Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

2024 Race Enters The Home Stretch With 30 Days To Go; Hezbollah Launches Rockets At Military Base Near Haifa, Israel; Hurricane Milton Intensifying, Taking Direct Aim At Florida; Anti-Defamation League On Spike In Antisemitic Incidents In The U.S.; How Ellen DeGeneres' Coming Out Impacted TV And Culture. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired October 06, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:37]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM and I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

Now just 30 days left until election day, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris remain deadlocked in what's likely to be the closest presidential contest in modern American history. Today, Trump campaigning in the battleground state of Wisconsin, hoping to flip that state after narrowly losing it to Biden in 2020. Meanwhile, the Harris campaign is kicking off a weeklong media blitz with high- profile interviews and campaign events in Arizona and Nevada.

Let's go now to CNN's Harry Enten, who's at the magic wall, for a deeper look at the state of the race.

What is the state of the race, Harry? Let's start nationally.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA CORRESPONDENT: Let's start nationally. I don't know about you, Jessica, but I am getting the hankering for some double mint gum because there is no movement. There's no movement going on here.

So this is the Harris versus Trump margin. You look where we were a month ago, it was Harris by three. Look at where we are today. It's Harris by three. Simply put, this race hasn't moved. It has been continuously very, very tight. And one way you can get an understanding of that is I want to take you through history, all right? Campaigns were any candidate held a lead of at least five or more points in the polls.

We're going to go all the way back since 1964. Most campaigns, most campaigns, at least one candidate has led by five points or more, at least three weeks. In fact, all 15 of them from 1964 to 2020. If you look this year, there have been zero days, count them zero days, where either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump has been ahead by at least five points in the polls. In fact, you could go all the way back when Joe Biden was going to be the presumptive Democratic nominee and even back then, no candidate led by at least five points in the polls.

The bottom line is, this is a historically close race and it's a historically consistent race -- Jessica. DEAN: Let's talk about swing states. What are we seeing there?

ENTEN: All right, so, you know, we talk about these national polls, the national polls really don't mean very much, right? Because it's all about those battleground states. And of course, let's take a look at what I call the core seven battleground states. All right? This is again your Harris versus Trump margin. And look at these Great Lake battleground states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin.

Look, you see some blue on this side of the screen, right? These are a little bit more friendly to Kamala Harris than the sunbelt that we'll get to in a second. But look at this, a one-point advantage in Pennsylvania, two points in Michigan, two points in Wisconsin, all well within the margin of error, too close to call. You come over now to the sunbelt battleground states, you got a little bit more red here.

Trump up by a point in North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada. Harris holding on to a one-point advantage. But again, very, very tight. So what does this mean for the electoral map? All right? So let's take a look and say, OK, imagine if the polls match what ends up being the results perfectly, right? That's probably not going to happen but for the sake of this exercise, let's do it.

What we see of course is Harris carrying -- let's get some green font here. There we go. Carrying all of these Great Lake battleground states, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania. And then she also carries Nevada but you see again Trump, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina. Look at this. Kamala Harris gets to exactly 276 electoral votes, slightly more than the 270 she needs to win. Donald Trump right behind at 262.

But the bottom line is, Jessica, at this hour, this race remains incredibly tight. We've done these segments over the last month. This battleground map, simply put, really hasn't changed. Maybe a slight advantage to Kamala Harris, but one a race that remains way too close to call.

DEAN: And you're right, it is remarkable how consistent it's been in that. I also am curious what if the polls are off? There have been previous elections, of course, where that's happened. What if that happens?

ENTEN: What happens if the polls are slightly off? Remember back in 2020 the polls underestimated Donald Trump. So what happens if we have a similar error across those key battleground states? Well, if that happens again, look at this, Donald Trump carries all of these Great Lake battleground states. He carries Nevada as well. Of course, he carries Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina.

And he gets to get this, 312 electoral votes. So the bottom line is if we have an arrow like we did four years ago, Donald Trump is going to win this election. Kamala Harris is going to lose. But here's the thing. Everyone always says, oh, the polls were off in 2020, they're going to be off this year.

Not necessarily, because what happens if the polls are off like they were in 2022, which of course was only two years ago, those midterm elections, well, then we put all these Great Lake battleground states right back in the Kamala Harris' column. She wins in the southeast and Georgia and North Carolina.

[18:05:03]

She wins in Arizona, and she wins in Nevada, and then it's a Harris blowout, 319 electoral votes to Donald Trump's 219. So the bottom line is this. We are at this point right now where the race is so tight. But even though it's so tight, don't be surprised if either one of these candidates come election night in the days to follow when we're counting those votes ends up running away with this.

The bottom line is this, this race is too close to the call. It really could go either way and the margin of error in presidential election polling when we have races this close are much wider than I think folks think.

DEAN: Right. Right. And I think you underscore such an important point which is that it is historically close and also if it tips one way or the other at the end, it could look like a blowout in the electoral college for one of these candidates, which is kind of a fascinating dynamic kind of built into all of this, Harry.

ENTEN: I know. Our founders.

DEAN: All right.

ENTEN: Who knew?

DEAN: Who knew? I guess they thought they did.

Harry Enten, thanks so much for that. We appreciate it.

ENTEN: Thank you.

DEAN: Let's turn now to our panel, joining me now, Democratic strategists and former senior adviser for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, Chuck Rocha, and also with us Republican strategist, Katie Frost.

Thanks to both of you for being here with us. You just heard Harry there. This is a very tight race. It could go really either way. Trump does appear to hold that advantage in the sunbelt states. Tonight we've seen some star power for Harris in Arizona with actors like Kerry Washington and Jessica Alba, Glenn Close holding a block party to rally black voters in Phoenix.

Chuck, I just want to start with you. It seems like we are reaching the point in these campaigns and 30 days out, it makes sense where the surrogates are out. So last night we saw Elon Musk with Trump in Pennsylvania. We're seeing some of these actors out in Arizona. This is where we are in this race. It's now time to get out the vote.

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: You're so right, Jessica. And I was watching you and Harry, and you and Harry were exactly right there on that last point particularly, which is about the momentum at the very end. What's happened, I'm one of the very few people who's actually run one of these presidential campaigns. And at the end, it's all about that little bit of vote, not that's undecided, but that you need to turn out.

That's where we are today. They spent a year going out and identifying Democrats and Republicans who are going to vote for them or for the other candidate in Pennsylvania, for example, and now they've got to go get those that were in the middle that they have to ID and then persuade to turn out. So you see surrogates, you see star powers, you see all kinds of stuff going on about getting out the vote, GOTV in our world.

And Harris was exactly right. In these battleground states, it's going to be every vote that will count and it will probably come down to folks that have newly registered who weren't even eligible to vote in the last election because they were too young, because pollsters aren't talking to them because they don't have a voter history so they're not a likely voter. And I think that's how tight this election will be.

DEAN: Yes, that's a very, very good point. And Katie, you know, you go state-by-state and again, both parties, both campaigns trying to reach these voters that maybe didn't vote before, are young and weren't able to, whatever the case may be. I know Republicans are really proud of what they've been doing in Pennsylvania, et cetera, et cetera.

How do you see the GOTV kind of landscape for the Trump campaign when it comes to these battleground states?

KATIE FROST, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I live in one of those battleground states. I'm a native of Georgia. I was actually in a Trump Force 47 office just yesterday. I was talking to volunteers. They were making phone calls and they were getting ready to go out and knock doors. I get text messages almost every day from people I know on the ground, the different states, telling me what they're hearing at the doors.

I had really great conversations, too, just like I said yesterday with some people who've been out canvassing and they said what they were struck by is that people who are not the typical Republican voter are leaning towards supporting President Trump. And it's because of the number one issue for them is the economy. And when you talk about the economy to these voters, they may not have voted before, or maybe they voted differently in previous elections.

But they know the economy was better for me under President Trump. So I'm going to get out and vote for him this time. So we're seeing a lot of shift on that one issue in particular, in the demographics and the traditional candidates who say, OK, that's not going to be someone who votes for Republican. They're looking to vote Republican this time. And I couldn't agree with Harry more. GOTV.

That's the world I come from. That is the name of the game right now. You have to not only get out the voters who you know will vote for you, but it's the people who you've ID'd that they would vote for you. You're aligned ideologically, but they just don't vote very often. So you'll hear from the left, you typically (INAUDIBLE) like the newly voters in the Republican politics. You're looking at people like hunters. They have a hunting license, but they don't vote. Those are people you're looking for.

DEAN: Yes. And Chuck, to that exact point, we saw Vice President Harris appearing on the hugely popular podcast, "Call Her Daddy," today. It is one of the most listened to podcasts among women. It focused a lot on reproductive rights. Her interview did. I can play a clip. Let's listen to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX COOPER, HOST: At a rally in Pennsylvania, former president Trump recently told women, you will be protected and I will be your protector.

[18:10:09]

What do you make of that?

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So he who -- when he was president hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade. And they did just as he intended, and there are now 20 states with Trump abortion bans including bans that make no exception for rape or incest, which we just discussed, which means that you're telling a survivor of a crime of a violation to their body, they don't have a right to make a decision about what happens to their body next, which is immoral.

So this is the same guy that is now saying that? This is the same guy who said that women should be punished for having abortions? This is the same guy who uses the kind of language he does to describe women? So yes, there you go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And so, Chuck, as Katie was just saying, right now is about trying to find those people who you think would vote for you and motivating them to actually vote as you were also saying, too. And so two things here. You see the vice president sitting down in kind of non-traditional space. Years ago, we probably wouldn't see a presidential candidate, podcast didn't exist, you know, decades ago. But, but in this kind of more nontraditional space, not a political shell, clearly trying to reach female voters that maybe haven't engaged here with an issue they think will work in their favor.

ROCHA: You know, I'm lucky enough when my firm is working on 26 House races and three Senate races. And I'll tell you that to say that across the country and all of these states, when it comes down to the very end, let me pull the curtain back it puts you all in the room of the strategist. It comes down at the presidential level on who you like and who you trust. Everybody who cares vehemently about an issue or an issue, one issue, pick your issue is the thing, they've made up their mind. There may be 1 percent or 2 percent. I think that's even a lot of

folks that are undecided who really care about an issue. So when you talk about trust, and who you like, that's why getting very personal in these podcasts is really matter because again it's about motivating people to vote. At this point, Democrats are worried about folks showing up and not voting, not voting for Donald Trump. We've got the votes we need to win. We're worried about folks who stay home, who are working two jobs, who may be too busy. And that's what this comes down to. Did they hear the podcast that move them because they really liked her or they trusted her, or they don't like, they didn't trust Donald Trump.

DEAN: And Katie, I want to ask you about a dynamic that I had. Isaac Dovere, my colleague, on, he has new reporting that the Harris campaign is trying to distance the vice president from President Biden in these last few weeks. And sometimes art does imitate life so we have an "SNL" clip kind of underscoring this. We'll watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM SAMBERG, COMEDIAN: Mamala, it's Joe Biden.

MAYA RUDOLPH, COMEDIAN: I can't talk right now. Tell him I'm not here.

SAMBERG: No, no. Like he's in the room.

RUDOLPH. Oh.

DANA CARVEY, COMEDIAN: You're going to make a great president. When you're done, it'll be turn. Biden 2028.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: I mean, Katie, when "SNL" is doing that, I don't think it's a great secret. But again, Isaac trying -- reporting and underscoring just what the Harris campaign is trying to do. They said that one of the best moments she had at that debate was when she said clearly, I'm not Joe Biden. Obviously Trump and J.D. Vance would very much love for her to be tied to Joe Biden. How do you think they're doing and do you think there's room there?

FROST: Well, I think it's obviously very difficult to distance yourself from an administration when your name is literally on the letterhead. It's the Biden-Harris administration. You're number to in a company and then you say, oh, I had no idea what's going on. I'm not responsible for anything that happened. People don't buy that. So she's desperately trying to distance herself from President Biden because look at all the polling data.

The overwhelming majority of Americans do not believe we're headed in the right direction. They don't approve of President Biden's performance in office. So she doesn't want to be tied to an unpopular incumbent president, even though she was his vice president.

I think the Trump campaign is doing the job of tying her to that and making sure people remember that the economy we're currently living in, which like I said, is the number one issue for voters, is directly resolve the Biden-Harris policies. So Harris saying earlier, you know, you're worried about the people who don't go and vote because maybe they are working two jobs and they're busy, well, are you working two jobs because you're trying to make ends meet in the economy that was created by Biden and Harris, so you're going to go out and vote for Harris?

Or is it a reminder of now, you were working two jobs and you're struggling because of their policies? It's time to go to where the great economy we had under President Trump.

DEAN: And Chuck, I can give you the last word. What are your thoughts on that?

[18:15:02]

ROCHA: We've seen polls move. Harry made a great point that you've never seen anybody had about five points, but you saw Joe Biden losing by four points in your own polling in the last few weeks before he stepped out of this race. And now you have Kamala Harris up by three. That's a seven-point movement. That don't happen every day in campaigns. This thing has realigned because she has done a masterful job to separate herself, to say there's a new time from people out there.

A 59-year-old woman running against the oldest man who's ever sought the office. That's a real distinction and I give her team credit as a strategist because she's really making her own way and people from your own polling says they're moving in in that direction.

DEAN: All right, Katie and Chuck, our thanks to both of you. Appreciate you being here.

FROST: Thank you.

DEAN: Still ahead, Israel's military is mounting renewed attacks on Hamas in Gaza. What we're learning about that new offensive. This as Israel prepares to mark one year since the October 7th Hamas attacks.

And Milton is now a category one hurricane. It is expected to get stronger hitting Florida as a major cat three storm. This as the state is still recovering from Helene. We're going to track it all for you ahead.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:48]

DEAN: From Gaza to Lebanon, we are monitoring multiple battlefronts across the Middle East. You are looking at the latest wave of strikes by the Israeli military against Hezbollah in Beirut. In response Hezbollah says it's now fired on an Israeli airbase near Haifa with concerns rising that an Israeli strike on Iran could be next.

Let's turn to a foreign policy expert, Axios reporter, Barak Ravid is a CNN political and global affairs analyst. He joins us now.

Barak, good to see you.

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Hi, Jessica.

DEAN: This could be a pretty consequential week, of course, marking this very somber anniversary of October 7th, one year since the Hamas terrorist attacks, and also, too, as we await to see what Israel will do against Iran.

RAVID: I think that what you just asked shows us where we are a year after October 7th because what started as the most terrible massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and turned into the bloodiest war in Gaza's history and the worst time for Palestinians since 1948 has long turned into something completely different.

We are in a regional war. The Gaza war turned into the Lebanon war and turned into maybe the war in the Middle East. And I think this is where we are a year after October 7th.

DEAN: And what are your sources saying as the U.S. is in consultation with Israel, as they weigh their options about what to do with Iran. We know you have Gallant coming here to meet with Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon. What are you hearing about that?

RAVID: I think, you know, it is clear that there's going to be an Israeli response. The Israelis are still discussing it. Yesterday there was another meeting about -- the cabinet about, you know, the different options. It ended up inconclusively. And the fact that Gallant, the minister of defense, is coming to Washington I think tells us a lot about the timing.

I find hard to believe that Israel will do anything before Gallant comes to Washington and he is going to meet Secretary of Defense Austin, National Security Adviser Sullivan, and Secretary of State Blinken. It's clear that he's coming to do the final coordination. So I would be surprised if anything will happen before.

And those conversations that Gallant will have in Washington will focus on two things. A, what kind of targets Israel is going to attack? And second, what is the U.S. and its allies around the world are going to do diplomatically to put more pressure on Iran.

DEAN: And there is this interesting push and pull. It's a dynamic we've seen play out over the last year, but specifically with this particular moment where the U.S. -- it's not like April when Joe Biden told Benjamin Netanyahu take the win, you know, after they struck back, leave it be. Clearly there is going to be a response. The U.S. government hopes that it is measured. That they have their own ideas of what -- about what they want that to be.

And yet it appears Israel and now fighting on multiple fronts doesn't seem to be in a place where they're 100 percent with a measured response. They may want to escalate. What do you think about that dynamic? RAVID: I think the jury is still out, meaning no decision has been

taken. And what you described is exactly the dilemma that both the Israeli government and the White House, to be honest, are facing because I'm not sure that there's some, you know, huge abyss between the White House and Benjamin Netanyahu right now, meaning obviously the White House want a measured response, but it also knows that Israel has to respond.

[18:25:04]

And I think many in the White House, including maybe Present Biden, look at what happened over the last few weeks in the region and also say to themselves, well, Iran took a big hit over the last few weeks because its main proxy that it's built for years, for decades, has been diminished significantly. Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and other proxy took a major hit and it doesn't really exist anymore as a military organization.

So maybe it is not such a crazy idea to also go directly against Tehran. I'm not saying this is a consensus in the Biden administration. Not at all. I'm not saying this is a consensus in the Israeli government. Not at all. But I think that in both Jerusalem and Washington, there are several people in very influential positions who think that.

DEAN: I mean, hearing you say all of that, it sounds like it is fair in your opinion to say that the last several weeks starting with the pagers and the walkie-talkies that blew up in Lebanon with Hezbollah members, taken out Nasrallah, and here we are now has really changed the dynamic here.

RAVID: There's no doubt. There's no doubt, and you know, for Benjamin Netanyahu personally, I think, you know, he's on a winning streak both politically and strategically because both go together. And for the Iranian axis of resistance, the last few weeks have been a disaster and, you know, this influences the dynamics in the region.

I'll give you one example. The main priority for the Biden administration right now is to try and use Hezbollah's weakness in order to push forward for an election of a president in Lebanon, a position that was vacant for two years mainly because Hezbollah vetoed any president which is not, you know, a puppet of Hezbollah. And so the Biden administration is aware that there's an opportunity because of the military success Israel managed to achieve. Hezbollah got weakened and now there's an opportunity to create a political change for the better inside Lebanon.

DEAN: All right. Barak Ravid, as always, it is great to have your analysis. Thank you so much.

RAVID: Thank you.

DEAN: Still ahead, we have breaking news on Hurricane Milton strengthening tonight in the Gulf of Mexico. We're going to have the latest update from the National Hurricane Center when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:32:09]

DEAN: We have breaking news tonight as Florida is bracing for yet another major hurricane. Hurricane Milton now forecast to reach category four before making landfall on the Gulf Coast as a cat three later this week. Florida officials now urging residents in its path to finalize their evacuation plans right now. This as many of them are still recovering from Hurricane Helene.

CNN's meteorologist Elisa Raffa is tracking this storm for us.

And I know you've been getting new information this afternoon, Elisa. What does the newest information say?

ELISA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's still intensifying, still rapidly intensifying. It's a category one hurricane with 85-mile-per-hour winds. That's up from 40-mile-per-hour winds just 24 hours ago. That exceeds the definition of rapid intensification. It's sitting 800 miles west southwest of Tampa as it continues to sit in these very warm ocean temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico intensifying.

Because the ocean temperatures are so warm, we are expecting it to rapidly intensify again. That's how it gets to a category four hurricane with 145-mile-per-hour winds by Tuesday afternoon. Now as it gets towards the coast, some of that intensity could teeter some and we could be borderline either a high-end category three, maybe that low-end category four as it heads to that west coast there of Florida. Again with some of that intensity getting shaved off a little bit.

But notice the cone still goes from Cedar Key to Naples. I mean, we're still needing to kind of pin down a little bit better where that eye goes, but regardless, it's going to be pretty large storm where we'll have the outer bands and the damaging winds and the heavy rain across the entire peninsula.

Here the ocean temperatures I was talking about, right? That's why we know we're going to get it to rapidly intensify again when it's in the Gulf. But here's that spread that I was talking about, you know, where that exact eye can go. We're still watching this very closely. And the reason why there's still some uncertainty there is because there's a front that's sitting just to the north and that's what's kind of pulling in Helene into -- I'm sorry, Milton. It's pulling in Milton into Florida.

That front depending on where it goes will either pull it farther to the north or kick it south. This front is also what's giving it some of that wind shear which can pull down some of that intensity as it gets closer to the coast. So, again, continuing to intensify across the Gulf of Mexico, it heads towards Florida there by Wednesday when we're looking at landfall. We'll find some of the outer bands coming in already by late Tuesday, landfall of that eye on Wednesday.

No matter what the winds do, what the intensity does, it's going to string out incredibly heavy rain, some 48 inches of rain, some totals up to 10 to 15 inches possible on already saturated grounds -- Jessica.

DEAN: Does not look good. All right. Elisa Raffa, thank you so much for that.

And joining us now is Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister. Hillsborough County, of course, including parts of Tampa which you see there on the map, appears to be directly in the path of the storm.

[18:35:00]

Sheriff, thanks so much for being here with us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: I know Tampa's mayor is urging residents to evacuate. So far though mandatory evacuations haven't been ordered in your county. Do you expect that to change in the coming days?

SHERIFF CHAD CHRONISTER, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA: Absolutely. I think tomorrow we'll start issuing those mandatory evacuations. We want to give people at least 24 hours amount of time to get to that safe -- that safe area, even if it's outside the evacuation zone, another part of Florida, you know, anywhere to keep them and their family safe.

DEAN: And how strictly will those be enforced? And also, what is your message to residents who are thinking about maybe just riding this out?

CHRONISTER: Yes, I think they've all learned -- we've all learned from Hurricane Helene that they need to heed the advice. We've gotten lucky, even with this cone of uncertainty, and it could go a little north, it could jog a little south, but that's why they call it the cone of uncertainty. We know we're going to feel the effects here in Hillsborough County here in Tampa, Florida. So my advice is heed the warning.

If you want to gamble, there's plenty of avenues to do that, but don't gamble with you and your family's lives. Please, take the necessary precautions and make sure that you relocate somewhere else.

DEAN: And this is such a unique moment because Florida, of course, is not a stranger to hurricanes but we have your residents still recovering from Hurricane Helene. And now another one is on the way. These aren't small events. Can you recall another time like this?

CHRONISTER: I can't, in my 33 years here at the sheriff's office, I've never seen flooding like we experienced with Hurricane Helene that they've seen 103 years ago. We're still recovering. We're still healing from Hurricane Helene, and now we're getting prepared and back in storm mode again, and asking the community to take the necessary precautions. This isn't a time to panic. It's just a time to get prepared, get those essential items, and keep you and your family safe.

DEAN: It is, it is remarkable to hear you say in your 33 years you've not seen flooding like this. We know that these storms just are getting really powerful out there over the Gulf. Those really warm waters are really fueling them. And I heard your governor, Ron DeSantis, talking earlier today. He was really worried about the storm surge, that that is really what they are concerned about. It sounds like just more flooding in an already waterlogged area.

CHRONISTER: And that's the difficulty here. It's raining right now. We have a lot of saturated areas. We have some water that still hasn't receded from the last storm, from our daily rainstorms. It's been a busy rainy season, and now we know, regardless of where this hits, if it comes to Tampa south or north, we're going to feel the effect.

Yes, the wind is going to hurt because all the trees that will fall down, a lot of our residents will lose power, but it's always storm surge, that's the killer. The storm surge and you think, OK, listen, I can ride this out and then it comes a little higher and it comes a little higher, and then it's too late. And we've lost too many residents because they thought they'd be OK. And once you have that moment, that you realized that it's not going to be OK, then sometimes it's too late.

We've conducted over 1,000 rescues this last storm with our amphibious vehicles, our marine assets working with our Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, 1,000 rescues. That's 1,000 rescues that the men and women were happy to do. But it's just unnecessary rescues if you heed the warnings.

So to answer your original question, yes, these mandatory evacuations are going to come. I foresee them being issued tomorrow. We've already issued the closure of schools Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and county buildings and will continue to spin up from there, the airport and everything else, as we continue to get closer and feel the effects of the storm.

DEAN: All right. We are wishing you and all the people in that storm's path the very best. Stay safe.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, thank you so much for joining us.

CHRONISTER: Thank you. Stay safe.

DEAN: Still ahead, one year since Hamas' brutal attack on Israel and a new report is detailing the rising threat facing Jewish Americans. We have the alarming details of that ahead.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:43:56]

DEAN: Police departments across America are putting more police on the beat and keeping a closer eye on Jewish communities and temples to be on the safe side. This one year since the October 7th terror attacks on Israel, a new report from the Anti-Defamation League details a shocking historic spike in antisemitic incidents.

CNN's Josh Campbell is joining us now.

Josh, what more do we know about these threats?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica, truly staggering figures here from ADL. They say that since the October 7th terrorist attack antisemitic incidents in this country have tripled, over 10,000 incidents.

Let's take a look at those numbers. You'll see over 8,000 incidents of verbal or written antisemitic harassment, at least 1840 incidents of vandalism, at least 150 incidents of physical assault.

Now there's long been this question about whether antisemitism is under-reported in this its country. I've talked to security officials all the time who say that there's almost certainly this large number of these incidents that occur where people don't actually report them. But that has to change, ADL says. Take a listen here, their CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt. was on with our colleague Dana Bash this morning on "CNN STATE OF THE UNION," saying that people have to report when these incidents happen. Have a listen.

[18:45:08]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN GREENBLATT, CEO AND NATIONAL DIRECTOR, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: Well, this is why ADL is mobilized the way we are. And if people, I got to say something, if you see something, say something. We need people to report incidents. We need people to speak up. We should not be afraid in our own country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: Now, these high level of numbers from ADL seemed to track with what we've heard from the FBI, which obviously enforces federal hate crimes laws. They keep statistics of their own. I want to play for you sound from FBI director Chris Wray. He spoke just after the October 7th attack, talking to members of Congress and describing how Jews represent this outsized proportion of hate crimes at the FBI investigates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: The Jewish community is uniquely, uniquely targeted by pretty much every terrorist organization across the spectrum. And when you look at a group that makes up 2.4 percent, roughly, of the American population, it should be jarring to everyone that that same population accounts for something like 60 percent of all religious based hate crimes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: Now, Jessica, finally we're learning that the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security have issued a public advisory warning that tomorrow, the one-year anniversary of October 7th, along with continued Mideast turmoil could serve as motivators by extremist for acts of violence here in the U.S. They didn't point to any specific or credible threat, but they are warning people to obviously be aware, be vigilant. If you see any concerning behavior, pick up the phone and call law enforcement -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Josh Campbell, all right, thank you very much for that reporting.

Still ahead, we have dramatic video of flames under a Frontier Airlines flight as it makes a landing. What the pilot said happened just moments before.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: Dramatic video showing the moment a fire broke out under a Frontier plane as it made a hard landing in Las Vegas Saturday. The pilots noticed smoke in the cockpit on the flight that was arriving from San Diego. Airline officials said the tires then blew out on landing. All 190 passengers and seven crew members were safely evacuated and no injuries were reported. The FAA has now opened an investigation into that incident.

Tonight, it's new episode of "TV ON THE EDGE, it takes you through what it was like during Ellen DeGeneres' coming out, a very dramatic moment on television in 1997. Many in America were shocked when Ellen decided to have her TV character Ellen come out as gay while doing the same thing in her real life. It was risky and it broke down barriers and lit the spark for realistic gay representation on television and in the media. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVA SAVEL, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND WRITER, "ELLEN": You're talking about straight writers writing a coming-out episode. And I so like yesterday, remember, it was like this is so cool. And yet this is going to kill this -- it's going to be over.

JONATHAN STARK, WRITER, "ELLEN": Yes. Like I thought this could be the end of our careers.

ELIZABETH BIRCH, FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Ellen put her entire career at stake. She could have lost everything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do not want the gay and lesbian lifestyle paraded in the living rooms of America's homes.

LISA RESPERS FRANCE, ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER, CNN: You would think gay people did not exist. They very rarely showed up on TV.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember as a young gay kid, being so hungry to see even negative portrayals because it meant that there were other people like us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Joining us now is producer, writer and professor, Dava Savel, who worked on the show "Ellen." We just saw your clip there as well. Walk us through your initial thoughts when Ellen said she wanted to come out on the show.

SAVEL: You know, she had us over her home and we're all having lunch, all the writers and this whole new cast of characters. We were all whole new staff there. And she said, guys, I want to make an announcement. And we all kind of like put down our sandwiches and she said, I want to come out here. And none of us knew it was coming. We all like looked at each other and I remember that initial thing, that moment of thinking, this is so cool or this is totally the end of the show.

And I didn't know how it was going to go. I mean, but that, she started it. This was -- she started the ball rolling. This was her call on the whole thing.

DEAN: It is amazing that really all things considered it wasn't that long ago when this happened and it was considered so earth-shattering, right?

SAVEL: I know.

DEAN: Like you're saying, you didn't know that the show was going to have to go away after that. I would have to think that you all were very aware of how big of a deal this would be, how this would live in history.

SAVEL: You know what, funny enough, we didn't. Honestly we had no clue. We were just -- we were there for her. She made this decision. She had to state her case to ABC and to Disney, and we all walked in those offices with her and she did all the talking, and we were there to back her. I was an exec producer along with several other writers, and then we got the go ahead and it started the ball rolling.

[18:55:10]

We had no clue, not a clue, that this was going to blow up as big as it did. We just thought we were doing an episode. In fact they asked us, you know, when we wanted to air the episode. We were doing a season of 26 episodes. You'd think that we'd want to do it during, like, you know, sweeps and take advantage of that, but we didn't. We put it on the third to last episode of the season because we didn't know -- it was not a publicity stunt.

It was -- it came from the heart, it came from her heart, and then it blew up. It just the (INAUDIBLE) and the noise and the letters and the bomb threats and the -- it just blew up. We had no clue.

DEAN: It certainly, certainly did. It was quite a moment.

Dava Savel, thank you for walking us through that. We really appreciate it. Be sure to tune in a new episode of "TV ON THE EDGE MOMENTS THAT

SHAPED OUR CULTURE" airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on CNN. It'll be focused on that.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)