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Poll Show Trump & Harris In Tight Race For The White House; Women To Be Informed Of Breast Density From Mammogram; Officer Placed On Leave After Dolphins Star Tyreek Hill Is Detained; DirecTV Pays Customers To Subscribe To Rivals; iPhone 16 Is Set To Make Its Debut At Apple's Big Event Today. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 09, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:30:58]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new for you this morning. New polling shows the race for the White House as tight as it can get, making the debate that is one sleep away even more consequential.

A New York Times/Siena College poll showing there is no clear leader among likely voters between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Joining me now to discuss is Democratic strategist Doug Thornell and Republican strategist Neil Chatterjee. Thank you both for coming on.

As you saw, there were 35 hours. Again, I think one sleep is a better way to say it, but that's just me. Mr. Chatterjee, I am going to start with you.

Are you surprised that this is in a dead heat now?

NEIL CHATTERJEE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: No, I'm not. I mean, I think this was pretty predictable. I think coming off the assassination attempt and the Republican convention, there had been a lot of momentum for former President Trump.

That was obviously flipped when Vice President Harris was swapped in for President Biden as the nominee. And there was a lot of initial excitement and enthusiasm and momentum in her direction. Everyone sort of predicted at that time that as we would get into the fall, as we would get past Labor Day, the race would settle.

And it's basically where it was before the first debate between former President Trump and President Biden that led to President Biden dropping out. It's been a stable race for a while, so this doesn't really surprise me.

SIDNER: Mr. Thornell, what does -- I said Mr. Chatterjee, so I have to use last names just to start, to be fair. What does Kamala Harris --

DOUG THORNELL, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Appreciate it.

SIDNER: -- have to do in this debate, remembering that this is, you know, she has not debated as much as Donald Trump has debated. He has debated and debated and debated over the years. What does she need to do?

THORNELL: That's right. This will be Donald Trump's seventh presidential debate, and the Vice President's first. I think she really just needs to focus squarely on the issues that middle-class families are concerned about. She's got a strong vision for the country, where she wants to take the country, making sure that everyone has a chance at opportunity.

I think you contrast that with President Trump and his agenda, which is essentially looking out for himself and billionaires. And I think that's really going to be an important point for her to make. Stay on the offense. Don't follow the shiny objects that Donald Trump is going to try to throw out there. And talk about the issues that matter and go on offense. And I think she's going to be fine.

I think -- look, he's a very unpredictable debater. It's very hard to prepare for someone like that. He's done this six times before. So, he's -- he's obviously not going to be afraid of the lights. But she's got a real opportunity here.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about something. I don't know if I would call it shiny, but something that's been thrown out there by Donald Trump. Let's pull up what he tweeted out. And in it, he goes after what he calls anybody who he thinks is going to basically defraud the election, who cheated, as he put it.

And he talks about putting people in jail, including those members of the Department of Justice. Is this something that she needs to -- and this is first to you, Doug. Is this something that you think she needs to address that this idea that 2020 was stolen, that Donald Trump keeps pushing that, and now he's threatening people who are, you know, official pollsters and official folks that are going to be going through with this election.

Is this something that she needs to address, or should she just stick to sort of what her policies are?

THORNELL: Well, we're dealing with someone who is running a campaign on revenge and retribution in Donald Trump. He's embraced the tenets of the Project 2025 plan, which will give him unchecked and unprecedented power. And it's scary to a lot of people.

I think that's why you saw Lynne Cheney, you saw Dick Cheney. You've seen Republicans who played senior-level roles in the Trump administration like Mark Milley, Mark Esper, John Bolton, even former Vice President Mike Pence have raised real concerns about Donald Trump's fitness for office and what he would do for our democracy.

[09:35:08]

So, I think those are all issues she'll probably touch on. And look, there's a reason why I think the issue and the theme of freedom is so central to the Vice President's campaign, and it's really on the ballot here, and I think it's something that she's got to talk about.

SIDNER: Neil, aren't people sort of tired of the re-litigation of 2020? It was a free and fair election. Is this something that is going to hurt Donald Trump, you think, if he starts doing this on the debate stage?

CHATTERJEE: I mean, I think it's pretty well baked in at this point. We've been hearing him air these grievances for the past couple of years now.

I think this is the former president trying to work the refs, if you will, to try and, you know, set the stage in the event that should he lose, he'll once again say that it wasn't a legit election. I don't think he should focus on this in any way on the debate stage. He needs to make this about Vice President Harris, try and define her, pin her down on the economy, on the border, on crime, on her flip-flopping on various positions.

I think any breaths he takes re-litigating 2020 will be a mistake. He's got to make this about defining the Vice President and the future.

SIDNER: Doug, I want to go to one more thing in the poll that really stood out. It was interesting that 28 percent of voters said when asked whether they still need to learn more about the candidate, 28 percent said they did need to learn more about Kamala Harris and where she stands. Only 9 percent said so for Donald Trump. What does she need to do here? That is a huge difference, and they want to know more about where she stands and also potentially who she is.

THORNELL: I think this is a real opportunity for the Vice President, for her to lay out, again, her vision for the middle class, what she's going to do to strengthen and protect Social Security and Medicare, what she's going to do to protect reproductive freedoms.

So, I would actually, if it was the other way around, I think it's more concerning. Trump really has little room to grow here. He's largely pretty much defined, and a lot of the issues about him are baked in. She has a real opportunity with this debate. There's going to be tens of millions of people watching to lay out a very clear vision for the future on the middle class, what she's going to do for the middle class, what she's going to do to protect our national security, what she's going to do to keep our community safe.

So this, I see that as a positive sign. She's been in this race for, what, eight weeks? So of course, there's still more that she needs to do, and that's why there's a debate and there's still, you know, two months to go in this campaign.

SIDNER: Doug Thornell, Neil Chatterjee, thank you gentlemen both for coming in bright and early this Monday morning.

John? JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So this morning, a new important development in the effort to isolate breast cancer. What to know ahead of your next mammogram?

And why DirecTV is now paying its customers to subscribe to their competitors?

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[09:42:45]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: An important change for women and families just announced starting tomorrow. The FDA is requiring that all patients who get mammograms to be notified of their breast density, a key risk factor in detecting breast cancer.

CNN's Jacqueline Howard has much more on this for us. She's joining us right now.

Jacqueline, talk about the importance of this change and what it means.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN REPORTER (on-camera): Yes, Kate. Well, knowing your breast density is so important for two reasons, one, we know that having dense breasts is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. But number two having dense breasts can also make it more difficult to read a mammogram itself.

The reason why breast density is a measurement of how much fibro glandular tissue you have in your breasts compared with fatty tissue and the more fibroglandular tissue the denser the breasts but that fibroglandular tissue can appear white on a mammogram in the same way a tumor or a lump may appear. So, in some cases it can mask or hide signs of cancer.

So that's why knowing your breast density is so important with this new rule that goes into effect tomorrow, Kate, it will make it a national uniform standard for all patients to have their Breast Density Information on their mammogram result letter. In some states, 39 states in Washington, D.C., they already have this requirement at the local level. But what changes here Kate is now this will be a national requirement for all patients.

That's the takeaway.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and -- and how many women are impacted? How many women have dense breasts? Because the key here and you're getting at this is the accuracy of mammograms can drop pretty dramatically when you're talking about -- when you're -- when the mammogram has to do with dense breasts and also the recommendation for women who are looking at this?

HOWARD (on-camera): Absolutely, and we know about half of women ages 40 or older have dense breasts. So that's how many people will be impacted by this new FDA rule. And the reason why this is important like you said Kate, if you have dense breasts in your mammogram result letter that notifies you of your breast density, you'll be recommended to talk to your doctor about what your breast density means for you and your risk. But also, your doctor will likely recommend for you to do some additional screening probably with an ultrasound, probably have an MRI of the breast because we know of how breast density can impact your mammogram results specifically.

[09:45:13]

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. This is an important, important change from the FDA.

Jacqueline, thank you very much.

Sara?

SIDNER: I'm going to start revising what I say. Get your mammogram and your ultrasound.

BOLDUAN: There you go. That's exactly right. I mean, because half of all women have dense breasts --

SIDNER: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- it's basically this is what's needed.

SIDNER: It's key. All right. Thank you very much. That was really good information.

All right, Miami-Dade police attained an NFL star who was literally on his way to the stadium just before kickoff. What has happened there? We had talked to his agent earlier today. The story you need to see it.

All right. It feels like we say this every single year, but big changes are coming to the iPhone. What we can expect from today's big Apple event and why you should prepare for AI on your phone?

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[09:50:26]

SIDNER: A Miami-Dade police officer on administrative leave after putting NFL star Tyreek Hill in handcuffs while face down on the pavement.

Hill was on his way to work, you know, for his Sunday night football gig. Video of the incident shows four officers surrounding him, and he's lying there on the pavement, his cars are flying by. Officers released the NFL star after detaining him for a short time, but his agent told us earlier this morning, that will not be the end of it. He is furious about what happened for an alleged traffic violation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DREW ROSENHAUS, TYREEK HILL'S NFL AGENT: He was sore. He was hurting. He was physically and mentally destroyed. This is something where we're seeking answers and we will pursue this to the fullest extent of the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: By the way, Hill went on to score a touchdown in his game and the end zone celebration, including a teammate pretending to handcuff him the way that he coped after this.

All right, Boeing and the mechanics union have reached a tentative deal to avoid a massive labor strike that was set to begin this Friday.

The union represents 33,000 Boeing employees on the West Coast before the deal can take effect rank and file members have to approve it. Union leaders praise the tentative deal, saying it achieves the union's goals.

And new this morning, an unusual move in the DirectTV Disney fight. DirectTV is now paying its customers who subscribe to rival providers as it continues to battle with Disney after the two failed to reach a new distribution deal.

The cable company is offering customers credits and discounts to sign up for either Sling or Fubo so they can watch tonight's Monday Night Football game. No one should miss that.

The game between the Jets and the 49ers, the Jets. I saw a slight movement of your eyes, John. It wasn't a nice one. That is going to happen on ABC and ESPN, which are both currently blacked out for DirecTV customers. More than 11 million subscribers have been affected by Disney pulling stations from DirecTV's lineup.

BERMAN: I feel that everyone should be able to watch the Jets lose. Just to be clear, I hope it's something everyone gets to see no matter what service they use.

SIDNER: John.Berman. Oh, sorry. If you have complaints, just send it to him. It wasn't me.

BERMAN: Oh, I'm going to stay on this one. All right, today is the big event. The new iPhone 16 rollout.

With us now is Scott Stein, editor at large at CNET. And Scott, I have two of these things. Do I need a third? Do I need one of these new ones?

SCOTT STEIN, EDITOR AT LARGE, CNET: Well, that's what Apple's going to be trying to pitch here and most people are not, you know, going to be jumping out and buying a new phone, not people that I know. And the big question here for the iPhone is that, you know, as these upgrades get more incremental, what do you get?

And a lot of the expectations are going to be around a slightly larger screen, a dedicated camera button, of course, camera upgrades. And Apple's talking a lot about Apple Intelligence, which hasn't even launched yet in beta this year. It's going to be coming out in the fall. And the question is, will the new phone and the new watches have new Apple Intelligence features?

BERMAN: So that is the question. So, the two things I keep hearing about are the AI and then the Glowtime. What is -- what is Glowtime?

STEIN: So Glowtime at the moment is that they, you know, part of the Apple Intelligence redesign is that Siri now has a new graphic interface. If you have a phone that's compatible with Apple Intelligence, you need a certain chip to be able to use that. Right now, it's just the 15-pro model. And it glows around the edges and kind of vibrates a bit.

So, I think that's it. But you know, they're going to try to do other visual flares here to try to make things look different. Who knows?

BERMAN: You know, I think there were a lot of people out there and I used to be one of them that that always had to get the new phone. You know, if you didn't have the new phone, you weren't, you weren't doing it right. Yes.

But I wonder if Apple feels like the number of those people are diminishing.

STEIN: I think so. And I think, you know, CNET just did a survey among a U.S. smartphone owners, and it was interesting because not only were there a lot of people that indicated that they only upgrade when their phone breaks or every three years.

But there was also a sort of a laundry list of needs that were more practical, 61 percent talked about battery life, 45 percent wanted more storage, 46% better camera features, 38%. But AI was not really on the list very much. Back to quarter people were skeptical about AI. Finding it not that helpful. That is, and a third were skeptical about privacy.

So, you know, Gen Z, that skews a little more towards liking the AI features. But yes, you know, I know a lot of people that are just like, I don't need a new phone right now.

[09:55:05]

BERMAN: and just very quickly in like 20 seconds or less. How invested has Apple been in AI so far compared to others?

STEIN: Right now, a lot, but, you know, when you see what Apple Intelligence has been on the developer beta side or what they've been announcing as features, they've been pretty incremental you know, compared to where Google made their recent Pixel phone all about the AI features. And most companies are talking all about the AI.

Apple definitely seems to be shifting there. But, you know, it looks like the way it's showing up, is in bits and pieces, and I'm curious whether the new hardware is going to drive you more of that, especially on the watch, considering it's been 10 years now since the original, or almost 10 years.

BERMAN: It's a good point. We will be watching. See what I did there. Scott Stein, thank you very much. Great to see you. Appreciate it.

BOLDUAN: That's the new feature we're unveiling, Glowtime, "CNN News Central" style.

BERMAN: Oh every day is glowtime.

BOLDUAN: It's just like, I love the name.

Thanks so much for joining us, everybody. This is "CNN News Central," also known as Glowtime on CNN, with Kate Bolduan, John Berman, Sara Sidner.

"CNN NEWSROOM" is up next.

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