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Johnson, Trump Back Off Vows to Overhaul Obamacare; Cruz And Allred Make Final Pitches; New Report Shows Inflation Rose at 2.1% Rate in September; Just Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 31, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:47]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The candidates head west after an intense focus on the Blue Wall and Sunbelt states. Former President Trump campaigns this hour in deep blue New Mexico while Vice President Harris prepares to rally with JLo in Las Vegas.

Plus, cold feet, Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson backing off threats to overhaul Obamacare as Harris warns voters healthcare is officially on the line in this election.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And it's not just the White House that's up for grabs. It's also control of Congress. and in Texas, Democrats are hoping to pull off a historic upset. We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

KEILAR: Welcome to CNN News Central. I'm Brianna Keilar.

SANCHEZ: And I'm Boris Sanchez. We are just five days from Election Day and new polling shows Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in a virtual tie in the key battlegrounds of North Carolina and Georgia. But the two candidates could lose those states if they can win in the West.

KEILAR: And today, both Trump and Harris are holding campaign events across Nevada and Arizona, while the former president is holding a rally in Albuquerque. Now, New Mexico has not voted Republican since George W. Bush won the state 20 years ago.

Before leaving for Arizona, the Vice President seized on a comment from Trump yesterday about protecting women.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It actually is, I think, very offensive to women in terms of not understanding their agency, their authority, their right, and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies. And this is just the latest on a series of reveals by the former President of how he thinks about women. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Trump had said that he would protect women whether they wanted it or not or liked it or not. We do have reporters on the campaign trail today so let's start now with CNN's Eva McKend, who is in Phoenix.

Eva, the Vice President quick to slam Trump over Those comments, what did she say?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: She is, Brianna, because listen, this shifts the conversation back to an area where the vice president is very comfortable. And she's essentially arguing that this is not an aberration. This is emblematic of the contempt that the former President has for women in her view that she has a track record of fighting for women. And she often likes to say on the campaign trail that it is because of Trump that women are living -- one in three women are living in states with Trump abortion bans. Take a listen.

Okay. But she's not only focusing on this issue, Boris and Brianna, because there is limits to the strength of that argument. Democrats will argue in some corners. And so that's why here today, we're also going to hear her talk about the opportunity economy, what she's doing to bring down the cost for families. And a big focus of this pitch is Latino voters in states like this one. A Mexican band will perform here later on today in Vegas. She's going to be joined by Jennifer Lopez. So much of her argument to these constituencies are rooted in family, just a real nod to the culture there.

But I'm curious to see how she talks about this issue of immigration. She often, on the campaign trail, says that she would pass a bipartisan border security bill, one that the former President did all that he could, in her view, to squash. But she also has to balance that with talking about this issue compassionately. Here in this audience today, I'm told, are going to be immigrants' rights activists. Those very same activists are doing the hard work of canvassing and door-knocking on her behalf. Boris, Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. And Eva, thank you so much for that. We have had some problem with our elements here. So I do just to -- so we don't confuse our viewers, I want to go ahead and play the soundbite of what Trump said about women. And then right after, we're going to play what Kamala Harris said in response.

[14:105:03]

Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Four weeks ago, I was saying, no, I want to protect the people. I want to protect the women of our country. I want to protect the women. Sir, please don't say that. Why? They said, we think it's very inappropriate for you to say so. Why? They said, Sir, I just think it's inappropriate for you to say. Pay these guys a lot of money. Can you believe it? They said, well, I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. I'm going to protect them.

HARRIS: It actually is, I think, very offensive to women in terms of not understanding their agency, their authority, their right, and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies. And this is just the latest on a series of reveals by the former President of how he thinks about women.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Important to get those two in context of each other. Our thanks to Eva McKend. Let's turn now to Lucy Kavanagh in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Trump is set to take the stage at any moment. Lucy, what is the Trump campaign saying about the comment he made last night?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, no official response from the Trump campaign. The former President's plane touched down literally moments ago. So we have yet to see if he doubles down or backs away from the remarks last night. But it's important to note that Donald Trump has repeatedly talked about being the so-called protector of women on the campaign trail, obviously taking it so much further last night by adding in the part about whether they like it or not.

(Inaudible) a place like this (ph), he's speaking to the already- converted MAGA crowd for whom he can do no wrong. They're cheering wildly right now. It appears that maybe the vehicle is pulling up.

The question, of course, is whether those comments are going to turn off moderate or undecided voters, especially women, and whether the former President will be able to close that gender gap.

Now, as for why he is in Albuquerque, it's not a very obvious campaign destination for him. Trump lost his deep blue state by 100,000 votes last time around. We do know that he is trying to make gains with the Latino voters here, perhaps undoing some of the damage done at that garbage remark by the comedian at the Madison Square Garden rally, and also trying to boost the local House Senate race here -- sorry, the House Race in the Second District where a Republican is trying to take over that seat and possibly flip the race. Guys?

KEILAR: All right. Lucy Kafanov, thank you so much from a quite loud event there in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where we are awaiting the President.

Harris is also seizing on House Speaker Mike Johnson's vow to overhell (ph) -- overhaul, I should say, healthcare overhell (ph), I think, might be how Democrats feel about it, though, a little bit. Johnson on video telling supporters no, Obamacare if Trump wins the presidency. Here is what Vice President Harris said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: He has made dozens of attempts to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. And now, we have further validation of that agenda from his supporter, the Speaker of the House. And what that would mean for the American people is that insurance companies could go back to a time when they would deny you coverage for health insurance based on preexisting conditions, preexisting conditions such as, you know, being a survivor of breast cancer, asthma, diabetes. Healthcare for all Americans is on the line in this election as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: It's important to give viewers the context for the comments that Johnson made. So let's actually play them now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE JOHNSON, (R) HOUSE SPEAKER: Healthcare reform is going to be a big part of the agenda. When I say we're going to have a very aggressive first hundred days agenda, we got a lot of things though on the table.

UNKNOWN: No Obamacare?

JOHNSON: No Obamacare.

UNKNOWN: (Inaudible) get rid of it (inaudible).

JOHNSON: The ACA is so deeply ingrained. We need massive reform to make this work. And we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju spoke to Johnson about those comments. Also, the anchor of Inside Politics Sunday will update that intro, Manu. What did Johnson say?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. You know, he claimed that they don't want to repeal the Affordable Care Act at all, even as Republicans of course, spend years trying to kill the signature healthcare law under the Obama administration, but a much different tune yesterday. I caught up with him as he was stumping in New York. And he made clear that they don't plan to go after the ACA. At least, as we said, if the Republicans keep the House and Trump becomes president again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Yeah, that's my question. So how much are you talking about what you will do if you're in power? And does that include repealing the ACA?

JOHNSON: No. Look, we -- not repealing the ACA. No. This has been ascribed to me. That is not what I said. And you can pull a recording of the event in Pennsylvania. It's not what I said. Look, we are laser-focused on improving healthcare as we are every area. We need higher quality of care in many parts of the country. We need greater access. We need lower cost. And there are ideas on how to do that. That's what I was referring to. [14:10:01]

And that's what President Trump wants to do as well.

RAJU: Because you haven't had a plan for many years?

JOHNSON: Well, no, we do have plans. I mean, when I was chairman of the Republican Study Committee, you know, it's the largest caucus of conservatives in Congress, we had a -- we published a whole booklet. And I was the, you know, the leader of all that. We have a docs caucus. They have lots of ideas that are published and prepared. So there are lots of ideas there. We'll put it all together in the final playbook.

RAJU: But --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: But it just shows you how concerned Republicans are about these comments about Obamacare being an issue this late in the campaign. Trump himself posted on his social media page about Harris comments seizing on Johnson's initial calls for major changes to Obamacare. Trump says, what Kamala is saying is that I -- saying that I want to end the ACA. I never mentioned doing that. Never even thought of such a thing. So I guess we should rewind to the first Trump administration. The first two years under Donald Trump, with Republicans in control of the House and the Senate. They tried very hard to appeal Obamacare. There was, of course, that infamous moment on the Senate floor where John McCain joined with a couple other Senate Republicans with Democrats as well. You see the thumbs down there on the Senate floor. They killed a partial repeal of Obamacare.

And Trump spent years berating McCain over that.

SANCHEZ: To this day.

RAJU: To this day, still does. And why did John McCain vote against that? Because they did not have a plan to replace it at the time, and they still don't.

SANCHEZ: Going back to Johnson's comments, Manu, did he -- was he trying to say that when somebody asked no Obamacare, did he mean, no, we're not touching Obamacare?

RAJU: It's a little unclear. You sort of taking -- he was sort of taking questions from the crowd and seemed to be getting energized by the crowd's enthusiasm about all of it. But, you know, it's a difficult thing because they don't like -- they've spent years campaigning against Obamacare. But now, those provisions are very popular. They don't want to be talking about this point. And as you heard from Johnson there, he told me, they're not going to repeal it if they stay in power.

SANCHEZ: Very confusing nonetheless to people listening to all of this. Manu Raju, thank you so much. Let's talk about this now with Margie Omero, a Democratic pollster, and Lance Trover, a Republican Strategist and Former Spokesman for Doug Burgum's presidential campaign.

Okay, Lance. Speaker Johnson really making this quite confusing. And just to be clear, the ACA is Obamacare. I know that a lot of voters don't know that. When you ask them questions about it, they may not understand they're the same. But they are the same, even though Trump seems to maybe be pretending they aren't. But Johnson muddying the waters here. Is that helpful?

LANCE TROVER, FORMER SPOKESPERSON, DOUGH BURGUM PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Well, no, no. The short answer is, no, it's not helpful. But let's be clear. I mean, he cleared up his comments. And the president is campaign as well has said, this is not part of his agenda. And the Harris campaign, for her going out there and say that preexisting conditions will end, no one's ending preexisting conditions. None of this is happening. They've made it clear that that's not what they want.

The speaker has said himself that he wants to reform it. And look, as somebody who's on the exchange and pays an exorbitant amount every month for my healthcare, I don't think it's bad to have a discussion about lowering the cost of healthcare in this country. And I think that's what they were getting at in terms of reform out there, because, let's face it, it costs a lot. It also branches into the overall cost of living, which is a central theme of the Trump campaign.

But, yes, do I want to hear terms coming out about ending ACA? No, I would not love that. But again, they've clarified that. It's not something they want to do.

SANCHEZ: Margie, some of that sort of revisionist history from former President Trump speaks to how important this issue is and how potent it is. I wonder what you see in polling.

MARGIE OMERO, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: Well, we've seen consistently. I mean, it's not just after ACA has become law, even during the debate, things like protecting healthcare for people with preexisting conditions, been enormously popular, allowing younger people to stay on insurance, all these things in addition to how popular. And we were talking about what Trump said about -- I'm going to protect women whether they like it or not. Women actually need to be protected from Trump, not by Trump. And when you see these comments by the speaker, by Trump, their closing argument is basically trying to walk back things that they promised to do that people don't like, whether it's, you know, bringing back of, you know, continuing bans on abortion around the country or getting rid of the ACA, it's a real mess. And it's why Democrats continue to have the advantage on things like healthcare or reducing costs of health care, and making sure families can afford the basics.

KEILAR: But even now, explain when you poll this as either calling it the Affordable Care Act or as Obamacare, depending on the kind of voter that you're talking to, how is it received, even though it's the same thing?

OMERO: Well, you know, it's an interesting question. And each state has also their own name. So sometimes, they're branded as whatever Care, right? Insert the state there or some catchy name. And those things actually do test a little bit better than the ACA or Obamacare. But they're all popular.

And ultimately, you know what we're talking about the specifics, people do really need and really have used and are very favorable towards.

[14:15:08]

So if it's a question of Obamacare by any name versus getting rid of it, which is what the speaker was saying, then, you know, it's very clear where voters are.

SANCHEZ: Pivoting, Lance, to the comments Trump made about protecting women last night, he actually said that his advisors told him it'd be a bad idea to use that kind of language about protecting women. And this message about protecting women, whether they like it or not, whether they want it or not, he has a women problem. This gender gap could be historic in this election. It doesn't seem like that's a winning message.

TROVER: Yeah, it's a day that ends in why. And we're talking about something Donald Trump has said. Do I love those comments? No, absolutely not. Do his advisors like it? Obviously, they did not, but he did. But I think in the -- here we are five days out of an election, people know Donald Trump. They know who he is. They know the campaign he's running and what he stands for, running on economy, running on immigration, running to get crime under control in this country. People are clear out of eyed about who he is, I think, the real questions about, or more about Kamala Harris and what she stands for in this race.

And look, I give the Harris campaign credit for trying to get the last 24 hours of the sitting President's commentary that half the country is garbage or that Trump supporters are garbage. I get it. They want to try to change the narrative and move on from that. And so I do give them credit for that.

But look, at the end of the day, this is what happens in the last five days of a race. Each campaign is going to try to glom on to something else the other campaign has said.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. I mean, that comment by Biden was not good, Margie. Certainly not good. But then you have Trump kind of handing one right back to Kamala Harris, something that she can use. And I do wonder if you can just talk a little bit more about it. Because it's sort of this -- whether you like it or not, sort of speaks to this, like, against your will --

OMERO: Right.

KEILAR: -- kind of thing.

OMERO: Right. KEILAR: However, to Lance's point, I mean, are these -- the people who

are offended by this, were they already not going to vote for Trump? And so in the end, whatever?

OMERO: Well, we've had a race that's been very stable. So what are the odds that any one comment at any moment is going to really change and cause a lot of upheaval. The odds are, you know, not so great, right? That's probably not what's going to happen. The folks who are really obsessively watching every twist and turn at this stage, a lot of them have made up their mind.

At the same time, what I think is -- we've seen a lot from this whole campaign is how important Trump, in his own words, can be with him saying explicitly what he's going to do, telegraph what he's going to do and what he believes, taking credit for ending Roe v. Wade, taxing -- you know, giving a tax break to the wealthy, you know, like being aggressive toward women as he did in this other comment, or the way he's allowed people to talk about immigrants and folks from, you know, and Puerto Ricans, Americans and folks from around the world. All that's -- the way that he uses language has been essential to demonstrating and reminding folks of how dangerous he is.

SANCHEZ: Democrats, obviously, has been noted in this conversation, Lance, will use what is said by Trump against him. But obviously, Trump with -- honestly, what is one of the most astonishing moments of the campaign, at least to me, using the words of President Biden and going into a garbage truck labeled Trump-Vance 2024, donning the orange safety vest, I mean, it's surreal that a former President and obviously, the candidate for the Republican Party is parading around in a garbage can. And this is obviously getting an enormous amount of attention. But what does this tell you about, the discourse and where political rhetoric stands at a moment like this?

TREVOR: I think that the sitting President's comments were quite unfortunate the other night about Trump supporters. And I think Donald Trump is an entertainer and he knows how to do -- he went to McDonald's, he went viral for going to McDonald's. He got into a garbage truck, he went viral for going into a garbage truck. And so I think you do what you need to do in this modern age to get attention. You know, not everybody's sitting around watching us here on CNN these days. We have a lot of young voters who are watching on social media who get all their information from Instagram or TikTok. So you need to do things to branch out and get your message out.

And I think, look, the real core issue here of what happened the other night with the Biden comments is, it allows Donald Trump to circle back to the theme that he has had for eight years, which is, system is rigged against you. Everybody in Washington thinks you're deplorable. Everybody thinks you're garbage. And I'm here, the only one to fix it. And that's going to -- we're going to see whether that bears out next Tuesday night.

SANCHEZ: Lance, Margie, we have to leave the conversation there. Appreciate both of your perspectives. Thanks for joining us.

KEILAR: And ahead this hour on CNN News Central, new data showing the U.S. may have won the war on inflation, but that victory may feel a little hollow for some Americans still struggling to pay their bills.

[14:20:12]

Plus, Pennsylvania officials responding after former President Trump stokes fears of voter fraud.

SANCHEZ: And we spend a lot of time talking about the race for president. But candidates for the House and Senate are also on the ballot. And one race in particular is drawing a lot of attention in the Lone Star State. These important stories and many more all coming your way on CNN News Central.

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[14:25:14]

SANCHEZ: Just five days before the election, some key reports show a healthy U.S. Economy. Inflation has fallen even more to its lowest level in years.

KEILAR: That's right. And CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is joining us from New York on this. Vanessa, give us the data. Tell us what it means.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, some good data today. Cooling inflation once again. This is always good news for consumers. 2.1%, this is PCE. This is the Fed's preferred gauge because it shows a wide range of prices. It also looks at prices in urban centers and rural areas. And you can see right there, cooling inflation year-over-year, 2.1%, ticking up month over month. That was largely expected, though, maybe some higher food prices. But this is what the Fed likes to see. And this is what they're going to use along with other economic data to decide if they're going to cut rates again. And the expectation is that they will.

However, that meeting, Boris and Brianna, is actually just right after the election. So you're going to have the election play out and then you're going to have the Fed making decisions about any rate cuts. Obviously, that will have a trickle effect afterwards. But this is good economic data. And consumers should really be pleased where inflation is right now. 2.1% is just flirting with that 2% that the Fed wants to see.

Of course, you mentioned some Americans, though, maybe not feeling that totally, maybe struggling with cost of living in other areas. Wages have kept up with inflation, but we haven't seen wage growth across all sectors. And that may be something that many Americans are still dealing with.

SANCHEZ: And Vanessa, tomorrow is a big day because we get the October jobs report. What should we expect?

YURKEVICH: Yeah. Is this going to be an October surprise? We'll see. I mean, the thing to look at here is that there are two major factors that are going to play into this report, the last one that we're going to see before the election. You have to take into account, the two hurricanes that we saw, Hurricane Helene and Milton. That maybe slowed hiring. And also, you had several strikes, including one strike still ongoing, the Boeing strike, 33,000 members on the picket line still, that's having a downstream effect of thousands of jobs being impacted.

And the White House is already bracing for this. They are saying that this is going to be a harder report than usual. There's going to be temporary impacts, potentially upwards of 100,000 in terms of taking a bite out of this jobs report. They're saying, this is temporary, they're saying this is going to be difficult, but they are still very confident in the economy.

One last point, though, about a potential October surprise is the ADP jobs report came out just yesterday and it showed that hiring in the private sector was extremely strong, about 233,000 jobs added. That's double what was expected. So while we are expecting a weaker report tomorrow in the public sector, you never know. These numbers are wild. They swing. We'll just have to see what it ends up being. But no doubt both campaigns are going to jump on whatever number that is and try to encourage voters that they're on the right side of these numbers, guys.

KEILAR: All right. We will be staying tuned with you. Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much. Let's talk about this more with CNN Economics and Political Commentator Catherine Rampell. Catherine, inflation down, wages up. And here's a piece of data that really stood out to us from that GDP report from the Commerce Department. Americans actually have more disposable income compared to what they had before the pandemic, $4,000 more per year. And yet, they still say they're feeling squeezed. They're still saying that. Explain why.

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It has really been something of a puzzle. In some sense, the economy on paper looks spectacular, right? You have all of the job growth that you've just been discussing with Vanessa. You have strong, better than expected GDP growth. You have cooling inflation, strong consumer spending, strong consumer income, wages exceeding inflation, in fact, for quite a while now. And consumers are still kind of down in the dumps.

I think one way to interpret all of this is that there's still frustrated, stressed, resentful from the inflation that they experienced a year or so ago, right? That happened recently enough, those sharp price increases that people remember how much cheaper peanut butter, or milk, or anything else they get at the grocery store, or clothes for their kids, or what have you, how much cheaper those things were. So even though they have stopped getting more expensive, which is what we mean when we say inflation has cooled, it means that prices are not rising as quickly, but they're still rising. This was a recent enough phenomenon that prices were quite a bit lower, that a lot of consumers are still experiencing sticker shock every time they go to the store.

And I think it's just going to take time. It's going to take time for people to get used to those numbers. Just as we've gotten used to, you know, the price growth that we've seen over the past few decades. We got --

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