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Both Harris And Trump Campaigning In Texas With 11 Days To Election; NASA's Crew-8 Mission Members Return To Earth On SpaceX Capsule; Los Angeles D.A. To Recommend Erik And Lyle Menendez Be Resentenced. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 25, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:50]

KATE BOULDAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news overnight as a new poll shows just how deadlocked the presidential race is. Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are holding dueling rallies today in a state that is not a battleground. They're headed to Texas for two very different reasons.

Harris wants to use the setting to further highlight her fight for reproductive rights in this election. And she'll be joined by megastar Beyonce, the first time that this worldwide star will be making a campaign appearance this election.

And Trump is expected to be in Texas to target illegal immigration again and sit down with one of the world's biggest podcasters, Joe Rogan.

CNN's Kristen Holmes joining us now watching all of it for us. So, Kristen, why Texas and why now?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, part of this was just an addition of an ad, Kate, to this Joe Rogan interview. They have been working on this Joe Rogan interview for months. The studio is in Austin, Texas. Donald Trump finally got this sit-down with Joe Rogan later today and then they added this Austin event.

But it's obviously a good time for him to talk about immigration, one of the key issues that he has put on the radar of these voters because as they look at all of the polling, they still believe that this issue is one that one, Donald Trump pulls ahead of Kamala Harris on, and two, is really important to voters. Now, he's going to be in a border state. Why not use the opportunity to talk to the press?

But I do want to get into this sit-down with Joe Rogan. As you said, this is one of the most famous podcasts really in the world. Joe Rogan has more than 14 million followers.

And Joe Rogan has not always been a fan of Donald Trump's. In fact, when he sat down with RFK Jr. -- he was a big fan of RFK Jr.'s -- and he said that essentially, all politicians were manipulative except for RFK Jr.

And one of the reasons that comes into play is that once RFK endorsed Donald Trump one of the big things that Trump's team and allies of both RFK and Trump were working on was this sit-down with Joe Rogan.

They believe that this is essentially the crowning jewel in a strategy that they've been trying to deploy for the last several months, which is reaching out to these low-propensity voters, meaning voters that don't generally head to the polls. These voters don't typically engage with politics in the same way that people who regularly vote do, but they do listen to podcasts and they do potentially follow Joe Rogan.

And so they are trying to get Donald Trump to appeal to those people -- to the people who are outside of the general electorate to expand Donald Trump's own electorate and drive them to the poll in November. And I really don't think it should be understated how big of a deal this is for Trump's team who have been working on this sit-down with this podcast, with Joe Rogan for several months now.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, and the questions that Joe Rogan is going to bring up will be fascinating because he -- I mean, some of his podcast interviews go on for long, long, long, long, long times. So we will see all that comes up.

But also before I let you, Donald Trump is known for his dark and fear-mongering rhetoric. But in this final stretch of the campaign it seems -- it seems to be on steroids.

HOLMES: Yeah, and Donald Trump has continued to have this fear- mongering rhetoric for the last several years. But one thing to keep in mind is he believes that this fear-based talk, particularly about immigration, helped propel him to the presidency -- to the White House in 2016 and now there's a hope it's going to do it again in 2024.

Take a listen to just some of what he has said at recent campaign experiences.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She will obliterate our economy, kill millions of jobs. Kill thousands of people too, by the way.

We're like a -- we're like a garbage can for the world. That's what's happened. That's what's happened to us. We're like a garbage can.

And we have a lot of towns that haven't yet been infected, but they're petrified that they will be, and they will be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And Kate, just one thing to point out here. Yes, this language is divisive. Yes, this language is polarizing. But as you said, those new poll numbers show that it is working with at least some of the electorate.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, Kristen Holmes. Great to see you, Kristen -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's talk about Texas. Kate mentioned those. Both candidates are going to Texas, a state that no Democrat has won since 1976. The wall doesn't even go back that far. John King wasn't alive then. And I can't show you that race that Jimmy Carter won in Texas.

[07:35:08]

Joe Biden actually did better than any Democrat in Texas since 1976, 46.5 percent. I'm not sure people expect Harris to do better, but Democrats have been improving somewhat in Texas over the years. Hillary Clinton got 43 percent there.

The Democrat who did best in Texas statewide over the last 10 years or so, at least major candidate, was actually in a Senate race. You'll remember Beto O'Rourke actually got 48 percent and nearly knocked off Ted Cruz in that Senate race. It was a very Democratic year. That's as close as Democrats were able to get.

Let's go back to presidential races here and talk a little bit more about why it's been tightening a little bit over the years. It has to do largely with Harris County, which is where Kamala Harris will be going today. No relation, by the way.

Harris County is where Houston is and the Houston urban-suburban sprawl that goes on forever in the types of places Democrats have been doing better. If Houston were a state, it would be like the 25th most populous state in the country. The most populous county in Texas by far.

And you can see that Joe Biden actually got 56 percent here. He won by a lot. It's a county where Democrats have been doing well over the last few cycles. Hillary Clinton got 54 percent. That's a big change from, like, 20 years ago. George W. Bush -- now granted, he had been governor of Texas -- he won Harris County easily in his two elections.

Harris County used to be reliably Republican -- no longer. Now it is a Democratic stronghold.

But as Kate was saying, that's not why Kamala Harris is going to Texas or even Harris County. It's to talk about reproductive rights and abortion. And, of course, the other big reason she's going to Harris County is it is the home county of Beyonce -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: That is right.

All right. Here now to discuss what's happening during this final stretch of the presidential race, Republican strategist Tricia McLaughlin, and Democratic strategist Matt Bennett. Thank you both for being here.

Tricia, I'm going to start with you. This is -- listening to Trump he is getting angrier and angrier, and he actually said I'm getting angrier and angrier when he was talking about immigration. He used this dark and disturbing rhetoric calling, basically, human beings garbage.

There's only a sliver of people who are undecided -- who say they're undecided. Is he going to appeal to them or is this just red meat for the base?

TRICIA MCLAUGHLIN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER AND DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, VIVEK RAMASWAMY PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Well, this is Donald Trump, but I think we also have to look at the Democrats' rhetoric. Right now, the closing argument for Kamala Harris is that Donald Trump is Hitler. We also heard that reiterated last night with Hillary Clinton saying that Trump's rally on Sunday in Madison Square Garden is going to be akin to a Nazi rally. That is disturbing rhetoric.

And I have to say I think it's not just dangerous for this race but it's dangerous for the country because the natural conclusion --

SIDNER: Do you think what he says is dangerous for people as well?

MCLAUGHLIN: I think that there is 14,000 -- according to ICE data, 14,000 illegal migrants have been convicted of murder. I think that we actually have to look at who is in this country.

SIDNER: But that 14,000 is over decades, including when Donald Trump was in office.

MCLAUGHLIN: Absolutely, it's over decades but they're still -- absolutely, but they're still in this country and we still have to look at that. More than half of Americans want mass deportations.

But I want to get back to my point because the point is the natural conclusion of calling Donald Trump a Nazi, calling Donald Trump the next Hitler is that someone will again try to kill him.

SIDNER: OK. And John Kelly was the person that called him a fascist --

MCLAUGHLIN: Which is --

SIDNER: -- which is his former chief of staff. And so Democrats have been repeating what his former chief of staff said.

MCLAUGHLIN: Well, he didn't call the Sunday rally a Nazi rally.

SIDNER: No, he didn't. He did not.

MCLAUGHLIN: But I also want to note fascism is rooted in socialism, so we've got to get the definition correct because Donald Trump, by no means, is a socialist.

SIDNER: Well, fascism certainly isn't socialism either.

Kamala Harris is in Texas, as state where economics and immigration are the top issues, and border security actually beats -- those are the top three. But Harris rolled out this new ad. She is on her way to Texas to stand side-by-side with Beyonce and she's focusing on abortion rights. Abortion isn't even in the top four things that people are concerned about in Texas and the polling bears that out. It's actually number five.

Matt, so why is this message in a state Republicans have won for decades the right message to go out? Is it for Texas or for somewhere else?

MATT BENNETT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND CO-FOUNDER, THIRD WAY, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY ASSISTANT, CLINTON ADMINISTRATION: It's definitely for somewhere else. Look, Texas is the backdrop, but the audience are the swing states.

Democrats have not really tried to win Texas since I started in politics and Mike Dukakis picked Lloyd Bentsen in 1988, the Texas senator. We took a shot at it and we didn't come close. As John mentioned, no one has come close in a long time.

So she's not going down there to try to win Texas. It would be great but it's not going to happen. She went down there to talk to the people in Michigan, and Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and elsewhere where the battle is really been joined.

[07:40:05]

And I think the reason she's in Texas is because Texas famously has one of the most restrictive reproductive rights laws in the country. Women in Texas have faced enormous barriers to their health. Some of them have been put in extreme danger because of what has happened there and in other places in other red states. So I think it's a very good place for her to be doing this.

But let me just respond. Socialism and fascism are very, very different. Fascism is right-wing authoritarianism. And as you noted, Donald Trump's own chief of staff has said that he wanted to be like Hitler. He wanted Hitler-like generals. The word Hitler was interjected into this campaign not by the Harris campaign but by John Kelly.

SIDNER: All right, let's talk about Hillary Clinton and some of the folks that have been speaking for Kamala Harris. She spoke to our Kaitlan Collins last night about how Trump has changed since he ran -- she ran against him in 2016.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's not the same person. Part of it he seems to be totally obsessed by his grievances, his resentments, his getting even with people. And I think when you are living with that much bitterness and that kind of mindset you are not able to communicate effectively because literally you are thinking all the time about who said something bad about you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Do the words of those big-name politicians and people like Beyonce -- celebrities -- do they make a difference, Matt, do you think in voters' minds?

BENNETT: Only a little. I think we put probably too much emphasis in politics around support from celebrities. Look, no one's going to say no to one of the biggest stars in the world endorsing you or trying to help you. And I think at some level it does help add a little bit of excitement to the campaign. But ultimately, voters decide how they feel about these two candidates.

And I think Sec. Clinton was right that all we've heard out of Trump is calling America the garbage can of the world. He is a nasty, bitter man who is just running for president to protect himself from prosecution and to carry out a vendetta against the people he thinks have wronged him. He's got this enemies list, and as Harris has said, she's got a to-do list, and that's the choice that voters are facing.

SIDNER: Tricia, I want to talk to you about this new polling that has come out -- a dead heat. I mean, absolutely tied. Like, there is no question how close this is in the polls.

But there's also another important poll that has come out and here it is. CNBC putting this poll out saying what voters say about down- ballot races. That 48 percent of voters want the GOP to control Congress; 44 percent want Democrats.

How concerned should the parties be about down-ballot races?

MCLAUGHLIN: Well, I think they should absolutely be concerned. I mean, we saw the ad that dropped just a week ago from Bob Casey who is cozying up to Trump saying he supported him in NAFTA and bucked Biden.

So I think we're going to over the next week really start to see some division from some of the down-ticket. They've got to save themselves.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump -- if why my Democrat colleague Matt is saying is true, he shouldn't be doing so well in this race. The problem is the economy. The problem is immigration. If Americans weren't facing 20 percent higher prices right now, quadruple the inflation, and an immigration crisis, we probably wouldn't have this close of a race.

But Kamala Harris has shown really no daybreak between her and Biden, and I think a lot of the American people believe this is going to be Biden-Harris 2.0.

SIDNER: All right, thank you so much, Tricia.

MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you so much.

SIDNER: Thank you to you, Matt.

And over to you, John.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Splashdown.

(Applause)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Endeavour, we see the same. On behalf of SpaceX, welcome home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. New this morning that was NASA's Crew-8 splashing back down on Earth a short time ago. They spent a total of 235 days in space. Now, notably not returning yet, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore who have been stuck on the International Space Station since June after a series of safety and technical concerns with the Boeing Starliner capsule.

CNN space and defense correspondent Kristin Fisher is with us this morning. I was just told an interesting fact that this team that just returned were part of, like, the most humans ever orbiting Earth at once.

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, it was getting a little bit crowded up there at the International Space Station, John. Crew-9 just got there.

And Crew-8, the crew that you see there that just return back to Earth very early this morning -- they were actually stuck up there a little bit longer than intended because of all this bad weather back here on Earth. They were stuck up at the International Space Station for several weeks longer than expected because of hurricanes, rough seas, really bad weather.

[07:45:08]

There's all these potential splashdown sites around the coast of Florida that SpaceX Crew Dragon capsules can splash down into, but it wasn't cooperating for weeks. So, you know, John, a lot of people think about the weather has to be really good on launch day. It also has to be really good on splashdown day.

And you can see right there the crew of Crew-8 being extracted from the Crew Dragon capsule. You've got -- they're in a boat right there, so in the middle of the ocean. So the sea has to be relatively calm in order for the rescue and recovery teams to get out there and get them safely on board, John.

BERMAN: So Butch and Suni, as I noted, they're still stuck up there. Why couldn't they hitch a ride on this one?

FISHER: I know. That's the question that everybody has, right? The reality is when you're dealing with something as complex as space flight, NASA and SpaceX -- they like to keep things as planned as possible.

And so, this spacecraft has been traveling with Crew-8, the crew that just got back to Earth, since they got up there back in March. It was configured for them. Things like weight -- body weight and mass. That's all the spacecraft is configured -- tailor-made just for this crew. And so rather than try to stick Butch and Suni on board, which would have introduced quite a few variables, NASA decided to leave two crew members off Crew-9 and fly that mission up with two empty seats.

So that's why they did it to minimize the variables and the changes in this crew rotation and because these guys have been -- Crew-8 -- they've been up there a lot longer than Butch and Suni. They've been up there since March. Butch and Suni have only been up there since June. And they had to -- even though this was only -- the Starliner mission was only supposed to be less than two weeks, they had trained for a long duration mission, John.

So NASA decided, you know what? Let's keep thing as routine as possible and therefore, Butch and Suni are up there until February.

BERMAN: I hope they have some good books.

Kristin Fisher, thank you very much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Wait, John. Can you hear -- can you guys hear the video of right after he gets out of the capsule and they're like putting him onto the -- I'm going to call it -- it looks almost like a stretcher? They're trying to cue it up.

I now think we need to start a campaign of that's exactly how we should be taken out of the studio every day after three hours of standing here. I know we -- I know I haven't been in space since March and I know I'm a little more acclimated to gravity than this -- than this wonderful genius of an astronaut is, but I'm kind of feeling that way some days at the end of the week. I don't know.

BERMAN: That's what news does to me for three hours every time.

BOLDUAN: Just take me away.

OK, let's move on to this. Cases of walking pneumonia are surging among children and the CDC is now recommending a completely different treatment for them.

A healthy snack or a work of art valued at $1.5 million. The story behind this viral banana piece of art.

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[07:52:23]

BOLDUAN: Today, the Los Angeles district attorney is going to ask a judge to reconsider the life sentences the Menendez brothers are currently serving. Erik and Lyle Menendez, now in their 50s, have been in prison for decades for shooting and murdering their parents in their Beverly Hills home.

Now, after a review of new evidence that the brothers' attorney says proved that they were abused by their father for years, the D.A. now says this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE GASCON, LOS ANGELES DISTRICT ATTORNEY: They have been in prison for nearly 35 years. I believe that they have paid their debt to society.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And both a blockbuster Netflix documentary and a Ryan Murphy hit show also has helped reignite intense interest around their case.

Joining us right now for some perspective on where this goes from here is attorney Areva Martin. It's good to see you, Areva.

This is ultimately decided by an L.A. superior --

AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY, LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR (via Webex by Cisco): Thank you.

BOLDUAN: -- court judge who is going to hear arguments I guess on both sides of this.

Is there any chance that you think they do -- that the judge does not agree with the district attorney's assessment?

MARTIN: Oh, absolutely. I don't think this is a done deal at all.

What the district attorney told us yesterday is that his office is terribly divided on whether he should have even made the recommendation regarding resentencing. And he said, in fact, he expected members from his own office -- his own district attorney's office to be in court on the date of the oral argument to argue in opposition to the resentencing.

And we also know that Kitty Menendez's brother has been adamantly opposed to any resentencing. And we should expect to hear from him in a brief also stating his opposition.

So I don't think we should assume that the judge automatically accepts the recommendation. We've seen other cases, even case involving the death penalty and execution, where judges have rejected recommendations made by district attorney's offices to extend or delay execution.

BOLDUAN: We also heard the D.A. say that the attention brought by the Netflix doc and the Ryan Murphy series, at least in part, was some of the motivation for him igniting this -- kickstarting this review.

Should that have been a factor for the D.A.?

MARTIN: Well, Kate, that was a very troubling and disturbing statement by the D.A. in my opinion because it says that if your case is sexy enough -- if it gets the attention of Hollywood executives, writers, and producers, then you get moved to the front of the line.

[07:55:00]

Now, the district attorney tried to blunt that statement by saying he has reviewed over 300 of -- or his office has reviewed over 300 cases for resentencing. But this is an election year. This district attorney is on the ballot in a very contentious race and his opponent said this is just a political stunt. This is just a way for him to curry favor with voters. And it does raise questions about who gets in the line first to have their cases resentenced or at least reevaluated.

BOLDUAN: Areva, the evidence that was reviewed -- this gets to what the brothers have talked about or had said basically all along, which was that they had been sexually abused by their father for years. And what happened in the way-back machine during their case is that kind of allegation of sexual abuse was not really considered when it came to -- when it came to their murder conviction.

I lay that out there because I now wonder could a judge's decision here -- if they take -- if they -- if they say look, we've reviewed this evidence and we see how society has evolved in their -- in their interpretation and reaction to sexual abuse, and so now I'm going to reconsider this and resentence this.

Could a judge's decision with regard to this impact other convictions and other sentences for other people, I don't know, with similar-ish circumstances still currently in prison?

MARTIN: That raises a really good point.

And again, the issue of whether these two men are receiving some kind of preferential treatment because of the wealth that their family has, because of the attention that has been brought to the -- you know, drawn to their case because of these Hollywood film and series. And it does suggest that maybe other individuals who are in similar situations maybe whose cases involved sexual assault, sexual abuse -- evidence that wasn't used. Is this district attorney's office ready to review all of those cases that may have similar facts?

We do know that there has been a change in the way that we as a society view sexual assault and sexual abuse, particularly as it relates to men. But I think, Kate, the disturbing part about this case is there was never any allegations that the mother engaged in any kind of sexual conduct with her sons.

And the district attorney himself said that these were premeditated murders. He rejected the notion that manslaughter would have been the appropriate charge. He says that they planned and killed both their mother and their father.

So even with the consideration of the sexual abuse, not clear that the outcome would have been any different.

BOLDUAN: Areva Martin, thank you -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right.

A dramatic video shows first responders rescuing a woman from her burning home in Ohio. As the fire spread from the garage to the house, firefighters -- you see there -- they broke a small basement window and one went inside. He helped boost the woman up so that she could then be pulled to safety through that window.

The rescued woman, along with six first responders, were all treated for smoke inhalation at local hospitals and released.

Those pictures are just stunning. Thank goodness she's OK.

All right. Tonight, the World Series kicking off between two of the most storied baseball teams in history, the L.A. Dodgers and the New York Yankees. And it's expected to be the most expensive ever. Diehard fans have been shelling out an average of $1,700 to see superstar Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge go head-to-head.

And a defiant work of pure genius or a joke, a trick, a fool's errand. The art world may be split on whether this installation is art or not, but Sotheby's isn't. This banana and duct tape combo titled "Comedian" went viral back in 2019 at the iconic Art Basel Miami Beach Fair. A fresher version is on sale again and Sotheby's is expecting to sell it for over a million bucks. Some assembly required. Watch out for rotting.

Artist Maurizio Cattelan calls it a work of commentary and reflection on what we value.

I have to ask you, so the banana or the -- or the Crocs for dogs? What is your choice?

BERMAN: I actually like the duct tape. I do think that --

SIDNER: You would. BERMAN: -- the duct tape really has no limit on value. It's very useful.

SIDNER: And the rotting banana?

BERMAN: I -- you know, bananas, a dime a dozen. Duct tape, worth millions.

All right. New this morning, the CDC reports that cases of walking pneumonia are surging, especially among children. Walking pneumonia I think is just a milder version of pneumonia but still pretty scary.

I want to bring in CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard. As my wife can tell you, I've had pneumonia a few times and I blame her, so I take this pretty seriously. But what's going on there?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Yeah. Well, what's going on, John -- we have seen this rise in walking pneumonia cases among young children really over the past six months. What we've seen is the percentage of emergency department visits where the bacterium that causes walking pneumonia -- excuse me -- it's called mycoplasma pneumonia.