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Harris, Trump Make Final Pitch to Voters; U.S. Defense Secretary Austin Makes Unannounced Visit to Kyiv; Investigation into Leaked U.S. Intelligence Docs Underway; Israel's Wars with Hamas and Hezbollah. Aired 4:00-4:30a ET

Aired October 21, 2023 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have 15 days left to convince voters.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: If they get chosen, our country's finished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The war is going to grind on. It's got two distinct fronts in Gaza with Hamas and in Lebanon with Hezbollah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gangway that led from the dock to the ferry collapsed when about 40 people were on it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The initial findings show a catastrophic failure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the U.S., Canada and around the world. I'm Max Foster. It is Monday, October 21st, even, 9 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and North Carolina, where Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will spend their respective Mondays with 15 days left to go before the election.

It's the start of an all-out final blitz for support in a razor-thin race that could easily go either way. Already, more than 13 million ballots have been cast, with many states allowing for some sort of early voting. But ultimately, the election is expected to come down to just a handful of key swing states.

And that's where Harris and Trump campaigns will be focusing their attention over this very busy week. Harris will be joined by former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney on a swing through the key states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, as the vice president looks to pick up the support of some Republican-leaning voters disenchanted with Donald Trump.

Harris and Donald Trump both hit the campaign trail hard over the weekend. The two traded barbs and exchanged sometimes personal attacks as they spoke with supporters. The vice president had several events in Georgia, including a stop at a suburban Atlanta church where she celebrated her 60th birthday and urged people to cast their ballots as early as possible. Harris talked to the crowd about her view of good leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: In this moment, across our nation, what we do see are some who try to deepen division among us, spread hate, sow fear and cause chaos. There are those who suggest that the measure of the strength of a leader instead of what we know, which is the true measure of the strength of a leader, is based on who you lift up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: In an interview with MSNBC on Sunday, Harris addressed her struggle to win the support of Black men, saying her strategy with them is the same as it is with all voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I am very clear. I must earn, earn the vote of everyone, regardless of their race or gender. And what can be frustrating sometimes is to have journalists ask me this question as though one should assume that I would just be able to take for granted the vote of Black men.

I think that's actually an uninformed perspective, because why would Black men be any different than any other demographic of voter? They expect that you earn their vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Donald Trump spent most of the weekend in the critical state of Pennsylvania. He made headlines on Saturday at the town hall there, telling a meandering 10-minute story about Arnold Palmer that shocked many people when he described the golfing legend coming out of a locker room shower. But on Sunday, the former president kept it more low-key, focusing mostly on attacking Kamala Harris.

Our Danny Freeman reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On Sunday evening, frankly, we saw a more disciplined former president Donald Trump on the campaign trail here in Pennsylvania. There were far fewer tangents. The event was even shorter than normal, and it certainly seemed like the former ESPN host who moderated the event, plus the campaign-selected voters who asked the candidate questions, really were able to keep former president Donald Trump more on track throughout the evening.

He emphasized his proposals on the economy, including no taxes on tips and overtime, talked about supporting fracking, and, of course, he mostly railed against the Biden administration when it comes to immigration.

[04:05:00]

Now, there were, of course, several exaggerations when it came to the subjects of the economy, immigration and crime, and there were some of his normal asides. He spoke about bragging about his poll numbers. He also aired some of his grievances against ABC News for the last presidential debate, but there was nothing particularly vulgar or odd like we saw at Saturday evening's rally in western Pennsylvania, for example, that odd Arnold Palmer story.

Trump did, however, continue to boost his new campaign surrogate, Elon Musk, the billionaire who has been stumping for him in Pennsylvania over the course of the weekend, in fact, even including offering a raffle of a million dollars to supporters who signed a petition to get into some of the events, which some legal experts tell CNN it might be illegal. But take a listen to what the former president said this evening about both Harris and Elon Musk.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This woman is so incompetent. She's so bad. You cannot and I would normally not like to speak like that.

If they get chosen, our country's finished. You know, Elon Musk is a very smart guy. You got to see his endorsement. He said if this election isn't won by Donald Trump, our country is essentially finished.

FREEMAN: And earlier on Sunday, former President Trump stopped by a McDonald's in all important Bucks County in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He was seen doing a photo op, making fries in the fryer and also serving some patrons from the drive through.

Danny Freeman, CNN, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: In a taped interview that aired on Fox News on Sunday, Trump covered some familiar ground lobbying or lobbying rather criticisms and personal attacks at Kamala Harris. But he also expanded on his previous assertion that his Democratic critics are the enemy within intent on destroying the country. Even when host Howard Kurtz tried to throw him a lifeline, suggesting the former president actually meant to say opponents, Trump shrugged it off and doubled down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Adam Shifty Schiff. He's a crooked guy. He's a crooked politician, 100 percent. And he's going to be a senator now. Can you believe it? But again --

HOWARD KURTZ, FOX NEWS: He's a political opponent. He's not an enemy.

TRUMP: No, he's a -- well, he is, of course, he's an enemy. He's an enemy. He wanted to put my son in jail and my son didn't even know what he was talking about.

These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people. But when you look at Shifty Schiff and some of the others. Yes, they are, to me, the enemy from within. I think Nancy Pelosi is an enemy from within.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The U.S. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, arriving in Kyiv, meanwhile, just a short time ago for an unannounced visit to the Ukrainian capital. This follows a meeting in Brussels last week with his counterparts in NATO. High on the agenda, questions from allies about the upcoming election that might impact Ukraine aid.

Specifically concerns that a potential Trump victory could jeopardize future U.S. aid to Ukraine. Sources familiar with the meeting tell us that Austin said that whilst he can't predict the future, there is still bipartisan support for Ukraine in Congress. NATO officials say they're preparing for the U.S. to take on a lesser role.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand is traveling with Defense Secretary Austin and joins us now by phone. He's still the most powerful defense secretary when it comes to Ukraine. So how do you think he can reassure the authorities there?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Yes, Max, that's a big question. I mean, there's a lot of anxiety here, of course, about just what the future of U.S. aid to Ukraine is going to look like given the imminent presidential election.

But, of course, you know, Secretary Austin is here to try to reassure them that the U.S. has still a lot of things in the pipeline that are headed Ukraine's way, including weapons that were invested in a few years ago that are now just being manufactured and sent over to Ukraine that includes advanced surface-to-air missiles, for example. And he's also reassuring them that, look, even if the U.S. is pulling back a bit in the future from Ukraine aid, there still will remain bipartisan support in Congress, regardless of who is president, he believes, and that very key international coalition of allies that the U.S. managed to bring together to support Ukraine militarily over the last several years, he believes that that, too, is going to remain intact.

But, look, the Ukrainians are on somewhat of a back foot right now. The Russians continue to make slow but steady advances, gaining territory. They continue to recruit about 30,000 personnel per month to fight in Ukraine, whereas Ukraine is facing serious manpower shortages.

So all of this is going to be at the top of the agenda today when Secretary Austin meets with President Zelenskyy and Defense Minister Umerov. But, look, I mean, part of the big question here, as you look back over Austin's legacy over the last two-plus years of this war, given that this is going to most likely be his last trip to Ukraine as part of this administration, there are certainly questions about whether the U.S. has done enough to give Ukraine what it needs and fast enough to make meaningful advances against the Russians and actually have a strategy in place for a decisive victory against Russian troops -- Max.

[04:10:03]

FOSTER: OK, Natasha, back with you when we get more from Kyiv. Thank you.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warning his country faces, quote, a new threat after reports that North Korean soldiers may join the war to support Russian troops.

Clare Sebastian joins us with more. Do we know how many we're talking about?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So President Zelenskyy has said that he thinks 10,000 will eventually be deployed. South Korean intelligence is putting the number at 12,000. They think that 1,500 have already been sent across the border for training.

So in the grand scheme, obviously, of this war where Russia has, you know, several hundred thousand in the field at any given time, that's not a huge number. But I think why this is being seen is such a big problem. One is because, you know, the size of North Korea, North Korea's army in general, 1.2 million. It's one of the most militarized countries in the world. If this ends up being a pipeline, this is a serious problem for Ukraine facing its own manpower shortages. And we now have evidence two videos.

One was sent to CNN by the Ukrainian government. One has emerged on social media showing these troops at a -- you can see one of them there at a Russian training ground just across the border from China. So in the far east.

So we've not seen any evidence they're actually in Ukraine yet. But there appears to be some evidence that they're already training. And this doesn't just sort of play into Russia's strategy of attrition. Right. Extending the war, trying to outlast Ukraine and its allies. But this sort of this expands the geopolitical sort of ripple effects of this war.

We now have South Korea summoning the Russian ambassador to Seoul this morning, saying that this, you know, would be a major security risk for South Korea as well. The secretary general of NATO just spoke to the South Korean president. He posted on X in the last hour saying this would be a significant escalation.

Neither the U.S. nor NATO have confirmed that they have their own evidence of this as yet. But, of course, it is being very closely watched. And for Ukraine, this presents a major argument in favor of crossing the next Rubicon in terms of weapons. Right. They're going to be arguing, certainly with this meeting with Austin today, that the West needs to lift restrictions on using long range missiles inside Russia now that there may be another national army being deployed by Russia in this war.

FOSTER: And it does show they're still focused on the front line and pushing forward if they're using infantry effectively.

SEBASTIAN: Well, we don't know how these troops, these North Korean troops would be deployed or where. Right. They could be used as sort of elite forces. They may be part of the sort of human wave tactic that we've seen Russia use.

But what it does speak to, of course, is that strategy of attrition. The idea that Russia needs to bring in ever more weapons and equipment and ever more manpower so that it can keep this war going until, they hope, Ukraine bows out.

FOSTER: Clare, thank you.

We are learning that an American detained by Russia was involved in a bit of intrigue for the U.S. Paul Whelan says he passed information he learned from other prisoners about the Ukraine war to Western officials whilst he was held in a Russian penal colony. Whelan says he was able to communicate with former prisoners who were later sent to the front lines. During an interview on Sunday, he explained how it happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL WHELAN, WRONGFULLY DETAINED IN RUSSIA FOR MORE THAN 5 YEARS: The prisoners from the camp that went to the front line, they had communication and they would communicate with us. And the communication from them, I was passing back to foreign governments.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How?

WHELAN: Through illegal cell phones.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You got a cell phone into the Russian labor camp?

WHELAN: Yes, we had burner phones.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's pretty incredible.

WHELAN: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the guards didn't know about it or they just looked the other way?

WHELAN: They looked the other way. A Russian prison guard gets $300, $400 a month. You give them a carton of cigarettes and you can do just about anything you want.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Whelan had been detained by Russian officials on unrelated charges of spying for the U.S. He was released this past August in a prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia. Still to come, we are following the latest developments in the Middle

East as first responders search for survivors in Lebanon after new Israeli strikes overnight.

Plus, classified U.S. intel on Israel's plans for a retaliatory strike on Iran has been leaked. We'll bring you the latest on that investigation.

And Italy fights to stay above water as the country grapples with severe flooding just a month after Storm Boris left its devastating mark. We'll go live to Rome with the latest.

[04:15:00]

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FOSTER: Officials say an investigation is underway into the leak of highly classified U.S. intelligence on Israel's plans for retaliation against Iran. But Israeli sources say it was a, quote, minor leak. It was unlikely to have been the work of an Iranian spy.

CNN's Arlette Saenz has more.

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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. continues to investigate how exactly highly classified intelligence documents showing the U.S. assessing how Israel is planning to retaliate against Iran were leaked in public. There are major questions about who had access to these documents and who might have leaked them. And also whether there is any other highly sensitive information that could also potentially be leaked.

House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed the investigation and said that the leak is very concerning. It comes at a time when the U.S. is trying to assess exactly how Israel will proceed as it's planning its response to Iran's barrage of missile attacks, which it had launched at Israel earlier this month.

Now, these documents started to surface on Friday after they were posted on Telegram. There are two documents that are marked top secret and also bear markings suggesting that they were only meant to be viewed by the U.S. and its so-called Five Eyes allies. That includes the U.K. and Canada.

Now, without getting into the specifics of these documents, they appear to show how the U.S. is assessing that Israel is preparing for its response. That includes satellite imagery of descriptions of Israel's military activities in preparation, as well as the movement of military equipment, such as munitions.

[04:20:00]

Now, while the details of Israel preparing for a response against Iran are no surprise, the fact that these documents were leaked is of key concern to the U.S. It comes at a delicate moment, as the U.S. is trying to speak with Israel on a regular basis about their next steps. President Joe Biden has said that he believes that he does have a sense of how and when Israel will be responding.

Now, it's unclear whether this leak might cause Israel to change any of its plans. But this is something that the U.S. is trying to get a handle on, trying to figure out exactly how these documents were leaked at a very sensitive time.

Arlette Saenz, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Lebanese state media reporting a new round of Israeli airstrikes overnight, causing casualties and damage. Right now, efforts are underway to rescue people trapped under the rubble.

This video, geolocated by CNN, captures the moment a strike hit a building near Beirut's international airport on Sunday, sending it crumbling to the ground.

The Israeli military says it's targeting financial institutions linked to Hezbollah. The Lebanese health ministry says more than 1,800 people have been killed since Israel ramped up attacks on the Iran-backed militant group last month. But the IDF is vowing to continue defending the Israeli people, saying Hezbollah fired about 200 projectiles into Israel on Sunday.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced that the missile defense system sent to Israel is now in place and ready to go, as Israel prepares to retaliate against Iran after its attack on October 1st.

New video from inside a central Gaza hospital shows devastating scenes in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Sunday. Medical teams are treating the wounded on the floor, some covered in blood, including young boys. Sources say the attack killed at least six people in a refugee camp. It comes after Gaza's health ministry says at least 87 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on northern Gaza on Saturday. Graphic footage showed the bodies of several children amongst the dead, many with extensive injuries.

As the war rages on, more than 140,000 children received their second dose of the polio vaccine on Saturday. It's part of a massive campaign led by the U.N. hoping to immunize more than 90 percent of the children in Gaza.

Salma joins us now. I mean, there's so much to update on, but certainly things are not slowing down in either Gaza or Lebanon.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let's start with Lebanon, because there were strikes overnight. Rescue workers, as you mentioned, are still trying to dig through the rubble, so that's still an active situation. Israeli strikes hitting Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, as well as the city of Tyre, in southern Lebanon, Israel says that it issued what it calls evacuation orders for these areas. And it's part of that wider push we saw over the weekend, with Israel saying that it is targeting Hezbollah's financial institutions. In its crosshairs is this group called Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association.

This financial institution, according to Israel, provides salaries to fighters. It allows Hezbollah to evade sanctions. It allows Hezbollah to purchase weapons. But -- and here's the big but. It is also a banking system. That means it provides some 300,000 people with basic banking services, including paying their salaries, offering loans to some of the poorest in the Shia community in Lebanon.

And Israel says that is part of the stated goal. It is not just to destroy the brick and mortar of this financial institution. It is to evade the trust between Hezbollah's financial institutions and the people who rely on it, which is the Shia community of Lebanon.

So many consequences beyond what you see in the immediate aftermath of these airstrikes. And Israel, of course, not backing down. In fact, doubling down.

Yoav Gallant, the country's defense minister, was on the border with Lebanon just the other day, speaking to Israeli troops, saying -- and these were his words -- that the goal is to clear, again, Gallant's words, to clear the areas of southern Lebanon, to allow people in northern Israel to return home. Yoav Gallant saying that Hezbollah is not just being defeated. It is actively being destroyed by Israel's military.

But as you can imagine, the consequences of this are absolutely massive. Some 1,800 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of this recent offensive. More than 9,000 wounded.

And again, those hopes of any talks, peace progress, of any attempts to cease fire, all of those still stalled. There are some attempts, some backdoors. I know that Egypt's new intelligence chief was meeting with Israel's intelligence chief just the other day.

So there are some new attempts to restart these peace talks, to restart any attempts at a ceasefire. The U.S. continues to push for red lines.

[04:25:00]

But you have to remember, this is only going to escalate, Max, because we're still awaiting Israel's response to Iran's ballistic missile barrage.

FOSTER: Yes, so in terms of, I mean, we're talking about the intelligence that we've seen. You know, Israel very much downplaying that. And they're obviously not going to use a plan that's been leaked.

ABDELAZIZ: Of course, and I think the implication of this is not just what is in the leak, but of course, how did the leak happen? How does this erode trust between the U.S. and Israel at such a sensitive time? So there's a lot of back-channeling here in terms of trying to smooth over that relationship, first of all, and plug whatever hole caused that leak in the first place.

FOSTER: OK, Salma, thank you very much indeed.

Voters in Moldova are casting their ballots on Sunday in two crucial votes. Early results show that half the electorate voted yes in the referendum to confirm the country's European Union aspirations.

Just under 98 percent of the votes have been counted. For President, the incumbent, Maia Sandu, receiving just under 42 percent of the vote. Her opponent, the former prosecutor general of the country, got just over 26 percent. Since neither reached 50 percent, the vote goes to a run-off, and that'll be on November 3rd. There have been allegations of Russian-backed interference in that election.

All eyes are on Michigan as it could decide who'll take the White House in November, but the stakes are just as high in Michigan's Senate race. We'll have more after the break.

And Cuba's blackout continues with millions in the dark and Tropical Storm Oscar hampering efforts to restore power. Details on that, too.

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FOSTER: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you are just joining us, here are some of today's top stories.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is in Kyiv right now to discuss Ukraine's weapons needs amid Russia's invasion. His visit comes less than two weeks --