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CEO Groups Thinks Harris will Beat Trump; Rep. Nominee Robinson Made Dozens of Disturbing Comments on Porn Site; Ohio Police Buys Formula for a Mother; Mother's Death Directly Linked to State Abortion Ban; Harris: "If Somebody Breaks in my House, They're Getting Shot"; DOJ to Build Attempted Assassination Case Against Ryan Routh. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 20, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. New this morning with election day a month and a half away. Some of the nation's business leaders are placing bets now, kind of literally or more figuratively, but both on who will win. CNN's Matt Egan is with me now. So, where are they placing their bets?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, John, they are very bullish on Kamala Harris, and it's not even close. So, this is a straw poll of business leaders taken by Yale professor Jeff Sonnenfeld, and it finds that 80 percent of these business leaders think that Harris is going to win. Just 20 percent pick Former President Trump.

Now, to be clear, this is not representative of all CEOs. These are dozens of business leaders put into a room. Sonnenfeld, who's known as the CEO whisperer. But what's telling here is that even though only a third of these CEOs identify as Democrat and some of them, I'm sure, don't like elements of the Harris plan, they do think that she's going to win.

Now, as far as why this is, what's interesting is they were also asked about who's a bigger threat to democracy. And again, not even close there. Look at this, just 4 percent say that Harris is the bigger threat. And the overwhelming majority --

BERMAN: Trump, right. Yes, they say Trump's the bigger threat. I'm sorry.

EGAN: Yes, exactly. The overwhelming majority say Trump at 73 percent is the bigger threat. And Sonnenfeld, he told me that these CEOs, they are quote, "horrified" by Trump's leadership model. He went on to say that they depend upon the rule of law and they want a president who respects that law.

Now, I asked the Trump campaign about this and the press secretary said, does anyone think that a straw poll of business leaders from Yale represents the views of the country? And I think the answer there is obviously no, that's not the point. The point is that some of the leaders of industry, they think that it's going to be Harris in the White House, in the Oval Office, next year, not Trump.

BERMAN: So, it's not who they want to win, necessarily, it's who they think will win?

EGAN: Exactly.

BERMAN: And it's important because these people have to make decisions based on projections. And one of the projections you make is who will be wielding power in a few months.

EGAN: Absolutely. And where are tax rates going to be? Where is regulation? Now, another interesting point, though, here is what they're saying about the economy, right? Because that is obviously there forte. And what's really telling is that only 10 percent think that there's a significant risk of a recession, 6 percent stagflation. The overwhelming majority see a soft landing where inflation is tamed, but unemployment doesn't spike. This is a major reversal from two years ago when a lot of people thought of recession was imminent. And it's certainly nice to see some business leaders with confidence because that means they're going to hire more. They're going to invest more.

BERMAN: All right. Interesting analysis there, Matt Egan. As always, great to see you.

EGAN: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Thank you very much. Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, this morning, a CNN exclusive causing chaos in the Republican Party. Mark Robinson is the lieutenant governor of North Carolina. He's also the Republican nominee running to be the next governor of that state.

And a CNN KFile investigation reveals he made a series of inflammatory comments. The investigation uncovered posts by Robinson on a porn site called Nude Africa starting in 2008, describing himself as a quote, "black Nazi," also expressing support for reinstating slavery. And there is much more. CNN was able to identify Robinson by matching a litany of biographical details and a shared e-mail address with the username behind the posts. Robinson responded to CNN's reporting, calling it trash and denying the comments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GOV. MARK ROBINSON (R), NORTH CAROLINA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: This is not anything that is characteristic of me, nor has it ever been. I'm not going to get into the minutiae of how somebody manufactured all these salacious tabloid lies. But I can tell you this, there's been over $1 million spent on me through A.I. by a billionaire's son who's bound and determined to destroy me.

The things that people can do with the internet now is incredible. It's just like Clarence Thomas said years ago, this is a high-tech lynching. And you know, back long years ago, they used to use rope, now they're using cable. (END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:35:00]

BOLDUAN: And since this came out, Republicans are speaking out, beginning to, Ralph Norman of South Carolina saying that Robinson should drop out of the race. Marjorie Taylor Greene, congresswoman from Georgia, saying, if it turns out to be true, she definitely cannot support him.

Joining us now is a Reverend William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, one of the country's best known public advocates fighting racism and poverty, and man who's lived in North Carolina for a very long time. Reverend Barber, thank you for coming in. I want to read for you the comments that are linked to the lieutenant governor on a few topics.

On slavery, he wrote this. Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it back. October 2010, Robinson stated, I'm a black Nazi. March 2012, Robinson wrote, I'd take Hitler over any of the stuff that's in Washington right now, referring to the leadership during the Obama administration. Reverend, what's your reaction to all this?

REV. WILLIAM BARBER, CO-CHAIR, PEOPLE CAMPAIGN AND PRESIDENT, REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH: Well, certainly these kinds of statements are more than just distasteful. They're ugly. They're untrue. Rooted in racism and hurtfulness and meanness. And it's problematic. The other part of this though, is all people are imperfect. And I believe that people's personal feelings serve in public life are between them, their loved ones, their God, their pastors.

But here's the problem. Mark Robinson has spent so much of his public life attacking other people's personal decisions about how they live their lives. Any personal hypocrisy reveals the moral contradiction of a politics that claims God while it neglects the people that the bible says God is most concerned about.

You know, he's often talked about his faith in God. But here we see these kinds of things being coming out and these words. And what it does is, as I was talking about those things, but what he's never talked about and should be talked about is 40 percent of North Carolinians who are poor and low wage. What are you going to do about that? The fact that there are over a million North Carolinians, 39 percent of the workforce that make less than $15 an hour of minimum living wage. You don't hear anything about that or the half million people that are still without health care in North Carolina and the over a million people that didn't have health care during the highest part of the pandemic.

The problem with these kinds of statements and what your report is shown is it has us talking about those things. Some of them are his personal failings, but not dealing with the issues of that a public servant is really supposed to be dealing with, and it's deeply troubling. And I'm concerned about it because here we are in a state where we have real issues. We have 4 million workers in this state who don't even have paid family leave. That's what a candidate for governor ought to be talking about.

We have underfunded public education that his party has spent many times cutting that money. That's what we should be talking about. And this really reveals a moral contradiction, especially when you attack people. And then things come out that show that you are doing some of the same things that you claim other people are doing. And you say about them that they're bad. But now, you have to deal with it yourself.

BOLDUAN: If there are personal -- you -- when you -- let's talk about if you have those personal feelings, if he holds those personal feelings that are displayed in this reporting, do you think he can or should be serving as -- well, potentially governor, but even in his current post as lieutenant governor?

BARBER: Well, you see, I think a couple of things there. First of all, those statements, you know, talking about Nazi and if those things are true and, you know, one of the times he said he was not an African American and that reports that he said some people ought to be shot, all those things are just contrary to public life. But what I don't want to give up (ph), because -- also want us to miss is that I think that if you're running for office and you've got 40 percent of your state, 4 million people who are poor and low income and you are talking about that, that also undermines your qualifications for governor.

If you've got millions or hundreds of thousands of people without health care and you're not dealing with that as a governor, you've got over a million people, something like, 39 percent of the workforce that makes less than the minimum wage, what I want us to understand is from a moral -- I'm a preacher, from a faith perspective, the greatest moral failings in the bible, number one, is idolatry, that self- worship. The second is mistreatment of the least of these.

So, in an essence, both of these issues, one, personally attacking everybody else only to find you engaging in a personal hypocrisy and moral contradiction is problematic, deeply problematic, but also using power in the public space not to lift up those who are hurting in your state and talking about how you lift up the least of these, but instead you attack people on the one hand and then you cater to the powerful and cater to greed rather than using the power to lift it.

[07:40:00]

But our state has a model. We're supposed to be the place where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great. What he has done in his campaign has been more about attacking people and ignoring the issues that really would help the weak grow strong and the strong grow great. That is a real problem with this candidacy.

BOLDUAN: Reverend William Barber, thank you for coming in. John.

BERMAN: All right. A desperate mother unable to feed her newborn in the middle of the night found a police officer who went above and beyond the call. CNN's Polo Sandoval has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CORPORAL HUNTER WILLOUGHBY, MIAMI TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPARTMENT: Infant formula.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you're curious about how a police officer found himself scrambling through a baby formula aisle in the middle of the night --

WILLOUGHBY: What the heck's the difference?

SANDOVAL (voice-over): -- just ask the overnight shift at the supermarket near Cincinnati, Ohio, where Kim Whitney remembers it well. She was in the middle of restocking shelves when something caught her eye.

KIM WHITNEY, MEIJER PRODUCE DEPARTMENT: I just looked up for a brief second.

SANDOVAL: At those windows right there?

WHITNEY: At these windows out there. And I see a flashing light, strobe light going off.

WILLOUGHBY: I know there's people in there working somewhere.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Hunter Willoughby, a Miami Township Police Corporal, had been desperately trying to summon backup from inside the store after hours.

That's him banging on the window. When that didn't work, Willoughby reached for his flashlight.

WHITNEY: And I see the officer with his light going on. I was like, well, I'd better see what's going on.

WILLOUGHBY: You may not be --

WHITNEY: Hi. What bright light you got there.

WILLOUGHBY: I know. You may not able to help me, there is a mom who has her -- she said her milk dried up and she has no -- she can't find anywhere to buy formula. Is there anywhere -- anybody in here can turn on a cash register?

WHITNEY: He wanted to know if we could help her. And I said, I'm sure we could. And bring them in and call Bridgett up. She handles them from there. Takes them down to the baby aisle.

BRIDGETT WILLIAMS, MEIJER OVERNIGHT LEAD: Once he picked out the baby formula, we start to walk back to the front of the store. And I asked him, I think we might need a bottle.

WILLOUGHBY: Her baby's a week old. I guess she's --

WILLIAMS: Yes. Yes, a bottle.

WILLOUGHBY: Good thinking. I did not have a plan B. This was playing A, B, and C. So, when I came here, I wasn't leaving.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Formula and bottles finally in hand, willoughby rushed to Willow.

MCKENZEE POOR, MOTHER: You can smile for him.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): The infant that's all smiles today, but not that night. Willow was crying uncontrollably and growing fussier by the hour after going without her regular feeding.

POOR: There was no store open that I could get formula from and I was breastfeeding before then.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): With no formula, McKenzee Poor called police.

WILLOUGHBY: I completely understand how when a baby is, you know, inconsolable, how hard it is, especially as a new parent.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Corporal Willoughby insists this late-night formula run simply falls under the serve aspects of the job. He also defers any appreciation to his backup that night.

WILLOUGHBY: From Kim to Bridgett to -- there was another employee that I talked, they were like over -- they went above and beyond.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): But those employees insist this father of two with a badge was the true hero.

WHITNEY: Thank God for this officer.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Polo Sandoval, CNN, Miami Township, Ohio.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Look at that, great to have him there. All right. This morning we have new details on the first publicly reported case of a mother dying from delayed treatment tied directly to a state abortion ban.

And POV, you were sliding down the side of a mountain. New video shows the moment a hiker nearly fell off a cliff. Again, in focus and well lit. We got to talk to this guy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:45:00]

BOLDUAN: When Vice President Kamala Harris travels to Georgia today, reproductive rights will be the focus. Harris was joined last night by families of two Georgia women, Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, at a different event, this one was in Michigan. Those women though, from Georgia, they died in 2022 after Roe was overturned and just after the state put in place its restrictive abortion ban.

ProPublica first reported on their deaths this week. The reporting detailing how their deaths are the first to be deemed preventable as they were neglected lifesaving abortion care they needed. Both had sought medical abortions. Both experienced complications that could have been fixed with the help of a doctor.

CNN's Meg Tirrell joins us now with more on this, which has put a spotlight once again on, well, what I think doctors call rare complications, but talk to me about what you've learned about this.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, I mean, these stories are so tragic, of course, and one of the many things that they have in common is both of these women use medication abortion. Of course, we've heard a lot about this. It's been in the national headlines around a Supreme Court decision around one of the medicines, Mifepristone which is still allowed to stay, accessible in the way it had been before as a result of that decision.

But it seemed important to explain what is medication abortion, how rare are these complications, and what should people do if they experience one of these rare complications? So, this, of course, is a combination of two different kinds of medicines. Mifepristone and misoprostol. It's been approved by the FDA since 2000, and it's approved to end a pregnancy up to 10 weeks of gestation. Now, doctors say in these decades of data, serious adverse events are very rare, less than 0.5 percent of the time does somebody experience a really serious adverse event like a hospitalization, a blood transfusion or needing surgery.

[07:50:00]

Now, in these two instances, these women hadn't expelled all the pregnancy tissue. This can happen, doctors tell me, 3 to 5 percent of the time, but it's typically not a serious situation because people should be able to get treatment for it.

BOLDUAN: Right.

TIRRELL: When that leads to an infection, this is what ProPublica was reporting on. They say, if anybody's experiencing any worrisome side effects, get in touch with a doctor or go to an emergency department because these should be treatable even in states with abortion bans.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and that's the key of it, Meg, and thanks for laying it out. It's that if these rare complications happen, they should be -- I don't know if easily is the right word, but they should be treatable if they aren't delayed and denied that care that they need at the hospital by a doctor, as we saw -- as was reported in these cases. Meg, thank you so much for that. John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, some buzz about a moment during the sit down between Vice President Harris and Oprah Winfrey. Kamala Harris spoke about being a gun owner and exactly what she would do with that gun if someone broke into her home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE: I'm a gun owner. Tim Walz is a gun owner. OPRAH WINFREY, HOST: I do not know that.

HARRIS: If somebody breaks in my house, they're getting shot. Sorry.

WINFREY: Yes, yes. I hear that. I hear that.

HARRIS: I probably should not have said that. My staff will deal with that later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. With us now, CNN political analyst and Washington Bureau chief for the Boston Globe, the paper of record, Jackie Kucinich, and press adviser to former Speaker of the House John Boehner, Maura Gillespie.

Jackie, you really think the staff's going to try to clean that up, or what is Vice President Harris doing there in terms of her discussion about gun ownership?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE: Well, I think just politically, you're not really used to hearing Democratic politicians and a presidential contender talk about guns that flippantly. But they are still talking about firearm ownership. They're talking about the difference between that and some of the policies that she's advocating. So, it -- well, it certainly was a moment there. They're still, you know, on message in a lot of ways.

Will they try to clean it up? We'll have to see if there's any backlash, but doesn't seem to be headed in that direction quite yet.

BERMAN: No, I mean, the fact that she had brought up she was a gun owner before seems to be exactly the kind of message that probably she wanted to send there. Maura, the very fact of this sort of online streaming show with Oprah Winfrey, I mean, I'm old fashioned. I covered campaigns when there were press conferences and rallies. How effective do you think this type of event is in this day and age?

MAURA GILLESPIE, PRESS ADVISER TO FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: At this setting age, to think that any one platform or any one source of media or news is -- you know, that's just not where we're at right now. The technology, the way people get their information these days, it really does run the gamut of, you know, social media on different platforms, but also through podcasts, through streaming services, through cable TV, you know, it really -- it's -- you're trying to meet people where they are, and where people are, are all over the place. And so, it's important to try and utilize each of these different mediums.

But I think -- I just want to comment on what you said before. I think what's interesting about her comment about gun ownership is that roles reverse. If a Republican was up on stage with Oprah Winfrey or somebody else saying, you know, if somebody comes into my house, I would shoot them, or breaks into my house, I would shoot them, this would be a huge story against a Republican who would say that. And I'm not saying that it's -- you know, it's not right to do that. You have every right to defend yourself and your home, but I just think it's interesting how it's -- you know, it's considered a flippant remark and, you know, it was met with laughter, whereas, I think if a Republican said that, we'd all be up, you know, freaking out about it. So, you know, this is where Republicans are going to get frustrated. I don't know that appeals to them as much as maybe she thinks it would.

BERMAN: That is an interesting point. I want to play some sound from Donald Trump. He was speaking to Jewish groups, I think, trying to win their votes, but suggesting that it would be partly Jews fault if he lost. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With all I have done for Israel, I received only 24 percent of the Jewish vote. Now, think of this, I really haven't been treated very well, but that's the story of my life. I'm not going to call this as a prediction, but in my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss if I'm at 40 percent. If I'm at 40, think of it, that means 60 percent of voting for Kamala, who in particular is a bad Democrat. The Democrats are bad to Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. Jackie, I do realize that among the three of us, I may be the one related to the most Jews, but how do you think the blame the Jews strategy?

[07:55:00]

KUCINICH: I doubt that was in the teleprompter, John. You know, they have been struggling this entire campaign to keep the president on message. This is not on message. This actually will likely hurt him. But anytime he's not talking about immigration, anytime he's not about the economy, you can see -- you can hear, you know, Republicans putting their heads in their hands, because this is not the direction that they would want him to go, I feel.

BERMAN: In the meantime, so much porn, so little time. Let's talk about lieutenant governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson. Maura, the KFile report -- I really do. There was no other way.

KUCINICH: No, that's (INAUDIBLE) anyway.

BERMAN: So, it is what it is. And the things that KFile reports that Mark Robinson posted on that website are stunning and they are shocking. The political impact, really not so much on his race in North Carolina, where he seems to be pretty healthily behind, but on the presidential election in that swing state. What impacts do you see?

GILLESPIE: People don't want to show up and vote, because for people who are traditional Republicans, they vote down ballot and just click the box. They're not going to necessarily want to have their name associated with having voted for a Mark Robinson by going down ballot like that. So, they may not show up at all. And that's a real problem for Donald Trump, especially in a state where it's looking like it could be, you know, a Harris win, you know.

So, he is going to be there on Saturday and I don't know how he does it to convince the voters to come out just for him, but, you know, that's going to be a problem, and I think that -- putting it lightly, is the fact that Donald Trump endorsed him, knowing that he had said that women who are advocates for birth control are witches, that women shouldn't have the vote, and amongst other heinous things that he has said, he then -- after saying all that, was then endorsed by Donald Trump.

And so, this is another example of Donald Trump causing the Republican Party major losses.

BERMAN: Reverse coattails, Jackie, is that something that we believe in? Didn't used to.

KUCINICH: It's certainly possible here. I mean, Mark Robinson wasn't ahead before these -- this came out, and he surely, I mean, has said a litany of terrible things already. But in North Carolina, it does have a history of voting cross ballot, voting, you know, one way, another. And, you know, for a different office, another way.

That said, this could be such a drag. Yes, it really could hurt Trump in a state where it really is on the bubble. It can go either way.

BERMAN: All right. Jackie Kucinich, Maura Gillespie, thank you for putting up with me. Both of you. I really appreciate it. Kate.

BOLDUAN: That's what I was going to say, they deserve compliments for putting up with you. We're also watching this today, a sheriff in Kentucky is facing a first-degree murder charge after police say he shot a judge in the courthouse. Investigators say Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Stines and Judge Kevin Mullins got into an argument in the judge's chambers yesterday. No word on what it was about. The judge suffered multiple gunshot wounds. The sheriff turned himself in and is said to be cooperating.

Take a look at this incredible video we're going to show you. This is how it begins, just wait to see how it goes down, a hiker in China slips and falls down the side of a mountain. His own -- oh, God. His own camera recording the entire thing. Fortunately, a tree stopped him, likely potentially saving his life. The climber says that he has some bruises on his legs, but that's all especially considering what could have happened. He also says it's not going to stop him from more exploring in the future, John.

BERMAN: Crazy. All right. This morning, federal investigators are working to bolster charges against Ryan Routh after the apparent assassination attempt on former President Trump. Right now, he faces firearms charges, but officials are combing through electronics and other evidence to try to bring more serious charges against him, which may be a challenge because Routh did not have a line of sight on Trump and did not appear to fire his weapon. CNN's Kaitlan Polanski is here with the latest on this. Good morning, Kaitlin.

KAITLAN POLANSKI, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Good morning, John. Not even a week after this apparent attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the feds have to do two things. They have to figure out what he was doing there out at the golf course of Mar-a-Lago, why he was there, if there was some sort of reason for Routh to be there. And also, they want to understand more about him and exactly what happened, what charges they can bring.

As far as charges, he's facing two right now. They're under a criminal complaint. It's very likely that they would take that through a grand jury in the coming days or weeks. They have about a month to figure that out. And they also may be looking at additional charges like aggravated assault with a firearm against a federal law enforcement officer. But an issue here, John, is that there -- they would need some sort of clear evidence that Routh was trying to target Donald Trump. That might just not be something they can do to bring a case that connects Routh to trying to hurt or kill potentially Donald Trump as far as the case would be.

The other thing they're looking into is the possibility of a foreign nexus. What was this man doing when he was in Ukraine?

[08:00:00]