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Report: Harris Campaign "Broken Since The Beginning" Official Says; Russia & Ukraine Exchange Record Number Of Drone Strikes; Ukraine: N. Korean Troops Fighting In Russia's Kursk Region; Some People Coping With Stress, Anxiety By "Doom Spending"; Escaped Monkeys Still On The Loose In South Carolina. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired November 11, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: This -- "broken from the beginning." There is also a surprise sort of "broke" that I think we weren't expecting.

Let's start with the fundraising problems. Because you write about this inability to get what was really needed, which was a mass amount of people to donate small amounts multiple times.

JASMINE WRIGHT, POLITICAL REPORTER, NOTUS: Yes, and I think what you have to recognize is we're talking about millions of people. They have over 25 million people on their subscriber list.

But it kind of breaks into multiple parts when we talk about their finances. First, they say that there were a lot of commitments made when Biden was still on the ticket to contract for consultants, to TV reservations that they felt they still had to carry out once the switch happened, which was a lot of money.

And also, the subscriber list, right? We reported in this piece that they burned over a million subscribers. Again, out of the 25 million list, they called it a natural turn. Still, that's a million people who are not seeing their fundraising messages and not seeing those messages trying to get to you volunteer.

And when they're making projections based off of that big money that the vice president was bringing in, in July, when that switch happened, a million people, that kind of shows -- or that creates kind of a dent in their financing.

So we reported that they had to revise their fundraising deadlines, their fundraising goals, ultimately, missing the deadlines in September leading to the debt situation they have right now.

KEILAR: You also paint this picture of a patchwork of leaders within the campaign. The folks on board initially to run a Biden campaign. There were a bunch of kind of Obama-era hires.

You talk about David Plouffe.

WRIGHT: Yes.

KEILAR: There were complaints among some people that he was trying to run Kamala Harris as a 2024 Barack Obama.

WRIGHT: Yes. I mean, his name has come up a lot in the aftermath of what went wrong. Certainly, people have their criticism of him both inside and outside the campaign.

But I think, if we back up and think about the genesis of this campaign, when Biden was still on the ticket, or when he announced he was running, it was really difficult for campaign leadership to staff some of these senior roles because people didn't want to work for Joe Biden.

And people didn't want to move to Wilmington. So therefore, in key roles, you have people years to junior to fulfill it. So it wasn't at the scale it needed to be to really incorporate the enthusiasm and just the inflow of cash and volunteers that Harris brought when she switched the ticket.

So then she didn't want these kind of staffing stories that plagued her in the first two years of office as vice president. And so she brought in this new -- advisers like Plouffe, like some other folks.

But obviously, people had a lot of criticism for the way they planned the strategies and thought it was too much like 2008.

KEILAR: And you also talk about how they may have been blind-sided by issues that they thought weren't motivating the electorate, but it turns out they were. For instance, some of the issues with transgender Americans, specifically Trump's ads slamming Harris for this.

WRIGHT: Yes, there were a lot of questions that people had inside and outside the campaign about what their analytics team and their polling team was looking at.

Because, at -- one instance we highlight in the piece is that their director of paid media is really facing a lot of pressure from both inside and outside the campaigns.

And Democrats being like, hey, Trump is running these anti-trans ads that are attacking the vice president and making her look unserious. And we think they're having an impact and we should respond to them.

And what he told them was they weren't having much of an effect. Clearly, now the Trump campaign is saying that was one of their most effective messages to drive home the message that the vice president was not ready to be president.

So obviously, there are a lot of questions about what their analysis was and their analytics were saying to get them to this place where Democrats are really in disarray.

KEILAR: Jamine, it is a fascinating, well-reported read. Thank you for being with us to talk about it.

[13:33:49]

And as U.S. officials say Russia has deployed tens of thousands of troops, including ones from North Korea, to carry out an assault on Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region, we have a live report from Moscow next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:38:23]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Right now, a U.S. official says Russian and North Korean forces are gearing up for battle to retake parts of the Kursk region that Ukraine invaded over the summer. That offensive could happen within days.

And it comes as Ukraine and Russia are launching a record number of drone strikes at each other.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is live for us in Moscow monitoring the latest.

Fred, what more are you learning?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Boris. Well, this is a -- U.S. officials are saying around 50,000 forces that Ukraine are up against there. Around 11,000 of those are apparently North Korean troops.

Now, the Ukrainians have also commented on this. And they're saying, look, the North Korean forces, they might not be directly at the front line in many places, but what all that does is it frees up more Russian troops to try to then attack the Ukrainians.

Nevertheless, the Ukrainians have also said that there have been direct battles between Ukrainian forces and North Korean forces, and that there have been losses in those battles.

So certainly, all of this is significant. Also that involvement of the North Korean forces as well.

One of the things that we have heard from the Russians in the past, is they, definitely, obviously, want to retake that territory in the Kursk region. That is, of course, part of Russia.

But at the same time, the Russians are not in any rush to do so. Right now, the Russians are saying that, for them, the main battlefield is still in the east of Ukraine where, of course, they have been making significant gains over the past couple of months.

But the Russians now also are gearing up for a large-scale offensive there. We haven't heard any confirmation yet from Moscow that there really is that large force that is gearing up there.

The Russians are saying they have already managed to retake some of that territory where the Ukrainians have that incursion in August.

At the same time, the Russians also saying they will continue to fight to push the Ukrainians off of all of their territory while, at the same time, also prosecuting that massive offensive going on in the northeast of Ukraine -- Boris? [13:40:13]

SANCHEZ: Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much for that update.

Stay with CNN. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Even before the election, a lot of folks we're stressed out and anxious about the unknown. For many of you, those feelings haven't gone away.

To cope, some people have turned to what is called "doom spending" where they use their wallets to grapple with broader issues like politics and the economy.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is with us now.

So, Vanessa, why are so many people doom spending? And tell us about the consequences here.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, more than half of Americans say that they feel like they're constantly receiving bad news online and that has impacted their spending, according to Bank Rate.

[13:45:01]

And what we're seeing is that showing up in doom spending. Essentially, if you're not feeling good about the economy, you feel like maybe that home purchase that I was trying to make is so far out of reach, so I'm going to spend in other ways to try to make me feel better.

Or if you're not feeling the results of the presidential election, you may spend a little bit to try to take your mind off of things. It's that dopamine hit that you're looking for to start to feel good again.

However, experts are warning that if you're constantly doing that, you may run into a little trouble, especially if you're putting that on credit cards. Right now, 50 percent of Americans reporting carrying some sort of debt.

Right now, there's $1.1 trillion in credit card debt in this country. That is a new record. And credit card delinquencies, those who did not make payments to their credit cards, rose in the third quarter of this year, back to even higher than pre-pandemic levels.

So some tips, Brianna, on this for people who might find that they are doom spending a little bit too much, re-evaluate your relationship with money. Are you making purchases to fill an emotional void or to cover some sort of other emotions that you may be feeling?

Also, get off the phone. Stop doom scrolling. Stop engaging with all the bad news out there. If you need to be on your phone, call a friend instead. And there are other ways to get this dopamine hit that you might get

through retail therapy. Exercise classes, maybe hugging a dog or a cat. And, hey, maybe even volunteer at an animal shelter. Lots of pets there to make you feel good.

But it is really important to note if this is a one-off for people or if this is something that you're doing that really is going to impact your bottom line -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Hug a dog or a cat. I love it.

Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much.

Hug a monkey, not so much. More than a dozen monkeys are on the run and making the most of their newfound freedom, swinging from the trees right near the research facility that they escaped from. I mean, wouldn't you? We'll have details on how they're being recaptured, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:51:28]

SANCHEZ: There is monkey mayhem unfolding in South Carolina. And it is not under control.

Authorities managed to capture a couple dozen of the primates that escaped from a research center last week but at least 25 -- rather, at least 18 are still on the loose. Twenty-five have been captured.

Some have been spotted, as you can see in that footage, jumping back and forth in the woods near the facility they escaped from.

Let's talk about the situation with the renowned conservationist, Ron Magill. He's the communications director for Zoo Miami

Ron, thank you so much for being with us.

Before we get into the challenges of rounding up these monkeys, I want to ask but this species in particular. Beginning with the name, which I am very nervous to say on television, Ron.

(LAUGHTER)

RON MAGILL, CONSERVATIONIST & COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, ZOO MIAMI: Rhesus Macaques. Yes, listen, they are a very, very common monkey, one of the most common primates used in research facilities.

People are probably familiar with them if you watch Discovery Channel, Animal Planet. They have those shows about the whole monkey troops that have taken over little cities in India. When I was in India, they were running all over the place as if they were part of the community.

So they're a very common monkey. But I don't want people to panic and say, oh, my god, they're going to come after us. They're going to kill us. It will be monkey mayhem. It's really not that bad. You just need to be very smart.

SANCHEZ: Very smart how? Give us some advice.

MAGILL: Well, understand that there are people that will look at the monkeys and say, oh, my goodness, they're so cute. Look at the little cute monkey.

No. You have to look at these monkeys -- with all due respect to the monkeys, you need to look at them as dirty little people that bite. OK? So keep your distance.

You don't have to be like locking all your windows and doors, these panic situations, like you've got some Freddy Kruger out on the loose. It's not the case with these monkeys.

They're opportunists. They will try -- if you leave a door open, they can walk in through a door. They can walk in through a window. They're going to look for food. They can eat almost anything. They're adapted to eating almost anything.

And they're opportunists. So if you leave garbage in your garbage can with your garbage can open, you leave dog food or stuff out in the backyard, they're going to come to that.

But don't think they're going to look at you and go, ah, human, I'm going to come get them now. No, that's not what they're doing.

Now, having said that, they are frightened. They're frightened now. So a frightened primate can be a dangerous primate. Don't try to corner them.

SANCHEZ: And I imagine that factors into the process of trying to capture them that they might feel cornered and do something like bite somebody.

MAGILL: Exactly. The best thing to do, you know, leave it to the experts. These are very socially bonded monkeys. These troops are very -- very strong, social bonds, which is why you're probably seeing these monkeys close to where they escaped from.

They're communicating with each other. They're going, hey, where's Alice? I haven't seen Alice. Well, Alice is over there.

The best way they can do this is they can try to set up some type of enclosure next to the enclosure they're already in and try to bait them in slowly without trying to push them into it.

This has to be the monkey's choice. Because if you think you're going to catch a monkey in a tree just by you chasing it, that's not going to happen.

SANCHEZ: Could the monkeys themselves be in any danger? Because, obviously, these aren't just wild monkeys. They were in a research center and now they're out there. What kind of challenges are they facing?

MAGILL: The biggest challenge they'll face is, of course, getting hit by a car, dogs. Any kind of large dog can go after them.

But in reality, these are incredibly adaptive animals. Like I've said, we've had these animals escape in areas within India, purposefully released because they are worshipped and the people literally cherish them.

And they adapt right away. I mean, they're very adept at finding food. It's not like, oh, they're going to starve to death. That's not the case.

The best bet with these monkeys is to get them to want to go back on their own to be with the rest of the troop. The fact that the majority of the other ones have already been re-secured is your best advantage.

[13:55:06]

Try to set up some enclosure next to them that we can bait them in with their favorite food, get them close to them, and then be able to enclose them in that adjacent enclosure.

Again, you're not going to be able to chase them down. You're -- we've had monkeys escape here in south Florida that established their own communities here.

But it's a different species but very similar in their behavior. And they've been living here now for 50 years in Ft. Lauderdale. You know, a troop of monkeys. They've just not been able to catch them.

SANCHEZ: Yes, I've heard stories of them running into a Publix supermarket and nabbing food and then running back out. That would be hilarious to watch.

(CROSSTALK)

MAGILL: The key thing, Boris, is don't try to catch them. Don't try to catch them. Don't try to corner them. Certainly, don't try to feed them. And never think they're cute. Because they may appear cute but they're not.

SANCHEZ: A pub sub might do the trick. We'll pass that along to the folks in South Carolina.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: Ron Magill, thank you so much for the time. I appreciate it.

MAGILL: Always a pleasure. Take care.

SANCHEZ: So we are following breaking news out of Indiana. The jury there has reached a verdict in the Delphi double murder trial, a case that has attracted nationwide attention. These are live pictures outside the courthouse.

We're going to take a quick break and we're going to break down everything we know about the case and where things stand with the jury in just a few minutes. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)