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Harris and Trump Preparing to Face Off in Tuesday Debate; Manhunt for Kentucky Shooting Suspect; California Resident's Face Record Heat as Line Fire Explodes; Syrian State Media; Israeli Strikes Kill 14, Injure at Least 43. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired September 09, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The vice president has a reputation for intensely preparing for these big moments.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She has to view this as much as a job interview, as an encounter with the former president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lock your doors, keep your porch lights on. Where is he? That's the big question right now. We want to get this guy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's crazy. No idea. I wasn't disrespectful, you know, because my mom didn't raise me that way. Didn't cuss. I got a lot of respect for cops.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm Christina Macfarlane. It's Monday, September 9th here, 9 a.m. in London, 4 a.m. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are just one day away from meeting face-to-face for the first time on a debate stage. That high-stakes showdown in the first presidential debate with 57 days to go until the November election. It will come just before early voting begins in several key states.

And as new polling shows, the race for the White House remains very, very tight. A New York Times Siena College poll shows no clear leader. But a similar theme found in the latest CNN Poll of Polls, which shows Harris at 49 percent and Trump at 47 percent. Former GOP lawmaker Liz Cheney, who announced she'll be voting for Harris, had this message for her fellow Republicans.

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LIZ CHENEY, FORMER U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: Given the closeness of this election, particularly if you're going to find yourself voting in a swing state, you've got to take the extra step. If you really do recognize the threat that Donald Trump poses, then it's not enough to simply say I'm not going to vote for him. I would also remind them, you know what, it's a secret ballot.

So I would prefer to have as many people as possible out publicly making the case. But at the end of the day, you just have to wrestle with your own conscience when you're there in the voting booth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, Harris is set to travel to Philadelphia in the hours ahead. On Sunday, she told reporters she's ready for the debate. CNN's Eva McKend is following developments and has more now from Pittsburgh.

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EVA MCKEND, CNN U.S. NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: It is perhaps no surprise the vice president, a former prosecutor, has a reputation for intensely preparing for these big moments. She has likely been poring over briefing books, anticipating what the moderators might ask her, anticipating what former President Donald Trump might say.

We know one thing is for sure, though, her campaign not so worried about these polls. Brian Fallon, a spokesperson for the campaign, tweeting that they have always viewed themselves as the underdog in this contest, and they still have that mentality. They recognize that they have a lot of work to do in the 50 plus days until the election.

Meanwhile, they're already telegraphing what they're going to do after the debate, a battleground blitz, they're calling it, with the vice president campaigning in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, Governor Walz taking to Michigan and Wisconsin, and their respective spouses fanning out across the country as well.

The campaign will have a presence in every battleground state.

Eva McKend, CNN, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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MACFARLANE: Well, CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein is weighing in on what we might see during tomorrow's debate and what message Donald Trump may bring.

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RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think he may even reprise the famous Ronald Reagan question from 1980. Are you better off than you were four years ago? He wants to make the case that, you know, people had more money in their pocket at the end of the week, the border was under control, the world wasn't as chaotic when he was president, kind of, you know, memory holing the 2020 experience with COVID.

Harris, like Biden before her, really wants voters more to be looking forward. I mean, she wants them not so much to be treating this as a referendum on whether they think the Biden years or the Trump years were better for them personally. She wants them to be focused on what the next four years would bring. And that's kind of the turning the page and new way forward.

Project 2025, and not only that, but what, you know, what Trump calls Agenda 47, the videos that he's put out himself on his own website, which overlap a tremendous degree with Project 2025, provides plenty of targets for her.

[04:05:02]

Economists, for example, will say, you know, multiple economists have said that looking forward, Trump's agenda of tariffs and mass deportation is a greater risk of inflation going forward than Harris's agenda is. The challenge, of course, is that a lot of voters, you know, getting voters to kind of orient that way, as opposed to kind of casting a ballot on their immediate circumstance, particularly when you're talking about that last seven or eight, 10 percent that participate in a presidential election, but not in the midterm. That's not an easy task, but I am guessing that an early cue for Tuesday night will be Harris will be trying to get voters to look forward, talking about things like Project 2025.

Trump will be trying to get them to look back, talking about things like the cumulative increase in grocery prices or gas prices under Biden.

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MACFARLANE: And be sure to tune in for our special coverage of the ABC News presidential debate, simulcast here on CNN. It will air this Tuesday at 9 p.m. Eastern time in the U.S. That's 9 a.m. Wednesday in Hong Kong and 2 in the morning here in London.

Now, schools will be closed today in Laurel County, Kentucky, as authorities try to track down a gunman. They believe the suspect accused of firing into several cars along Interstate 75 on Saturday is still hiding in the densely wooded area near where his car and rifle were found.

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DEPUTY GILBERT ACCIARDO, SPOKESPERSON, LAUREL COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: The car is abandoned up there. He abandons his weapon that he used, and he's still apparently still in that area. It's probably one of the most remote exits along the interstate. It just looks like it was a planned event.

SCOTTIE PENNINGTON, KENTUCKY STATE POLICE TROOPER: You need to lock your doors. You need to -- if you have security cameras, make sure you're constantly watching them. Maybe keep your porch lights on.

Have communication, have your cell phone, and make sure your phones are charged up because you never know when you might have to contact somebody or law enforcement. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, authorities say the suspect, Joseph Couch, wounded five people in the shootings. Some of the injuries are considered very severe, with one victim shot in the face and another in the chest. CNN's Gloria Pazmino has the latest on the manhunt.

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GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, several law enforcement agencies fanned out throughout the day in Laurel County, Kentucky. That's a day after a man open fired onto the interstate highway, critically injuring five people. Now, the Laurel County Sheriff's Office says that Joseph Couch is their suspect. He is believed to be armed and dangerous.

Now, police have located a vehicle registered to Joseph Couch, as well as a gun that was inside the vehicle, and they also recovered an AR- 15-style weapon, which they believe was used in this shooting.

Now, law enforcement has been focused on one specific area near where the shooting took place, but this is very rugged, wooded terrain. Police have said that there are a lot of trees, it is difficult to get around, and that is making it very challenging for them to continue the search into the night. Once the sun comes down, they said they were going to pull back their officers out of an abundance of caution.

Now, the White House has been in touch with law enforcement in Kentucky, which has been using several resources, including at least one helicopter, canine units, as well as a drone, in order to search the area.

For now, authorities have not determined a motive behind the shooting, but they do believe that the shooting was planned. And while there were no fatalities, at least five people were critically injured, some of them suffering gunshot wounds to the face and across the chest. In the meantime, schools are expected to be closed on Monday.

Gloria Pazmino, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Now, the principal of Apalachee High School in Georgia says officials are still figuring out the next steps for students and staff after last week's deadly mass shooting. In a letter to parents, the principal said they're making plans for people to start picking up their belongings from the school on Monday, but no word yet on when classes will resume. Other schools in the district will be back in session on Tuesday.

Two 14-year-old students and two teachers were killed in Wednesday's shooting. The suspect, also 14, is in custody, and so is his father, who's accused of buying the son an AR-15-style rifle used in the attack.

Thousands of people are fleeing a massive wildfire in Southern California as forecasters warn of record heat over the next few days. The couple who took this video went to the mountains to escape the heat, but instead ended up near the raging Line fire. It's more than quadrupled in size since Saturday morning, threatening more than 36,000 homes and buildings. More than 800 firefighters are struggling to get control of the fire, which was not contained at all during Sunday morning.

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BRENT PASCUA, BATTALION CHIEF, CAL FIRE: So the biggest challenge when the fire is unpredictable like this is knowing where to position all your crews.

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So right now we've positioned them all over the whole fire, most importantly within the neighborhoods around homes. We've yet to lose or damage any structures and we want to keep it that way.

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MACFARLANE: At least three people have been injured, and California's governor has declared a state of emergency. CNN's Camila Bernal is in San Bernardino County with more.

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CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This fire remains uncontrollable despite the efforts from firefighters. There are multiple factors working against the firefighters, officials here telling me that the terrain is very steep and very difficult to access. I want to show you what that terrain looks like because this is an area where we saw some of the hot spots.

And in this area, you see how difficult it is for some of these firefighters to get into this area. It is steep, and they either have to walk in in some of the areas, or I was told by CAL FIRE that you have to fly in the firefighters to certain areas of the fire because it is so difficult to access. You see how they're slipping as they're trying to get down the hill.

The other factor of this is the weather, triple-digit temperatures and even overnight temperatures in the 80s, so there is no break for these firefighters. There's also thunderstorms expected in this area, so because you have these thunderstorms, yes, you may have rain that may help this fire, but you also have the possibility of lightning. That starts new fires, and then with the storm also come winds that are unpredictable and that move the flames into areas where the firefighters cannot predict and cannot know where to put their crews, so that also makes it extremely difficult for them.

So CAL FIRE saying they're cautiously optimistic about the next couple of hours, maybe the next couple of days, because there is still a lot of work to be done here.

Camila Bernal, CNN, San Bernardino County. (END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Potential Tropical Cyclone Six is forming in the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to become Tropical Storm Francine in the coming hours. Parts of Mexico and southern Texas are under Tropical Storm Watch right now. The U.S. National Hurricane Center warns cities on the coast of Louisiana and Texas could see storm surge and hurricane watches. CNN meteorologist Elisa Raffa has more on the details of that potential severe weather.

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ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We're watching a tropical disturbance that could soon gain the name Francine in the next 48 hours or so. Right now the center is kind of disorganized, but if you look at where it's sitting in parts of the Gulf of Mexico, you've got ocean temperatures there that are incredibly warm, nearing the low 90s. And if you look at its path that it could take as it heads towards the U.S. Gulf Coast, it's going to take this rise through some very warm ocean temperatures in the middle 80s, even in some upper 80s.

So what that's going to do is help it organize and strengthen pretty quickly, especially as we head into the work week. We could be looking at some tropical storm force conditions along the Texas coastline as early as late Tuesday, and then this thing could ride the coastline towards Louisiana as we go into Wednesday, bringing with it the threat for some heavy rain, some storm surge, and rough surf as well.

When we look at recent named storms that have made landfall in this part of the country, I mean, we had Beryl make landfall over the Texas coastline just a couple of months ago this season, and it brought some power problems to parts of Houston.

We also had Ida in 2021, Beta and Hanna in 2020.

But when you look at hurricanes, the last time that Texas had two hurricanes make landfall in one season was 2008, 16 years ago, Ike and Dolly. So if this does, in fact, become Hurricane Francine and make landfall on the Texas coastline, this will be the first time in 16 years that Texas has seen two hurricanes in one season.

Whether it's a hurricane, a tropical storm, no matter what it's called, it will bring some heavy rain to parts of the Texas and Louisiana coastline. Forecasters are already worried about 4 to 8 inches of rain that could grow to 12 inches in some localized areas. So flash flooding is going to be a great concern as we go into the work week.

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MACFARLANE: Now, Israel's defense minister delivered a message to IDF troops in Gaza. Ahead, why he told them the military is making preparations in the north of Israel.

Plus, fanfare for the Pope's arrival in East Timor. We'll have the latest on his tour of Southeast Asia and the Pacific. And later this hour, U.S. Open men's champion Jannik Sinner talks to

CNN about his historic win. All that and more to come. Stay tuned.

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MACFARLANE: Syria's state-run news agency says Israeli airstrikes killed 14 people and injured at least 43 others on Sunday. The agency says there were several explosions and air defense engagements in central Syria. When CNN asked the Israeli military about the incident, the IDF said it does not comment on reports in foreign media.

Israel's defense minister says the military is ready and needed, as needed, to shift its focus to Israel's northern border. Yoav Gallant spoke with Israeli troops in Gaza on Sunday. He told them the Israeli military could be quickly moved to the fight against Hezbollah if needed, but he also said they would cripple Hamas.

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YOAV GALLANT, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): In Gaza, we need to achieve our two goals, both to eliminate Hamas and to return the hostages, and we are on this matter with all our might. At the same time, we are looking at the entire war fronts, and this means that while you are fighting here in Gaza, we are preparing for anything that can happen in the north, and moving the center of gravity can be quick.

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MACFARLANE: Meanwhile in Israel, protesters blocked traffic in Tel Aviv on Sunday. It was the latest demonstration demanding that the Israeli government secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas, and it came just over a week after six hostages were killed in Gaza.

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CNN asked the Israeli government's coordinator for hostages and the missing about the political will to reach an agreement.

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GAL HIRSCH, ISRAELI COORDINATOR FOR HOSTAGES: I won't put any type of symmetry between the state of Israel, a democracy, a state, and put in front of it actually political will from Hamas. Hamas do not want Israel on the map. Now, I'm doing everything, everything with very good people, my friends from the Israeli secret services, the Israeli government, the Israeli armed forces, to bring all our people back home.

Do not forget that in the very beginning of the war we had 3,200 missing, and then it came to the point that we knew that we have 255 hostages in Gaza. This is unprecedented event. Never happened something like this, and it is very important that it won't happen not only in Israel, it won't happen any other place in the world.

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MACFARLANE: Over the weekend, CIA director Bill Burns said 90 percent of a ceasefire deal has been agreed to, but he says the last 10 percent is the most difficult part. Israel says it will reopen three border crossings into Jordan in the coming hours. They were closed after a Jordanian government shot and killed three Israeli civilians at the Allenby crossing on Sunday.

The suspected government's brother says anger over the violence in Gaza could have been a motive for the attack. The crossing, also known as the King Hussein Bridge border crossing, allows traffic to pass between Jordan and the West Bank.

CNN's Paula Hancocks joining us now for more. Paula, what more are you learning about how this attack happened and the motive?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christina, we understand that this Jordanian citizen who lived just south of the capital, Amman, was a truck driver. He would drive on a number of occasions trucks carrying commercial goods through Jordan, across that crossing, and then into the West Bank.

Now, this is what was happening on this particular day. On Sunday, he stopped his truck, however. He then exited and started shooting. As we know, three civilians, three border crossing employees, were killed in that event, and then a guard shot the gunman dead.

Now, we have heard from the Jordanian Ministry of Interior. They say they're carrying out an investigation, but they also believe that he worked alone, that there were no accomplices that allowed him to do this. The family themselves say that they are shocked at what happened, but the brother did mention his anger about the war in Gaza, saying he believes what was happening in Gaza may have been a motivating factor in his brother's decision to carry out this attack.

Now, those crossings were closed instantly. There were three between Jordan and Israel, one that goes into the West Bank. And we also heard from the Israeli prime minister condemning what had happened.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We are surrounded by a murderous ideology led by Iran's axis of evil. In recent days, loathsome terrorists have murdered six of our hostages in cold blood and three Israeli police officers.

The killers do not distinguish between us. They want to murder us all until the last one, right and left, secular and religious, Jews and non-Jews. What prevents the elimination of our people as in the past is the strength of the state of Israel and the strength of the Israel Defense Forces.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HANCOCKS: Now, Jordan itself also condemns this attack, the government also, though, saying that there needs to be moves to, quote, address the root causes and de-escalate tensions.

Now, the Jordanian government has been very vocal in recent months in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and also has been highly critical of Israel's maneuvers and its war against, as it says, killing civilians in Gaza.

MACFARLANE: Paula, we're also reporting Syrian attacks from Israeli forces on Syria overnight. I mean, this is not unusual. We know that attacks have, you know, occurred since October 7th and have escalated since then, but what should we make of these latest attacks and what the Israelis were targeting here?

HANCOCKS: Well, the information we have is from the Syrian news agency SANA, and they say that it was military targets, that a number of military sites were targeted. They say it was Israeli airstrikes which were carried out, and they also say that the air defenses in that region did manage to intercept and shoot some of the missiles down. But there was damage.

[04:25:49]

We know that at least 14 were killed, according to SANA, and another 43 injured, saying that there was a blaze, a fire that was started nearby. Part of the highway nearby was damaged as well.

We did ask the Israeli military about this, but the IDF said it doesn't comment on reports in the foreign media. That is really a standard response when it comes to these kind of attacks that the Israeli military does not comment on.

But it's certainly, as you say, Christina, it's not the first time that this has happened. We've seen these kind of targeted attacks and airstrikes in Syria. We've seen them in Iraq, and we've seen numerous attacks and targets in Lebanon as the tit-for-tat attacks continue on that border -- Christina.

MACFARLANE: All right, Paula Hancocks there live from Abu Dhabi. Thanks, Paula.

Now, the U.S. Congress will be back in session later today, and already a funding fight is brewing. Details of that when we come back.

Plus, it's been a violent weekend in Ukraine and Russia with both sides ramping up missile and drone attacks. We'll get a live report next.

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MACFARLANE: Hi, welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Christina Macfarlane. And if you're just joining us, here are some of the top stories we're following today.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Philadelphia in the coming hours ahead of Tuesday's presidential debate with Republican candidate Donald Trump. This will be the first time the two politicians have ever met in person.

The United Nations started the third phase of its polio vaccination campaign in Gaza. The U.N. plans to vaccinate 150,000 Palestinian children in northern Gaza. Health workers vaccinated more than 400,000 in the south over the past week.