Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Secretary Austin Announces $400 Million Ukraine Aid Package While in Ukraine; Georgia Judge to Hear Arguments in Fani Willis Subpoena Fight; Kamala Harris Presidential Campaign Raises $1 Billion in Three Months; Donald Trump Campaigning in Non-Battleground States; Trump Campaign Aides Say Trump Exhausted from Recent Campaigning; Donald Trump May Hold Campaign Event with Nikki Haley. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 21, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Charles Houston, who served as a chaplain for the DNR, City Plains volunteer firefighter, and also worked with the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, was among the dead. Officials also said there are three other people critical condition. President Biden also reacted to the news, saying that he and the first lady are heartbroken to learn about the ferry dock walkway collapse on Georgia's Sapelo Island. Kate, now back to you.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So sad. Rafael, thank you very much for the update.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Cussing and talking about another man's jock, Donald Trump's rhetoric reaching new extremes with 15 days to the election. The Harris campaign saying the comments are more proof he should never be allowed back into the White House.

And for the first time ever, other celebrities are being named in a new wave of civil lawsuits alleging Sean "Diddy" Combs of sexually assaulting men, women, and a child.

And a Texas definitely row inmate scheduled to testify before state lawmakers today. The topic, shaken baby syndrome, the very diagnosis that sent him to prison for his daughter's death.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: With 15 days to go, everything is basically at an 11 in this campaign -- louder, bolder, more surgeon, more scary, more weird, more everything. Today, Kamala Harris will be hitting battleground states with Republican Liz Cheney by her side, Donald Trump soon is going to be heading to storm-ravaged North Carolina. That seems much more traditional, yes? Just wait.

Out just this morning, Kamala Harris is riding on a ton of cash. She raised $1 billion in three months, which had her starting October with nearly $61 million more than Donald Trump. How both campaigns now spend that cash is just as important as how they both now spend their time. I mentioned Trump is heading to North Carolina, but this weekend, Donald Trump made clear in these final moments for him, anything goes.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Arnold Palmer was all man.

When he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there. They said, oh my God. That's unbelievable.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: You're a -- vice president.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: The worst. You're the worst vice president. Kamala, you're fired, get the hell out of here. You're fired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN senior political analyst Mark Preston joining me now for more on this. Hearing that, getting that from Trump at this point in the campaign, what does that say to you, Mark?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Not surprised, certainly trying to play to his base and doing what he does best, which is to go out, entertain, and push the limits of decency. And that's what we've seen him do on the campaign trail ever since he started running back in 2015, 16. That's why he was in the White House, and this is how he's closing these last 15 days.

His campaign sees this as an opportunity to try to energize those last MAGA voters, to try to get them out to vote, because they realize, Kate that if they're not able to get every one of these MAGA voters out, there's a good chance they could lose this election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm looking for a, job and I've always wanted to work at McDonald's, but I never did. I'm running against somebody that that she did, but it turned out to be a totally phony story. So if you don't mind, I want to work the French fry counter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESTON: There is no, there is no chance that he ever wanted to work at McDonald's. But we do know he does love McDonald's. And I've got to tell you what, could you imagine driving up to a McDonald's, Kate, and having Donald Trump lean out the window and ask if you would like to supersize your meal? BOLDUAN: I don't -- I can imagine everything at this point, so I feel

like at this point anything goes and anything is possible. But what it does to win votes remains the question. Saying what Donald Trump is saying on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania yesterday, what does that do? It motivates MAGA voters. Does it, but it does it in change turn off other, I don't know, persuadable voters? What does it do for Donald Trump other than to try to troll Kamala Harris to show up to McDonald's? I don't know. I'm just going to throw that out there.

But now let's talk about Harris and Liz Cheney. They're going to be campaigning together. That is that is clearly intentional, if there are persuadable voters to persuade them. What do you think?

PRESTON: All right, so what we're seeing here, of course, is two different strategies being put in play. You're seeing Kamala Harris trying to go out in trying to pick off any Republican voters that might have any concern about Donald Trump. How do you do that? You use a Republican as your wing person. In this case, you have Liz Cheney.

[08:05:03]

Where do you go? You go to Pennsylvania. You go to Michigan. You go to Wisconsin. When do you do that? You do that all in one day. Why do you do that? You do that to show that you realize that these are the three states that are very likely either going to win or lose the election for you.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump, what he does, he decides to go to places that are safe, like Alabama. We're going to see him at Madison Square Garden at the end of the week, Kate. He's not going to win New York, but they believe they can get more press doing a big event like that that may help try to get out their MAGA voters because certainly, as you're right, they are not going to get any of those Republican women who Donald Trump does desperately need in order to win this election.

BOLDUAN: OK, the money. Kamala Harris now raising more money than any campaign has ever done in three months. I mean, the numbers for this, this election are just bonkers and has campaign finance reform advocates brains exploding. But how big of an advantage is a cash advantage like this one at this point. We're 15 days out. What do you do with it?

PRESTON: Well, I mean, you just take that money and you pour it into the states that you need to pour it into. Pour it into states, again, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. If you live in those states, I'm sorry. You're going to see an obnoxious amount of television ads over the next 15 days, you'll see him in Georgia. You'll see him in Nevada. You'll also see them in some of these other college states, even North Carolina as well, you're going to see all this money being poured in.

However, the money differential, though, Kate is a little bit different now than it was, say, 20 years ago, because now, as you noted, the campaign finance laws or different. That allows outside groups to play. People like Elon Musk is trying to help Donald Trump, as we know, and he's pouring a lot of money, millions upon millions upon millions of dollars to try to get the vote out for Donald Trump. BOLDUAN: It's great to see you, Mark. Thank you.

John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now, Marc Caputo, national political reporter for "The Bulwark". Marc, thank you so much for being with us. Look, Donald Trump said all these things this weekend talking about Arnold Palmer, vulgarity, a lot of stuff. Now, one of the explanations that you here, and there were some reporting from "Politico" last week, is that Trump is exhausted. He is saying things like this because he's exhausted. He's worn out.

You're got some new reporting on this which has sort of an interesting take on that based on your conversations with Trump insiders. What are they telling you?

MARC CAPUTO, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE BULWARK": Well, yes, I mean, of course he's tired. I just had our story move on Saturday morning, so I just tallied up the beginning of the month, October 1st to Friday, it's 18 days. He did 28 events in 26 cities in 12 states. He had done 21 media interviews, including seven long form podcasts. Now, all the media interviews were not challenging. They were generally with friendly audiences are friendly media reporters. But nevertheless, it's a lot of work.

And in addition to that, he's flying across the country. He doesn't sleep very much. When he's on Trump Force One, the name of his plane, no one really lies down. That includes the candidate. At most, he sort of micro-naps, sitting straight up, putting his chin down, and grabbing a few z's, but it's not quality sleep. And he's on Truth social posting stuff at 12:48 a.m. railing against "The Apprentice," the new movie that depicts his relationship with Roy Cohn.

You add all that stuff together, it's tiring, and the reality is, he's 78-years-old. Yes, he's old. Yes, he's older. And having a rugged schedule like that and not sleeping a lot is going to tire you out.

Now, the campaign tries to deny that he's exhausted and deny that he's tired. And indeed, when he goes to these events, you see he is very amped up and he's very excited to do them. But in the end, no matter how much the campaign wants to make him sound immortal, he's still a human being. It's a tiring schedule.

BERMAN: One has to wonder, I don't know if you care to weigh in on this, what a Trump unhinged would look like versus a Trump hinged. Can we say what the difference would be if there would be one?

CAPUTO: I can't say, but to use your door analogy, there might be maybe one hinge on a three hinged door here right now. So we have no idea. I mean, the door is still technically hanging in the jams. But the reality is, is Donald Trump has these rallies. And when you compare them to 2016, which "The New York Times" did, they're a lot longer, his speeches. He used to speak for about 45 minutes. Now he speaks for about 90 minutes.

And the reason for that is that people line up for many, many hours, and Donald Trump being the entertainer, as Mark Preston had just pointed out, wants to give them a show. And so he'll read the 45 minutes, essentially, of the script that his campaign advisers have written for his speech off of the teleprompter. And then he just digresses off of the teleprompter and says whatever comes to mind. And in this case, whatever came to mind was the size of Arnold Palmer's penis.

[08:10:00]

BERMAN: One wonders why, but we'll leave that aside for a moment there, Marc, because you've got some -- while we have you, I'm going to tap into your other great reporting. Nikki Haley, reporting that Nikki Haley at some point might do an event with Donald Trump on the trail. It's interesting, because when he's asked about her, it's not like he talks about her in glowing terms, how excited he would be to have her out there, but he might need her based on your reporting of that slice of Nikki Haley voters.

CAPUTO: Yes, he might need her. They are in talks. Allegedly, it should happen at the end of the month, but nothing is guaranteed yet. It might be on FOX. It's not just that he would like to have these Nikki Haley voters, about 1 million people voted for Nikki Haley in the primary in the seven swing states over Donald Trump, and they do represent an opportunity.

But the more important thing for Donald Trump is this, just optics. We're at the optics stage of the campaign. You we had earlier on the show Kamala Harris is appearing with Liz Cheney, and that just sends a message about where she is. And the Trump campaign would like him to appear with Nikki Haley and just send a message about him working with her and reaching out to those voters.

Now, just after my reporting last week about them being in talks, he was asked on FOX & FRIENDS about this, and he said, yes, I'll do what I have to do. And then he proceeded to basically not quite trash Nikki Haley, but say, well, I don't know why everyone saw talking about her. I got way more votes. It's not the greatest way to want to campaign with someone, but nevertheless, it looks like it's going to happen. Nevertheless nothing is guaranteed in Trump world until it actually happens.

BERMAN: Yes, I will say it's absolutely clear that the Harris campaign thinks that these voters are important just based on where she's going --

CAPUTO: Definitely.

BERMAN: -- with whom and what her message is. She thinks they can decide the election.

CAPUTO: Well, a number of things can decide the election, but it is clear that Harris's campaign has made a bid for Haley voters. They have a staffer who is essentially in charge of reaching out to them and disaffected Republicans. It's not as if Nikki Haley just sort of created these voters out of whole cloth. She was a repository for a lot of Republicans who are upset was Trump, who just didn't want to see another Trump term or didn't want to see him run again. So he does have to do some work to get them back.

At the same time, the Trump campaign isn't just focusing on them. It's big gamble its making is working with these outside groups trying to stir up and ignite and turnout more young male voters who in the past have not voted. That's really going to be for the Trump campaign where the election is going to hinge on.

BERMAN: Marc Caputo, "Politico" reporter, golf fan, like the rest of us, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much.

(LAUGHTER)

CAPUTO: Thank you.

BERMAN: Sara?

SIDNER: All right, moments ago, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced $400 million in additional aid to Ukraine while he's on a surprise visit to Kyiv. Details on what it will pay for.

Also, will the D.A. in Donald Trump's Georgia elections subversion case have to hand over documents subpoenaed weeks ago. A hearing begins today.

And severe flooding in the southwest, even a sheriff gets caught in the high water. Those stories and more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:31]

SIDNER: All right, we have some breaking news for you.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is in Ukraine where he has just announced a $400 million aid package. Austin is meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other officials today in this surprise visit to Kyiv.

Joining us now, former CIA director and former commander of US Central Command, General David Petraeus.

Thank you, sir, so much for coming in for us this morning.

Just to you, because we are just learning this now, how much can $400 million buy? And is it anywhere near enough to affect the outcome of this war, if not another cent is sent by the United States?

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS (RET), FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Well, it is a considerable amount. It will provide a great deal of ammunition, the interceptors for the air defense -- all weapons systems and so forth. So that's very, very significant.

It comes on top of tens of billions of dollars, of course, from the US and then, various European and other Western countries.

Is it enough? I fear not. What we need to be doing, all of us together is to try to enable

Ukraine to stop the Russian advances on the frontlines. They are holding them back very effectively, but the Russians are achieving incremental gains on a daily basis, and overtime that does accumulate.

We have to help Ukraine change that dynamic and show Russia, show Putin that he cannot continue to make advances and make gains at an acceptable cost because only one you we change that dynamic will we see an opportunity for real meaningful discussions about a ceasefire.

Until then, Putin has every incentive to continue. Now of course, Ukraine is also very effectively using unmanned systems against Russian territory and we should relax the remaining restrictions that we have on our Army Tactical Missile System, the ATACMS, the longest range system we've provided when it comes to hitting targets in the Russian federation.

Ukrainians also have been very effective at sea, despite not having any real Navy. They've used aerial drones to find Russian ships and then maritime drones to sink them, pushing them all the way out of the western part of the Black Sea.

But on the front lines, the situation is difficult. I was last there for the fourth time in a year-and-a-half about a month ago and you can feel, you can sense the degree of war weariness that is there that I had not actually felt before. And we need to do all that we can again, to enable them to stop the Russian advances.

[08:20:02]

SIDNER: I want to turn now to the Middle East, where there is -- there are so many things happening, including the continued airstrikes on Gaza.

The US has learned very well what happens when you create a vacuum in leadership. We watched what happened in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

PETRAEUS: Exactly.

SIDNER: ISIS entered the void.

What do you see happening in Gaza now that Israel has taken out Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas, and many, many of the other high-ranking military and political officials of Hamas there.

PETRAEUS: Well, you described it perfectly, Sara, there is a vacuum.

The Israelis are going in. They're conducting clear and leave operations. In other words, they're conducting raids, they are using airstrikes and so forth.

They've done enormous damage to Hamas, the degradation of Hamas is very, very considerable, but they're not destroyed. There are still tens of thousands of Hamas fighters, extremists and there is plenty of recruits for Hamas 2.0. So, the question is, will Israel lay out a policy that achieves

security in Gaza and does prevent Hamas from reconstituting along with criminal groups and Palestinian Islamist Jihad, who are the only real authority at this point in time, again, very seriously degraded.

By the way, it is very significant that Israel has taken control of the southern border between Gaza and the Sinai, which denies the ability to push weapons systems and material through the Rafah Crossing and underneath that southern border and the tunnels there.

But unless there is security, you're right, we did learn this in Iraq. We were conducting clear and leave operations in 2006. It was only with the surge, which of course, I was privileged to command that we conducted clear and hold and build.

Now, they don't want to re-occupy. We don't seem to want them to re- occupy, but unless that happens, there is no security and then there is no better future for the Palestinian people, which is something that should be sought.

If you don't improve their lives, if they're trapped in this terrible situation, this humanitarian catastrophe that is Gaza for them right now, there will be many, many more recruits for Hamas.

So it is incumbent, I think to secure it sequentially north to south, gated communities, then and only then could you bring in Palestinian security forces trained by the US and Jordan and contractors and Arab forces will come in if they don't have to fight Hamas.

But Arabs are not going to fight Hamas for Israel. So I think this is unavoidable. And if it is not done, what you end up with is this enormous population, 2.2 million people jammed into an area with totally inadequate humanitarian assistance -- hygiene, shelter, and everything else. And again, were about to enter another winter here.

SIDNER: General David Petraeus, thank you for walking us through that. It is such a complicated situation there, particularly in Gaza, with as you said, more than two million people who are really suffering dire need there in Gaza.

Thank you so much for coming on this morning. Appreciate your time.

PETRAEUS: Good to be with you, Sara.

SIDNER: John.

BERMAN: All right, we've got new poll numbers this morning that show Donald Trump losing support in one of his strongest demographics.

And breaking overnight, seven now new civil lawsuits filed against Sean Combs and for the first time, other celebrities are cited and accused.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:27:41] BOLDUAN: Today, a judge in Fulton County, Georgia will be hearing

arguments on whether the district attorney there should be forced to hand over documents related to the sweeping election subversion case against Donald Trump.

CNN's Nick Valencia is following this one from Atlanta for us.

Nick, what are you expecting to see today?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we will see Ashleigh Merchant on the stand and she is the defense attorney who initially filed the motion to get Fani Willis thrown off the case and Merchant is convinced that there are official documents that the DA's office has that would further prove the claim that Willis somehow financially benefited from hiring her onetime boyfriend as a special prosecutor in the Trump case.

The DA's office meanwhile is saying that they are an entity that is not subject to subpoena power, but for Merchant, the attorney that you're looking at there on your screen, she says this goes far beyond Nathan Wade.

She is alleging ethics violations by Fani Willis, claiming that Willis used taxpayer money to fund a media monitoring site that tracked the public's perception of how she was handling the Trump election subversion case.

And that case, if you remember, appear to be on a fast-track to go before the 2024 election. That was until Merchant's motion.

Fani Willis initially survive that motion, if you remember? But it is now unclear what is going to happen. That case is in the hands of the Court of Appeals. Oral arguments are set for December.

Meanwhile, Kate, Willis has this related legal fight on our hands later this afternoon.

BOLDUAN: So Nick also, at the very same time, Georgia is voting, setting records with early -- their early voter turnout and already facing accusations from Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene claiming fraud is underway.

Republican Secretary of State is pushing back on what Marjorie Taylor Greene is claiming. Bring people up to speed here.

VALENCIA: You know, Kate, these are the same tired old claims that we've heard since 2020 and Georgia elections officials have been very clear that there is absolutely no evidence of widespread election fraud. They say elections here are safe and secure.

I mentioned no evidence of widespread voter fraud. There is, however, evidence of a historic turnout, 1.4 million early votes cast. If you add all that up so far, that is about 20 percent of all those that voted for the president in 2020.

And the lines, you'll remember I was out last week at the Buckhead Library, the long line aren't just in Metro Atlanta, they are also in the outlying suburbs and even in the rural areas.

Last week was fall break for the kids. I took them up to Fannin County. That's a deeply red part of the state, and I saw long lines for early voting even there -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Nick Valencia, thank you -- John.

BERMAN: All right, we have been looking at different voting groups and what some of the polling shows us with them. Today, we have a really important one for Donald Trump. With me, CNN's senior data reporter, professor of numbers --

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Oh.

BERMAN: Harry Enten.

[08:30:30]