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Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) Pens Op-Ed With Rep. Ocasio-Cortez On Housing Crisis; Iranian Hackers Sent Stolen Trump Campaign; Georgia Women Die After Being Afraid To Seek Care Amid New Abortion Ban. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 19, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:30:27]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, do we have polls for you. I'm talking about a slew of polls, a bevy of polls, a cornucopia of polling this morning. Seriously, if you went to bed last night concerned there was not enough battleground polling, like, you woke up and it's a whole new world.

Harry Enten is here to look at what it all means because it kind of tells a bit of a new story, Harry. And I want to start with Pennsylvania.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I do. And you woke up, you had your dictionary on you when you went to bed last night.

All right, so this is in the Keystone State in Pennsylvania. All these polls were released in the last 24 hours, and we see a lot more blue than red on your screen.

So, Quinnipiac, yesterday, plus-five in Pennsylvania for Kamala Harris. The New York Times, this morning, just out, a four-point lead for Kamala Harris. Franklin and Marshall in Pennsylvania, a three- point margin -- a little bit closer. And Marris came out at midnight, or 12:01, came out with a tie. I will also note The Washington Post had a one-point advantage for Kamala Harris.

So the bottom line is there is a range of results in the Keystone State -- Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania -- but it leans -- the leans in the Harris direction. Not one of these results, even within the margin of error, has Trump ahead.

BERMAN: All right. Before we get to the leans with three l's -- leans -- let's talk about some of these other battleground states.

ENTEN: Yeah, let's talk about Michigan and Wisconsin, all right?

So, Marris College, Quinnipiac University all coming out, again within the last 24 hours. Well, this is not such a hard slide to digest because the fact is they both found the same thing in both of the states. Marris and Quinnipiac, in the state of Michigan, finding Kamala Harris up by one. And then in Wisconsin, well within the margin of error, but a one-point advantage in Wisconsin.

So the bottom like is, at least in these two important states, these two pollsters find the same thing.

BERMAN: Harry, what do you like to do when we get a whole lot of polling at once? What's the best way to understand it?

ENTEN: What's the better way to understand it? Well, I could throw a bunch of numbers at you like I just did, or we could average it all together. And -- all right -- so this is Harris versus Trump in those Great Lake battleground states. We averaged it all together. This is all the September polling, not just the ones that I showed you, and what do we see?

In Michigan, a four-point advantage for Kamala Harris. In Pennsylvania, a two-point advantage. Wisconsin, a two-point advantage. Again, pretty gosh darn close but leaning in her direction.

And John, you know me. What does this all mean for the electoral map? Well, in the race to 270 electoral votes keep in mind Kamala Harris can win with just these northern battleground states -- Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. So if we lean all of those blue here, and even if we give Donald Trump North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada, Kamala Harris gets to exactly 270 electoral votes.

And based upon the polling averages at this particular point, the vote is close in those Great Lake battleground states. They do it this time and lean a little bit more toward Harris' direction than Donald Trump's direction.

BERMAN: To reiterate, the polling, right now -- the trendlines show this story where she's doing maybe a little better than she was with a clear path to 270.

ENTEN: She has an absolutely clear path to 270. I would argue at this particular hour, this was the best polling for Kamala Harris, arguably, the entire campaign because in the states that she needs to win -- Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania -- the average of the polls do, in fact, show her ahead. And she doesn't need to win any of those southern battleground states if she wins those northern battleground states to get to exactly 270 electoral votes.

BERMAN: All right, you explained that very well, Harry Enten.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Thank you for getting up a little earlier than usual.

ENTEN: A little bit earlier.

BERMAN: Appreciate it. All right, Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let us not talk about wakeup times, please. Thank you so much.

"Back to the playbook." That is how the Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson put it as the latest Republican measure to keep the government funded and avoid a shutdown failed. It failed badly.

Here's what some Republicans said after the vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): I'm not part of this theater. It's all bullshit. So I'm just not part of it.

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I think that this is a -- this is a complete failure of the speaker's strategy. Again, we weren't here in the entire month of August. We could have finished our 12 separate appropriation bills.

REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): We're not shutting the government down with 48 days to go in the election. At the end of the day, we're going to pass a CR to keep the government funded, period.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the end of the day, members like me support the continuing of government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Funding government operations is the most basic job of Congress. Appropriations bills -- that's their job. They haven't done any of them this year. And they're failing across the board right now.

[07:35:00]

Adding to House Republicans' problems as well, Donald Trump, who is now openly advocating for the government to shut down.

Joining us right now, congressional reporter for The Associated Press, Farnoush Amiri.

So the speaker says they need to go back to the playbook. What's the possible next play, though, Farnoush?

FARNOUSH AMIRI, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: Yeah. I mean, it's really unclear what Johnson's plan B is. You know, if you talk to many Republicans, as me and my colleagues did yesterday, many of them are not aware of what he's thinking -- of what plan B is.

They've seen -- you know, we've all seen this story before, especially with Mike Johnson. He has consistently had to go to Democrats over and over again to be able to fund the government. And many Republicans -- you know, moderate Republicans and Democrats know that that's how this story is going to end this time around. Now, how painful he makes it between now and that -- you know, that ending is unknown right now.

BOLDUAN: Some of the tension -- you know, how people -- how Republicans are reacting to this playbook, I guess we'll call it, depends on how secure they are in their seat and what their -- what the outlook is for the election. I say that because here's the tension. You've heard Mitch McConnell say it so many times. He says shutdowns 1) are bad, and 2) are bad politically for Republicans always. And he says -- he said that again this time. AMIRI: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: On the other side of this, you have Donald Trump basically advocating for a shutdown at this point.

AMIRI: Yeah. No, I mean, like, this is -- consistently over the past decade you have seen that whenever there has been a government shutdown, whether or not Republicans were directly at fault for that reason, they have been the one that the public sees as the culprit of why the shutdown happened.

And in this case, it really might turn out to be the truth, right? If Johnson does not extend a hand to Hakeem Jeffries or to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in the next 10 days, he is going to be seeing a shutdown in 40-something days before his majority is at stake, and also his speakership is at stake.

BOLDUAN: So part of the tension is the Save Act -- the election measure that they -- that they put in. There's also this tension between three months versus six months.

What's the political play with that?

AMIRI: Yeah. So the key issues here are the length of any continuing resolution, whether it should go up until mid-December as Democrats and the White House is pushing for because they believe that will give them enough time to finish the remaining appropriation bills that the House has to pass, and the Senate has to pass.

And also, Republicans want it to go to March. They are expecting Donald Trump to become the President of the United States and if it -- if things go their way they're expecting to hold the majority. And they want to be able to reevaluate how the government is funded. If you remember that it's been funded at Nancy Pelosi -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi levels for the last 2 1/2 years. So Republicans -- every time they voted for a CR, they voted to certify Nancy Pelosi levels of funding. And that is obviously only that it's been Democrats who want to maintain that level of funding.

But the other really important thing here is defense hawks. They are pushing -- they are saying the U.S. is involved in several -- you know, is indirectly involved in several ongoing conflicts around the world. If we push it to six months, we will not be able to get the kind of defense funding that our military may need, and we won't be able to reevaluate in time. It would be too long of a period.

And so, there is a lot of dynamics at play here.

BOLDUAN: To say the least, and you do it so well.

Farnoush, thank you so much. Good to see you -- John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota. Senator, nice to see you this morning.

How do you feel about the possibility of a new government shutdown? SEN. TINA SMITH (D-MN) (via Webex by Cisco): Well, it's great to be with you.

This is ridiculous, right? There's only one path forward for getting the government funded and that is to do a short-term CR that gets us through to December with no poison pills, and it has to be bipartisan. Obviously, the speaker can't pass anything without Democratic votes in the House, and that's the way it has to be in the Senate as well. So we should just, you know, move on from this and get it done.

BERMAN: A minute ago we talked about this new round of polling that came out this morning. A lot of it good news for Vice President Harris, the Democratic nominee. But there are some signs in there that things are not going as well as she should.

Number one, in the Times national poll, no shift, really, from before to after the debate. The debate didn't seem to move things for her, in particular. And voters did say that they wanted to see more from her.

One quote from the article. "I wanted to see how she would answer questions at the debate, but I feel like she didn't really answer any of the questions. She kind of just deflected," said Tyler Slabaugh, 24, who works in medical sales and lives in Grand Haven, Michigan." -- a battleground state. "He didn't vote in 202 but plans on supporting Mr. Trump this year. I didn't really get a good understanding of, like, what her plan was."

[07:40:10]

So how do you respond to that?

SMITH: Well listen, I think the polls are going to go up and down. This is going to be a very close election and that is why the vice president and Gov. Walz are running like they're behind. They're running as hard as they can. And there's a path -- a clear path to victory here.

And honestly, I think if you watched the debate last week, the contrast between Vice President Harris and Donald Trump could not have been more clear. She had stature. She was talking about the issues that matter to Americans.

And he was talking about himself and spewing out all of these lies and conspiracy theories that I think just showed the kind of leader that he is. He's kind of a 'me first' sort of a guy.

And meanwhile, she's talking about her ideas for how to move the country forward.

BERMAN: Well look, people agree that she won. In all of the polls people say that she won the debate. But there is this separate question about whether she is telling them enough about herself and her plans.

Axios has a pretty fascinating chart out this morning about interviews done by the presidential ticket since Harris-Walz became the ticket here. And you can see Trump's done 14. J.D. Vance has done 59. Harris, three. And your governor, Tim Walz, who used to come on TV all the time, only four since August.

I guess the question is how much more do you think they need to do? There's only 40-plus days left. Don't they need to be out there more?

SMITH: Oh my goodness. I mean, they're out there all the time. They're out there talking to voters all the time. And I think that the vice president has also said that she's going to be talking to more reporters, both national as well as local reporters, and I think that's a good thing.

But the thing to do now is to really make their case to the voters in this country, and that is exactly what they're doing. I believe she's in Michigan today. Governor Walz has been traveling all over the place. And making the case and telling the story about what they're going to do to lower costs for Americans and put this country on a path where everyday people can be successful.

So I think this -- I think we're going to be seeing a lot of them over the next however many days it is -- 45? I can't keep track anymore.

BERMAN: Not a lot.

Senator, what is social housing?

SMITH: Well -- so yesterday, I announced with my colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a new bill with a new strategy for building affordable housing in this country. Do you know that in over 90 percent of American counties most minimum wage workers can't afford even a modest one-bedroom apartment? The private market is not building the housing that we need. We have a severe housing shortage.

So, social housing is way of building permanently affordable housing to meet the needs of middle-class Americans and regular Americans. I'm excited about this bill and I think it's going to really give us a new way of thinking about how to address the severe housing shortage that we have in this country.

BERMAN: Is it public housing? What's the difference?

SMITH: So, it would be funded through a public bank, and then it would create affordable housing units as well as opportunities for homeownership. And instead of relying on the private market, which has a profit incentive, it would put -- it would be housing that is owned by public entities. It could be nonprofits. It could be state or local governments.

In Minnesota, we have great examples of this through our cooperative movement, which we've had around for a long time. And community land trusts that are owning the land under the home and keeping them -- keeping that home permanently affordable, but allowing the people who own the home to build equity and be able to move forward.

So it's exciting, I think, to be able to think about a new way of doing this. This strategy is in use in many countries around the world, and in Minnesota, as well as in the Bronx where Rep. Ocasio- Cortez lives. So I think -- I'm excited to see where we can -- how we can push this forward.

BERMAN: Sen. Tina Smith from Minnesota. Thanks for being with us this morning -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right. So there's new information into CNN on foreign efforts to interfere -- to try to interfere with the U.S. election. Federal law enforcement officials now say Iranian hackers not only stole information from Donald Trump's presidential campaign over the summer but also now adding that they sent it unsolicited to people associated with the Biden campaign.

Law enforcement saying there's no indication the Biden team ever did anything with the information. That detail, though, did not stop Donald Trump from leaning on conspiracy without evidence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But, no -- Iran hacked into my campaign. I don't know what the hell they found. I'd like to find out. It couldn't have been too exciting. But they gave it to the Biden campaign. I can't believe it. Oh, yes, I can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Katelyn Polantz has much more on this. Katelyn, a lot still not known about this, but how did this play out?

[07:45:00]

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yeah, Kate. There's a number of different things that are Iranian cyber actors -- malicious cyber actors, some affiliated with the Iranian government or linked to the Iranian government, were trying to do to sow discord in the American electorate.

What happened over the summer was that they did get access to emails or other documents related to the Trump campaign. And then, in June or July, what we're learning now is that they sent unsolicited emails to the Biden campaign, or people affiliated with the Biden campaign, with some of that information as text in emails. So, stolen, nonpublic information or material from former President Donald Trump's campaign.

So that was what was being provided to the Biden folks over the summer. That's from the new information from the intel community on Wednesday.

What the Harris campaign now -- so taking over for the Biden campaign -- what they're saying is that material was not used and it was not spread by anyone, and that they were not hacked either. That the Iranians in their other attempts to try and victimize or hack into the Harris campaign or the Biden campaign folks -- that was unsuccessful.

In a statement, they say, "We have cooperated with the appropriate law enforcement authorities since we were made aware that individuals associated with the then-Biden campaign were among the intended victims of this foreign influence operation. We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections, including this unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity."

Clearly, an attempt to take information out of the Trump campaign and spread it, potentially, through people in politics, as well as journalists. That information hasn't truly gotten out there -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: But make no mistake, from the American voter to both campaigns, we're all victims of this because it's messing with the process. And that's part of kind of like the entire conversation where it needs to be when it comes to foreign actors trying to get involved, influence, and sway the American election.

It's good to see you, Katelyn. Thank you so much for your reporting as always.

Coming up still for us, Kamala Harris is making a return trip to battleground Georgia this week after new reporting -- new investigative reporting revealing for the first time, deaths deemed preventable after that state's restrictive abortion ban was put into place.

And investigators think that they have found the body of the Kentucky interstate shooting suspect. This is now 11 days later. And the residents the police are crediting with helping to find the suspect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRED MCCOY, DISCOVERED BODY BELIEVED TO BE SUSPECTED GUNMAN: We've been looking for him. If somebody's dead they're going to be the vultures. Follow the vultures.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:51:40]

BERMAN: So this morning, music mogul Sean Combs is waking up again in a federal jail after a judge denied his appeal for bail, and he could be there a while now. The judge says there are no conditions that could ensure Combs would not try to obstruct justice or tamper with witnesses if he were released.

CNN's Kara Scannell was at the hearing and she is with us now. And Kara, Combs' attorneys -- this is like the one thing they were trying to avoid at this stage of the legal proceedings.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Right. I mean, they were trying to avoid an indictment at all. But short of that they were trying to keep him out of jail, and they have not been able to do that every step along the way.

And one of the key things that the judge had homed in today because remember, there was a hearing the day before. This is a hearing before the judge overseeing the trial. And he was really focused on these allegations of witness tampering, interrupting Combs' attorney when he was arguing, saying why was your client contacting people who he knew had a grand jury subpoena for testimony in June and July of this year? Prosecutors said that Combs had not been in touch with this person for years.

So that was a real obstacle that Combs' attorney could not overcome to make the judge comfortable.

He also focused on the video that CNN had obtained showing Diddy kicking and dragging one of these women down the hall. Prosecutors said that was right after one of these alleged "freak off" parties that are at the heart of the sex trafficking case. Combs' attorneys have minimized that. The judge turned to that several times pointing to the physical violence in that.

And so it was the combination of the violence and the witness tampering that he had a real problem with.

And prosecutors also had told the judge that Diddy's influence has made it difficult for witnesses to talk to the prosecution because they are concerned that the government can't keep them safe. Now, they said they have talked to 50 witnesses and victims as part of this case, but that has been a concern.

But Diddy's attorney says that they're going to continue to fight this. That he's going to appeal, and he's going to try to get him at least transferred out of this federal jail in Brooklyn to a county jail in New Jersey. The judge was skeptical of that, but we'll see how this plays out.

BERMAN: All right, Kara Scannell. Great to see you. Thank you very much. Good reporting on this, as always.

All right. New this morning, a new report finds the U.S. comes in last in health care compared to nine other high-income countries. The U.S. had higher death rates and lower life expectancy even though Americans spend nearly twice as much on health care. Australia, the Netherlands, and the U.K. ranked in the top three.

This morning, an urgent manhunt in Kentucky has ended after 12 days. A local couple says they found the body of the suspected shooter who opened fire on a busy highway injuring five people. Fred McCoy and his wife Sheila were led to the body, they say by a flock of vultures.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

F. MCCOY: It was about 50. And we started to put our boots on --

SHEILA MCCOY, DISCOVERED BODY BELIEVED TO BE SUSPECTED GUNMAN: Yeah.

F. MCCOY: -- and started over the hill. And got way down in the holler where the birds -- I seen one of the vultures come up with a -- something in his mouth. We knew we was getting close to whatever he had. We were getting close to it. And Sheila smelled -- Got him! Here he is!

S. MCCOY: You found him? Oh, Mylanta.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The coroner's office is working to identify the remains. If it turns out to be the suspect, the couple could get a $25,000 reward.

[07:55:00]

"SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" back soon with a star-studded lineup of hosts starting September 28 with comedy veteran Jean Smart, who is so good in "HACKS," which she won an Emmy for.

The other hosts announced, so far, include comedian Nate Bargatze and Ariana Grande. The star of "Beetlejuice," Michael Keaton, will also be back. That will be his fourth time hosting. And John Mulaney, who once wrote for the show -- he returns for the final show in November before Election Day -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: There you go.

Kamala Harris leaning in on the fight over reproductive rights this week while on the campaign trail and highlighting some original reporting coming from ProPublica that at least two women in Georgia died just two weeks after the state's six-week abortion ban went into effect in 2022. The reporting is talking about these women. Amber Thurman and Candi Miller denied lifesaving care that they needed, and it ended in tragedy.

As ProPublica reports this. "Thurman's case marks the first time -- Thurman's case marks the first time that" -- let me make sure I get this all right. "Thurman's case marks the first time an abortion- related death, official deemed 'preventable' is coming to public light."

Kamala Harris tweeting about the deaths and blaming Donald Trump, saying in part, "A young mother from Georgia should be alive today, raising her son, and pursuing her dream of attending nursing school. This is exactly what we," she says, "feared when Roe v. Wade was struck down in more than 20 states. Trump abortion bans prevent doctors from providing basic medical care."

Let's talk about this reporting that's driving the conversation right now. Ziva Branstetter is joining us. She is the senior editor for ProPublica.

These reports are gut-wrenching. The reporting, the detail, the sourcing deeply sourced in research, Ziva. One of the things that hits you when you read through this is the horrible pain that these women suffered in their final days.

Tell us about Amber Thurman and Candi Miller and how your team came upon their stories. ZIVA BRANSTETTER, SENIOR EDITOR, PROPUBLICA, FORMER LEAD EDITOR,

WASHINGTON POST'S PANDORA PAPERS PROJECT (via Webex by Cisco): Thank you so much for having us to talk about this important reporting by Kavitha Surana, who is the reporter on this project.

We have been looking at ProPublica for the harm that is created by extreme abortion bans and to ensure we're doing our jobs.

And we uncovered two cases through this reporting of women whose deaths were ruled preventable by the state's Maternal Mortality Board Committee. Both of these deaths occurred in the -- in the months after Roe V. Wade was struck down and Georgia's abortion -- six-week abortion ban passed. Both women suffered a very rare complication from abortion medication that is easily treatable.

One woman waited for 20 hours -- this is Amber Thurman -- for treatment at a hospital there in Atlanta. Doctors did not operate. We don't know what was going through their minds.

In the second case, Candi Miller's family literally told the coroner that she was afraid because of the state's abortion ban to seek care. The Maternal Mortality Committee ruled that case was also preventable and directly connected it to the state's abortion ban.

BOLDUAN: I see in the article that a spokesperson for the Republican governor, Brian Kemp, called the reporting -- labeled it as a fearmongering campaign. Talk to me about that.

BRANSTETTER: Well, I just think it's ironic. They also used that word 'fearmongering' two week before Amber Thurman died when advocates, doctors went to court to stop the state's abortion ban and said women would suffer, women would die. They said that's fearmongering before Amber Thurman died.

I also think it's ironic that this is a state board that ruled both deaths preventable --

BOLDUAN: Right.

BRANSTETTER: -- that answers to ultimately, the governor.

BOLDUAN: That's exactly right. And that's where some of the sourcing is coming from that you guys all -- that -- as you dug into it.

And I want to read one paragraph from your reporting on Amber Thurman that gets to -- it's like an additional pain that is brought upon this family even beyond her death, which is this.

"For years, all Thurman's family had was a death certificate that said she died of 'septic shock' and 'retained products of conception' -- a rare description that had previously only appeared once in Georgia death records over the last 15 years, ProPublica found. The family learned Thurman's case had been reviewed and deemed preventable from ProPublica's reporting."

Her family -- no idea. BRANSTETTER: Correct.

BOLDUAN: She has a young son now who has lost his mother. She would have turned, as you guys point out, 31 years old just recently. That's gutting.

BRANSTETTER: Correct, it is. It's very difficult to grapple with the faces of the harm here. These are two women who were mothers. Candi Miller had three children. She died in bed with her 3-year-old with her. Amber Thurman has a 3 -- a 3-year-old son that now family members are raising.