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Michigan And North Carolina Judges Reject RNC Lawsuits Challenging Some Overseas Ballots; Tua Tagovailoa To Return To Practice, May Play Next Game; Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) On Leak Of Israeli Plan To Strike Iran. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 22, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:42]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to talk a little bit about where the candidates are going and why. And to do that I'm going to use the 2020 election map. Of course, President Biden won the last election.

Today, Tim Walz and Barack Obama are going to Wisconsin. Wisconsin is one of the closest battleground states over the last few elections. Joe Biden won it -- if I can draw with yellow there -- by 20,000 votes in 2020. In 2016, Donald Trump won it by about the same margin, 22,000 votes. So you can see just how close it's become.

And I want to talk about where they're going in Dane County today, Obama and Walz. They're going to Dane County, right there. Dane County is where Madison is. The University of Wisconsin Madison -- a lot of students. It's the capital. Government workers. College-educated population. That has become the sweet spot for Democrats in this election.

You can see Joe Biden won Dane County big. He won 216 -- 260,000 votes, a margin of 181,000 votes.

Now, in 2016, remember, Hillary Clinton lost Wisconsin, but she won Dane County by a lot. However, it was 145,000 votes. That's a difference by my math of about 37,000 votes there. Remember that number 37,000 because remember what I told you about how close the election was in Wisconsin? Joe Biden won by 20,000. There was a 37,000-vote difference in Dane County alone. It's enough to explain how he won Wisconsin while Hillary Clinton lost.

I want to go back to Dane County for one second just to show you how it's changed over the years. Again, 260,000 votes -- Joe Biden won -- the Democrats won in 2020. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won 217,000 votes. In 2012, Barack Obama won 216,000 votes. And in 2008, an election that Obama won by a lot in Wisconsin, 205,000 votes.

So you can see how every four years Democrats have been growing their vote in Dane County increasingly becoming one of the most important counties in one of the most important states in this election -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And that was a lot of math, and I'm really proud of you doing that so well at this hour, John Berman. Excellent.

BERMAN: I imagine much of it was actually correct.

SIDNER: All right. New this morning, judges in North Carolina and Michigan have rejected Republican challenges to ballots cast by U.S. citizens living abroad. The Republican National Committee filed lawsuits challenging overseas ballots cast by voters who never resided in those states. And the overseas vote could be crucial for Democrats this election cycle.

CNN's Marshall Cohen is joining us now. Marshall, what did the judges say in their rulings?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Hey, Sara, good morning. They resoundingly rejected these lawsuits, two big losses for the Republicans.

So we're talking about those overseas voters -- members of the military, diplomats, ex-pats. This is a group that for many years was skewed towards Republicans, but it has shifted over the cycles and now is actually considered possibly an important bloc for the Democrats. That's probably why Republicans got so interested in this group in the last few weeks and filed these lawsuits.

But most of us expected these lawsuits would fall flat and that is exactly what happened. It's just way too late to change the rules of the game when people are already voting.

Let me read for you some of the quotes from these judges because their commentary was searing.

In North Carolina, the judge said that the "Republicans presented absolutely no evidence" -- that's a quote -- absolutely no evidence of the fraud that they claimed they were trying to stop.

And then up in Michigan, the judge there said that the Republican lawsuit was an 11th hour attempt to "disenfranchise some eligible voters."

That is very strong language when you're talking about elections -- disenfranchisement -- and that's probably why the Secretary of State of Michigan Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, cheered on that decision and called it a win for the voters and win for democracy -- Sara.

[07:35:05]

SIDNER: These are American citizens who have the right to vote.

So many voters were targeted by these lawsuits?

COHEN: You know, the context here really matters and we're -- I'm not going to do math like John Berman, but we will walk through the specific numbers here because this is a very, very small fraction of the electorate.

In Michigan, this -- there are only about 16,000 people that are overseas voters who requested ballots -- 16,000. That's not so many when you consider that four years ago more than 5.5 million Michiganders voted. And this time around there are 8.4 million registered voters on the rolls. But as we all know, every vote counts.

And that last bullet point there is the most important. Donald Trump won Michigan by 10,000 votes in 2016. So this pool of 16,000 could make or break the election.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Marshall Cohen, thank you so much.

All right, let's talk about this. Joining us right now is CNN senior political commentators Van Jones and the Scott Jennings.

OK, Marshall gave us a couple of quotes about what the judges said about these lawsuits. Let me read another one for you. Try this one on for size.

The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center telling NPR this. "What kind of boggling about these lawsuits is that none of the systems that they are challenging about these voters are new. The RNC is not unfamiliar with election laws. These aren't new to them. And yet, they're raising these questions at the very last minute before an election. It seems like they're trying to raise questions rather than answer them."

VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: Which putting that out there I think was an -- is an interesting framing of what this actually could be about. But what is the impact of it even if the judges stop it in its tracks?

JONES: Well, I mean, first of all, it makes Republicans look terrible because they're trying to stomp on the rights of people -- of Americans to vote. And it also, on the other side, sows doubt.

Oh look, the Democrats are cheating, the Democrats are cheating. Why? Because Republicans have built up a massive machine not to win the election but to challenge the election afterwards. And they have people all -- lawyers lined up across the country to -- if Kamala Harris comes out ahead on election night, to sow absolute chaos in the courtrooms.

This is just the beginning. The is the first pebble in the avalanche of nonsense of Republicans.

BOLDUAN: We don't know the exact outcome. We don't know if there will be a landslide.

JONES: Yes.

BOLDUAN: I think we might want to put money on there might not be a landslide either way.

But before that, knowing that we don't know the outcome yet, Scott, I want to play for you what Donald Trump was saying just yesterday. He was in North Carolina speaking -- and we'll just play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Two weeks out from the election, have either of you seen any cheating -- incidents of cheating that lead you to believe this election will not be fair?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I haven't. Unfortunately, I know the other side and they are not good. But I have not seen.

Are they cheating, Michael? They're trying but are they -- they're not going to get away with it, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: He's talking about Michael Whatley, the chair of the RNC.

Added all up, why do it? Do you -- are -- do you like that he continues to do it? It is not new. Don't -- and don't give me this is Trump being Trump. Do you like that he's doing it --

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, he's --

BOLDUAN: -- because you add it up and what is the point? To simply go towards voters who could be susceptible to potentially going along with the conspiracy theory again?

JENNINGS: Well, I -- I mean, I heard him say he hasn't seen any evidence of any cheating.

BOLDUAN: But then you see what he said just later.

JENNINGS: Look, my view on this is there's always a push and pull whether it's litigation or jostling between the two parties over the contours of every election. And both parties do have a right to go to court and engage in litigation, and judges have a right to throw it out, which is what happened in this situation that you're talking about. Democrats also go to court over issues.

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

JENNINGS: So I'm not -- I'm not overly -- I mean, I try not to be overly concerned about things until things actually happen. And in this case, I'm with Trump. I'm not seeing evidence that anything terrible is going on. All I see evidence of is that people appear to be turning out in huge numbers in the swing states and I'm for everybody getting to exercise their legal franchise.

BOLDUAN: Exercise their legal franchise. But in case -- but if you're overseas we might try to stop you. That was -- that's the message from the RNC today.

OK. Kamala Harris and Liz Cheney -- they're on the campaign trail in battleground states. And I want to play now for you, Van Jones, a very interesting and very clear appeal from Liz Cheney speaking to, very clearly, suburban women and reaching out to them. And this was in Michigan. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIZ CHENEY, (R) FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: If people are uncertain. If people are thinking well, you know, I'm a conservative. I don't know that I can support Vice President Harris, I would say I don't know if anybody's more conservative than I am. And you can vote your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody. And there will be millions of Republicans who do that on November 5.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:40:05]

BOLDUAN: You know, she's predicting that a lot more people than many probably think are going to vote the way that she's talking about -- many more Republicans.

JONES: Um-hum.

BOLDUAN: Do you think this is real -- this kind of hesitant, quiet --

JONES: Yeah, it could -- it could be. You had a lot of shy Trump voters in 2016, and it could be that, least among some of those swingier female, right-leaning voters, they may be -- try Harris. Why?

She said the word "conscience." What is she talking about? She's talking about women bleeding to death in parking lots because doctors are more afraid of going to jail than saving their lives in a health emergency. These stories are starting to pile up across the country.

And I think that there are women who are very concerned about this who may not want to tell their husband and may not want to tell their friend circle, but who do think that could be my daughter. That could be me.

And so there could be a shy Harris voter out there. However, traditionally, the shy voters have been on the Trump side. And so that would be a new phenomenon in American politics.

BOLDUAN: What do you think, Scott? I mean, it's -- of course, it's impossible to know but what do you think about this?

JENNINGS: It's interesting to hear Cheney talk about this today. I mean, she did sign an amicus brief in the Dobbs case, and she's also got a 100 percent lifetime voting record from Susan B. Anthony. I mean, this is someone who has been staunchly pro-life and strongly supported Donald Trump for president knowing full well what kind of judge she was going to put on the Supreme Court.

So to see this about-face today I think is interesting. And she was critical of some of the laws that have been passed in the states.

Of course, Donald Trump has laid out what I think is a very moderate and longstanding position in the Republican Party on abortion. He supports the three exceptions: race, incest, and life of the mother. He's for some reasonable limits.

He's a strong supporter of IVF. And oh, by the way, he's a federalist in that he thinks the states should decide. And in the case of Alabama when they went too far on IVF, he was the first Republican leader to step in.

He's got what I think is actually a pretty mainstream view.

JONES: Yeah.

JENNINGS: And Cheney has been one of the most staunch pro-life people in the U.S. Congress.

So, to me --

BOLDUAN: Let me --

JENNINGS: -- I think some people will see it as a little hypocritical.

BOLDUAN: But let me add into this. You call it hypocritical. There's nuance into what she's saying. She's saying -- well, let me play it for you because what she seems to say now is seeing what's happened after Dobbs is what is untenable for her. Let me play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHENEY: I think there are many of us around the country who have been pro-life but who have watched what's going on in our states since the Dobbs decision and have watched state legislatures put in place laws that are resulting in women not getting the care they need. That's not sustainable for us as a country and it has to change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: I think that makes sense to me. Sometimes when something bad happens to you, you actually get what you want, OK? I think the Republicans -- they're the dog that caught the car. They -- everybody -- I think the Republican Party thought the world would look one way if Roe went away, and the world doesn't look that way.

And often, when even Republican voters get a chance to go to the ballot box -- and not just Liz Cheney -- they vote differently than they thought they would have a few years ago seeing the carnage, and the fear, and the pain, and the risk for women.

BOLDUAN: But this does seem to reinforce just in kind of this aspect of this -- what we're playing here is it does seem to reinforce kind of how this election is really breaking down along gender -- along gender, right?

JENNINGS: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: I mean, if you've got like the Trump bro talk masculinity play versus the Harris women aren't going to let this happen play. What do you think of that? It seems more stark than ever. I wonder if you had to only have one of -- one of -- one team to rely on to turn out, which one would --

JONES: I'll take women. Women vote. I'll take the women.

JENNINGS: I think there's actually two lines. One is the gender gap --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

JENNINGS: -- and I do believe it's real. The other, to me, is the education split -- college degrees versus non-college. In some ways it's become college-educated women versus non-college-educated men. We'll see which side of the algebra turns out more on Election Day.

But both campaigns have made a very clear and obvious bet on the kinds of people --

BOLDUAN: Yes.

JENNINGS: -- here at the end of the election. And it's not really about persuasion as much as it is about turnout. You're trying to get those low propensity or no propensity people in those groups --

JONES: Yeah.

JENNINGS: -- to come out and change the composition of the electorate. That's how you ultimately win in a presidential election.

BOLDUAN: Especially when -- if Election Day is today, more than 14 --

JENNINGS: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- million have voted. So the final pitch is every time that they are out from now until Election Day.

It's good to see you, guys.

JONES: In other -- in other words, if you're home watching this get your niece to vote and tell your nephew voting is on Thursday.

(LAUGHTER)

JENNINGS: But wait. Are you engaging in voter suppression of my people?

JONES: You've got --

JENNINGS: Come on.

BOLDUAN: Not on my watch, boys. Not on my watch. I promise that is not an endorsement from CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

[07:45:00]

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us -- I literally just had a hot flash. JENNINGS: Wait! I mean, I'm filing litigation on Van. I've got to get a lawsuit against Van.

BOLDUAN: And guess who is the judge -- guess who is the judge and jury on this show? Mama.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: Told you off. Zip it.

Coming up for us, Miami Dolphins star quarterback is set to return to practice today. The risk that he says he is willing to take now after suffering his third concussion in two weeks.

And there is new video that we have in of the frantic response of the scene of that tragic Georgia dock collapse. Seven people died, but the quick moves that people say did really help save others lives.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:50:05]

SIDNER: "I love this game, and I love it to the death of me." That is a quote from Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. He's set to return to the practice field tomorrow after suffering this third diagnosed concussion in the last two years. Will he play this Sunday?

CNN's Andy Scholes has more.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Sara, Tua said he never considered retirement. He saw several doctors over the past month, and he said not one of them told him he should retire. So Tua is expected to be back on the field starting for the Dolphins Sunday against the Cardinals.

Now, Tua says he has been symptom-free since the day after his concussion against the Bills in week two. And the 26-year-old added that it was his choice to return to play football and he understands people's worry that he may get hurt again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUA TAGOVAILOA, QUARTERBACK, MIAMI DOLPHINS: Do I want to be, you know, known for this? No, I don't, but that's the cards I've been dealt with given the history of it. So it is what it is. I appreciate your concern. I really do. I love this game, and I love it to the death of me. That's it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: And we had a "MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL" double-header last night. And the Bucs -- they went up 10-0 on the Ravens, but that's when Lamar Jackson just took this game over. The reigning MVP throwing for five touchdowns and he also ran for 50 yards. The Ravens scoring 34 unanswered points. Now, there have been three games in NFL history where a quarterback

threw for five TDs on less than 25 passes while rushing for 50 yards. Lamar has all three of those games.

Now, while the Bucs were trying to rally late, their star receiver Chris Godwin suffered a gruesome ankle injury here. He had to be carted off the field.

Baltimore would end up winning that game 41-31 to improve to 5-2 on the season.

The Chargers and Cardinals, meanwhile, coming down to the wire. In the fourth quarter, Kyler Murray taking off here going 44 yards to score the touchdown. And then later, Murray getting Arizona in field goal position. They would win this game as time expired 17-15.

Sara, Cameron Dicker -- he was great for the Chargers. He made all five of his field goals, including a 59-yarder. But never a good sign when your kicker scores all of your points.

SIDNER: Our thanks to our Andy Scholes for that report for us -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Just in, new video shows the response to the ferry dock collapse in Georgia's Sapelo Island. It is graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on. Raise my arms. Raise my knees, please. Please. Oh my God, oh my God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no, no, no, no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: People calling for help, hanging on to the walkway, which collapsed near the water. People on shore beginning to throw life jackets to the victims.

Seven senior citizens were killed, and several others critically injured in what authorities described as a "catastrophic failure."

New surveillance video of a hit-and-run in Philadelphia. A truck runs a red light and smashes into another vehicle. I mean, smashes. The man in the vehicle that was hit is in critical condition. Police are searching for four teenagers they say caused the crash and fled the scene.

So a woman in Australia got stuck upside-down between two rocks for seven hours all because she lost her phone. She dropped it and was trying to get it back when she fell into a 10-foot crevice -- or is that crevasse? When rescuers were finally able to get her out, she had only some scratches and bruises. The phone is still between the rocks.

This reminds me of sort of like every other day in my car when I drop my phone in between -- I've had to chew off my arm to get the phone at one point, Kate.

BOLDUAN: This is not funny. It's not funny --

BERMAN: Not funny.

BOLDUAN: -- because I could actually see you doing that.

All right, let's go to this.

This morning, U.S. officials are working to contain the fallout from a leak of highly classified documents outlining Israel's plans for a potential retaliatory strike on Iran.

CNN's Katie Bo Lillis has this new reporting on where the FBI is now focusing. Katie Bo, tell us more of what you're learning.

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, Kate. So U.S. officials have been profoundly alarmed by the publication of these documents not just because of the content of the documents but the fact that it got out there in the first place. It's quietly accepted that the U.S. spies on its friends as well as its enemies but that's a very different proposition from sort of publicly rubbing Israel's nose in the fact that the United States has been collecting intelligence on its potential military response to Iran.

What we know from our sources is that the FBI is leading this investigation with help from the Defense Department. Both of these documents were produced by Defense Department elements of the intelligence community.

And our sources tell us that investigators are zeroing in on trying to figure out the universe of people that had access to these documents. And that tells us something, Kate. It tells us that at this point, investigators' theory of the case is that this was most likely an intentional leak rather than a hack by a nation state.

[07:55:00]

We have one other really important clue here and that's that at least one of these documents appears to have been printed for an official briefing book for a senior official, and then scanned and ultimately shared. That means that the Pentagon, which tracks who prints classified information, is likely going to be able to fairly quickly narrow down the universe of people who had access to the printed copies of these reports and ultimately might have some information about who would have scanned and then potentially shared this information, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Oh, so interesting.

Katie Bo Lillis, great reporting. Thank you so much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Joining us now, Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks of New York. He is the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. You just heard the reporting there from our Katie Bo Lillis that there

was this -- what appears to be an intentional leak, not a hack, of highly classified intelligence documents describing how Israel is preparing for a retaliatory strike on Iran.

You are a ranking member on this committee. What can you tell us about this? Is there any new information you can share about how they determined this looks like it's an intentional leak?

REP. GREGORY MEEKS (D-NY) (via Webex by Cisco): I don't think I have any new information, but I think that the FBI and others are doing the kind of investigation to find out how and who leaked this information. I think that's very serious, and I want this investigation conducted, and whoever did leak it should be brought to justice.

SIDNER: Gaza is being fiercely bombarded again by Israel after the killing of the head of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar. The Palestinians there living in the worst humanitarian crisis they have ever experienced. And there are still that 101 hostages who are there.

Do you think that there is any leverage that the United States can try to use to try and push forward a ceasefire? We know that Antony Blinken is there as we speak, but is there anything left the United States can do at this point?

MEEKS: Well, I think and I hope that Prime Minister Netanyahu listens to what Sec. Blinken has to say and Sec. Austin. I know that everyone is looking and waiting, it seems to me, that waiting to see what happens in this election that takes place in November.

But look, it's -- the world is a better place with Sinwar gone.

And what we need right now is those hostages, including the American hostages, to be released. Hamas need to release them.

And what -- you know, I still think what caused the war is something that should bring us all together to have peace. What caused the war, in my estimation, was the fact that Saudi Arabia and others in the region were negotiating peace with Israel and negotiating the Israel -- and stating Israel's right to exist. That's all changed what had been taking place over the last 75 years.

So what we need is all of -- you know, working -- and it has been proven to me when we saw the attack by Iran on Israel that the Saudi Arabians, the Jordanians, the Egyptians have been working together to stop the attack by Iran.

So we need to work together with those in the region so that we make sure that Hamas does not exist, and it becomes clear to anyone who rises in leadership in Palestine -- in Gaza or as far as for the Palestinians that they do not follow the ways of Sinwar. That's not good for the Palestinian people. And that they have a leader that moves along with Saudi Arabians and others saying and understanding Israel's right to exist.

That being said, Israel also, and we have to find a way. And I think this is the message that Sec. Blinken is going to -- going to give also.

There is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. There must be ways that Israel has to make sure that food and water, and electricity getting in. The humanitarian concerns are grave and deep and we must have unity around the world to make sure that people -- innocent people will not suffer.

SIDNER: Now to the presidential election here at home. Since you are a congressman from New York I want to know what your thoughts are on what is happening with the "Central Park Five" who were exonerated in the rape case in the Central Park in the '90s. They are now suing former President Donald Trump for his role in what they say was defaming them during the debate with Kamala Harris.

Here is what he said and what they are suing over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But a lot of people, including Mayor Bloomberg, agreed with me on the "Central Park Five." They admitted -- they said -- they pled guilty. And I said well, if they pled guilty -- they badly hurt a person -- killed a person, ultimately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: They didn't kill anyone, and they were exonerated for the accused rape.