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U.S. Secretary of State in Middle East; Final Campaign Stretch. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 21, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:32]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The presidential candidates turning up the volume on their closing arguments just 15 days out from Election Day. And these two seem to be on completely different channels. We will take you live to the campaign trail.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And a critical diplomatic mission, America's top diplomat dispatched to the Middle East for the 11th time since the beginning of the war in Gaza. Antony Blinken's goal is clear. kick-start cease-fire talks and end this conflict. But can he do that? We're live from Israel.

And lights out in Cuba. As the nation struggles with widespread blackouts, people are fed up and frustrated and they're even taking to the streets.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: We are so grateful to have you this afternoon. I'm Boris Sanchez, alongside Brianna Keilar, in the nation's capital.

And we are now just 15 days out from the election, both candidates focusing their campaign stops in different battleground states today targeting undecided voters, who could determine the winner of the White House.

Vice President Kamala Harris is hitting not one, but all three blue wall states. And she's teaming up with an unlikely ally, former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who, in an unprecedented effort, is hoping to help Harris win over undecided independents and moderate Republicans in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

That trio of battleground states tipped the 2016 race for Donald Trump. But it swung back in Democrats' favor in 2020.

KEILAR: Former President Trump is also making three campaign stops of his own today. He will be in the storm battered swing state of North Carolina, where, just moments ago he did continue to spread disinformation about the federal government's response to Hurricane Helene.

He also repeated false claims about FEMA spending billions of dollars on housing for illegal migrants. And that's where we begin our coverage.

CNN's Kristen Holmes joins us now from Concord, North Carolina, which is just outside of Charlotte.

Kristen, Trump doubling down on this misinformation, maybe tripling or quadrupling at this point. What can you tell us?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Brianna and Boris.

One thing to keep in mind right now is that anything that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump do should be viewed through the lens of a political stop. And this was very clearly a political stop. Yes, he surveyed the damage. Yes, he talked to first responders.

But so much of this was getting out his voters to the polls. He even specifically talked about how he wanted people to get out and vote. He warned people that, if you are in temporary housing, today was the last day that you could get a specific ballot sent to not your permanent address, but this temporary housing.

It goes to show you how they feel right now at this point in the race. Remember, North Carolina delivered Donald Trump his narrowest win back in 2020, and they are clearly still concerned about this state. He is here. He has three events today, and then he has another event tomorrow, and he's going to be back next week, clearly putting this state as a top priority and into his travel rotation as a battleground state.

Now, as you mentioned, part of what he talked about was this disinformation around FEMA. First, he seemed to kind of dance around it, saying things like, well, I don't know what they did with that money. And then he was very explicit, saying that he believed that this money went towards migrants, that FEMA didn't have any money because it was going towards migrant housing, and even at one time implied that this was because Democrats might want migrants to be voting in this election.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They spent a lot of money on bringing illegal migrants, people that came into our country illegally, and taking them in, and all of the money they have spent, numbers that nobody can even believe.

So they don't have any money for the people that live here. It's a shame, because they should have the money. They spent money that I don't believe they're supposed to be spending for that, as you know. So I think it's a disgrace, what happened with FEMA, what's happened with their rescue effort. Their rescue effort was almost nonexistent.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: So, just to be clear, we fact-checked this before. We will fact-check it again.

We know that FEMA has different pots of money. They do have money that goes towards migrant housing. That does not come from disaster relief money. That is a completely separate pot of money. And one other thing to note here is that, in talking to these various governors, these various state officials in all of these states that have been impacted by Helene, none of them complained really about the federal response or about FEMA.

[13:05:13]

So this seems to be something that Donald Trump himself is simply perpetuating as he tries to attack the current administration, tries to link Kamala Harris to the current administration.

KEILAR: Yes, that's a good point.

Kristen Holmes, thank you for that report from North Carolina.

And as the vice president is looking to ramp up support in three key states today, we're learning that the Harris campaign is raking in some serious cash, reporting a huge fund-raising number starting October with $346 million compared to Trump's 285, which is still quite a lot.

The vice president just held a roundtable with Republican Liz Cheney, where she warned about a second Trump presidency. Here's a moment from that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In many, many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man, but the consequences of him being president of the United States are brutally serious.

There are things that he says that will be the subject of skits and laughter and jokes, but words have meaning coming from someone who aspires to stand behind the seal of the president of the United States. These are the things that are at stake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN's Danny Freeman is live for us in Pennsylvania.

Danny, walk us through the closing message from Harris and Liz Cheney beside us.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Boris, Brianna, this event just wrapped up a little while ago. It lasted about 40 minutes in total.

And there were two different elements that stood out to me when it comes to what message they were trying to get across here in the suburbs of Philadelphia. The first was along the lines of the bite that you just played for the viewers, basically, Vice President Harris saying, as she has before that former President Donald Trump is an unserious man for the job.

Then, former congresswoman Liz Cheney, she also noted that Trump idolizes tyrants. That was her argument and she was arguing also that foreign adversaries feel that they can play Trump on the international stage.

But then what also stood out to me, Boris and Brianna, was this second aspect of the event, and it was where Liz Cheney spoke about women's reproductive rights.

And it almost sounded like she was trying to give perhaps a pro-life, suburban, maybe more conservative or moderate woman's -- who might be a voter in this part of Pennsylvania, Liz Cheney seemed like she was trying to give them the language to support Vice President Kamala Harris, even if they may be uncomfortable with the issue of abortion.

Take a listen to what the former congresswoman had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): This is not an issue that we're seeing break down across party lines, but I think we're seeing people come together to say what has happened to women when women are facing situations where they can't get the care they need, where in places like Texas, for example, the attorney general is talking about -- is suing to get access to women's medical records, that's not sustainable for us as a country.

And it has to change.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Now I think that sound right there is really what the Harris campaign sees as the value that a surrogate like Liz Cheney can bring in an area like this.

And that's really what this entire day is about, again, attacking -- I shouldn't say attacking -- trying to go after these suburban women perhaps who might be more moderate, who might be on the fence.

Of course, it started here today in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Vice President Harris is then heading to the suburbs of Detroit and will then finish outside of Milwaukee later on this evening -- Boris, Brianna.

SANCHEZ: Danny Freeman live for us in Pennsylvania.

Thanks so much, Danny.

Let's discuss now with CNN's senior political analyst Mark Preston.

Mark, thanks so much for being with us. Two very different approaches as the election draws near. What do you

think of the strategy for each of these candidates?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, a couple things.

If you look at what Donald Trump has been doing, it's as if he's trying to double down, triple down, quadruple down. He is focusing on his MAGA base. He wants to make sure that if you were a supporter, if you even liked Donald Trump, that you will show up at the polls. That is why we're seeing him talking in this very vulgar way and really trying to reach out to this bro culture.

At the same time, what we're seeing from Kamala Harris is, they're trying to pick voters off, right? They see an opening. Perhaps there are a few persuadable voters in Pennsylvania and Michigan, in Wisconsin, three states that will see Liz Cheney and Kamala Harris today.

So can they get these women, these pro-life women who may not necessarily be as enamored with Donald Trump, does someone like Liz Cheney help her do that? At the same time, Kamala Harris has to work on shoring up support with traditional groups in the Democratic Party, African-Americans and Hispanics.

[13:10:00]

KEILAR: His appeal to bro culture, as you put it, we're definitely seeing that. He had kind of a wild weekend on the trail.

He also, though, made it clear yet again that, when he's talking about the enemy within, he's talking about his Democratic political opponents. And I do just want to be clear that, I mean, yes, there's Arnold Palmer's nether regions, which is kind of wild for him to talk about it.

But there's also this other topic, which is a violation, not just of conversational norms, but democratic norms.

PRESTON: Well, yes, it certainly is.

Look, I'm going to show my age. I just go back to when I started in this town and you would see these titans, these legislative titans on Capitol Hill, Ted Kennedy, John Chafee, John Warner, politically different, Orrin Hatch, but they could get along. They didn't look at each other as enemies.

They looked at each other as opponents when it came to politics, but not enemies. What we have seen over the past 30 years or so, but even more so in the last five or six years or so, is, Donald Trump has taken that into an entirely new level, that, if you're not with me, then you are my enemy.

SANCHEZ: How effective is that alignment of attack for Kamala Harris? Because you're seeing Democrats focus more on the idea that Donald Trump is unhinged, not only with his comments about Arnold Palmer, but specifically his insinuating that the military should go after his political rivals.

PRESTON: Right. So, fight fire with fire, right?

And that's what I think you're seeing Kamala Harris do in some ways, but she's trying to use it not with just her own voice. She's using other voices. She's using former Trump officials, former Trump military officials that are going out and making the case of her.

Liz Cheney, for gosh shakes, who would have thought that she'd be with a Democratic candidate? Insane.

KEILAR: Yes, it is strange if you rewind yourself a few years back.

OK, finally, and you know what I'm going to ask you about this.

PRESTON: Oh, I love this.

KEILAR: Trump at McDonald's this week. And how did the optics of this visit play out?

PRESTON: I mean, look, if you're McDonald's, you're probably very unhappy right now, because you're saying half of America probably doesn't want to go to McDonald's right now because we're still polarized with politics.

But the reality is...

KEILAR: This wasn't up to them, though, we should be clear. It was a franchise issue, yes.

PRESTON: It was not. It was an individual franchisee who was a Donald Trump supporter.

I mean, look, I mean, the reality is when he said that he wanted to -- that he wanted to work with McDonald's at one point in his life, which was an absolute lie, I mean, crazy. Not knocking McDonald's, but, reality, it's a hard job.

But I have a question for you guys. What was your first jobs? McDonald's is an entree way into the work force.

SANCHEZ: I got paid cash working under the table at a factory in Doral, Florida, moving boxes when I was like 14 years old.

PRESTON: The IRS is now recording.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: I didn't earn enough to owe much in taxes, so I'm not worried about it.

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: I was folding jeans in the mall and T-shirts.

PRESTON: Nice. Oh, my God, very "Saturday Night Live" from the '90s. (CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Yes, so '90s. And so was the soundtrack, for sure.

PRESTON: So awesome.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: I did want to ask you something, Mark, about how Donald Trump is singular in the way that he can go to a McDonald's, paint a caricature of himself.

PRESTON: Right.

SANCHEZ: It was very much, from what I understand, a staged opportunity.

PRESTON: Right.

SANCHEZ: The campaign knew everybody that was coming through the cars.

PRESTON: Of course.

SANCHEZ: The actual McDonald's itself inside was empty. It wasn't open to the public. I think to myself, if Kamala Harris would do that, she would be excoriated and lambasted.

And yet, here, Donald Trump breaks through the cultural narrative and gets discussed and gets the attention of undecided, low-propensity voters.

PRESTON: Celebrated.

Look, what he said about Arnold Palmer, not to bring the Arnold Palmer situation into the McDonald's situation.

SANCHEZ: You couldn't help it.

PRESTON: No, well, only because it happened on our air and it very well happened in the studio, I guess, is that Jake Tapper was talking to the House speaker yesterday about the language that Donald Trump did, and the House speaker kept on trying to move off topic, move off topic.

But the reality was is, when Jake said to him, if this had been Kamala Harris who had spoken this way, you would be outraged. And, again, he moved off topic. Really, the short answer is, is that Donald Trump is unlike anyone else that we have ever had to deal with in politics, and probably will be like anyone we have ever had to deal with politics again.

KEILAR: I'm OK if that means less Arnold Palmer from other people. That can be his venue. And then we maybe can talk less about it.

PRESTON: Great golfer. Great drink. KEILAR: Love that iced tea and that lemonade together.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Mark Preston, thank you.

Still to come this hour -- yeah -- all right, Secretary of State Blinken heading to the Middle East following the death of Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas. Could Blinken's visit revive those long- stalled hostage and cease-fire negotiations? We will take a look at that with a report live from Tel Aviv.

Plus, new developments after a deadly helicopter crash topples a radio tower near homes in Houston.

SANCHEZ: And a death row inmate in Texas may soon testify in front of lawmakers, as the state Supreme Court considers his execution.

We have details on his hearing just moments away on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[13:19:21]

KEILAR: A short time ago, national security spokesperson John Kirby said that President Biden is -- quote -- "deeply concerned" about a leak of recent U.S. intel documents that detail Israel's military response to Iran's recent missile strikes in Tel Aviv.

A source confirmed the authenticity of these two documents. One shows Israel's plan for moving munitions. The other outlines Israeli air force exercises involving air-to-surface missiles. And CNN is not quoting directly from or showing these highly classified documents.

Former CIA officer Bob Baer is with us now on this.

Bob, first, just how significant of a breach is this?

[13:20:01]

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it's huge.

And it's also huge that we are effectively spying on Israel. But that reflects the White House's concern about what Netanyahu is going to do next. Is he going to launch a major war against Iran, which will draw us in?

These documents suggest to me -- and I have, frankly, never seen them before when I was in the CIA this sort of spying on Israel -- is a new chapter in this conflict, which doesn't seem to be stopping.

KEILAR: Let's talk -- let's divide this between what this could mean for Israel's response and then what it means for the relationship.

First, the response, because Israel has been preparing this for weeks, and now you have some details that are out there. Could this disrupt what they prepared?

BAER: No, no, Brianna. Take it to the bank, Israel will attack Iran in some form. It cannot let that missile strike on Tel Aviv pass unanswered. Just can't.

And, also, you see that Israel is continuing to move farther into Lebanon, hitting targets which I'm not sure are justified, and they continue the war in Gaza, because they're determined to make Israel's borders 100 percent safe. And to do that, you have to hit all these countries.

KEILAR: And then what does this mean for that relationship showing that the U.S. is obviously keeping a very close eye on Israel, which is an ally? And what does it mean if there are more documents?

BAER: I don't think it means much. These documents weren't that sensitive. I mean, it's not like code breaking or something like -- or betraying agents on the ground.

But what it does tell me is that the White House doesn't trust and detests Netanyahu and is afraid what's going to happen in the coming weeks.

KEILAR: This, of course, came out on a Telegram account that is affiliated with Iran. What does that signify to you?

BAER: Well, Telegram is also affiliated with Russia.

And what we see is a deepening relationship between Iran and Russia. And even Saudi Arabia is gravitating toward Iran at this point. So this conflict, which, again, I will say, is going to spread, there's all sorts of new alliances.

KEILAR: And then, in Matthew Chance's analysis of the leak for CNN, he notes that Israeli media is hinting at kind of more conspiratorial suspicions, even suggesting this could have been a deliberate leak of military intelligence by Washington as the Biden administration tries to contain military operations by Israel.

What do you think about that?

BAER: I think he's right. I think it was probably a high-level leak out of the White House. I wouldn't know -- or who in the Pentagon.

But the Pentagon wants it out there as, hey, we do not want to be drawn into a war with Iran right now, because we simply don't have the forces. We're vulnerable in Iraq. We're vulnerable everywhere we are, including our troops in Israel.

KEILAR: OK, but, just to be clear, Bob, we don't know where this leak came from, right?

BAER: Oh, I have I have no -- I have no idea. It could have been a low-level one.

But I'm just -- in Washington, the echo chamber, you pick this sort of thing up, and that's what some people are considering.

KEILAR: All right.

Yes, Bob, thank you so much. Really appreciate it, Bob Baer.

For the first time since the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Secretary of State Tony Blinken will be in the Middle East, making a new push for peace. He's traveling there today. This is less than a week after Israeli forces killed Sinwar, who was, of course, the chief architect of the October 7 attacks.

President Biden says that he hopes Israel can now carve a new path toward peace and end what has become its longest war.

SANCHEZ: But while the U.S. sees a potential turning point after a year's worth of fighting, Israel is intensifying its offensive against Hezbollah and Lebanon.

Israel's foreign minister today said that Israel will keep striking until Hezbollah -- quote -- "collapses."

Let's take you now live to Tel Aviv with CNN's Jeremy Diamond.

And, Jeremy, what are you hearing about what Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to do on this trip?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, we heard last week from President Biden that he believes there is now an opportunity in the wake of the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to restart these negotiations aimed at ending the war in Gaza, bringing the hostages back and alleviating the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

And that's exactly what Secretary Blinken will be looking to kind of kick-start tomorrow as he arrives in Israel and is also set to be traveling around the region. He will meet with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Israeli President Isaac Herzog tomorrow in Israel.

And those -- that will, of course, be on the agenda, as well as a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Lebanon and, of course, the looming possibility of Israeli strikes in Iran.

[13:25:03]

But even as the Biden administration has said that they see an opportunity here to end the war in Gaza in the wake of Sinwar's killing, we aren't getting those kinds of indications from the Israeli government. Instead, over the weekend, we heard continued defiance and bluster from the Israeli prime minister, who vowed to continue this war in Gaza until victory, no real indication that he sees this as now an opportunity to wind down the war.

Today, I was at a conference of people who were calling for establishing Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and in attendance were multiple members of Netanyahu's governing coalition. In addition to that, we should note that, while the White House is pushing these new diplomatic efforts, we heard today from the White House spokesman, John Kirby, saying that they really are not -- quote -- "too optimistic" about cease-fire talks restarting.

But they are beginning, of course, to lay the groundwork, both here in Israel, as well as in Beirut, where the special envoy for the Biden administration, Amos Hochstein, arrived to discuss efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah as well.

KEILAR: And so give us the latest on Lebanon, Jeremy. Israel, of course, targeted an organization today that it says funds Hezbollah.

DIAMOND: Yes.

And this was really a new major step in Israel's offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, because this institution is not a military target. What they were targeting is a financial institution that they say is affiliated with Hezbollah, which is used to finance Hezbollah activities, but it also serves as a financial institution for hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians.

And what the Israeli -- a senior Israeli intelligence official told us they are aiming to do here is to shake the trust, they said, between Hezbollah and the Shia community in Beirut, in Lebanon. And what this tells us is that the Israeli government, the Israeli military strategy at this point is to bring a lot of military pressure to bear, but it's not just with that military pressure as the end goal.

It is also aimed at shaking the bonds between Hezbollah and other members of Lebanese society, in particular the Shia community, in the hopes that others in Lebanese politics, government, and society will bring pressure to bear on Hezbollah to agree to some kind of a cease- fire that is on Israel's terms, which means, of course, not just stopping the fighting, but withdrawing its troops far north of the Israeli border, something that Hezbollah, of course, has yet to commit to as of now -- Brianna, Boris.

KEILAR: All right, Jeremy, thank you so much.

Jeremy Diamond live for us from Tel Aviv.

And when we come back: The razor-thin presidential race will come down to the group of undecided voters and to turnout, very importantly, and the Harris and Trump campaigns are meeting people where they are, battleground states. We will have more on that ahead.

SANCHEZ: Plus, an incredible rescue caught on camera, a teenage kayaker pulled out of the water after drifting in the ocean for hours.

Stay with CNN. We will be right back.

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