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Obama to Begin Campaign Push For Harris With Weeks to Election; Union Dockworkers Back on The Job After Agreeing on Pay Raises; Biden Touts Strong Jobs Report And End of Port Strike; Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 04, 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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[14:01:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: With just over a month to go, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are getting high profile help as they campaign in must-win battleground states. Plus, with power being slowly restored to areas hit by Hurricane Helene, there are new warnings about flood waters, the challenges residents are facing as they try to rebuild a week after the storm drastically changed life in towns across the Southeast.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And it was the case that captured the nation's attention 35 years ago. Why Prosecutors are now reviewing the murder convictions of the Menendez brothers. We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

SANCHEZ: Vice President Kamala Harris is in the critical state of Michigan today as the race for the White House now closes in on its final month. Any moment now, Harris will speak to voters at an event in Detroit, and then later she heads to Flint, Michigan. Both areas are crucial for Democrats looking to win that important state in November, and with just 32 days until the election, it is all hands on deck, as former President Barack Obama sees it. He's set to begin a major campaign push for Harris next week with several key battlegrounds to visit before November 5th. Let's take you now live to CNN National Correspondent, Eva McKend, who is following the Harris campaign in Flint, where the Vice President is expected later. Eva, what should we expect to see today from Harris?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Boris, let me begin with that big push from President Obama because he's going to be out on the campaign trail next week, and what the campaign is hoping for is to leverage his star power among Democrats to turn out the vote. He has been used to great effect in other Democratic campaigns, essentially to attack democratic complacency.

We heard a preview of this from Michelle Obama during the Democratic National Convention when she passionately argued to Democrats, listen, don't get cute before Election Day. This is not the time to be in your feelings if you don't hear directly from the campaign asking you to get out and vote. You need to get out and vote anyway because this election is too urgent, so I suspect that we're going to hear a similar theme from former President Obama next week in Pittsburgh, before he launches his battleground race.

SANCHEZ: And Eva, again, you're in Flint because Harris is going to speak there later this evening, and she's meeting with a specific group, a specific demographic of voters that could swing that state. Tell us about that.

MCKEND: Yes, Boris, she's in Detroit meeting with Arab American voters. We, of course, know that part of the Democratic coalition so key in this battleground state of Michigan, and we have heard time and time again from these voters how saddened they are by and angered they are frankly about the Biden-Harris Administration's response to the war in Gaza.

Still, though the campaign did earn the endorsement of Emgage action, they are a critical organizing group on behalf of Muslim Americans. It was a bit of a lukewarm endorsement in that much of it was about keeping the former President away from the White House. But still, that is very much a constituency that they are worried about and talking to.

And so after that event in Detroit, she heads here to Flint where this is going to be a really worker focused rally. We are hearing from a senior campaign adviser that the Vice President is going to focus on her remarks on the Trump campaign's unwillingness to commit to certain protections for auto workers. That is going to be a big focus here, as well as Magic Johnson is going to take the stage in support of Harris as well.

[14:05:04]

He, of course, is a part of coalitions like athletes for Harris and business leaders for Harris. Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, and an alum of Michigan State University as well. Eva MckEnd from Flint, Michigan. We should know the Vice President has taken the stage. This is a live image of her in Detroit. Will, of course, monitor her remarks and bring you notable moments as we get them. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Boris. Thank you. So the White House is celebrating two pieces of economic news today, the unexpectedly strong new jobs report, with 254,000 jobs added last month, which also lowered the unemployment rate and dock workers getting back to work after three days of walking the picket lines and closing down part of America's port system. CNN, Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich is here. So Vanessa, the strike is over, meaning that's a done deal?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Sort of a done deal. It's done for now, until they have to work out the rest of the details of this contract. But there was so much economic pressure, so much consumer pressure and so much political pressure to get this deal done. And ultimately, the two sides USMX and the ILA Union reached a deal on the economics of this package wages.

We know from sources telling our Caleb Taussig (ph) that President Biden was really nudging his Administration to put pressure on USMX to put a better offer on the table. And ultimately, USMX did just that, and the union agreed to go back to work with this wage deal.

One of those key players in the Administration was Lael Brainard. She's the Director of the National Economic Council, and she was involved in trying to get these two sides to agree. Listen to what she said earlier today.

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LAEL BRAINARD, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Companies came forward to make a generous wage commitment. That's important because these workers for the six previous years, some years they didn't see any wage gains, other years, they saw only $1 and don't forget, these are workers that came out every day during COVID. They risked their lives to keep goods moving for American families and consumers, and the companies did actually do very well following COVID. And this allows the companies to share with the workers, those benefits.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: So that generous wage commitment that she's talking about is a $4 an hour increase for six years of the contract, but until that time, they're going to be operating under their old contract. As I mentioned, it's extended to January 15th as they work out other details of this contract. But ultimately, Alisyn, it's going to be the rank and file union members who will have the final say. They are the once --

CAMEROTA: Vanessa, sorry to interrupt you, we're going to President Biden, who has just stepped to the Podium at the White House press briefing. Let's listen.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And shows the importance of collective bargaining and represents, I think, critical progress toward a strong contract. I especially want to thank the carriers, the port operators, and the Longshoreman's union for reaching this agreement at a time when the nation has experienced such terrible devastation from Hurricane Helena. It was truly a service to the American people for all these parties to come together respond to our request to keep the ports open.

I was determined to avert a crisis at this moment because it's a critical moment. If we didn't do this now, we'd have a real problem. I also want to thank my White House team for the work. They worked around the clock to bring the parties together. But today, I -- we got more incredible news. Although the strength the American economy is -- it's about the strength American economy. New jobs report, as you all know, you've been reporting, created 250,000 jobs in September.

The expectation was for 150,000 jobs in September, which is far exceeded that number, not only the previous two months. Not only that, the previous two months was revised up 150,000 -- 75,000 jobs. And from the very beginning, we were told time and again that the policies we were pursuing, we put forward -- weren't going to work make things worse, including some of the other team are still saying they're going to make things worse. But we've proven them wrong.

You know, we've told our -- what we were told to American rescue plan was too big and it would crowd out private investment. We proved them wrong, vaccinated a nation and got immediate economic relief to people in need. When I came to office determinative, and trickle-down economics, and grow the economy from the middle out in the bottom up, I know you're tired of hearing me say that over and over again, but that was a policy that it commands a policy, because we knew that, everyone does as well.

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The middle class grows, the nation's stronger. And the nation is stronger when there's a strong union movement as well. We were told it wouldn't work, but I was also determined to do what was ignored for much too long. Presidents have been authorized since the 30s to be able to spend the money given by Congress to spend the money on hiring American workers and using American product where they were available.

And that's what we did. We were told that was going to be a big problem, but all the money we was authorized to spend by the Congress has gone to building to -- gone to hiring American workers and using American products. We were told that was going to be a big problem, but it's working. We were also told that our historic laws to invest in America and all Americans would crowd out private sector investment. Well, that was proven wrong too. We've attracted nearly $1 trillion since we come to office in private sector investment from domestic and foreign companies, investing in America, in America, not the stuff of shipping jobs overseas for cheaper labor and bringing back a product to America. We're building it here and sending it overseas.

And look at the results across the board, unemployment is down 4% to 4.1% and every month, fact that Vice President Harris and I have been in office, we've been -- we've created jobs every single month. The nation has now created 16 million jobs since I've come to office, more jobs created in a single Presidential term than any time in American history.

Our GDP shows our economy grew at 10 percent under my Administration, unemployment reached the lowest level in 50 years. We're also told inflation couldn't come down without massive job losses or sending the economy and economic recession. Once again, outside experts were wrong. Inflation has come down. Wages have gone up faster than prices. Interest rates are down. Record 19 million new business applications have been filed for. The stock market continues to reach new heights.

We've got more work to do, though, keep getting prices down, like more affordable housing, extending what I've done for seniors and lowering prescription drug costs by letting Medicare negotiate the prices. Make sure that's available to everyone. And by the way, what we've done so far, just when we've brought down the prices for seniors under Medicare, it saved the taxpayers billions of dollars, billions of dollars. Saved the taxpayers billions of dollars. That's important to note because they don't have to pay the exorbitant and irrational prices that these companies are charging.

Simple fact is, we've gone from economy in crisis to literally having the strongest economy in the world, and but we've got more work to do. We've got more work to do to deal with the things I've just mentioned. And we're going to have to deal with unforeseen cost of what this hurricane is going to cost. It's going to cost a lot of money.

And I'm going to probably have to ask the Congress before we leave for more money to deal with some of those problems, but that remains to be seen. I'll take a few questions before I turn it over. You pick out the question.

JEAN-PIERRE: Yes sir. Go ahead, Josh.

MAN #1: Thanks again for doing this, Mr. President. Two questions. The first, Florida Senator Marco Rubio described today's jobs report as having fake numbers. What do you make of that? And how worried are you that many Americans are hearing that the jobs numbers aren't real?

BIDEN: Look, let me be very careful here. If you notice, anything the MAGA Republicans don't like, they call fake, anything. The job numbers are, what the job numbers are. They're real. They're sincere, what we are. And by the way, just look at how the E.U. talks about us, how they like to have an economy like ours. Let's talk about the rest of the world looks at us and what we're doing. So I -- well, I don't want to get going.

MAN #1: Then secondly, could you clarify some of your comments yesterday with regard to strikes on Iranian oil facilities? What did you mean by them given some of the reactions we're seeing in the market?

BIDEN: Well, look, the Israelis have not concluded how they're -- what they're going to do in terms of a strike that's under discussion. I think there are -- if I were in their shoes, I'd be thinking about other alternatives than striking oilfields.

JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead, Weijia.

[14:15:02]

WOMAN #2: Thank you, Karine. Thank you so much, Mr. President, for being here. This week, Senator Chris Murphy said, it's certainly a possibility that the Israeli government is not going to sign any diplomatic agreement prior to the election, which is what you have been calling for so long, potentially to try to influence the result. Do you agree? Do you have any worries that Netanyahu may be trying to influence the election and that's why he has not agreed to a diplomatic solution?

BIDEN: No administration has helped his room more than I have. None. None. None. And I think Bibi should remember that. And whether he's trying to influence the election, I don't know, but I'm not counting on that.

WOMAN #2: But you've said many times recently that you want to speak to him, that you plan --

BIDEN: No, I didn't say planned. I did say want to.

WOMAN #2: You don't want to?

BIDEN: No, I didn't say that. You're making it sound like I'm seeking and then speaking. I'm assuming when they make their judgment of how they're going to respond, we will then have a discussion.

JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead, Selina.

WOMAN #3: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President, for being here. What are you advising the Israelis to do in terms of their retaliation to Iran? And at this point, you still haven't spoken to Netanyahu. Is it fair to say that you have little personal influence over what he decides to do?

BIDEN: No. Look, our teams are in contact 12 hours a day. They're constantly in contact. I've already had my presidential daily brief. We've already had interface between our military, our diplomats. It's in constant contact. They are trying to figure out --this is High Holidays as well. They're not going to make a decision immediately. And so we're going to wait to see when they want to talk.

WOMAN #3: But over the past few months, they've consistently defied your administration's own advice. So do you believe that the Israelis are going to listen to the advice you're giving them?

BIDEN: What I know is the plan that I put together received the support of the U.N. Security Council and the vast majority of our allies around the world as a way to bring this to an end. Look, the Israelis have every right to respond to the vicious attacks on them, not just from the Iranians, but from everyone from Hezbollah to Houthis, anyway. But the fact is that they have to be very much more careful about dealing with civilian casualties.

WOMAN #3: So how should they respond? You expressed concerns about attacks on Iranian oil facilities. How should they respond?

BIDEN: That's between me and them.

JEAN-PIERRE: All right. We got to move on. Go ahead, Tam.

WOMAN #4: The election is a month away. One, I'd like to know how you're feeling about how this election is going. And then also, do you have confidence that it will be a free and fair election, and that it will be peaceful?

BIDEN: Two separate questions?

WOMAN #4: Very much.

BIDEN: I'm confident it will be free and fair. I don't know whether it will be peaceful. The things that Trump has said and the things that he said last time out when he didn't like the outcome of the election were very dangerous. If you noticed, I noticed, that vice presidential republican candidate did not say he'd accept the outcome of the election. They haven't even accepted the outcome of the last election. So I'm concerned about what they're going to do.

WOMAN #4 Are you making any preparations, getting security briefings related to domestic security?

BIDEN: I always get those briefings.

JEAN-PIERRE: All right. We got to move on. Go ahead, Akayla. And then we have -- do a couple more.

WOMAN #5: Thank you. Hi, Mr. President. What are you considering imposing sanctions on Iran? And would you include oil in those sanctions?

BIDEN: That's under consideration right now, the whole thing. I'm not going to discuss that (inaudible).

WOMAN #5: And just on your comments yesterday on the port strike, you said, "by the grace of God, it's going to hold." Is there any reason you think that this --

BIDEN: Well, there's more to do.

WOMAN #5: -- this temporary suspension --

BIDEN: It's a month from now, and there's more to do in terms of everything from the whole notion of, excuse me, mechanization of the ports and the like. There's more to resolve.

JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead, Danny.

MAN #2: Thanks, Karine. Thank you, Mr. President. Last night, you said that there's still a lot to do to avoid an all-out war in the Middle East. I mean, firstly, aren't we pretty close to that definition already? And secondly, what can you really do to stop that happening?

BIDEN: There's a lot we are doing. The main thing we can do is try to rally the rest of the world and our allies into participating, like the French are, in Lebanon and other places to tamp this down. But when you have proxies as irrational as Hezbollah and the Houthis and -- it's a hard thing to determine.

[14:20:01]

JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead, Toluse.

BIDEN: OK. I've got to go, Karine.

JEAN-PIERRE: I know. I know. He's telling me, "I got to go."

BIDEN: I said I'd take a couple questions.

JEAN-PIERRE: All right. You're the last one, Toluse.

BIDEN: I think she's decreasing her credibility.

WOMAN #6: You have to take some more.

JEAN-PIERRE: Toluse, you're going to be the last one.

MAN #3: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for spending some time here with us. There have obviously been a number of crises that the country has been facing over the past several days with the hurricane, with port strike, with the situation in the Middle East. Can you talk about how your Vice President, who is running for the presidency, has worked on these crises and what role she has played over the past several days?

BIDEN: Well, she's -- I'm in constant contact with her. She's aware of where -- we all -- we're singing from the same song sheet. She helped pass the -- all the laws that are being employed now. She was a major player in everything we've done, including passage of legislation, which we were told we could never pass. And so she's been -- and her staff is interlocked with mine in terms of all the things we're doing.

JEAN-PIERRE: All right, sir. Thank you, sir. It's up to you, sir. Totally up to you, sir. All right. All right. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah, Nandita --sir, sir, no, no. I didn't call on you, sir. I didn't call on you. Nandita.

WOMAN #7: Thank you.

MAN #4: Francis is calling for a day of prayer --

WOMAN #7: Mr. President, Mr. President.

BIDEN: On Pope Francis calling for a day of prayer and fasting --

MAN #4: A day of prayer and fasting this Monday, October 7th. You reaction, sir?

BIDEN: I will pray and fast.

JEAN-PIERRE: All right. OK. That's --

WOMAN #7: Mr. President, what is acceptable to you in terms of Israel's response? How long are you OK with Israel bombing Lebanon? What is acceptable to you?

MAN #5: Mr. President --

JEAN-PIERRE: All right, guys. That's it. Thank you, everybody.

BIDEN: Thank you.

JEAN-PIERRE: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, sir.

BIDEN: Thank you.

JEAN-PIERRE: Thank you. Thank you everyone. Thank you, sir.

WOMAN #8: Mr. President, on Ukraine, have you made a decision on long- range weapons?

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CAMEROTA: Well, that was a surprise.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

CAMEROTA: Often we get a heads up that President Biden is coming out to speak different reporters (ph). I'm getting the impression, Boris, that he likes this. But we did not get any heads up. And it seems as though he wanted to come out and take credit for the great jobs report and for the ports being resolved, the strike being resolved, and talk about it with reporters and take questions.

SANCHEZ: He touted a number of positive developments in the economy, inflation going down, as you noted, the end of the port workers strike. And he did seem to relish it. But it's notable that he enjoyed that moment because he hasn't done that before. This is the first time that President Biden has gone into the press room at the White House in his administration to directly engage with reporters. And he was asked a number of significant questions, specifically on the job report. He was asked about comments made on social media by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who alleged that the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflated jobs numbers in this most recent report that exceeded expectations by about 110,000 jobs.

The President saying there that anything MAGA Republicans don't like, they say is fake. The President defending the numbers, saying that they are real. He also touted the fact that previous months were revised upward. And the President was also asked significant questions about the Middle East, specifically his relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu. President Biden there saying that no one has done more for Israel. No administration has done more for Israel than he.

CAMEROTA: We have a lot to talk about. Let's bring in CNN Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter, along with Pollster and Communications Strategist Frank Luntz. Gentlemen, great to see you. Brian, just about that, this is the first time that President Biden has gone into the press briefing room and taking questions. Why now? Why today?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYS: Yeah, I'm texting with some of his former press secretaries and aides, and they're a bit surprised by it as well, Alisyn. You know, of course, journalists want to see this. We are happy to see this. But it is true. It is -- according to the White House, the first time that Biden has gone into the briefing room and surprised reporters in this way. I can't help but think about the headline from Axios this morning.

Axios, one of those influential Washington sites, their morning newsletter had an item called the disappearing Bidens, pointing out that since Joe Biden exited the presidential race, he has been relatively in -- I was invisible, but he has been off the trail. He has not been doing as many public events. He's not been doing many interviews. That item landed this morning about two hours before the jobs report. So I can't help but wonder if that factored into this as well, his sudden appearance in the briefing room. And I'm glad you mentioned that comment that he made about the Republicans claiming the numbers are fake because that is something we continue to see from Trump and his allies, a rejection of data and facts. And Biden is clearly noticing that. He's maybe watching the news coverage. He's perceiving what's happening and he's speaking out against it very publicly today.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, it's something that we've seen sort of ferment on social media when in previous months, jobs numbers have been revised down. And Republicans are pointing to that to say, oh, the numbers are fake. Jobs numbers were revised down multiple times during the Trump administration. So make of that what you will.

[14:25:01]

Frank, from a communication standpoint, I do have a note, and I'm curious what you think about this. We were actually about to go live to Vice President Kamala Harris who's speaking right now in Detroit, Michigan. And apparently, she's talking about this port strike ending. She's trying to appeal to union workers. And yet, you have the President of the United States come out, clearly overshadowing her answering significant questions. Is that a communications mistake? Is the left hand not talking to the right hand in this situation?

FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER AND COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIST: That's a very good point. And if they were coordinated, as you assumed they would be, this would not have happened. But in the end, it's good news. And Presidents want to be surrounded and want to be available and want to be engaged when the news is good. And they want to be as far away as possible when the news is bad. The key about this is that Biden, the economy is stronger than Trump acknowledges. The economy is actually stronger than what most voters actually perceive. And that's because the economy tends to be a lagging indicator. They don't feel positive about it for months after the numbers turn around.

So what Biden is trying to say right now is pay attention. Employment is up, inflation is down. I kept my promises, so the timing is perfect for him. Frankly, Harris should have just delayed the abiding (ph), the chance to have the spotlight. And one more thing, I can't see the video. I can only hear the voice. And so as I'm listening to him, I'm thinking, wow, he really does sound tired. But I'm also thinking he sounds very pleased. And it's been a while since we've had good news in this country. So that's exactly what he wants to surround himself with, good news.

CAMEROTA: It's interesting, the optics versus the audio. I agree, because we were able to see it and he looked healthy and sort of vigor and tan for some reason, and smiling. But I take your point about the voice. We have many more questions for both of you if you can stick around. We're going to take a very quick break. We're going to be back with our panel in just a moment. Stay with us.

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