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Candidates Sprint to Election in Nine Weeks, Prep for Debate in One Week; Trump Looks to Crush Harris' Momentum as Election Day Nears; Netanyahu Defiant as Protesters Demand Gaza Hostage Deal. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired September 03, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are exactly one week away from the presidential debate between Vice President Harris and former President Trump. This morning, a new look at how differently they are approaching this big moment.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, Israel says it has killed a top Hamas commander responsible for the October 7th massacre.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And it's a whale of a tale. The video you have to see this morning launched into the air by a whale. A snorkeler gets the surprise of a lifetime.

I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman and Kate Baldwin. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: Check your calendars. It's the first day of that always talked about post-Labor Day sprint to the finish in this election cycle. That is 63 days to go, nine weeks exactly. And some ballots, though, will start hitting the mail in North Carolina this week. In Pennsylvania, early voting starts there in two weeks. So, calling it a sprint, no exaggeration.

And one thing the presidential candidates are sprinting to do right now is to get ready for their big debate. Ahead of their first face- to-face, CNN has new reporting on how the candidates are preparing. And maybe no surprise, they are taking very different approaches.

One major focus for both campaigns is, and will continue to be, the economy. On that, Kamala Harris is set to roll out more of her economic agenda tomorrow, and is already rolling out a major new ad buy to go with it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She'll make groceries more affordable by cracking down on price gouging. And she'll cut housing costs by taking on corporate speculators.

Middle class families build America. We need a leader who has their back. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Still, the latest polling suggests nationally Americans trust Donald Trump more than Kamala Harris in handling the economy.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is leading us off this hour. So, Priscilla, what are you learning about the focus for Harris and the new message for Harris now?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, the vice president is trying to fine-tune her economic pitch. What you heard there from that ad is affordability. And that has been the theme of her messaging on this issue, which, again, as you mentioned, she polls behind former president Donald Trump on.

Now, that ad is part of a broader $370 million buy from Labor Day to Election Day. So, they are going aggressive on the airwaves. But she's also hitting the campaign trail to also woo those working class voters and those labor groups that boosted President Joe Biden in 2020.

Now, yesterday, we saw her in Pennsylvania alongside President Joe Biden. It was the first campaign event that they have done together and, of course, in a place where he only beat the former president by less than two percentage points in 2020, so clearly an important place for them to appeal to those voters. You see the images there.

Now, the president will be hitting the campaign trail to help her as he shifts from candidate to surrogate. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Made a lot of progress, and Kamala and I are going to build on that progress and she's going to build on it. I'll be on the sidelines, but I'll do everything I can to help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now he is expected to go to Wisconsin and Michigan over the next few days again, as he hits those blue wall states areas where the campaign sees that he can be helpful, he and the West Wing and the campaign the vice president's office all trying to strategize where they can utilize him over the next few weeks.

Now, of course, the vice president also hitting the trail this week ahead of her debate preparation, some of which is already ongoing. She will be going to New Hampshire tomorrow, where she will unveil more of her economic proposals, especially focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship.

Remember last week, she previewed that one of the things that she wants to propose is tax credits for small business startups, so more on that tomorrow. But certainly, she is hitting the trail trying to get ahead on this issue ahead of that critical debate next week, where she and the campaign knows it will bring in large audiences and allow them to hear from her directly more about her policies against former President Donald Trump. [07:05:00]

BOLDUAN: And, Priscilla, this morning, the Harris-Walz campaign is also kicking off another bus tour. This focused on reproductive rights. What are you learning about it?

ALVAREZ: Sources I've spoken with in the campaign all say repro rights is where they see that they can really capitalize against former president Donald Trump, and it's an issue that the vice president was set up from the beginning of the year to be the voice on. She had kicked off her own reproductive rights tour earlier in the year. It was during that time that she actually coined the term, Trump abortion ban, something that we'll be hearing about a lot on this tour.

Now, this tour starts today in Florida. Of course, that is a place where abortion is on the ballot and where former President Donald Trump said that he would vote no on overturning their current six-week ban.

Now, the vice president, despite all of this, has been maintaining that she is the underdog in the race. So, she is certainly trying to capitalize on these issues to appeal to voters. But hear from her directly here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's going to be a tight race to the very end. So, let's not pay too much attention to those polls, because as unions and labor knows best, we know what it's like to be the underdog. And we are the underdog in this race. And we have some hard work then ahead of us.

But here's the beauty of us in this room. We like hard work. Hard work is good work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now a lot of folks will be hitting the trail for her this stop, in particular on reproductive rights. It's one of at least 50 over the next few weeks that's going to include surrogates, elected officials, and celebrities. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right, Priscilla, thank you so much for laying out for us. A sprint, it is, Sara.

SIDNER: It is on and I'm still going pretty slow.

BOLDUAN: Not even close.

SIDNER: The candidates are going fast.

This morning, we are almost two months to the day from the presidential election, which is why that sprint is happening. And while Donald Trump is not on the campaign trail today, his efforts to crush Kamala Harris' momentum are in full swing. The former president fully leaning into the insult-driven strategy that helped him win in 2016, despite pleas from advisers and aides to stick to issues, like immigration and inflation.

CNN's Steve Contorno is joining me now. Trump on the trail, not on the trail right now. What are you learning about his strategy? Is it the same thing that we saw in 2016?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Well, Sara, it's very clear that as this race has tightened, and as we've gotten closer to November, Donald Trump is leaning on what has worked for him in the past. And in 2016, that was a very much attack and insult-driven campaign. If we look at just the past few weeks, he has questioned Vice President Harris' racial identity, shared a sexist social media post describing Harris and a lewd sex ass. He is calling her an extremist and a communist right out of the 2016 GOP playbook, refusing to say if he will accept the election results and also digging in and counterpunching in the face of controversies, which is what he's done over this dust-up about what happened at Arlington National Cemetery. So, that's one way we're seeing sort of this reprise of 2016.

Another way is his focus on immigration. You know, it's an issue that he clearly wants to talk about the most, just as he did in 2016. I was at an event on Friday for Moms for Liberty. This is a group that is focused on education and school issues and young children. And he was turning almost every question into an immigration topic.

We've also seen him bring back some of the people who helped him win in 2016, for example, Corey Lewandowski, one of his top advisers in 2016, is now back in the fold. So, this is all just further evidence that as this race has gotten closer, Donald Trump is leaning on what has worked for him in the past.

SIDNER: His aides and some of his advisers have been telling him not to do this. Is this working for him?

CONTORNO: And some of that chatter has died down recently, Sara. I think a lot of people just realized the former president is who he is. And certainly if you look at national polls, it does show that Vice President Harris is starting to pull ahead in that national contest. There is a recent poll from ABC that showed her lead at 52 percent.

But the Trump campaign would tell you, and certainly Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton know this very well. This race is fought not in the national not in a national poll, but in these tight battlegrounds. And if Donald Trump can't effectively you know, blunt some of this enthusiasm for Harris by going on the attack in these key battlegrounds, in Wisconsin, in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, some of these Sun Belt states, that is more important to the Trump campaign at this point than how he is doing in some national poll.

SIDNER: All right. Steve Contorno, thank you so much. I appreciate your reporting this morning. John?

BERMAN: All right. New overnight, Israel says it has killed a top Hamas commander, as Benjamin Netanyahu says it is up to Hamas to make ceasefire concessions. [07:10:07]

Not with my notes, you don't. A federal court will hear a case against Donald Trump sued for using his song at campaign rallies without permission.

And an American hero and his stomach, we have new video from the moments after Joey Chestnut shattered his own hotdog eating record. Hide the kids.

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[07:15:00]

BERMAN: This morning, the pressure is growing on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a deal to free hostages after the murder of those six hostages in Gaza. It comes as we are getting word of new operations against Hamas leaders.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv this morning. Jeremy, what are you hearing from the families of hostages after this hard line taken yesterday by the Israeli prime minister?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, the families of the hostages are not giving up hope that they can try and change the Israeli government's posture. For the third day in a row, they are planning to organize protests, not only here in Tel Aviv, but across the country, to raise their voices and demand that this Israeli government prioritize a hostage release deal over all else.

But so far, the Israeli prime minister does not seem to be heeding those cries from those families and the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who we've seen carrying out protests over the last couple of days. Last night in a press conference and said he doubled down on one of the core demands that has become a major sticking point in these negotiations, and that is his belief that Israeli troops need to remain along that Philadelphia corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border. That's despite the fact that Hamas is insisting that Israeli troops must withdraw from that area in order to get to a deal. And so that leaves us with a lot of uncertainty about how these hostage and ceasefire negotiations can move forward.

There was a lot of hope over the last couple of days that perhaps this moment, the deaths of these six Israeli hostages who were killed by their Hamas captors that perhaps this could be the moments that would be a turning point in these negotiations. And yet what we are seeing instead is the Israeli prime minister doubling down, showing no signs of changing his position, even as his defense and security establishment. They are privately saying that they could leave that Philadelphia corridor in order to get a hostage release deal.

And meanwhile, there is heightened concern for the lives of these hostages as Hamas says that it will -- admits that it killed executed those six hostages and warns that more hostages will return in coffins if the Israeli government tries to rescue more hostages through military operations rather than through a deal, John? BERMAN: And, Jeremy. Meanwhile we are getting word that operations against Hamas leaders, they do continue.

DIAMOND: Yes, no doubt about it, John. A Hamas battalion commander who led the attacks on October 7th in the community of Netiv HaAsara, very close to the Gaza border, he was killed in an Israeli strike. According to the Israeli military, he and seven Hamas militants from the Daraj Tuffah Battalion were also killed, the Israeli military said.

This is the Hamas commander who led this paraglider raid on the community of Netiva HaAsara, which we visited actually in the first weeks after October 7th. And we witnessed the carnage that he and the other Hamas militants who raided that village carried out on that very, very dark day. He has now been killed, according to the Israeli military, alongside seven others. John?

BERMAN: Jeremy Diamond for us in Tel Aviv this morning, thank you so much, Jeremy. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, two Marines assaulted by a crowd in Turkey. What happened to lead up to this moment and what the Navy is saying about this now? We've got much more on this ahead.

And landslides in Los Angeles sparking new evacuations in an upscale neighborhood, and this morning, why there are big concerns this could get worse.

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[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: 15 people are in custody this morning after two U.S. Marines were attacked by a mob on the streets of Turkey yesterday. Video shows a crowd surrounding the men, even at one point putting a bag over one of the men's heads, and chants of, Yankees go home, were heard.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is following this one from the Pentagon. And, Oren, what is the Navy saying about this?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Kate, these two Marines were on the USS Wasp, which has been in the eastern Mediterranean for several weeks now. The Wasp pulled into Izmir, Turkey, and these Marines got some shore leave. So, you can see them there in civilian clothes, and they were essentially allowed to relax and go out on the town.

And that's when this happens at about 3:30 in the afternoon local time yesterday. A crowd, a small crowd that you can see in the video there, assaults two of these Marines, holds onto them and essentially grapples them so they can't get away, puts a bag over one of their heads. In the video, you can hear one of the Marines repeatedly calling for help. And then a short time later, the crowd starts chanting over and over again, Yankee, go home.

According to the Navy, several other Marines in the area came to help out, got these Marines out of there, and were able to go to a local hospital to get checked out. According to the Navy, they are doing well and are back on the USS Wasp. The Navy is now investigating along with NCIS and local authorities. Local governorship says 15 people were taken into custody as a result of this incident, including two women and 13 men.

So, again these Marines assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. No Marines were detained as part of this. They're now back on the Wasp, but certainly a troubling incident between the U.S. and a NATO ally.

BOLDUAN: And, Oren, what could happen next here? I mean, obviously you said they're investigating, but what could the next step be?

LIEBERMANN: Well, first it's important to know that again, no Marines were detained as part of this story out of the realm of what's possible here. Now, it's a function of local authorities investigating. The Navy is cooperating, as are the Marines, who spoke to local authorities there. But now this becomes effectively, I think, a local police matter to see how far police want to go in investigating and prosecuting those 15 people they have taken into custody.

BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean, this video is super scary regardless. Thank you, Oren, so much for that. I really appreciate it. Sarah?

SIDNER: All right. This morning, controversy over this political poster, why the Philadelphia Eagles are removing these posters showing Kamala Harris in Eagles gear.

[07:25:00]

And Donald Trump faces the music. Why this moment has his lawyers in court today.

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SIDNER: This week, federal Judge Tanya Chutkan will hold a hearing in Washington in Donald Trump's election subversion case. It will be the first since the Supreme Court granted the former president broad immunity, prompting Special Counsel Jack Smith to file a revised indictment in that case.

[07:30:04]

CNN's Zach Cohen is joining us now. What can we expect on Thursday when this case comes up?