talk of migrants poisoning the blood of the United States. That is where Donald Trump is focused right now. His Republican opponents call it dog whistling. But a dog whistle is supposed to be subtle. Isn't this far beyond that at this point?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And, right now, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is back in Tel Aviv for a critical diplomatic visit. The White House urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change course as civilian casualties in Gaza mount.

BOLDUAN: And millions of Americans up and down the East Coast are facing serious and severe weather today. The powerful nor'easter already has hundreds of thousands in the dark this morning.

I'm Kate Bolduan, with Sara Sidner. John Berman is off today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SIDNER: Immigration and fearmongering. Donald Trump, the current frontrunner in the Republican primary race, hammering home his message on immigration to voters with just four weeks left before the Iowa caucuses. But it's the language he's using that is raising eyebrows and alarm bells this morning. Donald Trump is doubling down on his dehumanizing rhetoric about foreigners. Just listen to what he said at a pair of campaign stops in New Hampshire and Nevada over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They're poisoning the blood of our country. That's what they've done. They've poisoned. Mental institutions and prisons all over the world. Not just in South America, not just the three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world they're coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.

It is only common sense that when I'm re-elected we will begin -- and we have no choice -- the largest deportation operation in America mostly (ph).

We must use any and all resources needed to stop the invasion of our country, including moving thousands of troops currently stationed overseas in countries that don't like us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: The White House calling those comments fascists and accusing Donald Trump of, quote, parroting Adolf Hitler.

And they come as new polls show Donald Trump with a commanding lead against his Republican rivals in key early primary states.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is joining us now with more on this story.

Omar, we have heard Donald Trump use disgusting words to describe migrants in the past, but this is different.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and, Sara, at this point he appears to just be doubling down on this hyper rhetoric despite any criticisms he may be getting. Now, look, we're a month away from the Iowa caucuses at this point. And I think just look at the past two campaign events alone in Nevada and in New Hampshire. It's clear that this is what we are going to see in the runup to, again, those first sets of votes that are cast.

Now, the -- it bears some similarities to how he won the nomination in 2016 when he focused a lot of his immigrant rhetoric around building the wall, trying to gin up, it appears, some of that same support. And I want to point out, he made the poisoning the blood of our country comment a day after his wife Melania was at the National Archives applauding immigrants as they became citizens.

Regardless of that, again, we are seeing this rhetoric continue to play out.

Take a listen also, though, to how he is framing a potential general election matchup between he and the current president, Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Joe Biden is a threat to democracy. He's a threat.

Even Vladimir Putin -- has anybody ever heard of Vladimir Putin -- of Russia says that Biden's -- and this is a quote -- politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:05:05]

JIMENEZ: Now, as you can imagine, the Biden campaign did not agree with that. And specifically they said that, "Donald Trump channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jong-un and quoted Vladimir Putin, while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy." Now, look, to this point, former President Trump has led in the polls.

But I was talking to the head of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, New Hampshire goes after Iowa, but he reminded me that many voters don't make up their minds until the final weekend before an election. So, there's still a lot that can change, but it's an uphill battle for a lot of these candidates. And if inroads are made, it will show that messaging like this is a little vulnerable and that anything can happen. We will see.

SIDNER: Omar Jimenez, thank you so much for your reporting.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: You have the messaging there and you also have the polling.

New polling is showing that Trump is still dominating in Iowa. He's also still ahead in New Hampshire. But, as Harry Enten is going to walk us through, there are signs that something interesting is also happening there. Nikki Haley gaining significant ground in some new polling data out.

Harry Enten's here, taking a look inside these numbers.

Talk to me about what you are seeing from Nikki Haley in New Hampshire.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, so Iowa is one thing, but New Hampshire is something else entirely. All right, this is CBS News/YouGov poll. Take a look at this trend line in New Hampshire. In September Trump was at 50 percent. He had a nearly 40 point lead on the field. Haley was all the way back at 11, DeSantis was at 13. Look at where we are now, Nikki Haley jumping all the way up to 29 percent, just 15 points behind the leader.

I will note that this 29 percent is the best percentage in a poll for a non-Trump candidate anywhere in New Hampshire, Iowa, Wisconsin, national, wherever, since all the way back in June. And I will also note that candidates have come back from 15-point deficits even this late in the campaign, Gary Hart and Patrick Buchanan as well.

BOLDUAN: Is she taking from Trump or is she taking from the other non- Trump candidates?

ENTEN: Well, I mean, at this particular point, we're seeing Trump going down. So, she's taking a little bit from Trump. She's also probably taking a little big compared to some other stuff from DeSantis as well. Christie and her also have something going on there where there's also looking at some of the same, similar voters.

So, once you look back at our last UNH/CNN poll, take a look at the second choice of Christie voters. This gives you an indication that maybe Haley can even gain additional strength because she's getting 53 percent of the second choice of those Christie voters.

BOLDUAN: OK. ENTEN: And, of course, if you look back at this previous slide, what you see is that Christie, right now, is at 10 percent in that YouGov poll.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

ENTEN: So, she could, in fact, climb even a little bit higher in New Hampshire. That ceiling she has not met just quite yet.

BOLDUAN: Oh, so there's - there's something going on in New Hampshire for sure?

ENTEN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: What are you seeing -- why do you think that's not translating in other states for Nikki Haley -- I will say -- yet?

ENTEN: Yet. And I want you to take a look here. Take a look at the electorate, OK. The moderate share of the GOP primary electorate. This is the group that Trump does worse with. It's a group that Nikki Haley does best with. Moderate share of the GOP primary electorate. It's 36 percent in New Hampshire. Nationally, it's just 27 percent. In Iowa, where Nikki Haley is well behind, it's just 17 percent of that electorate. So, New Hampshire is the perfect state for her.

And I will just note, however, that national GOP frontrunners who won Iowa and lost New Hampshire, Dole in '96, Bush in 2000, both went on to win the nomination. So, Haley winning in New Hampshire is not quite enough.

BOLDUAN: And New Hampshire voters decide late.

ENTEN: They decide late.

BOLDUAN: So, this is important. This is what we're seeing here.

Great to see you, Harry. Thank you.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: You know, having Harry in the morning is better than two cups of coffee. I'm just going to let you know that right now.

Let's turn to our CNN senior political analyst and anchor John Avlon.

John, Donald Trump using this language that is straight out of the white supremacist playbook. I want to just go to something he said in September, because if people think that this was an accident or just him spewing, it's a talking point.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST AND ANCHOR: Yes.

SIDNER: Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (September 27, 2023): We know they come from prisons. We know they come from mental institutions, insane asylums. We know they're terrorists. Nobody has ever seen anything like we're witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. It's poisoning the blood of our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: "Poisoning the blood of our country." That's the second time. So, it's clearly a talking point. It's chilling language. Why? Why? You are up in the polls. You are - you - you don't have to use this language. Why is he doing it?

AVLON: Because he wants to. Because he believes it. Because he's trying to base his campaign on this kind of divisive demagoguery. To your point, it's not a one-off where he saw criticism and said, well, you know, this has been used by dictators in human history in the past -- no, that's not really what I mean, so I'll adjust it. It's in the teleprompter people. I mean quoting Vladimir Putin this weekend was in the teleprompter. And when it's in the teleprompter, it's not just rhetoric and red meat, it's policy.

[09:10:05]

The - and that's where you see the policies that extend from this rhetoric, mass - largest deportation in American history, mass migrants put in camps. I mean, this is very different than anything we've ever seen in American political history. And it's a huge mistake for people to sort of play the cute, you know, we'll take him seriously but not literally game.

SIDNER: Right, because literally policy comes out of these words.

AVLON: Yes.

SIDNER: We've actually seen it when he was in office.

All right, the Biden administration being very plain and clear, saying, look, he's parroting Adolf Hitler, calling it fascist language, calling him a fascist. Are they right?

AVLON: I'm a big believer that you shouldn't call your political opponents Hitler, or even if you're using the historic metaphor. It gets difficult when they're repeating language that has been used by past dictators. I did a segment about, you know, a number of people on January 6th happened to be avowed Nazis. What do you do? That -- what happens to Godwin's law when that occurs, you know?

SIDNER: Right.

AVLON: I think the - you know, Republicans have normalized calling Democrats socialists and communists, right?

SIDNER: Right. AVLON: Which is completely insane. You want to have a debate about the definition of democratic socialists, we could do that all day long, but that's clearly what - not what they're doing.

SIDNER: Right.

AVLON: So, this, all of a sudden, because a ever action in politics creates an equal and opposite reaction. And you need to look at the language and the tactics being used. When people start talking about blood and soil appeals -

SIDNER: Right.

AVLON: That's a telltale sign that you're delving into something dangerous, judging by history, human history. And I'm a big believer in applied history. You've got to keep your eyes wide open. That's the only -- Harry Truman used to say, the only thing new in the world is the history you don't know. Pay attention to that.

SIDNER: But we've seen this - these words in history before and they have always meant fear and terror for black people, for brown people, for people from other countries, for immigrants, for people who have emigrated here. I mean it's endless.

AVLON: It's divide and conquer. I mean it's the - it's the - it's the worst form of politics, right, which is, your problems can be solved by demonizing the other guy.

SIDNER: All right, that was -- I have a thousand more questions but I think we're going to leave it there -

AVLON: For now.

SIDNER: Because it's just such an important issue that we need to be looking at every single time.

John Avlon, as always, wonderful to have you.

AVLON: Always a pleasure.

SIDNER: Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is in Israel right now, expected to deliver a tough message to Israeli partners. He's set to speak minutes from now after meeting with the Israeli prime minister. We're going to bring that to you live.

More than 40 million people are under flood alerts this morning in the Northeast as a powerful storm system is moving through. We're tracking the weather and the travel delays and cancellations that are coming with it.

And a manhunt is underway in Texas. They're looking for an inmate convicted of child sex abuse who escaped from state prison. Police now have two people under arrest, yet this man, the fugitive, still on the loose. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:06]

SIDNER: Right now, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is in Tel Aviv for meetings with senior Israeli officials. He is expected to speak at any moment. You are looking at the podium there where he will come up and make his remarks. He is there to get an assessment of military operations as pressure is growing on Prime Minister Netanyahu to change tactics in Gaza. A senior defense official told CNN that Austin wants to hear, quote, "a very clear articulation of Israel's war efforts against Hamas." The trip comes after huge protests over the weekend following news that the IDF shot and killed three Israeli hostages in northern Gaza after misidentifying them as threats.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand is joining us now from the Pentagon.

Natasha, there is great pressure intensifying on Benjamin Netanyahu, especially from the United States.

What might we hear from Secretary Austin, and what are - what are - what is the U.S. looking to -- for him to do there?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Well, Sara, Secretary Austin is really going to be looking for an assessment from Israel's defense minister, from Israel's war cabinet, about the current phase of the campaign in Gaza against Hamas, and, importantly, when it's going to wrap up because the U.S. really wants to see this current phase of operations in Gaza, which are very high-intensity, high-tempo operations that have resulted in the deaths of thousands and thousands of civilians there end by the end of this year, early next year, because not only do they feel like this, of course, is something that is not necessarily sustainable for the Israelis to continue for an extended period of time, they also feel as though international support for Israel's campaign in Gaza is steadily waning and that the time the Israelis have to complete their campaign in Gaza and kind of eradicate Hamas, as has been their stated goal, is really running out.

And so what the secretary wants to hear from the Israelis is just what their plan is to transition into this next phase that is going to be more targeted, more focused on senior Hamas leaders. And ideally something that, of course, is going to result if far fewer civilian casualties, something that the U.S. has been urging the Israelis to do more about. Just, you know, for the last several months even, not just the last several weeks. And so Secretary Austin's going to be meeting with his counterparts there, hoping to get an assessment from the next phase of the war. And he's also, importantly, going to be meeting with counterparts in the region writ large in Bahrain, in Qatar, to talk about the broader regional tensions, of course, that have led to dozens and dozens of attacks on U.S. forces in the region, as well, of course, as in the Red Sea in recent weeks, Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, I want to talk to you about what's happening in the Red Sea because it's a huge - a huge red flag. This morning oil giant BP announcing it is temporarily suspending all shipping through the Red Sea after recent attacks there. What can you tell us about this and the knock-on effect is may have?

BERTRAND: Yes, Sara, at least the fourth major company to announce it's pausing operations, in addition to three other shipping companies, just given the sheer amount of attacks that have been launched from Yemen by these Houthi rebels, which, of course, are backed by Iran, missile, drone, rocket attacks that have targeted commercial vessels, merchant ships in recent weeks pretty much relentlessly, forcing the U.S. Navy to respond to several distress calls.

[09:20:16]

So, one thing Austin will be hoping to set up this week is this multinational task force that is essentially going to be bolstered to better protect ships in the region using assets from multiple different countries in the region as part of a really solidified task force that could potentially deter these attacks in the future.

SIDNER: Yes, the fear of regional war is real. And it shows you there, these companies are taking action.

Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Joining us now for more on this is CNN military analyst and retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.

General, it's good to see you.

Let's start with kind of the big mission that Secretary Austin has as he is back in Israel and in the region. This is -- it was just earlier this month that he offered kind of that blunt advice to Israeli partners, which is, you can only win in urban warfare by protecting civilians. You've talked about this, General, when he talked about the -- the risk of replacing a tactical victory with a strategic defeat. What do you think his main mission is this time?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: First of all, Kate, what I'd like to say is, the film you just showed of Secretary Austin in Israel, I believe he was talking with Benny Gantz, who is a -- the Israeli minister, right now, of defense, or he's working with the Defense Department in Israel. And Gantz was also a chief of the Israeli defense forces. So, what you have is two former soldiers who understand battle, who understand the balancing act between a massive kinetic operation, which Israel has been going through over the last several weeks, to an understanding of what the perception is by people in the population, as well as the world stage. So, I think they were talking about that.

How can you potentially lose this fight, Israel, if you continue to show that you are massively kinetically hitting targets, even though we know those targets are still there, much like the tunnel that was seen this weekend, but how do you ensure that you're doing the right thing and messaging it the right way?

Secondly, I'd suggest -- you know, I know Lloyd Austin, and he is of the school of, what comes after the fight. So, I think, you know, a lot of people are focused on him trying to control the operational battlefield tempo of Israel right now. But I think Secretary Austin is also asking some really important questions about, what are you going to do, Israel, about Gaza after you complete this destruction of Hamas, or attempted destruction of Hamas. There are going to be a million and a half people without homes, without electricity, without water. What are you going to do about that, and what's your proposal? Because that's a critical part of any military campaign tied to politics, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And also, the IDF chief of staff has now taken responsibility for the tragic deaths of the three Israeli hostages in Gaza, mistakenly killed by IDF soldiers. Some more details have been coming out overnight. The three men were shirtless, waving a white flag when this happened. One of the men killed is Alam Shamriz (ph). And I actually spoke to his father last month. And his father, at the time, essentially said that his biggest fear is what has now happened to his son.

Let me play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AVI LULU SHAMRIZ, SON KIDNAPPED BY HAMAS, KILLED BY IDF SOLDIERS IN RAID: Right now the IDF, the Israeli military is in attack in Gaza, and I'm afraid that they might hurt him while they are coming in, in Gaza, and he might be injured from that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And he, we know now, was killed. This is just a horrible situation all around. From your experience, what does this do to the war effort, to the unit, to the IDF?

HERTLING: Well, it's fascinating that he said that because I think that's the fear of anyone who has a loved one being held hostage. That, you know, military operations will be confused, that there will be smoke and fire and darkness and closed quarters where a rescue attempt might be made. But in this case, it's even more horrific than that, that these individuals were in the open.

What I'd tell you, Kate, having experienced fratricide in combat, it not only devastates the families of those who were killed but friendly forces, it also devastates the individual that actually pulled the trigger and killed them. And it ripples through an entire unit.

This is - this is a difficult moral issue within the Israeli Defense Force. I've read the message that the chief of the IDF sent to his troops, and how he talked to his troops, saying we can't allow this to happen.

[09:25:01] We're better than this. But sometimes, truthfully, soldiers on the battlefield are frightened. They're scared. They're anxious. They're in a fire fight. Adrenaline is rushing. And, you know, it's very difficult in these kind of fights to determine, you know, civilians from hostages from terrorists. They're not wearing uniforms. You don't know what their actions are, and you're fighting in conditions where if you're a friendly force going in like the Israeli soldiers were, you're receiving sniper fire, anti-tank fire and all you're worried about is getting the first shot off so you're not killed. All of those things combined with the smoke and the dark to create these kind of situations.

That's not explaining it away. I'm sure Israel will investigate this and take a hard look and get it out to their soldiers. But it's just really tough if you've never been in a situation to understand what might have happened.

I haven't read the final report of what happened in this fratricide incident, so I don't know. But I'm sure the conditions on the battlefield were extremely tough and soldiers' adrenaline was pretty high.

BOLDUAN: Yes, General Hertling, it's always great to have you. Thank you.

HERTLING: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, there are new details this morning after a vehicle collided with an parked SUV that was part of President Joe Biden's security detail late Sunday. The president was nearby at the time of the incident and was whisked away shortly after this moment.

Take a listen.

(VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: You can hear the crash there. The incident happened last night around 8:00 as the president was leaving his campaign headquarters in Wilmington.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is following all of this. Arlette, what are you hearing from the Secret Service? Was this an accident or something else?

ARLETTE SAEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, we actually, just minutes ago, learned new details of the Wilmington Police Department's investigation into this matter. They said that it was an accident and that the 46-year-old man who was driving the car will face charges. A spokesperson for the Wilmington Police Department told our colleague D.J. Judd (ph) that the Wilmington Police have determined that this was an accidental collision and have charged the driver of the striking vehicle, a 46-year-old Wilmington man, with driving a vehicle under the influence of alcohol and inattentive driving. The Secret Service, last night, had released a statement suggesting

that this was unintentional. They have said that there was no protected interest associated with this event and the president's motorcade departed without incident. But it certainly was a startling moment.

President Biden was departing the campaign headquarters where he had met with staff over a holiday event. And you could see the look on his face as they heard that bang when that car crashed into a motorcade - or into an SUV in the president's motorcade. Secret Service quickly moved him into the car. But, today, we are learning from the Wilmington Police Department that they've determined this was an accident, that that driver is now facing charges.

SIDNER: Arlette Saenz, thank you so much for that. Good to know the news there, it was an accident but a DUI. Appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, just as the holiday travel rush is kicking off, a severe winter storm slamming the northeast, causing delays and widespread power outages. We have an update for you.

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