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Trump and Harris doing final preps for tomorrow's debate; Trump threatens to imprison election officials he considers cheats; Miami Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill detained by police before game. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 09, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:01:01]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: It could be a make or break debate. In just over 24 hours, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will face off for the very first time in the must win state of Pennsylvania. We have an inside look at how both campaigns are preparing.

And a frantic race to prevent tragedy. We're learning how the mother of an accused high school shooter in Georgia tried to warn officials shortly before the deadly rampage.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And from behind bars to the front lines in Ukraine, a story that you'll see here first, CNN on the ground to meet the ex-cons deployed to the battlefield. We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

SANCHEZ: They are gearing up for their first face to face. Right now, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are making their last minute preparations ahead of tomorrow's critical debate in Philadelphia.

KEILAR: And for Vice President Harris, we're told that she's been prepping for possible insults and name calling by Trump. And as new polling from a New York Times/Sienna college poll shows no clear leader in the race. Her campaign is seeing the debate as an opportunity to introduce her to undecided voters, maybe shake things up. CNN National Politics Correspondent Eva McKend is in Pittsburgh following the Vice President.

And Eva, what more can you tell us about how she's preparing?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna and Boris, she has closely studied the former President's past six debate performances. She's also been sort of entrenched in these briefing papers going over the former President's past comments as well as the ways that he has insulted her so she can be prepared to respond to that. She's engaged in these mock debates with a stand in for the former President. And she's had conversations with Hillary Clinton and President Biden, who both extensively have knowledge of debating the former president.

Ultimately, the goal here is not only to forcefully make the case against the former President, but also to send a message to America that it is time to move on from the era of Trumpism in divisive politics. And this comes at a time when Trump and Harris are in a head to head essentially, in many of the polling, they are statistically tied. The campaign for their part, they say that they're not paying that close attention to those polls, that they have always viewed her as the underdog, that they continue to operate with that posture, and that they understand that they have a lot of work to do in the next 50 days.

Now, after the Vice President finishes the debate, the campaign is already building out their week. She is going to take part in what they're describing as a battleground blitz, campaigning both here in Pennsylvania and in North Carolina, while the governor campaigns in the Midwest.

Boris, Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. Eva, thank you for that report. Let's talk more now about how both of these candidates are gearing up for this big night tomorrow with Alex Thompson, National Political Reporter for Axios and CNN Political Analyst. And Alex, I do want to note you have recently written about how Harris is copying President Biden's self-protection media strategy. Does that work for her when you look at this new New York Times polling showing 28% of likely voters say they need to know more about her.

ALEX THOMPSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER FOR AXIOS AND CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, democratic strategists are really split on this exact question because on one level, you could argue that sort of doing this protective media strategy is avoiding any sense of gaffes.

And let's remember that some of her worst moments as Vice President were in some of these unscripted interview moments. She is not usually as comfortable in those settings. At the same time, by not doing interviews, she still has not done one solo interview. By not doing interviews, she has raised the stakes for every unscripted moment that she has.

[14:05:05]

That's why tomorrow night's debate has really become this really pivotal moment for her, because the fact is that a lot of Americans, as many as 30%, say that they don't know enough about her yet. And so this, for many voters, especially those critical voters in those swing states, this is going to be their first impression of her. So it's a really -- you know, it's a moment that's really pivotal for her campaign.

KEILAR: Yeah. And they want to know about her policies or plans. That seems to be the area in this polling that they most feel is a void. So I wonder what you're hearing about how she plans to explain her changing views on policies like banning fracking, like border security, when she's on the debate stage. THOMPSON: Yeah. You know, like every good politician that, you know,

moves to the center during a general election, she's going to try to sort of thread the needle here and basically say, listen, I've been Vice President for four years. Some of my opinions have changed as I've been in proximity to the Oval Office. I've been proximity to power. Also, circumstances have changed.

But also the fact of the matter is that all these changes have all gone in one direction for the most part. and they've all gone from the left to the center, which suggests that it's not just about her changing views, but it is also a, you know, politically motivated action.

KEILAR: I want to read something that you wrote. One of the features of her melded staff, which is Harris' loyalists and Obama alumni grafted onto existing Biden staffers, is that even some of her own staffers aren't sure where she stands on a range of issues. How did you find that affecting things? And how pervasive is that?

THOMPSON: You know, just give you one small example. So last week, I asked her campaign, you know, would she sign a bill she co-sponsored in 2019 that basically mandated automakers to only make electric vehicles by 2035, 2040? And it took six days for me to get an answer. And the answer at the end of those six days was no comment. And this is sort of an aspect of what some people in the Democratic Party have told me, it's like the Frankenstein campaign, is that, you know, by virtue of the unprecedented circumstances of her getting into this race so late, you have this situation in which, you know, it's part Obama staffers, it's part Biden staffers, and it's part her team, and it's really sometimes unclear who's in charge. And also. a lot of those people don't have extensive knowledge of the candidate they're now working for.

KEILAR: It's very interesting reporting. Alex Thompson, thank you so much. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: So ahead of the debate, Donald Trump has been busy issuing threats, vowing to jail his opponents, election officials and others if he's reelected in November. Trump posted this on truth, social quote, "When I win, those people that cheated will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This legal exposure extends to lawyers, political operatives, donors, illegal voters, and corrupt election officials."

KEILAR: That's a lot of people. CNN's Daniel Dale joining us now for a fact check on this. Daniel, the President says -- former President says he's making these threats because he knows better than most about election cheating considering what happened in 2020, which you could also fact check that, four years later, we're still fact checking 2020 and whether it was stolen because it wasn't.

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Like, how are we still doing this, guys? I cannot believe we're still here talking about this stuff. It is truly ludicrous that former President Trump is still saying this stuff. It is the second half of 2024. These lies have been debunked thousands of times for more than three and a half years, but he won't stop. So let's do it again.

Breaking news, September 9th, 2024. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. He lost at 306 to 232 in Electoral College. He lost at fair and Square. His own handpicked administration officials and campaign officials, including Attorney General Barr. I told him it was not stolen. The authentic results were certified by diligent election officials, democratic and republican, around the country, as well as by democratic and republican governors. Nobody has ever presented any proof of any fraud or "cheating," even close to widespread enough to have changed the outcome in any single state

Dozens of lawsuits from Trump and his allies were dismissed. Dozens of lies from Trump and his allies were debunked. One prominent ally, Rudy Giuliani, lost a defamation case over one of those lies because it had been debunked. The right wing movie Trump said, prove their whole case has also been debunked. The only people who face charges for trying to subvert the will of the people in connection to that 2020 election are Trump and his allies. Recounts proved he lost. Partisan so called audits even proved he lost. Republican led legislative reviews proved he lost.

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He lost the 2020 election. Yeah.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. Again, breaking news, September 9th, 2024. Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. It bears repeating, Daniel. Trump is already, though, trying to cast doubts about the 2024 election. He's already asking the FBI to investigate mail in ballots in Pennsylvania. Tell us more.

DALE: Yeah, I think it's time to kind of sound the alarm here. Trump is clearly trying right now to lay the groundwork to reject the legitimacy of a potential loss in November. He is making ridiculous claims that he cannot lose this very tight race unless there's cheating. That's nonsense. He's even suggesting that a loss in overwhelmingly Democratic California will mean he's been cheated. That is frankly crazy. He's even been calling opinion polls rigged.

Listen to just some of his recent remarks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I keep hearing about the suburban woman doesn't like Trump. Well, I think it's a fake poll because why would they like me?

If we had an honest vote counter, I would win California.

PHIL MCGRAW, AMERICAN TV PERSONALITY: You think so?

DONALD TRUMP: Oh, I think so. I do. I see it. I go around California. They have Trump signs all over the place.

We got to stop the cheating. If we stop that cheating, if we don't let them cheat, I don't even have to campaign anymore. We're going to win by so much.

I call it the Department of Injustice because they're using the Department of Justice to rig the campaign. These cases are disgraceful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DALE: So look, Donald Trump absolutely might win this election. But if he does lose, I fully expect another bunch of years of election lies, this time about the 2024 election.

SANCHEZ: And we saw where so many people having believed that the 2020 election was stolen, ultimately led. Daniel Dale, thank you so much.

Let's dig deeper into the legal aspects of these Trump threats. CNN Legal Analyst Elliot Williams joins us now. He's a former federal prosecutor. So Elliot, hypothetically, if Donald Trump wins and he's sworn in on January 20th, 2025, what power would he have to prosecute imagined election fraud?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: A fair amount. And here's why. Boris. This entirely depends on whether the people around him are willing to get in his way. That is, number one, senior political appointees, but also number two, senior civilization servants who are in the government now.

Now, if, as the former President has promised, he's going to go in and fire senior government officials who are there now and aren't going to be in his way, then absolutely, he has the full power of the federal government. This is entirely a function of whether people are willing to get in the way of the former President's really horrible impulses when it comes to, you know, going after rivals and other misconduct.

KEILAR: So then what does the post-election period look like if he is questioning the outcome? And does it resemble what we saw four years ago, or are you expecting some new twists?

WILLIAMS: It really does. And I would love to pick up on a point that Daniel had made, that Trump is laying the groundwork for his legal challenges now, because this is the 2020 playbook, and in many ways, the 2016 playbook where starting months before the election, he was saying, oh, my gosh, there's going to be so much fraud. And then minutes after Election Day said, look, look at all the fraud. Now, we have to file these lawsuits. It's almost this concept of illusory truth where if you say something enough, the public begins to believe it and it's simply falsehood. And it provided an air of legitimacy to these crackpot lawsuits that I think it was 86 different judges rejected outright. They were not grounded in reality a lot of these challenges he's made. But because he'd been out there saying it for several months, a lot of people bought it.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, a lot of people bought it. Notably, there were these two election workers in Georgia. They successfully sued Rudy Giuliani. I think it was $148 million for defamation. He falsely accused them of all kinds of misconduct in 2020.

Trump in these attacks doesn't specify anybody by name, but does he potentially open himself up for attack if he winds up doing that?

WILLIAMS: Absolutely. Now, again, defamation comes when someone states a falsehood about someone else that takes money or reputation away from them. The minute he starts naming people, the minute he starts implying about certain individuals in a way that hurts them and their jobs. Absolutely, they have a defamation suit. And it's a winning one looking at the template that we saw in Georgia a couple of years ago.

KEILAR: The Trump campaign and the RNC say that they have this network of almost 200,000 volunteer poll watchers and workers that they are ready for this year's election. What could that look like? What are the legal guardrails? We see, for instance, in Georgia, there's kind of, I think, an expansion of partisan poll watchers and what they're allowing people to do. Other places may be looking at that, too.

WILLIAMS: Look, we have a tragic history of intimidation of voters in the United States, particularly in some of the southern states, but really all over the country. I don't want to point the finger at the south, and people could be intimidated away from coming in to vote.

[14:15:00]

What's remarkable here is that there are precious few actual instances of voter fraud in America. Looking at 2020, I think of the 25 million votes cast in battleground states, I think there were 400 credible allegations of voter fraud or misconduct. It simply doesn't happen. And the former President and his team have created this bogeyman that just doesn't exist. And again, people are buying it.

KEILAR: Yeah, that is a good reminder when you pull out the numbers there. It is pretty small. Elliot Williams, thank you so much for taking us through that. It's going to come in handy, unfortunately.

Ahead this hour on CNN News Central, the Miami-Dade Police Department is now under growing pressure to release body cam footage showing why two Miami Dolphins players were handcuffed during a traffic stop.

Plus, we've learned the alleged school shooter in Georgia sent his mother a cryptic text shortly before the attack. What it said that had her racing 200 miles toward her son's school.

SANCHEZ: Also convicts, some accused of assault, now assaulting Russian troops. CNN traveled to the front lines of the war in Ukraine where prisoners are now volunteering to fight.

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KEILAR: Now, to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Outgunned and outnumbered, Ukraine is finding its military ranks are not only struggling with low morale, but also desertion. Now, the country is looking to a new kind of freedom fighter convicts. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen shows us how one former warden went behind bars to find his troops.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ukrainian troops sweeping into a village on the eastern front. But these aren't career soldiers, they're ex-convicts who volunteered from prison, got some basic training and were thrust into battle.

Vitaly, 41 years old, 10 years in jail for theft and violent assault, now assaulting Vladimir Putin's army.

VITALY, EX-CONVICT, SHKVAL COMPANY IN 59TH BRIGACE: (Foreign Language)

PLEITGEN: The ex-convicts are part of Ukraine's 59th Brigade. They're camped near the front line, rudimentary, but a lot better than jail. Our conversations remain basic about survival or death.

MAN #1: (Foreign Language)

PLEITGEN: Many are dying here on both sides. The 59th Brigade gave us this video showing Russians fleeing a burning house as the ex-convicts attack. But Vitaly admits, they are suffering casualties as well.

VITALY: (Foreign Language)

PLEITGEN: Their deal is simple, fight, survive, and become free men.

VITALY: (Foreign Language)

PLEITGEN: Company Commander Oleksandr says, his men perform some of the most dangerous assaults around here. Oleksandr was a jail warden and many of those here, his inmates. He recruited them and says, the traits that put them in jail now keep them alive.

OLEKSANDR, COMMANDER OF SHKVAL COMPANY, 59TH BRIGADE: (Foreign Language)

PLEITGEN: This unit is part of Ukraine's force defending the key logistic hub, Pokrovsk.

Pokrovsk is now one of the main frontline towns in the war in Ukraine. As you can see, the streets here are virtually deserted. At the same time, the Russians are hitting this place with really heavy munitions, everything from artillery shells to large rockets.

After major advances, the Russians are knocking on the door here. Shells and rockets constantly impacting, especially in the evenings. And that's when the medics from the 68th Mountaineer Brigade start receiving most of the heavy casualties.

They show us this video of a U.S. supplied MaxxPro armored vehicle hit by a Russian drone. Two killed, four severely injured. Casualties Ukraine's military already badly outmanned cannot afford the medic who goes by the call sign, barbarian tells me.

BARBARIAN, MEDIC, 68TH BRIGADE: (Foreign Language)

PLEITGEN: And Russian drones are also lethal at night, so we leave Pokrovsk as darkness falls. Ukrainian troops heading towards the front, hoping to keep Putin's army away from this key city.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Pokrovsk, Ukraine.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

KEILAR: How did a traffic stop end with one of the Miami Dolphins top players in handcuffs? A police union has just released brand new details about the incident involving Tyreek Hill as a local police department rejects CNN's request for any video footage of the incident.

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[14:29:38]

SANCHEZ: As the NFL regular season got underway over the weekend, an ugly moment clouded kickoff. One of the league's star players, Miami Dolphins wide receiver, Tyreek Hill, detained by police and forced to lie face down on the ground before Sunday's home opener. This happened just outside Hard Rock Stadium. And video shows officers surrounding Hill placing him in handcuffs on the ground after an alleged traffic violation. Hill was eventually allowed to go and went on to score a huge touchdown in the Dolphins win over --

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