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Obama Seeks To Shore Up Support For Harris Among Black Men; Two Killed, 35 Injured In Chemical Leak At Texas Oil Refinery; Residential Building Collapsed After Strikes In Central Beirut. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 11, 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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[07:30:25]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Former President Barack Obama hitting the campaign trail in battleground Pennsylvania headlining his first campaign event for Vice President Kamala Harris and making a surprise stop at a Harris campaign field office ahead of the rally during which he had a very clear and direct message for Black men.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It makes me think -- and I'm speaking to men directly -- part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president and you're coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.

The women in our lives have been getting our backs this entire time. They've been raising us, and working, and having our backs. And when we get in trouble and the system is not working for us, they're the ones who are out there marching and protesting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now is CNN senior political commentator and former special assistant to President George W. Bush, Scott Jennings. And also with us, Christine Quinn, the executive committee chair of the New York State Democratic Committee, and president and CEO of WIN.

That was a pretty specific focused --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- message from the former president, Scott.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah, he was kind of insulting them. I mean, he said if you're not in line with Kamala Harris it's just because you're a misogynist or you're a bigot and you're making excuses for it. I actually don't think it's all that effective to go and insult groups of people who are soft on your candidate by saying it's just because you have these hateful internal thoughts. That's not why men are not flocking to the Kamala Harris campaign

right now. They have policy concerns, and they have real concerns with the Democratic Party. I'm not -- I'm not sure this was the right thing to do.

BOLDUAN: Christine, what do you think?

CHRISTINE QUINN, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, WIN, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE CHAIR, NEW YORK STATE DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE, FORMER NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL SPEAKER: Well, first of all, Barack Obama is the best motivator, the best speaker the Democratic Party has ever had -- maybe any party has ever had.

And I think what he did with so few days left was speak frankly and honestly to Black men as a Black man. And I don't think that's insulting or talking down to them. I think it's engaging in frank conversation, which people appreciate. People want to be spoken to where they are at. And I think coming from him -- another Black man -- is really going to make people take a moment and stop and think why aren't they supporting Kamala Harris when they are in line with most of, it not all, of her policies.

BOLDUAN: This speaks to a little bit of the headline in Politico -- one of the headlines in the Political Playbook today, which is -- kind of the headline was this is becoming a boy versus girl election.

And what Politico is leaning on, Scott, here was focus group expert Sarah Longwell. She's done a lot of work -- don't roll your eyes. She may have opinions. She's also a very good expert on speaking with voters and opinions of voters. I'm going to tell her that.

JENNINGS: Please.

BOLDUAN: I shall. I shall.

And they speak to her, and she says -- and she says it concerns her, but she says that what it comes down to is that -- she says that what she's hearing is it's a boy versus girl election. She says forget policy. The election is about culture. She contends that the biggest thing separating men and women right now is not policy differences; rather, men and women are finding themselves at loggerheads over cultural issues.

JENNINGS: Totally, I think that's true. She also said, if I read correctly, that men like Donald Trump because he has a hot wife -- I mean, that was her expert analysis.

Look, this denigration of men -- this --

BOLDUAN: You mean --

JENNINGS: -- idea -- this idea that they can't have policy views, this idea that they can't have concerns about how the Democratic Party has treated them over the years from a policy perspective -- to me, it's the continued insulting of men as these knuckle-dragging creatures who somehow have antiquated views -- I just don't think the Democrats know how to talk to them.

It's a gender election. I mean, this is a party that thinks gender is a state of mind and now they're like, wow, I don't know why conservative men don't like Democrats. I mean, are we surprised about this?

BERMAN: Christine, I want you to respond to that and then I'm going to play some more sound from Barack Obama. But go ahead and respond to Scott first.

QUINN: You know, this -- to minimize gender and the affect that the Trump presidency had on women and girls is to not pay attention to reality.

[07:35:00]

I mean, I don't think this is as simple as saying this is a boy versus girl election. But the truth is that a lot of the policies out of the Trump administration particularly hurt women and girls.

The biggest one and a motivating one to voters is what has happened to Roe versus Wade. What has happened to women who are miscarrying and having other gynecological problems when they go to the E.R. and doctors aren't willing -- they're too afraid to treat them, and women have died.

So it isn't vilifying men; it's raising to men these real issues that affect the lives of their wives, and mothers, and daughters.

And I think the campaign is correct to remind all voters, but particularly women, about all that we lost and how much more we could possibly lose if Trump is re-elected. And to remind men about that and the impact he has had on the women and girls on his life is a smart idea and I believe will motivate male voters.

BERMAN: Well look, the Harris campaign clearly thinks there is an issue and a focus they need to be putting on male voters.

QUINN: Um-hum.

BERMAN: They have Tim Walz out doing interviews with Michael Strahan on the football field.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

BERMAN: You know, Tim Walz with his old -- his old football team.

And then back to the Obama event. Obama was clearly trying, I think, to focus more on Black men and men in general when talking about, among other things, diapers -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: You think Donald Trump ever changed a diaper?

RALLYGOER: No! No! No chance! His own! OBAMA: I almost said that, but I decided I shouldn't say it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That was a moment, Christine.

QUINN: Yes, yes. But you know what raising the issue of changing diapers needs to remind us about is that in most households, even still in 2024, women are the primary caregivers, and they are working. And we are in a country that does not have even close to satisfactory child care or even close to enough leave for men and women after they have a child or after they adopt a child.

These are real issues that are forcing women to sometimes leave the workforce to the peril of the family's budget or forcing them to not move as quickly as they could in their career. This is a real bread and butter issue that Kamala Harris will do something about that Trump will not. And although it was colorful, I think the diaper message was a good reminder that put things in sharp reality.

BOLDUAN: Scott?

JENNINGS: The high-minded elevator of civil discourse in our country, Barack Obama --

BOLDUAN: Oh, geez. Don't even start.

JENNINGS: -- has gone from making penis jokes --

QUINN: Oh, please.

JENNINGS: -- at the Democrat National Convention to making adult diaper jokes here.

BERMAN: He didn't make the joke.

JENNINGS: And --

BERMAN: He did not, in fact, make the adult diaper joke. He responded to it.

JENNINGS: He referenced it on the stage. I mean, I'm (INAUDIBLE) that back. It's like he always wants to have it both ways. I'm here to elevate the discourse and oh, by the way, let's joke about genitalia and diapers. I mean, come on, guys -- honestly?

BOLDUAN: I'm here.

QUINN: I just don't think -- I just don't think anyone associated or affiliated, or whatever the right way to say it is, with the Trump campaign can raise issues of civil discourse. Because in the world of who hasn't engaged in civil discourse in elections, Donald Trump is at the top of the heap.

BERMAN: Christine Quinn, Scott Jennings, thank you both so much for this elevated discourse -- Kate. BOLDUAN: That's what we do. That's what we do.

This morning officials in Florida are urging people to be on guard against financial predators and scams in the wake of deadly Hurricane Milton. Hundreds of homes were destroyed in the state -- in the storm from the floodwaters and extreme winds. And in places like Fort Pierce, tornadoes ripped through the city.

CNN's Ivan Rodriguez has much more on the recovery efforts there.

IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, yesterday was that full day people had to come out and begin to survey some of that damage. This morning we're seeing still that devastation.

Here in this neighborhood where I am in Fort Pierce this semi completely toppled over on its side. Up here you can see its front wheel approaching now its front bumper. And on the other side of this main road in this community is another semi. Its trailer has been completely smashed.

[07:40:00]

We were able to drive around this area for the last 24 hours to inspect all the damage left behind. County officials here say that well over 100 homes were damaged. And when we were driving around, we could see fences of homes that were down, power lines down, oak trees just snapped in half.

Residents were beginning to clean up a little bit of that damage, at least to clear those roads so that their cars could get through. Also, electric crews could get through. Because here where we are in Fort Pierce a lot of this area is still without power even though other parts of St. Lucie County have now power restored.

We know based on what emergency responders are telling us that they received 900 calls within the span of 90 minutes -- an incredible amount of calls. People here -- longtime residents saying they've never seen damage and devastation like this before.

Search and rescue efforts, Kate, are also still on going. The darkness doesn't help at all with this. It will ease up a little bit more when that sunlight comes out, but this rain also going to be playing another factor here.

We know that one of those tornadoes struck in a retirement community mainly consisting of modular homes. The sheriff saying that in that community he found piles of debris, some of them reaching up to 12 feet -- Kate.

BERMAN: I'll take it. Ivan Rodriguez, thank you very much for that.

And with us now is the Secretary of Energy and former governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm. Secretary, thank you so much for being with us.

Ivan just mentioned the power outages in Fort Pierce. What's the latest information you're getting about power in the state?

JENNIFER GRANHOLM, SECRETARY OF ENERGY (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah. So during the hurricane -- after the hurricane there were about 3.4 million people that were without power. Today -- right now, as I speak, there's about 2.4. So a million people have been restored already.

And can I just say, John, this is really due to the incredible efforts of not just the Florida utilities but the incredible surge of workers that have come from 40 states and Canada -- all around -- to come to the aid of Floridians.

BERMAN: It takes a lot of work and a lot of preparation.

I know GasBuddy overnight was saying more than 25 percent of gas stations or so don't have fuel. And the situation could get worse before it gets better?

GRANHOLM: Well, I mean, part of it is that as people are returning back to their homes, et cetera, they may be returning back to places where stations are also without power, right? So in the next couple of days this will smooth out, but these are spot outages because of the power shutoff. And then before the hurricane there was a lot of topping off and filling of gas tanks, so those stations weren't used to having that much -- that many customers, that much need for gas.

So the gas is there. It's in the system. They're at terminals, for example, at the Port of Tampa and trucks need to get it out of the Port of Tampa. But the Port of Tampa right now is still without power and is closed down.

So it's -- this is happening, as you can tell, from a million people already having been restored. Florida is expert at this. And so over the next couple of days this will all -- it will all straighten out.

BERMAN: Well, Florida is expert at this because these storms keep happening, you know, two weeks ago, 12 months ago, 24 months ago.

Does it feel to you like the types of these destructive storms are increasing?

GRANHOLM: Of course. Of course they're increasing. We know that the acceleration of these extreme weather events are happening all the time. We know that climate change has warmed not just the atmosphere but the waters of the Gulf, which makes hurricanes more powerful and more frequent.

So this is -- you know, this hurricane season has been horrible, but it might be the best hurricane season that we see going forward unless we get our act together and combat climate change.

I will say this, though. One of the things that Florida -- because Florida has so much experience with hurricanes, they have done an unbelievable job of undergrounding a lot of their distribution lines, their grid. And 40 percent of the wires now are under-grounded.

Orlando, Disney World is opening up today. They didn't lose power because they had hardened their grid.

So it speaks a lot about when you rebuild you have to build it back stronger, and that's what Florida has done. But we're going to -- unless we all start doing this because it doesn't just happen -- climate change --

BERMAN: No.

GRANHOLM: -- is not just affecting hurricanes, it's affecting wildfires, droughts, et cetera. So --

BERMAN: And look, it's been a 30-plus year effort in Florida with the building codes after Hurricane Andrew, but they have been successful by and large.

I want you to take off your Secretary of Energy hat and put on your former Michigan governor hat, and I want to play some sound from Donald Trump, who was in Detroit saying this about Detroit.

[07:45:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The whole country is going to be like -- you want to know the truth? It'll be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she's your president. You're going to have a mess on your hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: What do you think about that as someone from Michigan?

GRANHOLM: Well, yeah. I'm just -- I'm speaking -- I'm here in my official capacity so I'm not going to talk about the campaign.

But I will say as a human being, anybody who lives in Detroit knows that Detroit has come back. There have been an incredible effort at restoring Detroit. You go to downtown Detroit, it is exciting, it's vibrant.

That -- for anybody to make a statement that -- in a disparaging way about Detroit as opposed to what an amazing story of a city that has risen from its knees is really out of touch. And it's not a good use of your public speaking to disparage a city that has worked so hard to come back. It's amazing.

BERMAN: All right. Well, former governor of Michigan and current Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, thank you so much for being with us. I know you've got a lot of work to do with the situation in Florida, so we do appreciate your time.

GRANHOLM: Yeah.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: Two people killed, five injured after a chemical leak at a Texas oil refinery plant. What officials are saying about all of this now.

And the Nobel Peace Prize awarded today to a group working to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.

We'll be back.

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[07:50:45]

BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, two people are dead and dozens more injured after a chemical leak at an oil refinery in Deer Park, Texas, which is near Houston. Officials say it was hydrogen sulfide, a colorless and potentially toxic gas.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is with us with the latest on this. Ed, what are you learning this morning?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Well, this incident happened at the PEMEX oil refinery facility in the city of Deer Park, Texas, which is just southeast of Houston along that corridor of oil refineries in that industrial area that is much -- a huge part of the energy system here in the United States.

This incident happened just before 5:00 yesterday afternoon -- that hydrogen sulfide chemical leak -- intense moments. Officials confirm that there are two people dead. Thirty-five different people had to be treated because of their exposure to that chemical leak as well.

So very intense moments there as a shelter-in-place order was put in place there in Deer Park, Texas, as well as another surrounding community as well. That lasted for several hours. But officials say after air monitor checks were conducted throughout the evening that shelter-in-place order was lifted.

This is what the mayor in Deer Park, Texas had to say late last night at a press conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JERRY MOUTON, DEER PARK, TEXAS: We are, at this moment, lifting the shelter in place in the city of Deer Park. We have confirmation from our air monitoring sources that there's been no detectable or reportable narratives. With that said, we do know there's still going to be some remnants of odor in the air that our constituents will be smelling at times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Yeah. So officials say that pungent odor caused by the hydrogen sulfide could continue to last for seven days, but they insist that the air monitoring -- the air monitoring checks have proved that there's nothing dangerous or potentially dangerous there in the air as of this moment.

Just last month this same city had to deal with a pipeline explosion there at another facility.

And the sheriff in Harris County says that as of now, they have not been able to access the area where this chemical leak occurred. That was according to the sheriff at that press conference last night, John.

BERMAN: So very much an ongoing situation, in some ways.

Ed Lavandera, I know you'll keep watching this. Thank you so much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Israel's strikes in central Beirut now the deadliest attack there in over a year of war. Lebanon says at least 22 people died and more than -- more than 100 injured. The residential building collapsed in the strikes. The target was a senior Hezbollah leader, but a source tells CNN that leader survived.

Let's get over to CNN's Salma Abdelaziz for much more on this. She's joining us from London. Good morning, Salma.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kate.

So yesterday night, local time, about 8:00 p.m., Israel twice struck central Beirut. As you mentioned, one of those strikes leveled a four- story residential building. And what neighbors and eyewitnesses told CNN is inside that building were not just the residents but also displaced people. People who came from around the country thinking that central Beirut would be safe only, of course, to find themselves victim to this massive unprecedented aerial attack that's been going on for weeks now by Israel.

I know we have images to show you. You can continue to see emergency workers trying to pull people out of the rubble and salvage what they can.

This will absolutely terrify residents of Beirut. Israeli strikes have focused on the south of the capital, a Hezbollah stronghold. Now that this offensive has expanded you can imagine that families will be worried, will be terrified, will be saying there is no safe place left in Lebanon.

It's not the only incident in the last couple of days. We've also heard from the United Nation. The U.N. accusing Israel of firing directly on U.N. peacekeepers causing two of them to fall from an observation tower. Those peacekeepers are now recovering. They have received some injuries.

[07:55:00]

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also scrambling to try to find diplomatic solutions. He has appealed for calm and says he wants to see the temperature in Lebanon brought down. But, of course, Prime Minister Netanyahu has vowed to carry on until he says he can deter Hezbollah from further attacks.

BOLDUAN: Salma, thank you so much for the update. Just looking at the images and the damage and destruction there is really, really dramatic. Thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Breaking this morning, the 2024 Nobel Peace Price awarded to an organization in Japan that works to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Nihon Hidankyo was formed by atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

A federal judge set the trial date in the case against Sean Combs for May 5 of next year. Combs has been in custody since his arrest on racketeering and sex trafficking charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

And later this morning a judge will look at the plea agreement between Boeing and federal prosecutors over two deadly 737 Max crashes. One was in Indonesia in 2018, the other in Ethiopia less than a year later. Boeing agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and faced fines and oversight, but the victims' families want the judge to throw out the agreement, calling it a miscarriage of justice -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Also new this morning TD Bank is going to pay a massive fine -- $3 billion -- to settle charges that the company failed to properly money laundering by drug cartels. Officials say that more than 90 percent of their transactions went unmonitored for more than six years. That allowed massive money laundering operations to occur under their watch, I guess -- or not watch.

CNN's Matt Egan has much more on this. What is going on with this, Matt?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, Kate, these are stunning allegations against one of the biggest banks operating in America. Now, U.S. officials allege that TD Bank failed to monitor customer activity for six years -- $18 trillion worth of activity -- and that this allowed three money laundering networks to take advantage. They say that TD Bank turned a blind eye to what were red flags and that in some cases, bank executives knew there was a problem here, but they failed to take action.

Now, some of the examples laid out by prosecutors sound like they were ripped straight from an episode of "Breaking Bad." In one particularly glaring episode a -- TD Bank workers knew that there was someone that they knew as David and he was allowed to move half a billion dollars of elicit funds through TD Bank branches, in part by bribing bank workers --

BOLDUAN: Oh, geez.

EGAN: -- with tens of thousands of dollars of gift cards.

Now, at one point, prosecutors say David's network bought more than a million dollars' worth of official bank checks with cash in a single day -- with cash. And when one TD Bank employee noticed they said, "How is that not money laundering?" And a back office employee responded, "Oh, it 100 percent is."

Now, this individual, David, who might as well have been called Walter White, later pled guilty to laundering drug money through the bank. U.S. officials -- they slammed TD Bank. Take a listen to Attorney

General Garland yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: TD Bank created an environment that allowed financial crime to flourish. By making its services convenient for criminals it became one. Today, TD Bank became the largest bank in U.S. history to plead guilty to Bank Secrecy Act program failures and the first bank in history to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That's a lot of firsts that you don't want to be.

EGAN: Yeah, absolutely. And listen, so the bank responded. The CEO, Bharat Masrani -- he took responsibility. He's promising to make investments and to make fixes to address this. He said this is a difficult chapter in our bank's history.

BOLDUAN: I'd say so.

EGAN: And he said the failures took place on his watch and he apologizes.

I should note that the CEO -- he's been there for a decade. He recently announced he is retiring in the spring.

Now, Elizabeth Warren has spoken up and she's argued that regulators and prosecutors -- they have not gone hard enough after TD Bank. She said on X, "Three billion dollars seems like a lot but to big banks like TD Bank it's just the cost of doing business. This settlement lets bank executives off the hook for allowing TD to be used as a criminal slush fund. The Justice Department and Biden regulars must do better in enforcing anti-money laundering laws."

One other point here, Kate. The attorney general -- yesterday, he said that the investigation into every level of the bank of ongoing, and he vowed to follow the evidence wherever it leads.

BOLDUAN: The investigation continues.

EGAN: It does.

BOLDUAN: Matt, thank you very much --

EGAN: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: -- for that update.

All right, a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BERMAN: Get over it.