Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Walz And Vance To Square Off In Only VP Debate Of 2024; New Louisiana Law Makes Abortion Pills A Controlled Substance; Israel Begins Ground War In Southern Lebanon. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 01, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:32:17]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So in just a few hours the final debate, potentially, of the entire 2024 presidential cycle. Tim Walz squares off against J.D. Vance in a vice presidential showdown up the street, here in New York.

In preparation, Donald Trump is hurling the very personal attacks that Republicans claim they want him to stop using.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think J.D. is going to do great. He's a very smart guy and he's done a great job. People like him a lot.

He's going up against a moron -- a total moron. How she picked him is unbelievable. And I think it's a big factor. There's something wrong with that guy. He's sick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: CNN's Steve Contorno is with us now. Steve, exactly the kind of personal attacks the Trump campaign says that the president -- former president will not use.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Well, John, and it's interesting, too, because the campaign yesterday was setting expectations that they expect Walz to have a very strong debate. They said that he is a "wily political veteran, very good in debates" and they expect him to be very well-prepared. Meanwhile, saying that J.D. Vance, they reminded people, is only two years into his political career and still has a lot to learn.

But look, this is the moment that they really picked J.D. Vance for. They believe that he is a gifted public speaker -- someone who has been a strong defender of Donald Trump on television, and someone not afraid to go on the offensive as he has made clear time and again on the campaign trail.

Take a listen to how he has been sharpening some of his attacks against Gov. Walz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Tim Walz was the guy who let rioters burn down Minneapolis, and then Kamala Harris was the one who bailed the rioters out of jail. So there's an interesting team in that sense.

Tim Walz gets on his high horse about mind your own damn business. One way of minding your own damn business, John, is to not try to take my children away from me --

JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: He has not signed a law allowing the states --

VANCE: -- if I have different moral views than you.

If you look at his military record -- the lies about the rank, the lies about serving in combat, the lies now about IVF, even lying about, like, his food preferences, my read on him is that he's a guy who likes to just barely cross the line, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: John, one thing to closely watch tonight is how much he focuses attacks on Walz versus Harris. In recent weeks he has mostly ignored his counterpart on the Democratic side, instead focusing a lot of his attacks on Vice President Harris. We'll see if that changes tonight.

BERMAN: Um, and Donald Trump is also out there talking about the response to Hurricane Helene, including some statements that are just flatly not true -- Steve?

CONTORNO: That -- yeah, that's right, John. He wrote on Truth Social that this has been "a really bad response to hurricane" by the administration. He also asserted that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp couldn't get ahold of Biden to get help, which has been flatly denied by the Georgia governor. And when he was asked about this, he really didn't have an explanation or evidence for this.

[07:35:10]

So I -- you know, one thing I think we'll be watching tonight is whether J.D. Vance follows him down this line of attack. He has been clear that he will double down on whatever the former president says, as we have seen with the attacks that they have waged against Springfield, Ohio, for example.

They have brought on J.D. Vance, in part, to be an attack dog. It's why he's in this position where he's kind of losing gain in popularity. He's a minus 12 in his favorability rating. But they're comfortable with that because they believe that he is strong in defending the ticket and ultimately this is going to be a choice between Donald Trump and Vice President Harris.

BERMAN: All right, Steve Contorno in New York. Thanks so much, Steve -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us right now is Republican strategist Doug Heye, and former press secretary to then-VP Joe Biden, Kendra Barkoff. Good to see you, guys.

So, Kendra --

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good morning.

BOLDUAN: -- Steve and John were just talking about this -- now what's happening with Trump accusing Biden of playing politics with disaster relief -- though, clearly, playing politics with disaster relief in doing so.

Let me play what Trump said about Biden when it came to Georgia disaster relief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We do need some help from the federal government. They have to get together ideally with the governor. That governor needs to -- he's been trying to get them and I'm sure they're going to come through. But he's been calling the president and hasn't been able to get him. But they'll come through, I'm sure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Brian Kemp said that he had been on the phone with Biden. Biden called Trump a liar on that.

Kendra, what does playing politics with disaster recovery do? I mean, what do think the impact of that -- this back-and-forth will be?

KENDRA BARKOFF, FORMER PRESS SECRETARY TO THEN-VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Well, it hurts the people at the end of the day, right? I mean, natural disasters are a time when people should come together. There should be some sort of unity. There should be an agreement where people come and say let's come and work together to fix whatever the issue is.

But this is what Trump does, right? I mean, he lies, and you've seen it in his record. He -- during Hurricane Maria, for instance, down in Puerto Rico, he withheld billions of dollars of relief for the island until the very end of his administration.

And if you look at what Project 2025, which his supporters are out there supporting and touting, it cuts funds from FEMA. It takes aid to the states away. And it wants to cut NOAA, which is the weather service that helps figure out where the hurricane paths are going to go, which warns people where they should be and where they shouldn't be.

And so at the end of the day this is political posturing, but it's unfair to the people who live in these states who are suffering the most.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

And Doug, something you and I have been talking about offline is, I mean, you're a son of North Carolina. And I'm seeing that election officials there are just now starting to try to wrap their arms around how they're going to hold a presidential election in some of these areas.

I saw one election expert tell The New York Times, Doug, "Counties have been preparing for early voting sites that may no longer exist. They had reserved polling places that may have been swept away in the floodwaters. They have voters who requested an absentee ballot and cannot receive the ballot, let alone the poll workers and the major disruption to their lives."

What do you think is the potential impact of Hurricane Helene on voting there?

HEYE: You know, the short answer is, Kate, you've laid out what the problems are. I don't think we really know what the impact is other than yes, a lot of voters may not be able to vote early, may not be able to mail in their ballots. They're not receiving mail.

Whether or not that affects Republicans or Democrats, Trump or Biden (sic) more, I don't think we know yet because western North Carolina -- and by the way, about 15 election board -- county boards are closed right now -- is largely the most Republican area in the state. But Asheville is Democratic stronghold.

And I'll tell you, that Long John Silver's that you showed -- my brother's family lives about three miles from there. I have a cousin, Corey (PH), who I just found out last night -- late last night -- who is in Bryson City is finally OK. We couldn't hear for hours, and this is what -- or days.

And this is what families in western North Carolina, parts of eastern Tennessee and Georgia are going through as well. And their lack of services, lack of water, lack of infrastructure -- all of that is going to have a huge impact.

And I would say to Donald Trump and his campaign be really careful -- they're not usually careful -- about politicizing this for two reasons. One, you could experience a backlash as we're seeing when Brian Kemp says no, actually, none of that's true. But two, state officials in North Caroline felt shortchanged in the response from the federal government in Hurricane Matthew. That happened under Donald Trump's watch. So this could boomerang on him if he's not careful.

BOLDUAN: And Kendra, let's talk now -- transition and talk about the VP debate tonight. Setting expectations ahead of any debate is a full- time job for campaigns, for sure. We've all seen that.

[07:40:04]

BARKOFF: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: And maybe some of us on screen have taken part in that in years past.

I want to play for you what the Trump campaign is saying about today versus Donald Trump saying about today himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON MILLER, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Walz is very good in debates. I want to repeat that. Tim Walz is very good in debates -- really good. He's been a politician for nearly 20 years. He'll be very well prepared for tomorrow night.

TRUMP: He's going up against a moron -- a total moron. How she picked him is unbelievable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Not on the same page on this, for sure, Kendra.

This does what?

BARKOFF: Well look, at the end of the day Tim Walz came out and set his own expectations, right? During the interview process -- when he was going through it and when VP Harris was deciding who to choose, he said to her pointblank, "I'm a really bad debater." He's repeated that along the way. He did it on your network when he did the interview with Dana Bash. And so he set his own expectations.

But look, this is so ironic to begin with because Trump is out there to begin with playing footsie. He -- you know, he's playing this game of he hasn't even agreed to whether or not he's going to do a second debate. I think part of this is he likes the attention it gets him. He likes that it's all on him and whether or not he should do a second debate.

And it's frankly now what the voters care about at the end of the day. They care about the issues. The care about the policies that the various campaigns are putting forward.

BOLDUAN: Doug, your choice.

HEYE: Um-hum.

BOLDUAN: Choose your own adventure. Do you want to do these all-in- one or do you want to separate them? Debate pros and cons, the strengths and weaknesses -- Tim Walz and J.D. Vance. Who do you want to go first?

HEYE: Well, I'll do Tim -- I'll do Tim Walz first because look, he's unknown but he does have this folksy charm. I think that's a strength. People react positively to that. But then when you peel the onion, not very deep, you see whopper after whopper.

What was his military rank? Well, he doesn't really know. What was going on with IVF and his family? Well, he didn't describe that accurately. Was he in China for Tiananmen Square? Well, it turns out he wasn't even though he said he was. And that's where I think J.D. Vance is going to be relentless, and that's one of J.D. Vance's strengths on Tim Walz today. Tim Walz' whoppers.

BOLDUAN: What about -- then what's -- if strength for Vance is relentlessness, what is his weakness going in?

HEYE: Well, it's exactly what Tim Walz is going to use when he goes after Vance, and that's going to be on the weirdness. We're going to hear about childless cat ladies and so forth.

And Kate, I think one of the interesting things for me is I read that Tim Walz has been holed up in a -- in a camp doing debate prep at a place called Camp -- they're calling it Camp North Star. And that was the name of the camp in I think John Berman's favorite Bill Murray movie "MEATBALLS" where Bill Murray gave a speech that said it just doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter.

That's tonight --

BOLDUAN: He's really shouting that off-set right now.

HEYE: -- because ultimately -- because -- well, excellent. Ultimately, this race is about Donald Trump versus Kamala Harris, right track versus wrong track. The undercard of the heavyweight fight is always forgotten.

BOLDUAN: Well, relentlessness, and weirdness, and meatball-ness just pure goodness.

It's really good to see you, guys. Thanks for coming on.

BARKOFF: Thanks for having me.

HEYE: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: John Berman loves his meatballs. OK, so --

BOLDUAN: There's a lot there, Sara, to unpack.

SIDNER: All right, let me compose myself. All right, here we go.

Happening today, abortion medication will now be designated as a controlled, dangerous substance in the state of Louisiana, making it a crime to have the drugs without a prescription. Mifepristone and Misoprostol will now be designated as a scheduled IV drug like Ambien or Xanax.

CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell is joining us now. Give us a sense of what this means for women and what doctors are also saying about this.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Sara, doctors are telling me they are pretty concerned about what this is going to mean for routine obstetric care in Louisiana because these drugs are used for other things beyond medication abortion. Of course, abortion itself is already illegal in Louisiana.

The lawmakers behind this law say that it doesn't affect legal prescribing of these medications for other uses, but doctors say they're very concerned this will cause potential delays in emergency lifesaving care.

Misoprostol, for example, is used for dangerous bleeding after childbirth -- post-partem hemorrhage -- which can be a leading contributor to maternal mortality and bad outcomes after childbirth.

Now, this drug, Misoprostol, is going to need to be stored in a locked cabinet in hospitals. We reviewed the protocols and FAQs that one major health system in Louisiana has sent out to its health care providers, and they do confirm this is going to be stored in locked cabinets.

And we heard from the Department of Health -- the director in New Orleans -- who told us that her colleagues have been running drills to see how long it takes to get from the emergency bedside in a situation like this to the locked cabinet, obtain the Misoprostol, and bring it back. And she said that adds minutes to this process, which may not sound like a lot but when somebody is in that emergency situation that can be very devastating.

[07:45:13]

These drugs are also used to treat miscarriages -- to manage miscarriages. Mifepristone and Misoprostol are used in the same way. They're used for medication abortion to be able to control a miscarriage. There's fear that pharmacists and doctors won't feel comfortable dispensing or prescribing these medications for that purpose.

Another thing that changes, guys, along with the way these medications are stored is that now they need to be entered into what's known as a Prescription Drug Management Program. That is something for controlled substances, particularly put in place for the opioid epidemic to be able to track how these medications are being used. And that was designed to avoid the risk of overdose and overprescribing. But now these drugs are going to be on that list for people who use them for things like miscarriage, and that's something that's really scaring folks in Louisiana, too -- guys.

SIDNER: Yeah, people worried about their privacy as well.

Meg Tirrell, thank you so much. Appreciate that -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, Israel has launched a ground incursion into Lebanon. We've got new reporting on what this means and how the White House is responding this morning.

And how much would you pay to see your favorite band in concert? Coldplay fans are in an uproar this morning as tickets just went on sale for up to $11,000. Not judging, but Coldplay. (COMMERCIAL)

[07:51:00]

BOLDUAN: A Georgia judge just wiped that state's six-week abortion ban off the books. The ban became law back in 2019. It went into effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. The judge said that it -- this -- that the ban infringes on a woman's right to decide what to do with her own body, and says it is unconstitutional. The judge's move now returns the state to its other restrictive abortion ban that sets that banning and restricting abortions after 22 weeks.

This decision is a big deal but likely not the final word. The Georgia State Supreme Court is expected to weigh in.

And Rockdale County, Georgia is again asking residents to shelter in place due to a plume of smoke from a chemical plant fire. Look at that smoke. It broke out over the weekend. BioLab makes pool treatments. This company makes pool treatments and chemicals from that process. It sent up huge smoke clouds on Sunday. Anyone who sees the plume is being advised to shelter in place until it moves out of the area.

Coldplay fans in India are outraged after tickets for the band's first show in the country since 2016 sold out in minutes and then were re- sold online for as much as $11,000.

Police are now questioning the CEO of the show's vendor over allegations of fraud. The company responded, saying this. "Scalping is strictly condemned and punishable by law in India. We have filed a complaint with the police authorities and will provide complete support to them in the investigation of this matter."

Eleven thousand dollars for any ticket is insane -- Sara.

SIDNER: I had no idea they were so popular in India. That's news.

BOLDUAN: Coldplay is wonderful.

SIDNER: They are good.

BOLDUAN: I shall not disparage them --

SIDNER: Wow.

BOLDUAN: -- unlike others --

SIDNER: Some others like our other anchor, but we won't go there.

BOLDUAN: -- some would say, Sara.

SIDNER: All right.

Ahead, breaking overnight, Israeli troops have begun a ground invasion in Lebanon despite the U.S. pressing for a ceasefire. Today there is new development in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Hezbollah, however, is denying any incursion, calling them lies. Video shows trucks moving tanks near Israel's border with Lebanon

overnight. Israel calls it a limited operation targeting Hezbollah, but it has not given a timeline just yet.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh is in Beirut this morning -- a windy Beirut as I see. What are you seeing and hearing from your vantage point?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Sara, we've heard from the Israeli military saying that this is a limited ground operation that they have launched. That this is going to be targeted raids in southern Lebanon going after Hezbollah targets.

Now what we understand from three security sources, one with the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces, UNIFIL, and two senior Lebanese security sources -- they're telling us that Israel has not yet launched a full-scale invasion into southern Lebanon. They're describing this as sporadic raids across the border, but no Israeli boots remain on the ground. There's no presence of Israeli forces. They're only coming in conducting these raids and going back, according to these sources.

But we also do know from the Lebanese state news agency, as well as residents in the border region in the south, is that there's been intense artillery shelling and airstrikes that began last night and has continued into today.

Residents in the south describing a terrifying situation with people trapped in their homes. Some people sitting in the corridors of their homes away from windows, calling the Lebanese Army to evacuate them, but the army has not been able to do so. And we reached out to the Lebanese military about this, but we haven't heard back.

[07:55:00]

But what we do know -- right before the Israelis announced this operation the Lebanese military did redeploy its troops from observations posts on the border into -- back into towns and villages into military barracks there.

And Hezbollah is continuing to carry out attacks against Israel, launching rocket strikes. They say that they are targeting the Israeli military.

And in the last couple of hours, Sara, we've heard from the Israeli military warning the residents of 27 villages in the south to evacuate immediately. Some of these areas being -- they're being told to move to an area for some of these villages it's 30 miles into Lebanon. This is only going to exacerbate what is a dire humanitarian situation with up to a million people already displaced just in the past 10 days or so.

SIDNER: Jomana Karadsheh, thank you so much -- and also giving us a vantage point of almost the entirety of the route where people are fearful this morning. Thank you so much -- appreciate it -- John.

BERMAN: All right, with me now is retired Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson, and former Marine Corps Captain and contributor to The Atlantic, Elliot Ackerman.

Gentlemen, this is a map of the region right here. You can see Israel and you can see Lebanon there. I want to push in to southern Lebanon here. I'm going to show you where the border is between Israel and Lebanon. Golan is right there.

All the operations that we know of these raids are happening in this region here between the border and Litani River. In some places it's like two miles -- barely two miles. In some places it's as much as 20 miles.

General, first to you. What can Israel accomplish by conducting these cross-border raids into this relatively small region?

BRIG. GEN. STEVE ANDERSON (RET.), U.S. ARMY (via Webex by Cisco): Well, thanks, John. It's great to be with you this morning, and it's great to be on with Mr. Ackerman as well who has written a great article here in The Atlantic that everybody needs to read.

But look, what they're trying to do is they're trying to exploit success. I mean, they've had some tremendous success taking out the Hezbollah leadership recently here with all the attacks -- you know, the walkie-talkie attacks and, of course, taking out Nasrallah.

And so they're trying to destroy all the launching sites, all the military facilities, and apparently, a significant tunnel network that is in that region. I've been there a couple of times. It's very mountainous. It's very difficult. So they're trying to knock out operationally those military facilities.

But they're also trying to pressure Iran internally. They are weak. They have been hit hard. The Russians are -- or the Israelis have shown that they can penetrate the leadership in Iran. And so those folks are very nervous. So they're sending a very clear message to Iran: Hey, you guys need to back off and stop supporting all your proxies or we're going to come after you next.

BERMAN: And Elliot, the general here did a nice job of promoting your article, which is terrific and there's a lot going on in it. One aspect of it though is you stress the military need to try to defeat Hezbollah and Iran at the same time. But in terms of defeating or crushing Hezbollah, does this go far enough, in your mind?

ELLIOT ACKERMAN, FORMER MARINE CORPS CAPTAIN, CONTRIBUTOR, THE ATLANTIC: Well, I think -- I mean, Israel has already taken some really significant steps to strategically degrading Hezbollah's leadership. And I think what we're seeing right now is just a new phase of a multipronged operation. And those incursions are really going to deny Hezbollah the capability of the rocket launch sites that they've had into northern Israel and to deny them the ability to launch any incursions inside of Israel.

So we're going to have to see how this plays out in the days ahead, but Israel is engaged right now in a multifront war and it's fighting to win. BERMAN: And while we have you on this subject -- and I'll put the

whole region up so people can see. You have Iran over here, Israel and Lebanon right here, Elliot.

In your article you make the case that the United States has an interest here and should make decisions somewhat differently than they did in Ukraine. Explain.

ACKERMAN: I think what we're starting to see more clearly is there is a multi-feeder war going on here and there is an axis of powers that exist in the world -- Iran, Russia, North Korea -- all of whom wish the United States and liberal Western democracies around the world ill.

I just returned from Ukraine about 10 days ago, and one of the great challenges that our Ukrainian allies are facing on the battlefield there are Shahed drones manufactured in Iran and sent to Russia. So our ally -- our allies are fighting these enemies, and I think we, as a nation -- it's in our best interest to support our allies so that they can win those fights and so they aren't fights of the United States enmeshed in.

And I think the incrementalism that we've seen in which there's some perpetual calls for ceasefires are constantly putting the brakes on our allies. It doesn't serve our allies well but ultimately, it doesn't serve the United States well and it causes these conflicts to perpetuate and not be won.

BERMAN: And General, we've got about 30 seconds left.