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Trump's New Border Claims; Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) Is Interviewed About Kelly's Comments; North Korean Troops Train In Russia; Voters Warned Of AI Interference. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired October 23, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30;00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: A claim about the Congo.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They're allowing thousands of murderers and drug dealers and - and terrorists and people from mental institutions. They're emptying out their jails into our country. They're emptying out their jails.

And, by the way, their crime rates all over the world are going down. There have many people now coming from the Congo in Africa. It's not just - you think about South America. They're emptying out their jails in the Congo. And they're delivering them to the border. And they're saying, congratulations, he's America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Is this true?

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: It's not. This is one of these Trump claims that grows bigger, more dramatic with each telling. So, it started with some bad people from the Congo are arriving at the border, which you can't really fact check. Then it was Congo - the Congo is emptying its prisons. And then it was now the - the Congo is delivering people to the border. There is no evidence for any of those claims about the Congo and prisoners.

I spoke to the representatives for both the Democratic Republic of Congo and a smaller neighboring country, the Republic of Congo. Both of them were just befuddled. The spokesperson for the DRC said to me, "everything he is saying isn't true." Then the ambassador to the U.S. for the neighboring Republic of Congo, said, "there is no truth or any sign nor a single fact supporting such a claim or statement."

Now for skeptics who say, well, of course they're going to say that, I also spoke to independent experts on both countries. They say they see no sign that either country is emptying prisons for any reason, let alone to somehow send criminals to the U.S. as migrants. And I also reached out to, of course, to the Trump campaign itself

repeatedly. They have not been able to provide a single shred of corroboration for these claims.

SIDNER: You certainly can't ignore the racist overtones of this.

Daniel Dale, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with me now is Senator Bill Hagerty, a Republican from Tennessee, who joins us from Philadelphia, not too far from where the town hall, the CNN town hall with Kamala Harris will be tonight.

Senator, thanks so much for being with us.

SEN. BILL HAGERTY (R-TN): (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: Overnight, "The New York Times" published audio recording from reporter Michael Schmidt, a conversation with General John Kelly, Donald Trump's longest serving chief of staff. And in that, on this recording, Kelly talks about Donald Trump. He says, quote, "he commented more than once that, you know, Hitler did some good things too," Mr. Kelly said Trump told him.

What good things would you say Hitler did?

HAGERTY: Well, I wouldn't say Hitler did any good things. And I would also say this, I worked both with General Kelly and President Trump in the last administration. And it was not a good fit. General Kelly's been on record many times criticizing President Trump. Obviously, he doesn't like President Trump. I would take that with a grain of salt, just as I would some of the other things that have been reported that have been debunked consistently along these lines.

BERMAN: Well, let's play it - let's play - hang on - hang on, Senator - hang on, Senator, let's play -

HAGERTY: I do say this as well, trying to compare President Trump to Hitler is dangerous.

BERMAN: That's - talk to J.D. Vance. Bring that up with J.D. Vance, who apparently said that in a text message, which he doesn't deny, some years ago.

But I do want to play some of this recording between Michael Schmidt and John Kelly.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KELLY, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: He commented more than once that, you know, that Hitler did some good things too. And of course, if you know history - again, I think he's lacking in that, but if you know what Hitler was all about, it would be - you'd be pretty hard to make an argument that he did anything good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Again, you worked for Donald Trump during the Trump administration. Do you have any idea what Trump could be praising about Adolf Hitler?

HAGERTY: Well, I'm not agreeing that Trump is praising Adolf Hitler because all you have are the comments from General Kelly, again, who did not mix with President Trump, who did not get along with President Trump, and who's been consistently on the record against President Trump.

I'll say this, I did serve with President Trump as U.S. ambassador to Japan. We have more U.S. military stationed there in Japan than any place else in the world overseas. President Trump came to visit me three times. We always met with our military there. And I never saw anything but the utmost respect. Both President Trump's respect for our military, and their love and respect for him. That's what I know.

BERMAN: John Kelly, retired four-star Marine general, he was chief of staff and secretary of homeland security while you were Ambassador to Japan. Did he ever lie to you about anything?

HAGERTY: I never am aware of John Kelly lying to me about anything, no.

BERMAN: All right. So, why - why doubt what he is now saying on the record out loud about these conversations?

HAGERTY: Because it's wholly inconsistent with my experience with President Trump. I also have reason to doubt it because, you know, there have been articles published about losers and, you know, the things that were supposedly said in Normandy. I called the ambassador right away. Again, these are old stories that are being drug up, of course, within two weeks of the election. But when I called the ambassador, she said, absolutely not true -- not true, what was attributed to John Kelly. Twenty other staffers said that was the case as well. I think this is being brought up at a time to divert and deflect.

Here's the story. The American people right now need to be asking themselves a very basic question, are they better off today than they were when President Trump was in office?

[09:35:07]

Kamala Harris is claiming all these things that she might be able to do, yet she's done none of them for the past three and a half years. What we've got is a situation where Kamala Harris can't find any place where she would differ from Joe Biden. Seventy-two percent of Americans think that this country is on the wrong track. All they have to do is look back to the time when President Trump was in office. That debunks these claims.

President Trump had (ph) our economy working. People respected us. Nations respected us. We had people better off in every demographic group. And I think that's why Americans are seeing President Trump's polls move forward. And I think that's why we see these desperate things coming out here at the last minute again within the last two weeks citing something from the deep past. It's irrelevant at this point. Americans need to know, will you be better off? Seventy-two percent of Americans say we're on the wrong track right now. I think they're ready for change.

BERMAN: Not disputing your numbers on the wrong track. I will say, depending on the economic metrics you use, you know, unemployment, GDP, things like that over time, you know, not necessarily better in the Trump administration than this. Inflation -

HAGERTY: Real wages are what I think most people care about.

BERMAN: Oh, no -

HAGERTY: Real wages is what they care about. And they were better off under President Trump, no question.

BERMAN: Well, you're picking one number. You were saying - you said under every metric with any demographic group. That's demonstrably false. All I'm saying is there are some metrics, yes, some metrics, no. And when you say that the economic record debunks the claim or debunks the idea that Donald Trump praised Hitler, I'm not sure that the two things are related at all.

You've been rumored as a possible cabinet secretary.

HAGERTY: No, his record as commander in chief debunks that in mind my mind. His record as commander in chief does.

BERMAN: Why? Why?

HAGERTY: Because he actually did have us in a position where there were no wars. You have Joe Biden, as commander in chief. What did he do? He and Kamala Harris, the last in the room, made a terrible decision in Afghanistan that led to the deaths of 13 service members. Very personal to me. One of them was Ryan Knauss, a Tennessean. I had to call Ryan's parents and tell them what happened.

You think about it, Joe Biden is there at the return of remains at Dover. He doesn't even have time for them. He's looking at his watch.

And when he's in debate, he tells the world that no military man or woman died under his watch. Just forgot about the 13 that died on his watch. That's presidential disrespect. I don't see that coming up.

Instead, what you have are claims that cannot be verified from -

BERMAN: Senator -

HAGERTY: From someone that, obviously, doesn't like President Trump and was fired by President Trump.

BERMAN: Senator - Senator - HAGERTY: So, I think you need to consider the source. I certainly am.

BERMAN: Senator - Senator - Senator, again, I don't think that anyone is questioning the sympathy or the remorse for the families of those who died in Afghanistan. That has nothing to do with the claims on the record from Senator John Kelly, who also lost a son in Afghanistan. It has nothing to do with the claims he is making on the record out loud that Donald Trump praised Hitler to him.

Now, if you're going to say you don't believe them, then John Kelly would have to be lying. And you just told me that you don't have any reason to think that John Kelly lie to you about anything.

HAGERTY: He and I never had conversations like this. And John Kelly wouldn't have a reason to be disgruntled with me because I didn't fire him. President Trump did.

I have every reason to doubt this though because it's inconsistent with my experience with President Trump. President Trump is a patriot. He loves this country. And in no way would Hitler be an image or a likeness that he would want to follow in any way. He's certainly not a role model. And this somehow suggests that's the case. And I just don't buy it. Not one bit.

BERMAN: Has Donald Trump ever praised strong men before you? The likes of - of Viktor Orban or Vladimir Putin?

HAGERTY: Look, I've actually seen Donald Trump in the room with Vladimir Putin and with Xi Jinping, with Modi, with Abe. He's able to hold his own. I certainly don't think Kamala Harris could do that.

Donald Trump knows how to negotiate. He knows how to deal with world leaders. And he can deal from a position of strength. That's what Americans need right now. That's what Americans should be asking themself this close to the election is, who will represent our nation, who will put us back in a posture of strength.

Donald Trump clearly can do that because he's done it before. Under his watch, we had no major wars break out. As soon as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris came back into office, we saw the exact opposite. We've got hot wars now in the Middle East. You see what's happening in Ukraine and Russia. More tension. We haven't seen that level of tension in the far east that's going on right now in years. It's a very bad situation that's occurred over the past 3.5 years. Kamala Harris could have done something about it if she were serious. Obviously, she didn't. And I think the American public can see right through it.

BERMAN: All right, Senator Bill Hagerty, Republican from Tennessee, thanks for being with us this morning. Appreciate your time, sir.

HAGERTY: Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me.

BERMAN: Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning, new reporting about North Korean troops being deployed to Russia. The new details that the U.S. secretary of defense is now laying out for the first time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:44:07]

BOLDUAN: New this morning, thousands of North Korean troops right now on the ground and training in eastern Russia. This is according to the secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, speaking to reporters this morning. U.S. officials, though, not sure yet what they're being trained for. This is just days after video was released from officials in Ukraine appearing to show North Korean soldiers receiving Russian uniforms and equipment.

CNN's Oren Liebermann has the very latest for us from the Pentagon.

Oren, good morning.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kate.

In terms of the numbers, we're looking at here, a senior administration official says it's in the thousands. Of course, the U.S. trying to get a better handle on just how many soldiers there are moving from North Korea to Russia. And of course, what their ultimate goal is.

In terms of the imagery that's expected to be released and the intelligence that is likely to include satellite imagery that shows the ships that are moving North Korean troops from North Korea to Russia and perhaps the training grounds as well, where these North Korean troops are receiving training.

[09:45:07]

Of course a key question is, what are they training to do? If they're training the fight in Ukraine on behalf of Russia, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, earlier today, made it clear how serious that would be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We are seeing evidence that - that there are North Korean troops that have - that have gone to Africa. Now what exactly - excuse me, not Africa, but Russia. What exactly they're doing? Left to be seen. These are things that we need to sort out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: In terms of how serious it would be, he said it would be incredibly serious, not only for Europe, but also for the far east as well. South Korea and the U.K. have both pointed out that there are troops that are headed - that these troops are headed there perhaps to fight in Ukraine. That's something the U.S. is trying to get a much better grasp on. And we'll certainly be watching to see if they pop up in eastern Ukraine fighting on behalf of Russia. Kate, a key question here, what is North Korea getting in exchange for

giving troops to Russia here? Of course, North Korea has tried to advance both its nuclear and its satellite program. Those would be two areas where the Russians could very well help out North Korea and it would be very serious indeed if they choose to.

BOLDUAN: Very good question indeed.

Great to see you, Oren. Thank you very much.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, during these final days of the campaign, some celebrities are issuing a warning about the high-tech scams that are trying to keep you from voting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are all scams designed to trick you into not voting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't fall for it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do not fall for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:51:10]

BERMAN: All right, new video of a hospital in Beirut damaged by an Israeli airstrike. The IDF claims a Hezbollah bunker was located beneath it. Something the hospital director vehemently denies. Five hospitals in Lebanon are out of operation, another 22 partially damaged from Israeli strikes.

In northern Gaza, the health ministry run by Gaza says - run by Hamas, I should say, says it has not received medicine supplies or food for 18 days. Increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza was reportedly a prominent topic in Secretary Blinken's meetings with Israeli leaders yesterday.

Rockdale County, Georgia, officials say they are going to sue BioLab in Conyers in federal court to seek money for effected residents. This is after a fire at a chemical plant last month forced 17,000 residents to evacuate and sent dangerous chlorine gas into the air. A spokesperson for BioLab says the company is trying to work with the county to ensure there will not be any other issues.

LeBron James and his son Bronny just made NBA history as the first father-son duo to play together. Not for very long. Just a few minutes as the Lakers went on to beat the Timberwolves, but long enough for LeBron to pass along some advice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LEBRON JAMES, : You about ready?

BRONNY JAMES: Uh-huh.

L. JAMES: All right. You can see the intensity, right? Just play care free though.

B. JAMES: Yes.

L. JAMES: Don't worry about mistakes. Just go out and play hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, James did get in a dad joke before the game. He filmed this Nike ad filling Bronny's car up with serial before heading to the court. That's nice.

I do want to note, there was other important basketball news last night. Apparently lost in all the Lakers coverage we seem intent on doing, the Boston Celtics, the reigning world champions, won big over the New York Knicks, just so you know, Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you. Let's also talk about the Liberty then if we're going to go there, OK.

BERMAN: Cover them extensively.

SIDNER: They are the champions.

All right, just 13 days until Election Day and worry is growing about AI generated content that could mislead unsuspecting voters. A new public service campaign from the anti-corruption organization "Represent Us," and featuring Hollywood stars, shows just how convincing AI content is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL DOUGLAS, ACTOR: Artificial intelligence has gotten so advanced.

JONATHAN SCOTT, ACTOR: You probably can't tell that some of us -

ROSARIO DAWSON, ACTRESS: Aren't real.

CHRIS ROCK, ACTOR: I'm definitely real.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're real.

DOUGLAS: And that's the problem.

SCOTT: Because this election, bad actors are going to use AI to trick you -

LAURA DERN, ACTRESS: Into not voting.

AMY SCHUMER, ACTRESS: Not voting. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right, CNN's Hadas Gold is joining us now.

Hadas, what prompted this particular PSA?

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, I mean, it goes to show you that not all celebrities in this ad are who they seem to be. And it's aiming just to show you how easy it is to be tricked because if you're first watching that, you have no reason not to believe that all of these celebrities would participate in an ad that's going to be running nationally about voting.

Now, we've seen plenty of fake celebrity endorsements out there. Usually these are sort of static images you see on social media. It will be celebrities wearing shirts, endorsing a certain candidate. And we've even seen, of course, that Taylor Swift endorsement that Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that made it seem as though Taylor Swift was endorsing him. And Taylor Swift even mentioned her fears of manipulative content of AI content in her actual real endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.

But experts are actually warning that those celebrity endorsements aren't so much what they're worried about. And this is what this PSA is going about. They're actually worried that it's going to be manipulated content about how, when, and where to vote, information about your local polling station. Whether it comes from - seems to come from a celebrity, seems to come from a local official or from, you know, anybody in your community, that that is going to confuse voters on and around Election Day and potentially keep them home.

[09:55:01]

SIDNER: How easy is it to create a manipulative image? Because I know you tried to do it.

GOLD: It's so easy, Sara, and it has become so user-friendly.

So, I want to show you guys two images. One image is a real photo from the 2020 election from my home county, Maricopa County in Arizona, of a polling location. The one on the right I made in like literally less than a minute using a program called Adobe Express, and I added a car crash.

Now, that doesn't seem that, you know, horrible. But what if I was a bad actor, I manipulated what is a real image, other than those two cars crashed, and I posted it online and said, hey, this polling station had a really bad car crash and it's closed. You got to go somewhere else. And what if that kept some people home. And that is the fear. That took me very, very - like, you know, less than a minute.

And if you look closely and you know what to look for, you might be able to say some of the visual distortions. But somebody just scrolling through their phone really quickly might not be able to spot it. And if you have a really good system, it can get even better. So, that number one tip, if you're not sure about something, whether

it's generated content, get off that site and go check with the actual official state election website.

SIDNER: All good advice.

Hadas Gold, thank you so much.

BOLDUAN: All righty. We did it. At least for today.

SIDNER: It's over.

BOLDUAN: At least for today.

This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. Thanks so much for joining us.

"CNN NEWSROOM" is up next.

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