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Harris Speaks With National Association Of Black Journalists; Trump, Vance Blame Dem Rhetoric For Apparent Assassination Attempt; Lebanon: Pagers Explode, Nine Killed, 2,800 Injured; Sean "Diddy" Combs Charged With Sec Trafficking, Racketeering. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired September 17, 2024 - 15:00 ET

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

[15:00:01]

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- whether it is referring to the first Black president of the United States with a lie, birther lies.

[15:00:11]

And look, the American people deserve, and I do believe want better than this. I do believe that -- I know -- I know the vast majority of us as Americans know, we have so much more in common than what separates us. I know that I know that regardless of someone's background, their race, their gender, their geographic location. I know the people are deeply troubled by what is happening to that community in Springfield, Ohio.

And it's got to stop. And we've got to say that you cannot be entrusted with standing behind the seal of the president of the United States of America engaging in that hateful rhetoric that as usual is designed to divide us as a country, is designed to have people pointing fingers at each other. It's designed to do that.

And I think most people in our country, regardless of their race, are starting to see through this nonsense and to say, you know what, let's turn the page on this. This is exhausting and it's harmful and it's hateful, and grounded in some age old stuff that we should not have the tolerance for. So let's turn the page and chart a new way forward and say you can't have that microphone again.

MODERATOR: Madam Vice President, I'm switching gears again.

HARRIS: OK.

MODERATOR: Quick question. I want to talk to you about gun control. So you've said you support an assault weapons ban and universal background checks and we actually learned during the debate that you are a gun owner.

But in cities like Philadelphia, handguns are responsible for most homicides and violent crime. The most recent FBI data shows handguns were involved in 59 percent of murders in our country. How will you address the issue of the use of handguns because a push for an assault weapons ban only addresses a significant but small part of the problem?

HARRIS: So, first of all, yes, I am a gun owner. And Tim Walz is a gun owner and we're not trying to take anybody's guns away from them. But we do need an assault weapons ban. Assault weapons are designed to kill a lot of human beings quickly.

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: And has no place -- and had no place -- I'm going to get to it.

MODERATOR: Yes.

HARRIS: And have no place on the streets of a civil society. We need universal background checks, which to your point about handguns is about saying that it is just reasonable to what reasonable gun safety laws that say we should do background checks that we ought to know, it's just reasonable, that you might want to know before someone can buy a lethal weapon if they've been found by a court to be a danger to themselves or others. You might just want to know. And --

MODERATOR: And, respectfully, we do understand that.

HARRIS: But you're asking about --

MODERATOR: I'm asking specifically about handguns because many of those handguns aren't purchased in places --

HARRIS: Universal background checks applied to handguns.

MODERATOR: Yes.

HARRIS: They do.

MODERATOR: But many instances, those handguns aren't even bought lawfully. Yes.

HARRIS: Which is why I also have been very adamant for years -- in fact, I myself protested at a gun show probably 10, 15 years ago about the gun show loophole and why we need to close that, because what ends up happening is that gun shows at flea markets, gun dealers are not under existing law in the past required to register their sales.

And so, you are exactly right that a lot of homicides, for example, and a good number of them I have just a statistic in front of my mind are committed with illegally purchased guns and that's why we need to address each entry point in the issue, including universal background checks, closing the gun show loophole, and what we need to do as a general matter to focus not only on reaction to crime, but prevention of crime.

So you're raising a very important issue that has many facets including what we need to do in terms of reasonable gun safety laws and what we need to do around crime prevention, what we need to do around crime deterrence. But listen, I have personally prosecuted homicide cases. I have held

the hands of mothers who have come to me crying, who said I only want to talk to Kamala because they knew when they sat down, I would treat them with the dignity and respect that they were entitled and do about the loss of their child, often their son to gun violence and the need to take it seriously..

[15:05:21]

And we must take it seriously, in every way, understanding it's not just about a sound bite, it's about a comprehensive approach that deals with the tragedy of to your point, everyday gun violence in America. It's real, it has had a profound impact in terms of trauma that for the most part has gone undiagnosed and untreated. The trauma that exists in communities around the violence of losing their children, losing a brother, losing a father and uncle, all of that must be addressed and we have to have a holistic response to it.

MODERATOR: Are there things we haven't thought about yet? Because every time we bring up this issue of gun violence, universal background checks comes up and a ban on assault weapons. Are there other solutions that you're also thinking about that will get at this issue?

HARRIS: Absolutely. For example, part of what we did with -- so we as vice president and with the president, we were able to pass the first meaningful gun safety legislation in 30 years. And part of what that involved was millions and millions of dollars to put more mental health counselors in public schools, right, because we know that there is an aspect of this that is about treating the trauma and dealing with it at its source before it ends up manifesting itself in a problem.

There is the work that we need to do that is about putting resources into communities around violence prevention. I've been a big advocate of that for years, which includes what we need to do around putting resources into community based intervention that is not just requiring on the good people in the community to volunteer to do the intervention, but actually paying people to do it because it's a full- time job.

It's about understanding what we need to do to again understand that -- to your point, we have to have a holistic response to this issue, and prioritize it, instead of reacting to the tragedy that sadly, they are too predictable.

Let's all agree enough of that we there are very few solutions that we haven't thought of. We need to respect the resources into them.

MODERATOR: Madam Vice President, we want to move to the topic of reproductive access --

HARRIS: Yeah.

MODERATOR: -- something that you have worked and leading on both for the administration of Democrats and now the top of the ticket. You've said that as president, you would want to codify Roe. If it came to your desk, he would sign a bill that did that.

HARRIS: Yes.

MODERATOR: Roe protected access until fetal viability, which it also says is, quote, at about seven months. But it may occur earlier even at 24 weeks. So do you similarly support also codifying roles, restrictions, which allowed states to ban abortion in the third trimester of pregnancy unless necessary to save the mother's life?

HARRIS: We need to put the protections of Roe v. Wade back into law. And when that bill gets passed by Congress, I will proudly sign it into law, understand what is happening in our country over 20 states have passed what I call Trump abortion bans because understand how we got here, the former president handpicked three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade. They did as he intended.

And in state after state, laws have been passed, criminalizing health care providers. I don't know if anyone here has heard most recently the stories out of Georgia, tragic story about a young woman who died because it appears the people who should have given her health care were afraid they'd be criminalized after the Dobbs decision came down.

Laws that make no exception even for rape or incest, which means that you tell in a survivor of a crime of a violation to their body that they have no right to make a decision about what happens to their body next, which is immoral. The -- an approach that doesn't take into account that most people I think agree you don't have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree, the government should not be telling her what to do with her body as she chooses, she will talk with her pastor, her priest, her rabbi, her imam, but it should not be the government or Donald Trump telling her what to do about her own body and her life.

So that's where I stand. We need to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade and put that into law.

MODERATOR: And those restrictions that are also --

HARRIS: We need to put back and protect -- in place the protections of Roe v. Wade, and let an individual in consultation with her doctor make the decision based on what she can determine because she's smart enough to know what's in her best interests, instead of having her government tell her what to do, especially a bunch of people in these state capitols who think they're in a better position to tell her what to do than she is to know what's in her best interest.

[15:10:21]

MODERATOR: Before we conclude, Madam Vice President, "joyful warrior" has been used to describe your campaign --

HARRIS: You didn't see that just a minute ago. So --

(LAUGHTER)

MODERATOR: And --

HARRIS: OK, I'm back to my joyful --

MODERATOR: And your opponent and Republicans have at times weaponized you laughing in campaign ads, for example, why is joy important to you to insert into this election? And what do you make of Republicans using that as a way to suggest that you're not a serious candidate?

HARRIS: Oh, sometimes I think, and ill say to whoever the young people are who are watching this, there's sometimes though in your adversaries will try and turn your strength into a weakness, don't you let them. Don't you let them.

I find joy in the American people. I find joy and optimism in what I see to be our future and our ability to invest in it. I find joy in the ambition of the people. I find joy in the dreams of the people.

I find joy in building community. I find joy in building coalitions. I find joy in believing that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, but who you lift up.

And -- and I think we should all find joy and have a sense of optimism about who we are as Americans and what we mean to each other and what we can do to lift each other up.

MODERATOR: Madam Vice President, did you -- President Biden spoke to President Trump after the attempt on his life this weekend. Did -- have you spoken to him?

HARRIS: I have.

MODERATOR: And earlier today, I assume?

HARRIS: Yes.

MODERATOR: How'd that go? You want to give us some intel (ph)?

HARRIS: Sure, I -- I checked on to see if he was okay.

MODERATOR: Yeah.

HARRIS: And I told him what I have said publicly, that there's no place for political violence in our country. I am in this election, in this race for many reasons, including to fight for our democracy. And in a democracy, there is no place for political violence. We can and should have healthy debates and discussion and disagreements, but not resort to violence, to resolve those issues.

MODERATOR: On January 6, your vehicle was allowed to pass a viable pipe bomb. We've seen --

HARRIS: No, I was in the building.

MODERATOR: You were in the building.

And we've seen what's happened with former President Trump. Do you have full confidence in the Secret Service to protect all of you?

HARRIS: I do. I do.

MODERATOR: Do you feel safe for you and your family?

HARRIS: I do.

But -- I mean, you can go back to Ohio. Not everybody has Secret Service, and they're far too many people in our country right now who are not feeling safe. I mean, I look at Project 2025 and I look at like the "don't say gay" laws coming out of Florida, members of the LGBTQ community don't feel safe right now. Immigrants or people with an immigrant background don't feel safe right now. Women don't feel safe right in here.

And so, yes, I feel safe. I have Secret Service protection but that doesn't change my perspective on the importance of a fighting for the safety of everybody in our country, and doing everything we can to again, lift people up and not beat people down so they feel alone and are made to feel small and made to feel like there's somehow not a part of it or us.

MODERATOR: Madam Vice President, thank you so much for your time.

HARRIS: Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: You've been listening there to Vice President Harris's interview with the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a wide ranging interview covering a whole host of topics including her economic plan. She emphasized her desire to create an opportunity economy, saying that she and President Biden helped bring down drug prices, though she acknowledged that prices are still too high and intends to work on that and would in a second term.

She said that with regards to the ongoing war in Israel, that far too many innocent Palestinians, women and children had been killed.

[15:15:05]

She said the U.S. should remain committed to a two-state solution. Some of her strongest comments were about political rhetoric emanating from Donald Trump and his vice presidential pick J.D. Vance. She said it was a crying shame to hear the comments they have made -- unfounded comments about Haitian immigrants in the city of Springfield, Ohio.

She went on to say that when you have a microphone, as big as that of a president or candidate for president. It comes with profound responsibility.

CNN's Arit John joins me now.

Arit, this was Harris has first live interview I believe since rising to the top of the ticket, though she's given are there one-on-one interviews. She covered a number of topics there.

What did you hear specifically on her economic plan?

ARIT JOHN, CNN REPORTER: I think she really -- that's one of the parts of her platform that she's already really started laying out. We heard about her plan to build more housing, and she also talked about reaching everyone is in terms of small business owners. I think one of the questions really asked her, how is she going to reach black voters black voters, specifically black men. And she said, these policies are about reaching everybody and every voting blocs meets to be outreach to and she can't count on any vote.

So I think we really heard her emphasizing, you know, making sure that people can afford housing, making sure that people can afford childcare, talking about her own experience, taking care of her mother, just sort of talking about these kitchen table issues that voters who are concerned about the economy are probably eager to talk about.

SCIUTTO: No question. In her words, clearly, she intended to counteract, pushback against rhetoric we've heard from Donald Trump and some of his allies. While I should note, she also said that she had a cordial conversation with Donald Trump following this most recent assassination attempt, saying that she communicated to him, that she's glad he is safe and well, but she did certainly criticize some of his words, his comments accusing him of spewing lies grounded in tropes. That's related specifically to the kind of language that Trump has used regarding immigrants and migrants and saying that this goes back years, which is carried it back all the way to the Central Park Five and his false allegations about them.

That clearly is a central part of her message at this point in the campaign.

JOHN: Right and I think there's this delicate balance that her campaign has to strike. Obviously, I mean, it's horrific to be in a situation where there have been two attempted assassination attempts against a former president and Democrat -- Republic, I'm sorry, Republicans have specifically blamed Harris and Biden for inflaming some of this. I mean, at the same time, you hear Harris and the Biden campaign pointing out that Trump does have a history of making derogatory comments against different racial groups. I mean, Trump and J.D. Vance have perpetuated these false rumors, these lies about the Haitian community in Springfield?

So, it's sort of this balance of, you know, dealing with these criticisms from the right, but also just calling out what has happened on the campaign trail and calling out the record of the campaign that she's running against.

SCIUTTO: Arit John, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

I want to turn now to the political fallout from the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump. It is clearly a dangerous time in our country when an act of political violence does not tamp down the political rhetoric but instead is seeming to inflame it. But that is the reality today.

Just take a listen to Trump claiming as he has multiple times since Sunday, the Democrats are responsible for these threats, for bullets flying, as he said in one post, a claim echoed by his running mate J.D. Vance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's a lot of rhetoric going on, a lot of people think that the Democrats, when they talk about threat to democracy and all of this. And it seems that both of these people were radical lefts.

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that we have -- no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: To be clear, authorities have not described a political motive at this time to either of the Trump assassination attempts. It is not clear either where the far left claims that Trump is sharing came from. And the FBI has arrested a number of individuals it also note for threats against Biden and Harris, at least two in the past six weeks. Plus, the FBI raided the home and then ultimately shot a Utah man last year who had been planning to assassinate President Biden. Last year, the FBI arrested a January 6 defendant who was armed with guns and explosives outside of former President Obama's home.

[15:20:02]

The intent here is not to claim that these threats are not serious. They are. The point is to look at what are the root -- what is the root of the political rhetoric behind this? What is the effect and what is the responsibility of those who are sharing these kinds of allegations?

Here to discuss what's gone wrong, how to fix it, former Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Charlie Dent, CNN senior political commentator, conservative columnist Scott Jennings.

It's good to have you both here. It's a difficult time. There's no question and the -- to have two attempted assassinations of the Republican nominee for president in the span kind of a couple of months is alarming, but also hear -- to hear the reaction in the allegations that have been shared following that -- assigning blame where there's no evidence that there is blame, including directly to Harris and Biden as Trump himself has done leads one to wonder what happens next, right? I mean, it's a dangerous time.

Charlie Dent, I want to begin with you, first. At this moment in time, what do you want to hear from both sides of the aisle on this as it were, from both Harris and Trump?

CHARLIE DENT, FORMER PENNSYLVANIA REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN: I like to hear of all sizes to turn the temperature down. I'm really appalled by much of the rhetoric. I mean, it's horrific that there have been two assassination attempts against Donald Trump, but the rhetoric in this country is out of control. It's not just some of, some of our most prominent elected officials. It's social media.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

DENT: I mean, you go on social media every single day. And from the right and the left, I mean, people say things are that you would never say to a person's face and for the pull-up politicians, I would say to them, you know, I never I learned a long time ago in politics. I never gotten trouble for what I never said, that sometimes -- and particularly as a conservative center-right party, we should be talking about small C conservative principles, like temperance, like measured statements, like disciplines, stability, and order.

And so when we're talking about, you know, eating dead cats and dogs and in Springfield, Ohio, which was fabricated story. We are contributing to instability as you see with all the consequences to this type of angry rhetoric.

And I think we need to get to a better place. I wish I had the simple answer. But Donald Trump certainly has to accept some responsibility for the overheated rhetoric in this country.

SCIUTTO: Scott Jennings, you heard Vice President Harris there say she had a conversation, cordial conversation with Trump, called him up and said, I'm glad you are safe and, of course, said right in the immediate aftermath of this latest attempt that there is no space for political violence. Trump's own words since then, and let's be frank. You know, they're not new. What-- was to point blame directly at Harris and Biden for this, and I wonder if you think that's the right response and a helpful response.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think if you've been shot at in the ear and then nearly assassinated a second time, thank God for the Secret Service noticing the guy in the bushes, I think you have little space to wonder what the hell is going on every time I walk outside of my front door. So I'm going to give Donald Trump honestly a little bit of grace.

And, you know, when these things happen, and they're happening to Trump, they'd happened twice, there is a lot of demands for Trump and Republicans to take responsibility for what's happening to Donald Trump. But what I never here is Democrats being asked to take responsibility for all of the radicalization of their political base over the last several months in several years.

I mean, Harris herself, I'm glad she called Trump and I and I think that's good. But she herself I mean, she talks about the bloodbath which is not true. She talks about the fine people, which has been debunked. She talks about the dictators. She talks about the elimination of that constitution.

SCIUTTO: Scott --

JENNINGS: She talks about Project 2025. She talks about IVF. She talks about things --

SCIUTTO: She's quoting Trump.

JENNINGS: All of this -- all of this, the underpinning of their campaign is to radicalize a political base, okay? And now when something happens, oh, I called him up and we had a nice conversation.

So as a Republican and speaking for Republicans, it makes me very angry that somehow it's Donald Trump's fault that he's been nearly shot twice. It's not.

SCIUTOT: But, Scott, Scott, what you seem to be saying there is that if you're saying rhetoric is dangerous, you seem to be making the argument that because of these assassination attempts and by the way, I did note other threats that the Secret Service has investigated aimed at Harris and Biden, but you seem to be saying two things that are contradictory, that rhetoric is dangerous, but Trump has licensed for that rhetoric now, because he's angry. I don't think that's consistent.

JENNINGS: Look, I can't even begin to assess the psychological impact of coming within a millimeter or being assassinated on live television, and then knowing that it could have happened again when I was out trying to play a round of golf. I don't know what the psychological impact of that is. I'm sure it's actually quite profound.

And no politician has the license to incite violence. And every politician has the responsibility to temper their rhetoric and understand that their words have meaning.

[15:25:02]

What I am simply saying is that in the wake of a second assassination attempt of Trump, we seem to be talking all about what Donald Trump is doing, but we're not giving any thought to the radicalization of a liberal political base through a series of comments that came from the president and the vice president themselves.

If you want me -- if you answer --

SCIUTTO: Radical -- OK.

JENNINGS: -- what do I want them to do? I want them to say the country will not come to an end if Donald Trump ends, the Constitution --

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: They didn't say the country will not end, they said that he's a threat to democracy because he attempt to overturn the last election, which by the way, your boss --

JENNINGS: Potato, potato, potato, potato, I mean --

SCIUTTO: Your boss, Mitch McConnell, said on the Senate floor, that Trump incited the January 6 rioters to violence with his word but let's set that aside for a moment.

Charlie, I want to get you -- you're Republican. You've talked about the danger of this kind of rhetoric is -- I'm not, I don't want to blame any one party for this, but I'm just curious. Do you assign any blame to what is the former president's -- are his words helping now is a basic question.

DENT: But I don't think these words are helpful. And Scott is correct that there's a lot of really terrible rhetoric -- rhetoric coming from the left and the right. But as Republicans, we had to clean up our message.

Now, we have a candidate who has been talking about Jewish space lasers, for example. We have -- we have had some of our own people saying some pretty wild things and there are a lot of Republicans who are very dispirited and disillusion about the tone and tenor of the rhetoric of Donald Trump. It's as simple as that.

Again, we are a center right party. Gerald Ford was shot at twice, I believe.

SCIUTTO: He was in a seven weeks.

DENT: And I saw how he conducted himself as I was old enough to remember him as a president, he was a very dignified guy, you know, after the fact.

And, you know, again, we get back to this issue of can we be more measured in our comments? Can we be more temperate? And these are things as a conservative party, we should be about order and discipline and stability.

And that -- these are words to inflame and incite unnecessarily. We were -- the Democrats and I was growing up, they were always the party of protests. They were really angry guys.

Now, I feel like we are the aggrieved party, where we feel like we're the aggrieved party and they're more of the establishment party. The whole world was turned upside down.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

DENT: That's where we are sadly.

SCIUTTO: Scott, I guess the question is, and I hear you're basically making the argument that saying that Trump and you're not the only one to do this, that saying that Trump is a threat to democracy, as many Democrats have, basing it on the attempts to overturn the last election, is inflammatory, and it sounds like equivalent to the kinds of words Trump use calling his opponents vermin -- enemies within. I mean, he's -- is it, are you saying it's the same? Or you're just saying that its close enough that everybody has got a got to ratchet it down?

JENNINGS: My fervent hope is that everyone ratchets it down and my fervent further hope is that there is some level of responsibility and accountability for Democrats who have spent a lot of time and it's not just the threat to democracy, its worse than that. They have said -- they have taken this thing about the bloodbath out of context and both of you must acknowledge that it's been taken out of context and repeatedly debunked.

But when you tell your political base, Donald Trump wants to cause a bloodbath on the streets of America right before becoming a dictator and right before ripping up the U.S. Constitution, what do you expect is going to happen?

SCIUTTO: Scott --

JENNIGNS: I want somebody -- I want Harris and Biden to say, you know what, the bloodbath thing we shouldn't be saying. They're not going to do it.

SCIUTTO: The thing is facts matter, you're taking a blood bath, one which I think as you're referring to, he was describing about a bloodbath in the auto industry. But the thing is, he did say dictator on day one. He did say the Constitution should be terminated.

JENNINGS: Have you watched the tape? Have you watched the tape?

SCIUTTO: I have. I have.

JENNINGS: It was apparent what was happening there and it's not right when Democrats tell people bloodbath, the Constitution, it's not right.

SCIUTTO: The list is long and it's repetitive. Enemies within, journalists are enemies of the people, his opponents are -- Kamala Harris is a communist. I mean, the question is -- is it different, right? I mean, it's a basic question. Is it different?

I mean, the reason I brought two Republicans on here is to get a sense, so it wasn't just Democrats and Republicans shouting each other, but I mean to you, Charlie Dent, is there something in his messaging that deliberately others, right, the other side, if you know what I mean?

DENT: Yeah. Well, look the challenge we have in this country, Donald Trump will say if he doesn't win, we won't have a country anymore. He said that. I think Scott would agree with that. We won't have a country anymore. That's a pretty serious statement.

And the left says, you know, if he wins, if Trump wins, you know, we're not going to have a democracy. We're going to move to an autocratic dictatorship.

And so, we have raised the stakes so high --

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

DENT: -- in this country that I worry that there's going to be some type of civil disorder after the election, regardless of outcome. Because they're going to be so bad, they've raised the stakes and you're not going to have a country anymore, or you're not going to have a democracy anymore.

[15:30:05]

You know, people might think that's worth fighting over. And I think that's the challenge.

JENNINGS: I agree. I totally agree.

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: There's precedent for it. There's precedent for it on January 6.

JENNINGS: I totally agree with this, by the way. I think Charlie is right, but I -- so what someone say today, guess what? The outcome of the election, no matter who you want to win and who you want to lose, is not going to cause the United States to come to an end. We're not going to be living in a dictatorship. We're not going to be heading a blood bath. We're not going to rip up the constitution. It's okay. Sometimes people lose.

And guess what? We have an election in two years after that and then two years after that, we're Americans. And that's what we do.

But we -- I agree with Charlie. We have raised the stakes here to the point where there are people who think the country is literally going to cease to exist in the form that it does. So I would like to see that rhetoric come down and I would like both parties to acknowledge the beat goes on. American democracy goes on and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.

And that's okay because we get to do it all again in two years.

SCIUTTO: Well, guys, it's not going to be the last time we talk about it. Let's do it again, limited time today. Charlie Dent, Scott Jennings, thanks so much to both of you.

Coming up, we do have an important overseas story breaking news on pagers used by Hezbollah fighters exploding, hundreds of them, across Lebanon, injuring thousands, killing at least nine people.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Wow, this is the moment pagers used by Hezbollah fighters exploded across the country. Thousands of people, including this one, injured, including Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, nine people are dead. That number could rise as Lebanon's health ministry says there are at least 170 people in critical condition. Schools across the country will be closed tomorrow as well.

This remarkable coordinated attack comes as Israel says it is expanding its war aims to include ensuring the safe return of residents to the northern part of the country.

[15:35:06]

The IDF said, they will not be commenting on these explosions.

Here to discuss, former CIA officer and author Bob Baer.

Bob, I mean, the scale of this attack, we don't know that it was Israel. Israel has not commented a reasonable assumption given their capabilities in the region. I've never seen anything like this. Have you? And how could one carry out something this broad?

BOB BAER, FORMER CIA OFFICER: Oh, I've seen an occasion in 1996 when Shin Bet, their internal security service, killed a Hamas bomber, went by the name of "The Engineer", and they used a telephone and it was someone else's telephone. He put it up to his ear and he thought he was talking to his father and exploded remotely and they didn't use much explosives. It was 10 to 15 grams of RDX, a hybrid zones explosive, but it killed him right away, blew half his head off.

I would imagine, and we don't know yet, that they got in the distribution network for these pagers and put high explosives in them and they sent out an encoded signal and they all detonated at once that's what -- it looks pretty much that's what happened.

SCIUTTO: Lebanon is, of course, blaming Israel for this attack. The region is already on pins and needles. There was a Hezbollah, a planned Hezbollah missile attack on Israel thwarted only minutes before it took place. This is a little over two weeks ago while I was in the country.

Would an attack such as this likely spark a retaliatory attack by Hezbollah and escalation in the war?

BAER: Well, I mean, so far, their escalation has been measured since 7th of October. I don't know if they're going to pick it up and fire a lot of missiles into Israel.

But the real question is that if Hezbollah has been using pagers, which are fairly secure, they're a one-way communication link, their communications system is down. If I were the Israelis wanted to hit Hezbollah hard, I would do it tomorrow or whenever.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. I mean, exactly. Not it could have an operational function. It is an enormous embarrassment we should say for Hezbollah. It's already had its leaders targeted in Lebanon. Israel and the U.S. apparently got wind of a planned attack on Israel last month, minutes before and were able to strike those firing positions prior.

Is it possible that Hezbollah is weaker and more vulnerable than some knew?

BAER: Well, I can tell you this, Jim, they're sloppy. I mean, once you get a device like this, you open it up, you'd look for explosives. You look for transmitters, any number of things. And the fact that they've got hundreds, if not thousands, of these pagers into the system and killed all these people, tells me they're very sloppy. It's not the Hezbollah I used to know which used to be much more -- more clandestine. SCIUTTO: Iran's ambassador was also injured. There's been a lot of speculation and concern about Iran itself escalating its attacks on Israel. Would something like that -- him getting caught up in this be the spark for an Iranian response?

BAER: No, not so far. I mean, they haven't responded to having their -- their embassy hit in Damascus, Haniyeh, the assassination, and so forth. The Iranians do not want to go into a full fledge conflict with Israel, or particularly the United States. So they'll only go so far.

This won't do it, but I think what the Iranians are preparing for, as I've said, is an Israeli incursion because Netanyahu said, to protect Israel, you have to eliminate Hezbollah and they've been still moving forces up to the north, north of Israel. I don't know that they're going to go in, but there's a possibility they will.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, at least to push them back to the Litani River, they've long talked about that as a goal to push them several miles back from the border.

Bob Baer, always good to have you experience. Thanks so much.

Coming up, focusing in on one of the U.S. election's blue wall, swing states, and that is Michigan. And what it could take for either Harris or Trump to win it.

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SCIUTTO: November 5th, Election Day in America is just seven weeks away. And if you believe the polls, it is an extremely close race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Each of their paths to the White House runs through seven key battleground states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina, each with unique demographics, political issues, and voting practices.

So every week from now until November, we're going to speak to on the ground experts about how to win state-by-state and what we're calling our battleground breakdown.

Today, we're following Donald Trump to Michigan. If you know American politics, you know, Trump won in 2016 by flipping part of the so- called blue wall, including, including his razor thin 10,000-vote victory over Hillary Clinton in Michigan. Joe Biden reversed that, winning back the state in 2020 by 150,000 votes.

This year's -- this year, according to the polls, it's up for grabs again. Here with me to discuss the race, two longtime political reporters in the Great Lake states. Zoe Clark, political director for Michigan Public Radio, and Emily Lawler, politics editor for the "Detroit Free Press".

Good to have you both on.

Zoe, if I could begin with you --

ZOE CLARK, POLITICAL DIRECTOR, MICHIGAN PUBLIC RADIO: Good to be here.

SCIUTTO: -- our poll of polls out just this month showed Harris up five points among likely voters against Trump. But longtime Michigan Democrat Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, she cautioned recently on CNN. She believes the race is actually much closer in her state.

Do you -- based on what you've seen and political operatives you've spoken to, do you agree?

CLARK: Yeah. I mean, this is going to be a very close election. Debbie Dingell, of course, the congressman from Michigan that you talked about in 2016 was the one who is telling everyone Donald Trump could win the state. And many folks did not listen to the congresswoman, which is why when she speaks, we all tend to listen to what she has to say. I was just talking to her last week and she's concerned.

I think what we do know is it is certainly Kamala Harris is at this point as opposed to how Joe Biden was looking when he was still in the race, right? The points have certainly gone up in terms of Democratic enthusiasm. And what we know in Michigan is when there is a higher turnout, Democrats tend to win.

[15:45:03]

And so, whether you're talking to Debbie Dingell, or other Democrats, what they know is that they have to carry that enthusiasm for the next 48 days.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

CLARK: And that's why you're seeing folks like Donald Trump and J.D. Vance both in the state of Michigan today.

SCIUTTO: Emily, let's talk auto industry for a moment, big in the state of Michigan, Trump is hosting a town hall in Flint, Michigan, birthplace of General Motors, home of their oldest still operational plan. He's promising to bring back manufacturing jobs and that promise was key to how he won there in 2016. Harris also appealing to auto workers and she has that powerful UAW endorsement.

How do these voters look at their choices this year? Does that endorsement necessarily move UAW members?

EMILY LAWLER, STATE GOVERNMENT & POLITICS EDITOR, DETROIT FREE PRESS: Yeah. Certainly, auto workers are huge chunk of the Michigan electorate you know, even beyond the people who are directly in the UAW, there's a ton of like support jobs or maybe white collar jobs that are affiliated with the auto manufacturers, and then on top of that, all the retirees.

If you think about the propensity for older voters to head to the polls, we have a lot of people living especially in southeast Michigan, who have retired from one of the Big Three. So I do think that that's a pretty significant bloc. And, of course, they're going to be union members on both sides of the aisle.

I don't think it's a secret that Donald Trump is made some real big inroads there, especially in areas like Macomb County, which has a pretty big manufacturing base, but really helped him to victory in 2016. So I think both -- both candidates are really courting those auto worker votes and also just trying to make the case that their platform would be the best.

SCIUTTO: All right. Let's talk about -- another group, Black voters, where Trump has been attempting to and seem to be making some inroads. Harris, she's live-streaming a campaign event from Michigan with Oprah. Trump campaigns still working hard.

In your view, Zoe, and again, based on your reporting there, are Black voters in Michigan, enthusiastic about Harris's candidacy, or is Trump having some success peeling some of them are particularly Black men?

CLARK: Well, it's similar to what I said before, right? If you compare to this, to the race sort of pre-July 21 versus posts, certainly there is more enthusiasm for Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket than Joe Biden. But she has some work to do when you actually compare that to where Joe Biden was in 2020? One of the reasons that we see Donald Trump in Flint, right, a city here in Michigan where he would love to sort of lose less.

This was one of the issues in 2016, that Hillary Clinton didn't so much lose Michigan, right? That Donald Trump did win Michigan. Hillary Clinton lost because of turnout.

So, it's very smart that Kamala Harris is going to be here on Thursday in Detroit with Oprah Winfrey, right, to start to turn out that base. And again, as I said, they need to get voters to turn out if they're going to keep that blue wall back in November?

SCIUTTO: Yeah. It was interesting. Harris at the NABJ event just a short time ago last hour saying specifically about Black men voters that listen, she shouldn't take those for granted, right? That she's got to earn them like any other voters, seemingly showing that she's aware got to go out there and fight.

So, Emily, let's talk about abortion as well, because down-ballot Democrats have had a lot of success in Michigan, recent elections, two-term Democratic governor by a wide margin in a purple state, majorities in both state houses, a lot of that due to Democrats say focusing on reproductive rights. Is it a potent political issue this year in Michigan?

LAWLER: Yeah, absolutely. And Democrats are trying to keep it alive. They really benefited in 2020 reclaimed the majority in both state houses for the first time in 40 years, kept the governor's office. And a lot of that was some effect of having a proposal directly on the ballot where Michiganders voted to enshrine abortion protections in the constitution here. So, you know, it was directly on the ballot in 2022, is a little bit

of a different dynamic without a directly on the ballot now, but I think Democrats are really leaning into talking about the possibility of their opponents says supporting a national abortion ban and things like that.

SCIUTTO: Zoe, before we go, I wonder, when you speak to other politicians in Michigan, do they repeat Debbie Dingell's warning? I mean, is she out on an island on this or is that a consistent message?

CLARK: It depends who you talk to it, whether its odd or off the record, but there are plenty of folks like who you mentioned Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who really is sort of much like Kamala Harris is trying to do this through a happy warrior, right? Just saying, when we fight, we win. I tried to get out the vote.

There's others who are much more concerned and know they've got lot of work to do.

[15:50:02]

SCIUTTO: Yeah, maybe some good cop, bad cop, right, from a campaign perspective.

CLARK: Yeah.

SCIUTTO: Zoe Clark, Emily Lawler, thanks so much to both you.

Next week, we're going to dive into --

CLARK: Thanks for having us.

SCIUTTO: -- we're going to dive into another key swing state in our battleground break down before Election Day, make sure to tune in. It's worthwhile.

Coming up, Sean "Diddy" Combs in court. What we're learning about the sex trafficking and racketeering charges he now faces after his arrest in New York.

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SCIUTTO: Music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs is in a federal court right now --federal court right now following his arrest last night in New York. He pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and providing interstate transportation for prostitution.

CNN's Josh Campbell is following all these developing story.

Josh, the details in this indictment are just alarming as to what Combs is accused of having done.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, they are indeed, and what prosecutors allege is that essentially his criminal -- his business enterprise was a criminal enterprise that existed essentially for his own sexual gratification in order to commit other types of crimes. In this really stunning indictment that was unsealed today, what

authorities allege is that there was this conspiracy involving other people, including those who worked for Combs, his security detail, members of his household staff that were essentially working to traffic women to drug them to engage in sexual assault to bring in male sex workers, all types of human trafficking related crimes.

And so again, that was -- that was unsealed today. His attorneys -- they say that he is not guilty. They say that they plan to fight these charges. Now, there's interesting development happening right now in court, Jim, as you and I speak, our colleague Kara Scannell is there in court.

Basically, what it is underway is what it's called a detention hearing. The judge will soon decide on Combs' freedom, whether he will be released on bail or whether he will remain in federal custody. Prosecutors say he remains a threat. They say he is a serial abuser, is a serial obstruction of justice, they say.

For Combs; part, his attorney actually pulled out Combs' passport and said, look, I have his passport. He is not a flight risk. He came here to New York on his own trying to make the case that he will not flee.

Of course, we're waiting to see what the judge decides, whether he will actually be free on bail or whether he'll remain in jail.

SCIUTTO: So how long is this trial likely to play out and what kind of potential jail time would he be facing if he were to be convicted?

CAMPBELL: These are very, very serious charges. I mean, if you just look at what it's been listed so far, racketeering, sex trafficking transportation to engage in prostitution. We're talking about potentially decades and decades behind bars, and prosecutors say they're not even done yet. There could be additional charges that are still so coming.

In a press conference earlier, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan essentially called on any other witnesses out there, if you have information to come forward. Of course, we know this all stemmed from those nine lawsuits that have now been filed in civil court, alleging Combs and his associates of sexual assault. I'm told from law enforcement sources that essentially said then motion this federal investigation by the Department of Homeland security, their homeland security investigations agency, which has been working behind the scenes.

Of course, we know earlier this year, there was that dramatic raid on homes. You and I, Jim, covered both here in Los Angeles and Miami where you saw the SWAT teams descend there. We're told that they recover numerous items that were relevant to this investigation.

All that being unsealed today, were now seeing the fruits of their labor, saying this was a major conspiracy involving human trafficking and sexual assault of multiple women, Jim.

[15:55:09] SCIUTTO: Yeah, that arrest video is just so alarming, shocking to watch.

Josh Campbell, thanks so much for the details of these charges.

CAMPBELL: You bet.

SCIUTTO: Thanks so much to all of you for joining me today. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next.