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Polls: No Clear Leader in Presidential Race One Week From Debate; Dr. Gupta Answers Your Questions About Alzheimer's Disease; Louisiana Schools Required to Display 10 Commandments in Class; Elon Musk Aims to Woo Advertisers Back to X. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired June 20, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:32:38]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And exactly one week, President Biden, Donald Trump, facing off in a pivotal debate right here on CNN. But what do the polls tell us about how Americans feel about these two men as we head into it? We've seen a lot of polls from this gentleman right here, CNN Senior Reporter -- Senior Data Reporter, Chief Data, whatever, you've got a lot of titles.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Just one.

SIDNER: Harry Enten, my buddy.

ENTEN: There we go.

SIDNER: So as we go into this debate, what is sort of the national landscape?

ENTEN: What is the national landscape? All right, last night Fox News came out with a poll, had Biden plus two, well within the margin of error. But you see, there's a bit of a trend line from the beginning of the year where Trump was plus two in that poll.

So Biden gaining a little bit. But of course, I don't like to rely on just one poll. Let's take a look at the aggregate to see if we have that same trend line.

And yeah, we do, Sara. You know, Trump had a small advantage, again, within the margin of error back in February. But look now, we're tied in the aggregate. So I think overall, the big takeaway here is it's a very close race nationally with no clear leader.

SIDNER: That should surprise no one, right? I mean, we've been talking about this back and forth, back and forth. I do want to ask you about what we've been hearing from former President Trump, who has been saying all manner of things about the cognition of President Biden, and lowering really expectations from people who are going to be watching this debate.

ENTEN: Yeah, you know, I thought that when folks were asked who will win the first debate, that Trump would have a major advantage on this issue. But according to the new Fox News poll, in fact, only by a five-point margin do people expect that Trump will beat Biden in the first debate. I expect it to be much larger.

I think a lot of Joe Biden fans expect to be much larger, ergo, he could easily exceed those expectations and perhaps gain the polls. But in fact, it's just Trump by five. That's not much different where we were going into the first debate back in 2020 in September, where Trump was favored by just one point in a USC poll.

So basically, debate expectations here are about in line with where they were four years ago, Sara. Trump with a small advantage. Of course, I will note that Biden easily won in the post-debate polls back in 2020. We'll see if the same thing occurs right here.

SIDNER: No. What you think before and what you think after can be divergent, for sure.

ENTEN: Absolutely.

SIDNER: I want to talk to you about the Electoral College. Some Americans love it, some do not. What is happening when it comes to that?

ENTEN: Yeah, I think Donald Trump -- Donald Trump fans love it based upon what they saw back in 2016. So this is the road to 270, and it's Biden's best path based on the polls and past results. And basically, if you want to look here, it's these yellow states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin.

[08:35:08]

And where are the polls right now here? Look how tight they are here. Two-point lead for Trump in Pennsylvania, tied in Michigan, tied in Wisconsin. If he carries all three of these, Biden does. He gets to exactly 270 electoral votes. Quite a thing going into this first debate. A lot on the line, Sara.

SIDNER: Right, what you need to win. Thank you so much, Harry.

ENTEN: Thank you.

SIDNER: I appreciate it.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. With us now, strategic communications expert Lee Carter and Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky.

Julie, we were looking at those numbers right there from Harry. You saw a four-point swing in the Fox News poll, a two-point swing in the aggregate. That's some movement. Not a lot, but a little movement. Can you point to a why here?

JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, two things, I think. One is obviously Trump is a convicted felon now, which he wasn't a few months ago. Independent voters really don't like that in their president.

The second, I think, is that public sentiment about the economy is always a lagging indicator. The economy has been doing well. Voters haven't believed that it's been doing well, but now they're finally starting to see the effects of it in their own pocketbooks. And I think because of that, it's starting to really trend for the Democrats and for Biden.

BERMAN: I don't have the number in front of you, but in that Fox News poll, the approval of Biden on the economy is like a 35 or 36%, which doesn't sound good.

ROGINSKY: Record high.

BERMAN: But it's a record high in that Fox News poll. Lee, what do you see going on here in these numbers?

LEE CARTER, STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: One thing that I'm really looking at is the independent voter, and I think that's going to be the key to this election, in particular, I think, female voters. And the shift in female independent voters has been 10 points, 9-point advantage to Biden on the independence as a whole. And I think that is something to really look at.

And a lot of people are saying, how are people changing their mind at this point in the game? Well, I think what you're seeing is that support for Joe Biden is a little bit soft. And there's some people who are tepid about supporting Donald Trump because the issues that matter most to them about the economy and immigration are important.

But when they look at what's happened with his convicted status and when they look at what's happening otherwise, they're like, I'm just not sure that I can vote for Donald Trump.

The other thing that I think is really important is we're starting to hear Joe Biden talk more about these potential two Supreme Court justice vacancies that are going to come up in the next term. I think that is incredibly important to independent voters, in particular female voters who are going to go out and vote on women's rights. And I think that's something that Donald Trump is going to really struggle with. And it's a big, important issue that Joe Biden really needs to go after.

BERMAN: Interesting. I mean, again, we can't know for sure what is behind a little bit of a movement in the numbers, but the criminal conviction is one thing that's happened here.

Maggie Haberman was on with Anderson last night and said what she expects to see in this debate is that President Biden will mention the fact that Donald Trump is now a convicted felon and that Trump will respond. This is based on Maggie's reporting by bringing up Hunter Biden's convictions. How wise do you think that is?

ROGINSKY: I don't think it's a great strategy for two reasons. One is if he thinks he's going to tweak Biden by doing that, I'm pretty sure that Biden's ready for it. They've been prepping for a long time for it.

The second is, look, a lot of Americans have struggled with these issues that Hunter Biden struggled with. And a lot of parents have children who are alcoholics or addicted to drugs or have other issues.

The one thing about Joe Biden that I think everybody understands is he really loves his son. And as a father, if he conveys that love for his son on the debate stage, I actually think it's a net positive for him because it's the same struggle that a lot of parents have.

Look, I wouldn't disown my son if something happened to him. That was really awful. And I think most parents wouldn't either. And I think that's something that Biden will convey. And if Trump goes after Hunter, I think it will be a huge unforced error.

BERMAN: I think there's little question, Lee, that. President Biden can be heard at a personal level by a discussion about Hunter Biden, but is there a way to hurt him politically on the debate stage on the issue of Hunter Biden?

CARTER: You know, I think it's really interesting because if Hunter Biden was not guilty, I think then it could really have hurt Joe Biden in many ways. That two-tier system of justice argument could have been exploited. I think in this way, Donald Trump should probably stay away from Hunter Biden entirely.

And I think some of the messaging he's done already where he says, you know what, Hunter Biden isn't relevant. What really is relevant is some of the bigger concerns that we have about Joe Biden himself. And I think that's a smarter strategy.

And if I were Donald Trump, rather than going after Hunter Biden at all, what I would be doing is leaning into some of the messaging that he's been doing that's working, interestingly enough, where he's wearing his conviction as sort of almost a badge of honor saying, I'm doing this as my patriotic duty. I'm going to fight for the Constitution. I will -- you know, and somehow, and I'm not sure that I quite fully understand and appreciate it yet, is that voters are finding that, you know what, he's willing to fight for us and we've got to fight for him.

And he's almost like a martyr in this way. And that messaging is actually getting his base galvanized. And I think that's where he should focus. I think he should stay away from Hunter Biden. I agree with Julie.

BERMAN: Lee Carter, Julie Roginsky, great to have you both here. Thank you so much.

[08:40:02]

And of course, just one week until history, the earliest ever general election presidential debate right here on CNN, moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, live in Atlanta, 9 p.m. Eastern on Thursday. And of course, streaming on Max.

I cannot wait to be sued. Well, Governor of Louisiana goading groups who want to fight his new law, a law requiring the 10 Commandments to be displayed in large font in all public-school classrooms.

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[08:45:01]

SIDNER: We've got some breaking news for you now. This hour, rapper Travis Scott has been arrested in Miami early this morning.

CNN's Isabel Rosales has the very latest on this.

What is the reason for this arrest in Miami-Dade County? You're seeing the mugshot there.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sara, good morning to you. We are working to get those details into what exactly happened here.

But here's what we do know. Songwriter, singer and rapper Travis Scott arrested just this morning 4:35 a.m. and booked into Miami-Dade County Jail. The charges, according to the jail documents here are two, trespassing property after a warning and also disorderly intoxication.

We can also see that a $650 bond has been submitted. So he is going through this process of eventually getting released here from jail. We do know that Travis Scott is on tour right now, the Circus Maximus Tour. And he was slated to be in the Netherlands, could still be going there here in the next eight days to begin the European arm of his tour.

Now, CNN has reached out to reps for Scott to get more details into what happened here and for comment.

And Sara, it's also notable that this comes just days after Justin Timberlake's own arrest for DWI in New York. So we have superstars here with legal woes.

SIDNER: Isabel Rosales, you got that right. Thank you so much. I know you'll be watching this and getting more details as they become available to you.

Of course, we had Justin Timberlake, who had just been arrested on DWI on Long Island. So we will be watching that case as well. Appreciate your time.

John.

BERMAN: This morning, Dr. Sanjay Gupta on call to answer your medical questions. The topic is Alzheimer's disease. The focus of his documentary, The Last Alzheimer's Patient, which is now streaming on Max. Here with us now seen a Chief Medical Correspondent and Neurosurgeon, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, great to see you. So this question comes from Gita in Houston, asking, can daily mental exercises or doing words with friends or paper-based crossword puzzles reduce your odds of getting dementia?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, look, there's a lot of questions about this, and people often use brain training exercises with the hopes of reducing their risk. The truth is there's -- there's not a lot of data on this to suggest that actually reduces your risk of dementia. What crossword puzzles and word games are probably really good at is making you better at crossword puzzles and word games.

What you -- think of it like this, what you need to be doing to really build what's called cognitive resilience in your brain is doing different sorts of activities, taking up a new hobby, learning a new instrument, learning a new language, learning to paint, for example. So something that you can do that's a hobby that preferably includes some sort of motor component, something with your hands. Those are going to be better things, instruments and painting, for example.

The best evidence, John, interestingly, is really around movement. When we are moving, when brisk movement, you tend to generate more growth of new brain cells. If you do that with somebody else, cultivating that connection at the same time, even better.

So, John, for you, take a brisk walk with Kerry, your wife. That is probably going to do more for your brain in the future than doing a crossword puzzle.

BERMAN: She walks too fast, though. I'm always trying to catch up. And so it makes my brain agitated. But --

GUPTA: You're better, John.

BERMAN: No. So Jesse from Atlanta asks, do you suggest those that have a family history of Alzheimer's get the screening test that you took as a baseline, which was really remarkable to see, or at what age or not is it necessary?

GUPTA: Yeah, this is -- this is really interesting. And I want to be clear that what we saw in the documentary, what we showed in the documentary, I was part of a clinical trial. Richard Isaacson is a preventive neurologist who's sort of looking at how do we prevent Alzheimer's down the road?

I got to tell you, the testing is sophisticated. I mean, it's a lot of it is cognitive testing. Like quick, John, answer -- name as many words starting with the letter T as you can in the next 60 seconds. The longer the word, the more unusual word, the better.

Now do the same thing for animals. It's really interesting. But they also test your bone density and things like that. If you're trying to figure out, look, is this age related versus Alzheimer's?

There's a list on the screen here of sort of the ways to think about it. Forgetting the name of a family member, that would be concerning. Forgetting the name of an acquaintance? Not as much so.

I always say like forgetting your car keys. That's -- that's normal. That's age related. Looking at those car keys for an extra second and saying, I can't remember what these are for. What are these keys for exactly? That would be more concerning.

So these are the ways to sort of think about it. The testing that I had was pretty sophisticated. There is a website called retain your brain, retainyourbrain.com. It is a digital sort of clinical trial that is ongoing. So much of what we showed in the documentary can now be done online. So I think it's going to be more available to the masses.

[08:50:05]

BERMAN: I got to say, these questions and your answers are so relatable. So I really appreciate you doing them.

Lisa from North Carolina wants to know --

GUPTA: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- my mother and grandmother had Alzheimer's. Should I be tested for it? And this is a frequent question you get for people, you know, the predisposition issue.

GUPTA: Yeah, look, I'm a fan of testing. I think for a long time there was two concerns. One, the testing wasn't that good. And two, what are you going to do about it? Right. It's sort of preordained. I can't act on it. So it's just going to cause me worry and anxiety. I think both those things are changing.

The testing is getting better and it's becoming clearer. There are things you can do about it. First of all, keep in mind, a quarter of people who have Alzheimer's do have some sort of family history. But that also means 75% of people who have Alzheimer's don't. So there's a relationship here, but it's not a really strong relationship.

Having said that, getting your genetic testing, I think, could be important because I think there are ways to act upon that now. But also keeping in mind that there is a strong relation between the body and the brain. So all these modifiable risk factors that you see on the screen, those are really important to control. We typically think of those as related to heart disease, but now we know they are strongly related to dementia as well.

One of the -- one of the ones I'll highlight, John, number two, their hearing loss. It's very interesting how many people come in with their families saying, I think my loved one is developing signs of dementia. Do a hearing test. And you realize that, in fact, it's been undiagnosed hearing problems for a long time that could be contributing to those symptoms.

So don't jump to the diagnosis of dementia. Realize there are modifiable risk factors. And I think at this point, it's good. It's good information to go ahead and get the testing.

BERMAN: I'd say this is all great information, Sanjay. It's empowering because there are things you can do. And I think so often people feel helpless in the face of Alzheimer's. I hope you will pay attention to what you're saying today and yesterday. Great stuff.

GUPTA: Got it, John. Thank you.

BERMAN: Thank you very much.

And you could submit your questions using the QR code on the screen. You may see them answered in the next on call with Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sara.

SIDNER: That was great, John and Sanjay Gupta.

All right. Louisiana, now the first state in the country to require the 10 commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom, including university.

Governor Jeff Landry is calling the law one of his favorites. But it's already, of course, catching heat from several liberty groups. State Senator Royce Duplessis joins us now from New Orleans.

Thank you, sir, so much for joining us. I just first want to get your reaction to this law, which would have the 10 commandments on the wall for, you know, first graders all the way up to college.

STATE SEN. ROYCE DUPLESSIS (D-LA): Actually, kindergartners all the way up to K-12, so it's extreme, it's exclusionary, it undermines religious freedoms, it's unnecessary, and it's blatantly unconstitutional. This is not what we should be doing. And I want to say that as someone who is a Christian, I was raised Catholic, I learned the 10 commandments, but the public classroom is just simply not somewhere we should be mandating the display of the 10 commandments.

SIDNER: Royce, what -- I guess the question is, what happened to the separation of church and state? The governor calling this his -- one of his favorite laws.

DUPLESSIS: Well, this was clearly and is clearly part of an extreme right wing Christian nationalist agenda, where it seems as though the governor and my colleagues who pushed this law did it with the intent to be sued and to challenge the right to put this kind of material in classrooms. I think the intent was to bring it up to the Supreme Court, where they are seeking to push this right wing extreme Christian nationalist agenda.

This has already been decided at the Supreme Court. This was trial 40 years ago, where it was said clearly we have a separation of church and state. And not only do we have a separation of church and state, the selection of the interpretation of the 10 commandments is also problematic. Because the version and the language that's been selected to be displayed is not one that everybody agrees upon.

So it's just incredibly problematic. Like I said, it flies in the face of religious freedom. It flies in the face of the Constitution. You don't have to be a constitutional scholar to know this is clearly unconstitutional, but even more so it's just unnecessary. There's language in the bill that requires it to be clearly legible

and easily readable. But it's ignoring the fact that nearly 40% of kindergartners are not reading at grade level. The real focus should be emphasizing and teaching kids how to read and write, not indoctrinating them with this type of moral agenda.

And, you know, I find it interesting that many of the people who are pushing this are the same people who say that we shouldn't be trying to indoctrinate our children in classrooms. So I find it very hypocritical. I find it very problematic. We have a teacher shortage. I think this is going to contribute to making it more difficult to hire teachers. I think it's going to make it more problematic, and it's going to make many kids feel excluded.

[08:55:22]

And again, I say this as a Christian and someone who learned the 10 commandments growing up. I was raised Catholic, and I don't have an issue with the Ten Commandments. My issue is, and the issue of many, including those who subscribe to the Ten Commandments, is that it's clearly unconstitutional, it's unnecessary, it's extremist, and it flies in the face of religious freedom.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you what you will be telling families and students who are of another faith, for example, if they're of the Buddhist faith, that this is not a part of their faith. How are you going to explain this, and how will, do you think teachers are going to have to start explaining this to the students?

DUPLESSIS: Yeah, well, again, that's why this is just really problematic. I think that's the question that the governor needs to answer. I think that's a question that those who are pushing this and who passed this legislation need to answer, because I've opposed this legislation from the outset because of those students that you just described, because of those families that you just described, because of those teachers that you just described.

And let's take it a step further. In the Ten Commandments, it clearly says, thou shall not kill. Well, I think the bill should have been amended to say thou shall not kill, except for when the Louisiana Department of Corrections is carrying out capital punishment, because again, the same folks who are pushing for the Ten Commandments to be displayed are also the same folks who are pushing for the death penalty.

So how do you reconcile that? How do you explain to a first grader to say thou shall not kill, except in instances when the Louisiana Department of Corrections is seeking to carry out capital punishment? It's just really problematic. And I think it's taking us further in the wrong direction as a state.

SIDNER: There are other commandments like, thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife, and should a kindergartner ask about this? You know, what does a teacher do as they go forward? Do you expect that to happen? DUPLESSIS: Another great question. This same legislative session, they passed, another great question, this same legislative session, legislation was passed saying that you cannot discuss sex or sexuality or anything of that nature. So how do you reconcile those two things?

It's just really problematic, very hypocritical, and just unnecessary and exclusionary. It's going to cause many more problems than it's actually going to solve, and it's going to -- we're going to waste taxpayer dollars as a state defending this in court. The state's probably going to lose all to prove a point and to manufacture culture wars.

SIDNER: You sound like you're worried about the money it's going to take, but also the expectation, the hope that it goes to the Supreme Court, and that the Supreme Court, because of its makeup, ends up ruling in its favor. You do not see that happening though, do you?

DUPLESSIS: I believe that is the intent, that it goes to the Supreme Court. It's certainly my hope that it is struck down. I think that even with this conservative Supreme Court, they will see that this is clearly unconstitutional, and you've seen some changes in terms of the decisions that have been made and some inferences that there should be a moral basis for Christianity. But I'm just -- I just think this is a bridge too far.

You open this door, then where does it stop? If you say that this is permissible, then I think that then gives the state to now regulate churches, and the state can come in and say, well, Church X and Church Y, you're not teaching the right version of the Ten Commandments, and you're not teaching the right version of scripture. I think that's a problem you have from a constitutional standpoint, if the Supreme Court were to deem this acceptable and constitutional.

So I think it's a very slippery slope. It's very extreme. That's why I think that the Supreme Court will likely strike it down.

SIDNER: Louisiana State Senator Ron -- Royce, sorry, Duplessis, thank you so much for walking us through what's happening in your state right now.

DUPLESSIS: Thank you.

SIDNER: We appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: So first he told advertisers to go F themselves. Now Elon Musk is trying to sweet talk advertisers back to X, which was Twitter. CNN Senior Media Reporter Oliver Darcy here with the details.

Oliver.

OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: Yeah, John, this is quite the advertiser metamorphosis for Elon Musk. He was at Cannes Lions yesterday trying to convince advertisers, major advertisers, which have fled his platform X in droves to come back. And he's pitching this as a -- as a platform that is brand safe.

But of course we know that there are major problems with X, namely Elon Musk's own behavior, you know. John, he promotes conspiracy theories. He uses his platform as the most followed person on that site to launch ugly attacks on his critics. He smears the news media. On and on it goes.

[09:00:07]

And so I think that's the problem he's going to have when he's trying to convince his advertisers to come back to the site.

His own behavior is that toxic behavior that they don't really want their brands that they carefully curate to be associated with.

BERMAN: Oliver Darcy, great to see you this morning. Thank you so much for being with us.

Our biggest hour of CNN New Central starts right now.