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Report: Trump's Plans Could Deplete Social Security in 6 Years; Today: Liz Cheney Hits Campaign Trail with Harris in PA, MI & WI; Trump Holds Rally in Battleground North Carolina; Blinken Heads to Middle East After Killing of Hamas Leader. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired October 21, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:25]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: It is the heat of battle on the campaign trail right now, both campaigns wrapping up their events with 15 days until Election Day. Vice President Kamala Harris visiting three blue wall states while former President Donald Trump holds three events of his own in North Carolina.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And a crime that divided a city and made national headlines. Today, the trial begins for the man accused of killing a homeless man with a chokehold on the subway in New York City.

And be careful when you sign those terms of service. A new agreement for X is infuriating some people as it could let the company use anyone's content for a very specific purpose.

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

SANCHEZ: It is the top of the hour. We're grateful that you're spending your afternoon alongside us. I'm Boris Sanchez alongside Brianna Keilar in the nation's capital.

In any moment now, former President Donald Trump is set to hold the second of three campaign events in the battleground state of North Carolina. He will soon take the stage in Greenville for a rally. This is the eastern part of that state where he is expected to focus on the economy.

KEILAR: Earlier today, Trump made a campaign stop in the storm battered western part of North Carolina, where he met with relief workers and also doubled down on a barrage of disinformation about the Biden administration's response to Hurricane Helene.

SANCHEZ: Donald Trump, as we noted, is expected to focus on the economy during his North Carolina rally this hour. It comes as a new report about Trump's economic plan warns that his promised tax breaks and tariffs could create serious problems, leaving Social Security insolvent in just six years.

Let's go now to CNN's Matt Egan, who has the details on this report.

Matt, bring us up to speed.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Boris and Brianna, Social Security was already in deep financial trouble, and this new analysis warns that a Trump presidency could make matters much worse.

Now, this is coming from the Committee for Responsible Federal Budget. This is not some left-wing group. This is a budget watchdog that over the years has called out Republicans and Democrats alike on the national debt. And now they're warning that Trump's campaign proposals could leave Social Security funds depleted within six years. That compares with under nine years under current law.

Now, this analysis finds, among other things, that Trump's campaign proposals would increase Social Security's cash shortfall by $2.3 trillion over the next decade. It would advance insolvency by three years, and it would lead to benefits being cut by a third. As far as why this is, they're pointing to a number of Trump-specific proposals, including ending taxes on Social Security benefits. That alone would cost almost a trillion dollars to Social Security's balances, ending taxes on overtime and tips, restricting immigration, imposing tariffs, add it all up, they see a $2.2 trillion hit to Social Security funds.

Now, to be fair, this analysis finds that neither Trump nor Vice President Harris have come up with any sort of fix to Social Security, but they do not see the insolvency date being brought forward under the Harris campaign proposals. Now, this is obviously extremely important because when and if Social Security becomes insolvent, the program will still exist, but the benefits will have to be cut. And don't forget, nearly 70 million Americans received Social Security benefits last year alone.

Now, not surprisingly, the Trump campaign is pushing back, lashing out at the committee, saying, quote, "the so-called experts at CRFB have been consistently wrong throughout the years." And the Trump campaign argues that his proposals will put Social Security on stronger footing for generations to come by speeding up the economy, cutting red tape and unleashing American energy.

But again, all of that is very much the opposite of what this analysis finds. They're warning that the Trump agenda could actually make Social Security's financial situation much worse.

KEILAR: All right. Matt Egan, thank you so much, really critical details there.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is now with us now from Concord, North Carolina, where Trump will hold another campaign event later tonight.

Kristen, what's the latest from there?

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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, these faith events are likely to try and target a very specific group of people, and that includes suburban women. One of the things that we've been talking to a lot with the Trump campaign, but also outside Republican operatives, outside Republicans just in the state of North Carolina, but as well as in Pennsylvania, is this idea of the gender gap.

It is something that has existed in the polls for several months now, if not longer, but it seems as though the Trump campaign really started paying specific attention to it in the last several weeks. And one of the things that we reported on Friday is that Donald Trump's campaign is in talks with Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, to hold an event.

Part of that reasoning is to try and reach these suburban women, these more moderate women that they think they might still be able to siphon off. Now, remember, this is a huge gender gap for the former president. So they are trying to do anything they can, even just to win over handfuls of votes when it comes to suburban or moderate women or just women as a whole because this is such a big issue for Donald Trump.

Now, I do want to specifically talk about North Carolina. We are here today in the state. Donald Trump was just visiting an area in Asheville that had been devastated by Helene. He did make this a clearly political endeavor. He talked about early voting. He talked about driving out people to those polls specifically mentioning that if you were in temporary housing because of the storm, today was the last day you could apply for a ballot to get sent to not your permanent address, but this temporary housing.

So it gives you an idea of just how seriously they are taking this. And we want to show you some of the numbers from 2020 compared to now, because early voting turnout now is about 40 percent down compared to what it was in 2020. Where we stand right now in terms of Republicans versus Democrats is Democrats are at 35 percent. They make up 35 percent of those early voters and Republicans are at 33 percent.

In 2020, those numbers were significantly different at this exact same time period. Democrats were at 44 percent. Republicans were at 24 percent. But it's very hard to compare this election to the last election that happened in the middle of COVID, in the middle of lots of different ballot changes, and in the middle of really a campaign that the former president had put on against early voting, against mail-in voting.

We have seen Republicans try to take those extra struts to get people out there to vote early, to participate in mail-in voting, to vote any way they possibly can.

Now, Donald Trump, while he has said that, while he has agreed with Republicans, he has also taken every opportunity he can to insult mail-in voting and say that we should have same-day paper ballots. So hopefully for Republicans, people are actually listening to not his messaging in this case. And the polling shows, or at least the data shows, that that might be the case. Donald Trump himself still has been slamming mail-in voting, making it harder for Republicans in states like this.

KEILAR: Yes, that's going to be tough, certainly for a lot of people in his party who do not want to see him doing that.

Kristen Holmes, thank you.

Vice President Harris is also busy on the trail today. She's holding multiple roundtable discussions with former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney in three critical blue wall states.

SANCHEZ: Cheney, of course, a longtime conservative and is hoping to help Harris win over undecided independents and moderate Republicans in the blue wall in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Those three states, you'll recall, tipped the 2016 race for Donald Trump and they swung back in Democrats' favor in 2020.

We're joined now live by CNN's Jeff Zeleny.

Jeff, tell us more about this strategy of Harris teaming up with Cheney.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Boris and Brianna, there are no three states that are more important to the path for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, for that matter, to winning 270 electoral votes than the blue wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. And Vice President Harris is hitting all three today with, as you said, former Wyoming congresswoman, Liz Cheney.

Of course, she endorsed her several weeks ago, but is on the road with her today for a series of conversations. This stage is small. The crowd is small. It's intended to be a question and answer session with some of the key voters they believe that Liz Cheney can unlock. Those voters, I'm told by strategists, are likely independent voters or perhaps even some moderate Republicans who are turned off by Donald Trump but not yet sold on Kamala Harris.

We will see the extent to which how many voters exist. But when you look at the results from the spring primaries here, Nikki Haley voters, of course, in Pennsylvania and Michigan and in Wisconsin made up a significant share of the vote. Here in Michigan, 26.6 percent of the Republican primary electorate went to Nikki Haley. So those are the voters that they believe they can potentially win over at least some of them.

Of course, it's very much an open question how many of them may vote for the former president or simply may not vote at all or have already decided to vote for Harris. But earlier today in Pennsylvania, Liz Cheney gave this really tacit admission for why she supports Harris. She said it's all about the Constitution.

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LIZ CHENEY, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE - (R-WYOMING): The most conservative of all - conservative principles is being faithful to the Constitution. And you have to choose in this race between someone who has been faithful to the Constitution, who will be faithful and Donald Trump, who it's not just us predicting how he will act. We watched what he did after the last election. We watched what he did on January 6th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So the suburbs of America, the suburbs of these swing states, the battlegrounds within the battlegrounds, if you will, are the place that Vice President Kamala Harris believes that she can mine some more votes that may have otherwise in years past gone to Donald Trump. She'll be having that conversation here.

And interestingly, in that Pennsylvania rally this morning, Liz Cheney also said she, of course, is opposed to abortion rights. But she said the Dobbs decision went too far. She believes that women have been hurt by that. So that, of course, is a - it'll be interesting to see if that comes up here. That has been a central question on the minds of many women voters and others, of course.

But there is no question, the geography of these Harris-Cheney events today in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, here in Oakland County, Michigan, and later tonight in Wisconsin. The Harris campaign believes is their key to winning the blue wall. Boris and Brianna?

SANCHEZ: Yes, certainly telling where they are spending the last few days of this campaign. Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much.

Let's expand the conversation now with Lance Trover, former spokesperson for Doug Burgum's 2024 presidential campaign, and Maria Cardona, CNN Political Commentator and Democratic strategist.

Maria, I want to start with you in that open question that Jeff presented. Obviously, Vice President Harris spending the day in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, taking with her Liz Cheney, former congresswoman, noted conservative.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yep.

SANCHEZ: Where do you think this fits into their plans to try to lure those disaffected Republicans, those independent voters versus folks that might vote for Trump or might just stay home?

CARDONA: I think it's really smart of a Kamala Harris campaign to be focused on those real disaffected voters. And in each of those specific three counties where she is today in those states were counties that had massive votes for Nikki Haley. And there's a lot of discontent among Republican voters in those states, especially in those counties that really do not like and are very uncomfortable with Donald Trump.

And I think somebody like Liz Cheney, with her history of being such a conservative Republican, she can really lay it out and give permission for these Republicans to say, look, this is a time to put country before party. This man is so incredibly unfit to be the leader of the United States that me as a conservative and my dad - and they're not the only ones - Kamala Harris had an event over the weekend with a hundred, more than a hundred conservative Republicans who have come out to support her. Many of these were people who worked alongside Donald Trump, who were some of his closest advisors, including his own vice president, who has said that he cannot vote for this man.

So I think it's really smart strategy underscoring that this is not about partisanship. This is not about political party. This is about the country. This is about the Constitution, as Liz Cheney said. This is about our rights and freedoms that will be in massive jeopardy if somebody like Donald Trump gets into the Oval Office again.

KEILAR: And Trump, Lance, has said that Nikki Haley could soon join him on the trail, and that would clearly be someone trying to give maybe the same kind of voter permission to vote for Donald Trump. I wonder what you think about that.

LANCE TROVER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think it would be a smart play, absolutely. I mean, and who better to get the Nikki Haley voter than Nikki Haley herself, I would argue. I'm a little perplexed by this Liz Cheney thing, actually, when you think about it. I mean, this is somebody whose name is synonymous with being like a DC insider here, the Cheney family name. Somebody who is many people consider a war hawk in this country. You have the largest Arab-American population in Michigan, which obviously does not look kindly on the Cheneys of the world.

And it's interesting to me that Kamala Harris is going out there saying, I'm not - I don't want to be part of the Biden administration, I want to turn the page. But I'm taking the Cheney family name with me, the consummate DC insider name saying, oh, trust me, she should be the one that stands up and be president of the United States.

SANCHEZ: I'm curious, Maria, what you make of that, in part because there are Democrats that have been out there critical of Harris for campaigning alongside Cheney and not more notable Republican figures like Sen. Bernie Sanders or others.

CARDONA: Well, I think she's doing it all. And I think this is where, I think, people get caught up in the, oh, well, she's doing this, why isn't she doing that? Or, she's doing that, why isn't she doing this?

She has a very nimble campaign, which is one of the smartest things that I think they have done and one of the most strategic. They're doing it all, Boris. They are doing everything, everywhere, all at once. And they had to because of the constricted timeframe of her campaign. She had to do everything everywhere all at once.

And so that's why you're seeing her move from a campaign with Liz Cheney to a campaign with other Democrats and she's going to continue to do that.

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KEILAR: Let's listen in to former President Trump.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Harris Kamala - how the hell did that ever happen? How did that ever happen? The guy had 14 million votes. I'm no fan of his, by the way. But he had 14 million votes. She had none. She was the first to lose, 22 people. She was the first out. She never made it to the great state of Iowa. Never made it. And, well, you know, they talk about it. She is a threat to democracy. I mean, that's really - she's a threat to a lot of things, but that's the way it has to be, because we're winning by a lot, we're leading by a lot, we're leading in the polls. Every single state looks like we're doing really well.

And with your support on November 5th, America will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer and stronger than ever before. This election is a choice between whether we will have a four - think of this, four more years, like, could you stand it? It's four more years of incompetence, stupidity, and failure and disaster or whether we will begin the four greatest years in the history of our country. I think we have a real chance.

And we were set back - we were set back and then you think about what they've done, because I happen to think the border is the biggest problem we have, not inflation. Inflation is terrible. It's a country buster and the economy, all those things.

But I happen to think that what they've done at the border to our country by letting millions and millions of people in, totally unchecked and unvetted, I think it's the worst thing, including murderers ...

KEILAR: All right. This is actually supposed to be a speech about the economy, but you can hear some of former President Trump's kind of recent greatest hits that he is trying out there, calling Harris a threat to democracy and trying to provide a contrast that's quite insulting in the language he uses, which I do wonder if that works.

But I want to ask you another question about something Trump said today, because he was or he is in North Carolina, but he earlier was in a more hard hit area from Hurricane Helene. And he was asked about a North Carolina man who was arrested for allegedly threatening harm against FEMA employees and whether his claims about FEMA were helping the recovery effort and here's what he said:

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TRUMP: Well, I think you have to let people know how they're doing. If they were doing a great job, I think we should say that too, because I think they should be rewarded. But if they're not doing, does that mean that if they're doing a poor job, we're supposed to not say it? You have to be able to speak. Does that mean let's not talk about it? Because by doing that, they'll do a better job the next time.

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KEILAR: We should just be clear, there are a lot of regional Republicans who are making clear that his concerns are not based in fact, Lance. And also, this man was armed with a handgun and rifle and he was arrested for allegedly threatening harm against FEMA employees. I just wonder sort of what you think about what we're hearing from Trump in regards to this.

TROVER: Well, obviously, no excuse for somebody with a handgun to be going after FEMA employees. Look, this is a - this is classic Donald Trump. I'm not going to sit here and say, you know, right or wrong. I do talk to people in North Carolina. There are people who do think that they're actually struggling to get back on their feet down there. I think the headline, as much as we have this discussion today, the headline tomorrow is going to be Donald Trump showed up in North Carolina, and the other headline will be Congress needs to come back in session and pass more FEMA funding. He did say that today. My guess is that's going to be the headlines for him tomorrow.

CARDONA: The other headline will be Donald Trump continues to lie about the FEMA response. And here you can make a direct line from Donald Trump's words to possible violence, and that's not the first time. We have already been able to make direct lines between Donald Trump's words and actual violence that have actually killed Americans. This is one of those things that I think Kamala Harris and her campaign are also focused on, and I think smartly so, to underscore that this is somebody who does not believe in the goodness of the country.

He believes in belittling communities. He believes in belittling certain people. He believes in insulting certain people. And in doing that, his followers hear that and they say, oh, I need to do something about this. I want to, you know, put - keep this in my own hands. And then they go and do something. The shooting in El Paso that killed Latinos. I mean, this is not the first time.

January 6th, for God's sake, right, that resulted in the death of five law enforcement officers. This is something that I think Americans truly understand, which is why it's smart when Kamala Harris says, let's just turn the page.

[15:20:01]

I think so many Republicans, Americans, moderates, Democrats, progressives, independents have just had it with this guy and they all want to turn the page.

TROVER: This is what I think is interesting. And she makes a very compelling argument for her side, no question about it. This is really where the last two weeks of this campaign are shaping up, right? Donald Trump right there, you heard, was talking about the border and the economy and lowering the cost of living. We can get caught up in all the other things that he says.

Your - their argument now with Liz Cheney and others is that he's a threat to democracy. Look at the lies, he says, and all this stuff. But I would just go back to what we've talked about time and again. The voters are very clear-eyed about who Donald Trump is. That is why he is leading or tied in many polls, and they look beyond a lot of that. And I would argue that Kamala Harris has not made that case to voters, which is why it is still close. You look at Pennsylvania, Michigan and we're talking about the Rust Belt states.

Bob Casey, the sitting United States senator in Pennsylvania, is running ads with Donald Trump in them and not showing up to events with Kamala Harris. But again, this is what kind of the two - where you're seeing the last couple of weeks are coming down to. Trump's talking about the economy and they're focusing more - you guys are focusing more on the he's a threat to democracy angle. And I think right now we've seen voters aren't --

CARDONA: Well, the thing --

TROVER: -- aren't as concerned about that.

CARDONA: -- Trump is not only talking about the economy, he's talking about other things that also are really insulting and vulgar and disgusting and vile.

SANCHEZ: Maria Cardona, Lance Trover, we could let you guys go all day. I think our producers would frown upon that and yell at us, so we have to let it go there. Thank you so much for joining us here.

CARDONA: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead this hour on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, did a U.S. Marine veteran, Daniel Penny, risk his own life to save others or did he recklessly cause the death of a homeless street performer on a New York subway? Jurors will have to answer that question, and they are being chosen right now with the latest on the subway chokehold trial.

Plus, a change in X's terms of service will have massive implications for what Elon Musk is allowed to do with your data. It may make you think twice before you post on X.

KEILAR: But first, another U.S. intel leak, this time, top secret documents about Israel's plans to attack Iran in response to Iran's missile attack on Tel Aviv have ended up online. But some in Israel suggest it was no accident.

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KEILAR: The White House is not giving up on prospects for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon as Secretary of State Tony Blinken departs for the Middle East today. The administration hoping that last week's killing of Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, will mark a turning point in the war and create a new opening for peace talks.

SANCHEZ: In the meantime, Israel's offensive in Lebanon is straying further from military targets. Today, a nonprofit financial institution with links to Hezbollah came under fire. And on top of all of this, the U.S. is trying to figure out how some highly classified U.S. intelligence on Israeli war plans got leaked and wound up on Telegram.

We're going to start with CNN's Jeremy Diamond, live for us in Tel Aviv. Jeremy, first, talk to us about this visit from Secretary Blinken.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, the Secretary of State is arriving on the hopes that the United States has that in the wake of the killing of Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, that there could be an opportunity for Israel to end the war in Gaza and strike a deal to return the hostages back to Israel.

But for now, even U.S. officials aren't able to be that optimistic about the prospects of actually restarting those negotiations. The White House National Security Spokesman, John Kirby, acknowledged that as much. But the Secretary of State is arriving after President Biden last week said that he did see an opportunity to advance those ceasefire negotiations and bring much needed humanitarian relief to the people of Gaza.

The Secretary of State will also, of course, be discussing the war between Israel and Hezbollah, as well as the likelihood of an impending Israeli strike against Iranian targets.

But even as we are hearing some hopefulness from U.S. officials about the prospects of advancing ceasefire negotiations, what - we are hearing something very different from the Israeli prime minister and members of his own government. The Israeli prime minister over the weekend expressing some continued defiance, saying that this war is going to continue until victory, even as he said that the killing of Sinwar could mark the beginning of the end of Hamas in Gaza.

And today, we heard from several ministers in Netanyahu's government, several members of his own party at a conference promoting new settlements in Gaza, not only calling for the continuation of the war in Gaza, but also calling for Israeli settlements to be established in Gaza after the war ends. Very different message, of course, than what the U.S. is saying. Boris, Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. Jeremy, thank you so much, live for us from Tel Aviv.

Let's bring in CNN Chief National Security Correspondent, Alex Marquardt, to talk more about this intel leak, which was of Israel's plans for how it's going to respond to Iran.

I know you have some more information about this investigation.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, two documents dated last week from two different U.S. intelligence agencies. What appears to not be in dispute is the authenticity of these documents. There is no pushback from these National Security agencies about the fact that they are indeed real.

And the White House's John Kirby spoke about these documents earlier today, saying that their release was deeply concerning. The big question now, was this a hack from the outside that got these documents or a leak from the inside. And that is what the investigation is going to focus on.

And we have a bit of a - bit new information from our colleagues, Evan Perez and Katie Bo Lillis, who say that this has set off a scramble within the U.S. government. As you might imagine, the FBI is leading the efforts to figure out what happened here. Pentagon investigators, of course, will be involved because these two agencies actually belong to the Department of Defense.

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And one of the first things they're going to be looking into is essentially the universe of people who could have had access to these documents, which might give us an indication ...