Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump Repeats Harmful Rhetoric About Immigrants At Arizona Rally; Harris Hits Trump For Not Being Transparent With Voters In North Carolina; Pennsylvania Could Once Again Decide The Election; IDF To Investigate Drone Entering Israel Without Triggering Alert; Man Arrested With Illegal Weapons Near Trump Rally Saturday; Obama Campaigns For Harris In Arizona And Nevada; Harris To Unveil New Policies, Appealing To Black Men. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired October 13, 2024 - 19:00   ET

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

[18:59:32]

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

We are 23 days away from election day in America, and both candidates are on the trail. Right now, Donald Trump is speaking in Arizona. "The New York Times"-Siena poll also showing a narrow five-point lead for the former president in that state.

Vice President Kamala Harris just wrapping up a visit to battleground North Carolina. She's going to visit Pennsylvania tomorrow, a state where she holds a very small lead, but there is still no clear leader.

[19:00:01]

It's an extremely tight race. CNN's latest national poll of polls showing no clear leader with 50 percent of likely voters supporting Harris and 47 percent supporting Trump.

We start tonight with CNN's Alayna Treene. She is live in Arizona where the former president wrapped up his remarks a few minutes ago.

And Alayna, we saw him again leaning into his closing argument of immigration using some incredibly dark rhetoric.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Jessica. He really escalated that dark rhetoric, his anti-immigrant rhetoric at that rally or at that rally here in Prescott, Arizona. And this is really a trend that we've seen over the last several days. He's always kind of leaned into that playbook of using dark imagery to paint this kind of scary picture of America at the present time.

But it's been escalated I'd argue to a level that I haven't seen yet this election cycle. He's really been ramping that up in this final stretch before November 5th. So what we heard him do tonight was talking about what he argued were millions of illegal immigrants coming across the border thanks to Kamala Harris, and arguing that part of that is Venezuelan gangs, other gangs coming here to commit crimes. Of course, we have heard from many local Republican officials and all

-- in some of these different cities specifically really Aurora, Colorado, where he was in -- where he was visiting on Friday, pushing back on some of these claims saying that they are exaggerated, but Donald Trump really leaned into those tonight.

I want you to take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For four straight years, she's imported an army of illegal alien gang members and migrant criminals from the dungeons all over the world. Not South America, all over the world. They come from prisons and jails, insane asylums, mental institutions. From Venezuela, from the Congo, all over. And she's resettled them into your communities to prey upon innocent American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Jessica, a few things I want to point out here is that when I talked to Donald Trump's campaign about this language that he is using, they argue that they think it could help him. There's no signs that he's going to move away from it. If anything they're going to ramp this up even more. They tell me that they think it helped him propel him to the White House in 2016, and they believe it could help him again this cycle.

And so I don't think you're going to see Donald Trump tamping any of this down in the coming weeks, even as some people question whether it's the right time to really play on this fear-mongering and stoke fears with voters about immigrants in this country.

DEAN: And Alayna, Trump also announced a plan for more Border Patrol agents. Tell us about that.

TREENE: That's right. He actually rolled out something we haven't heard from him yet. So this is new. He called up a bunch of Border Patrol agents on stage in the middle of his rally. He also touted an endorsement from the Border Patrol Council. That is the first official endorsement this cycle for Donald Trump, although I will say they have really long supported the former president in the past.

But Donald Trump said that if he is elected in November, he plans to announce a goal of hiring 10,000 new Border Patrol agents to really beef up their presence on the southern border. He also said he was going to call on Congress and ask Congress to give those agents a 10 percent raise, as well as a $10,000 retention and signing bonus. So clearly, really trying to gather more support from that group and lean in to what they do at the border. He said they have one of the most important jobs.

One thing that was actually interesting as well, I know we talked about this a couple of weeks ago where Donald Trump was referencing migrants in this country who committed crimes. He said that they had bad genes, language that we know he has kind of used in the past, very controversial language that has been -- received a lot of backlash from people like the ACLU. Today, he said something different when talking about these Border Patrol agents.

He actually said they have great genes. You guys are the kind of people who have genes. So again, kind of leaning into that nativist language, some of that rhetoric that all plays into what I was saying earlier, which is that Donald Trump is really seizing on immigration and this dark rhetoric in the final weeks of his campaign -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Alayna Treene for us in Arizona. Thank you for that reporting.

Let's go to the other side of the country. Let's go to North Carolina where Vice President Kamala Harris pulled no punches when calling out what she sees as a lack of transparency from Donald Trump.

CNN's Eva McKend has more on that.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Harris using her remarks at a rally in Greenville to argue that the former president is not being transparent enough with voters when it comes to sitting for that "60 Minutes" interview, a long honored tradition. When it comes to going up against her for another debate or even on releasing his medical records. Take a listen.

[19:05:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Here's the thing. I makes you wonder. It makes you wonder, why does his staff want him to hide away? One must question, one must question, are they afraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: And another big goal of the vice president from this two-day swing in North Carolina was to reach black voters in particular. She met with black electeds, black faith and community leaders in Raleigh. She also spoke at a black church and met with black farmers. But another big push here that we heard from North Carolina Democrats was telling supporters, telling voters to get out and vote early. In just four days early voting begins in this state -- Jess.

DEAN: Eva McKend, thank you.

North Carolina, of course, one of those critical battleground states.

Pennsylvania could be a state that decides this year's election. I spoke to the Democratic governor of the commonwealth earlier tonight about the Harris campaign's final push to get out the vote. Here's part of our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: I know you are in Georgia right now. You're about to get on a bus tour of the blue wall states, including your own home state of Pennsylvania. I want to start with this new polling that continues to show an even tighter presidential race than what we were seeing even just a week ago. There are some Democrats being very vocal, others speaking on background, but they're worried about Harris's momentum. They think the race has plateaued. They're concerned voters still don't see how she's different than President Biden. What do you think?

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Well, look, Jessica, in Pennsylvania, the last two presidential races have come down to 44,000 votes and 80,000 votes representing about a point or less. So it shouldn't shock anyone that the polls are within a point or so, or even a dead heat. These are close races. But the stakes are incredibly high. The contrast is clear, and I'll tell you what, I would much rather be us than them. I think we've got momentum.

And look, I'm a sports guy. I would much rather have our team on the floor for the final two minutes of the game standing with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

DEAN: I want to ask you about your -- the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania because I just think so many eyes are on that state. We know that it's going to likely be make or break. You mentioned just how close the last two presidential elections were. You won in your race in 2022 with the most votes ever for a Pennsylvania statewide candidate. A lot of people look to you as a model for how to win that state.

Now you were running against a candidate that was pretty weak, but nonetheless, you did quite, quite well. A record, record amount of votes. What is the Harris coalition look like? How does she ensure that she wins Pennsylvania?

SHAPIRO: Well, just two things. One, I was running against an extreme candidate who was Donald Trump's offspring. And I would note that Donald Trump and his offspring have lost every race since 2016 in Pennsylvania. Every statewide race. And by the way, even some races for schoolboard and local races. So they don't have a particularly strong track record in Pennsylvania. But it is true that the races for president tend to be a lot closer in our commonwealth.

Kamala Harris just needs to keep doing exactly what she's doing, which is showing up in communities that are oftentimes ignored and left behind, forgotten areas that, you know, in the past had maybe been flyover areas for national candidates. She's showing up. She's answering questions. She's looking folks in the eye and kind of letting people kick the tires. You know, we're still -- we're a big state but we're still a retail state.

I think she's doing what she needs to do. I joked with her the other day when I saw her in Pennsylvania, I think she had been in our commonwealth something like four-and-a-half out of the seven days that week. She's returning weekly. Governor Walz has been in Pennsylvania quite a bit. So they're spending a lot of time, a lot of focus, a lot of energy on Pennsylvania. And I think they're showing up in the right areas.

DEAN: I want to take us to election night. I don't probably have to remind anyone that back in 2020, it took a while for Pennsylvania to count all of its votes. And if again, it may take some time again to get that all done. A couple of questions within this, just how long do you think it will take to know those results? And secondly, the longer that goes on the risk for a disinformation campaign for outright lies, for conspiracy theories to be spread really grows.

Are you prepared as the state's governor to help combat that as these people, as these public servants try to count ballots?

SHAPIRO: We are. Let's be clear. The only person spreading mis and disinformation is Donald Trump, and the folks he tells that missing disinformation to spread it.

[19:10:02]

His sidekick J.D. Vance and others along with him. That is incredibly dangerous for our democracy. And it's really disrespectful to the Democratic, Republican and independent clerks of elections in our 67 counties who are doing this hard work on behalf of their neighbors, to fairly and accurately count the vote.

Listen, in 2020 we had a free and fair, safe and secure election. Donald Trump and his allies took me to court, I was attorney general back then, 43 different times to either try and stop certain people from voting and then to try and stop certain votes from being counted. He went 0-43. I went 43-0, and the will of the people was protected and respected in Pennsylvania.

If Donald Trump wants to again spread mis and disinformation, we will meet that. We will share the truth of what is going on and we will push back against his dangerous rhetoric and we will push back against him in court if need be again.

I think in terms of the count, it is important to note that Republican and Democratic clerks of election all across Pennsylvania asked lawmakers in Pennsylvania to allow them to do something many other states do, states led by Republicans and Democrats, called pre-canvas, which is effectively to process the mail-in ballots ahead of time so that on election night, you're able to spit out the results quickly.

And by the way, Republican and Democratic lawmakers were for that until Donald Trump told Republicans to be against it. Why did he do that? He did that because he wants to create chaos in our system. Now, we're able to make some changes since 2020, which requires our 67 counties once they begin counting the morning of election day that to keep counting, that they can't stop counting. And so that should speed up the process.

But, unfortunately, we're not going to get the process done as quickly as we'd like because Donald Trump stuck his neck out and told Republicans, do not support something that had broad bipartisan support simply because he wants more chaos in our system member. Remember, he's not looking out for everybody else. He's only looking out for himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP) DEAN: Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, thanks so much for your time.

We are breaking -- we are following breaking news tonight as four Israeli soldiers have been killed after a Hezbollah drone attack hits an army base. We're going to take you live to the region. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:17:11]

DEAN: We do have some breaking news. The IDF is promising to investigate how a Hezbollah drone was able to enter Israeli airspace without triggering an alert. Hezbollah says that drone was one of several it used in an attack that killed at least four soldiers at an Israeli army base near Haifa. Dozens of people were also hurt. The attack is one of the bloodiest on Israel since the war started on October 7th.

CNN's Nic Robertson is in Tel Aviv and joins us now live.

And Nic, I think it's worth pointing out to people the geography of this. This is farther into Israel than some of those border towns.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Absolutely. Benyamina, which is where the strike happened, is 40 miles from the border with Lebanon. That is closer to Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv just 30 miles away from where we are here. So this was a long range drone that managed to penetrate Israel's air defenses. First responders describe a very difficult scene. Four soldiers killed in this strike, seven seriously injured.

Many of the other casualties taken to eight different hospitals in the area. Some by helicopter, some by ambulance. The IDF are now saying that they have control of the situation at this military base, but as you say, they're vowing to investigate and essentially admitting that the defenses weren't right, that they've come up short here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL HAGARI, SPOKESPERSON, ISRAELI MILITARY (through translator): We are now busy contacting their families. All of the soldiers at the base were instructed to call home and update their families that they are OK. We are managing the incident. We will learn from and investigative the incident, how a UAV entered without an alert at the base. The threat of UAVs is a threat we are dealing with since the beginning of the war. We need an improvement to our defense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Yes. And I think that improvement, if you listen to what Hezbollah has been saying this evening and over the last few days, and I give you this, Hezbollah over the last few days has been saying that they would and are targeting groups of troops away from the frontline. Now, after the strike today, they then released a statement saying that they did this by firing a number of missiles, dozens of missiles into northern Israel intentionally to confuse Israel's air defense system.

And after that, they sent in what they call a squad of drones, suicide drones is how they described them. It's not clear that they really sent in as many missiles or as many drones as they say. But what is I think the big takeaway from what Hezbollah is claiming this evening is that they intentionally set out to confuse the air defense systems.

[19:20:08]

We've seen them trying to refine that tactic over recent days. Just a couple of days ago, they hit a nursing home just six miles from here with a drone that, again, had managed to somehow evade air defense systems. One was intercepted, but another one got through. So this is a tactic here. Hezbollah is evolving their tactics to try to strike through. And this strike really a significant and it appears to be one of the bloodiest on Israeli troops since October 7th last year, away from the frontlines.

The bases inside of Israel, this signals perhaps not a safe as everyone thought they were just a few days ago -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Nic Robertson, thank you so much for that reporting.

Let's bring in CNN political national security analyst, David sanger. David is the author of "New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West." Also joining us CNN military analyst Colonel Cedric Leighton.

Great to see both of you.

Colonel Leighton, let's start first with you. As Nic was just reporting the IDF now investigating how this drone entered Israel without triggering an alert. How might that have happened and how significant is that?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Jessica, it's extremely significant and one of the things that could have happened and there's indication that this might be the case, the drone in question may have flown along the surface of the earth. It's very hard for radar to pick up things that are really low flying. Not impossible, but very difficult. And if they did what we call a map of the earth navigation that would then make it very difficult for any defensive system to pick the drone up and actually eliminate it, shoot it down.

That said, that's what I think may have happened in this particular case. And it's certainly something where it's clear that Hezbollah is refining its tactics and Israel is of course a consequence of that.

DEAN: And David, while this is happening, we're also getting this new information today that the U.S. is sending this missile defense system to Israel. It's sending about 100 troops to help operate this system. What does that tell you?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, first of all, Jessica, just on Cedric's point, you know what we're learning here is that in each conflict, the Mideast, Ukraine and so forth, the combatants are learning from each other and if what has happened here is what Cedric described it's very similar to things that the Ukrainians and the Russians have been doing as they each experiment and improve their drone attacks. So we should remember that these are all in many ways connected conflicts.

To your question, I think President Biden was looking for a way to help the Israelis make the case that another Iranian missile attack on Israel would fail as the previous two will have failed to do much damage, and by putting this additional Patriot system together, he's got the moment to go do that. But I think what else we're learning here is that the president's tolerance for having American troops in the way here in, even in defensive positions in Israel is increasing a little bit, that he is -- thinks it's a relatively small risk to have 100 Americans there.

Obviously there are thousands of Americans on board the ships and in nearby bases to try to help defend Israel as well.

DEAN: Yes, and Colonel, I want to get your thoughts on that as well, and kind of also, if you can help people understand exactly what this does.

LEIGHTON: Yes, this is -- yes, I agree with David, there are a lot of different aspects to this, but our tolerance seems to have increased for putting some of our troops in areas where conflict could occur in the Middle East. And what we're seeing here, this is the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense system and basically what it's designed to do is it's designed to shoot down ballistic missiles of varying ranges.

Everything from short range ballistic missiles. But say something that can go for 600 miles all the way to intermediate range missiles. So that's something that can go up to about 3400 miles or so. So these systems are designed to actually hit the incoming missile as it's coming down and they don't have a warhead themselves. But basically the system is designed to knock things out of the sky just before it impacts the ground.

[19:25:03]

So that's what this system can do. It's highly effective, very accurate, was designed in the wake of the First Gulf War and then deploy in the early 2000s. It's been deployed to Israel before, the first time in 2012, the second time in 2019. So this is not the first time we've done this and also we've deployed other systems as well. But this is certainly significant that we're putting it here and as David said a reminder to the Iranians that we were going to do what we can to protect Israel from any incoming ballistic missile attacks from Iran.

DEAN: Yes. And David, to that point, as we have seen in this conflict, the U.S. being very open about them putting that there, that it's going there. They want that information out there as a deterrent it seems.

SANGER: They do, Jessica, and you know, Cedric got it right. I misspoke before. It's not a Patriot system. It's what they call a THAAD system and will handle a variety of Iran's most advanced defenses, and they certainly want to tell the Iranians that if they do launch another missile attack, there are more likely to go intercepted. And they're saying this because of course we're all waiting for the Israelis to do their counter attack from the October 1st attack.

And the fact that here we are in the middle of the month and it hasn't happened yet tells you that the Israelis have taken a little bit different view than they did when the first missile attack happened back in April. At that time, they were in a big rush to reassert deterrence by shooting back right away. This time they seem to be taking their time, picking their targets, enjoying the fact that the Iranians are closing their airspace at various moments out of fear that the attack was coming and they're willing to let it sort of dangle there a bit.

And I think it tells you about sort of a newer confidence they have in their ability to make the Iranians doubt whether or not their missiles really can do much harm to Israel.

DEAN: All right, David Sanger and Colonel Cedric Leighton, my thanks to both of you.

LEIGHTON: Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: Yes. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:31:46]

DEAN: Tonight, we are learning a Nevada man was arrested after deputies found him with several illegal weapons near the site of former president Trump's rally last night in Coachella, California.

CNN's Camila Bernal is joining us live now. What more do you know Camila?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jess, so we know that two federal officials are now telling CNN that there is no evidence at this time to indicate that the man who was arrested on Saturday was attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump.

Now, authorities confirmed that they arrested Ben Miller. He's a 49- year-old man from Las Vegas who was near the rally in Coachella. He was arrested for illegally possessing a shotgun and a loaded handgun, and these are state charges.

Now, we also know he had multiple boxes of ammunition for both of these guns and the Riverside County sheriff today confirming he also had multiple passports and drivers licenses with different names. He was driving an unregistered car with a fake license plate and he told authorities that he was there as a journalist and said he had VIP passes for the rally, which authorities said they were not able to verify. Now, the Sheriff's Department saying that Miller was allowed through an outside perimeter, but was then stopped at an inside perimeter which was more thorough and that's where the deputies found the fake license plate, the guns, the multiple IDs.

This will still a distance away from the event entrance where the US Secret Service does their checks and it was also before the former president arrived. Here's what the sheriff said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHAD BIANCO, RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA SHERIFF: Obviously, this was before the former president arrived. The person was taken into custody. He was eventually booked into jail on those charges and eventually he was he was released

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: He was actually released on a $5,000.00 bail. His next court appearance is next year and the Riverside County Sheriff's Office is saying that they're actively engaged with the FBI and Secret Service and a United States attorney's office statement saying that the US Attorney's office, that US Secret Service and FBI are aware of the arrest and then that statement went on to say that the incident did not impact protective operations and that the former president was not in any danger.

But the statement, Jessica, also saying that this is an ongoing investigation.

DEAN: On that, thank you very much for that reporting. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:38:25]

DEAN: This week, President Obama will continue to get out the vote for Vice President Kamala Harris holding rallies in the battleground states of Arizona and Nevada, where Trump is holding an edge over Harris.

CNN's Isaac Dovere is joining me now with new reporting on why Obama's returned to the campaign trail has a lot of layers to it. Isaac, let's just start first, clearly, the former president feels very personally vested in this. What's at stake in his eyes?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, that's right, Jessica, in the story I've got up on our site right now. What I get into is that there are all the issues that democracy and what America should be that are on Obama's mind. But there are also, of course, all the things like the policy priorities that he pushed through when he was president, that would be under threat of Trump were to come back to the office. But it goes deeper than that as you said.

There is in Obama's mind, clearly a sense of how much is at stake personally for him and the legacy that he would have. People that I've spoken to that are close to the former president say to me, that they know that there is a possibility if Trump were to win, it would be Obama who would be seen as the aberration in American politics here. Whereas, if Harris were to win, it would be Trump. That would be seen that way.

There's also a sort of personal sense of America that you can see coming through the president. Let's take a listen to the way he talked about this on Thursday night in Pittsburgh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA (D), FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You have a guy who will just lie about it to score political points and this has consequences. Because people are afraid and they've lost everything and now they're trying to figure out how do I apply for help?

The idea of intentionally trying to deceive people in their most desperate and vulnerable moments. And my question is, when did that become okay?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[19:40:19]

DOVERE: So look, Jessica, that is Barack Obama saying, how did this become the country that we are living in, essentially and that's been bubbling out of him.

And all of this, everything that I've been talking about, goes to his main mission between now and Election Day, which is trying to get voters were all but especially younger Black men to turn out for Kamala Harris, turn out in the numbers that they are hoping could help her win the election.

DEAN: Yes, and so, there's the rallies that he's going to be doing. He's also meeting with field teams. He's cutting videos. What more is he doing?

DOVERE: It's more than he has done since he was on the ballot himself. He's really throwing himself into this and will be doing a lot more.

He's got to schedule this week that's taking him to Arizona and Nevada. tied to early voting starting there, then he will be doing other things in all the other battleground states.

And as you said, also, videos online with content -- with influencers providing content that way, and his own stuff, he cut just last week on one day, on Wednesday of last week, 21 videos for the Harris campaign. So there's a lot going on from the former president.

DEAN: There certainly is, and look, you can't how but think and I know you're reporting gets at this. He kind of thought he'd be able to retire and get back in as needed, but be able to do other things and it is as if this has sucked him back in. DOVERE: Yes, he was hoping ever since 2016 that he would be done being the party leader, being as involved in politics as he has been over his post-presidency so far. He thought that he might get there with Joe Biden's election. It didn't happen.

And of course, he was involved over the summer in trying to figure out how to steer Joe Biden out of the race, what to do with that, and then talking to Kamala Harris and figuring out whether he was going to back her, how that was all going to work.

All of this also is -- I reported it in the article that's on our site about his meetings with House Democrats and Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Democrats and Chuck Schumer. This is not exactly how he had pictured his post-presidency.

And there is a feeling here in the Obama orbit that should Harris win, it will then give him another chance to move past politics. I will say to you that one of the people that I talked to the for the story is Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat. I said to him, is he ready for Obama to move on as party leader? And he said to me, not yet.

DEAN: Yes, I don't know that a lot of Democrats are ready for him to step away just yet.

Isaac Dovere, thanks so much. We'll be right back.

DOVERE: Thanks, Jessica.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:47:15]

DEAN: This week, the Harris campaign is set to unveil new policy proposals to appeal to Black men. Recent polls show Harris losing support in this critical voting bloc, which is very important if she wants to win in places like the swing state of Wisconsin.

In this installment of John King's "All Over The Map," he checks in with Black voters in Milwaukee.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Door-to-door North side Milwaukee. If Kamala Harris is to win Wisconsin, the path starts right here.

DEVONTA JOHNSON, CANVASSER, BLACK LEADERS ORGANIZING FOR COMMUNITIES: How do you feel like Kamala Harris?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, Kamala Harris, I think she's great.

JOHNSON: She's a great.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

JOHNSON: How do you feel about Trump? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not so great.

KING (voice over): A phone number to keep in touch.

JOHNSON: Appreciate you, Ma'am. Have a good day, blessed day.

KING (voice over): ... to make sure support translates into voting.

JOHNSON: She was pretty excited about Kamala.

KING (voice over): Devonta Johnson, Now shares that excitement. When we met a year ago, he was its undecided between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

JOHNSON: At the time I was like, kind of iffy for like everybody else, like undecided and not confused because like I don't know for sure I'm going to vote for him but now that Kamala got the ball and she rolling with it. I feel like, oh yes.

KING (voice over): Johnson and his colleagues walk the streets year- round, building trust for right now. The leaves are falling. Halloween is at hand. It's turnout time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to remind you that early voting starts on October 22nd.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife and I, we already absentee ballot.

KING (voice over): This look under the hood was positive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump is just trying to take it back today that we don't want to be in.

KING (voice over): But there are cracks in the Democratic foundation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know, I don't know him but then I feel like I question her a little bit too.

KING (voice over): The canvassers share notes every workday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are people saying?

KING (voice over): No question. Harris is stronger in the Black neighborhoods now than Joe Biden was when we first visited a year ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a sense of hope in the air.

KING (voice over): But there are warning signs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is people out here saying that they don't want to vote. They are still are saying that.

KING (voice over): Often, the conversation that those doors turns to higher rents and food prices.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got to pick and choose between what we can and what we can't buy and ain't nobody talking about it, but you all just vote, vote, vote, get out and vote, all you want is the vote.

KING (voice over): Angela Lang is the boss here at Black Leaders Organizing for Communities. She knows the hard math of Hillary Clintons' narrow 2016 Wisconsin loss and what it took to deliver Joe Biden's narrow 2020 win, cautiously optimistic now, she rally her team and runs the 2024 canvassing numbers.

ANGELA LANG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BLACK LEADERS ORGANIZING FOR COMMUNITIES: You can't win a statewide election here without going through the heart of Milwaukee and in some cases that runs through this office and the work that our team does. But also we're seeing folks in heavily red areas that are getting together with other women at coffee shops without their husbands knowing, for example and starting to have those conversations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got the most to lose right now --

KING (voice over): Off the charts support among women is critical for Harris.

When these canvassers encounter a Trump supporter, it is almost always a Black man.

[19:50:13]

LANG: One of the things that we've heard is people are like, well, I think I had more money in my pocket when Trump was in office because of the stimulus checks during the pandemic.

BRIAN MCMUTUARY, TRUMP SUPPORTER, WISCONSIN: It's kind of hard to choose when that's all you've got.

KING (voice over): Brian McMutuary was a lifelong Democrat, but he voted for Trump in 2020. He's undecided, but leaning Trump this year.

MCMUTUARY: The cost of living, you know, gas, food prices, you know, rent is hard. You try to keep up and Johnny, no, stay away from credit cards.

KING (on camera): So what did you do today?

KING (voice over): McMutuary has two children, manages at McDonald's, disagrees with Trump on immigration and abortion, but likes his take on cryptocurrency and remembers being better off when Trump was president.

MCMUTUARY: I would have to say that the biggest difference is I think having the experience.

KING (voice over): Plus he says he worries Russia's Putin and China's Xi, wouldn't see Harris as an equal. They look in a man has been, you know, a leader. So that's like, somewhat of a troubling issue.

KING (on camera): Do you have any problem with a woman president?

MCMUTUARY: No, not at all. Like I said, it's about doing the right thing for the country.

ERIC JONES, WISCONSIN VOTER: How can you take bigotry over a job?

KING (voice over): Eric Jones, hears at all when he stops for coffee, at the barbershop, and in his real estate business.

JONES: If I was a gambling man, I would probably put my money on Harris. Things are getting better, the numbers are better, the energy is different.

KING (voice over): But an earlier job sometimes hurts the vice president.

JONES: It is the Black man. Law enforcement has not been kind to Black people historically. District attorneys have not been kind to Black people historically.

KING (voice over): Plus, John says abortion and transgender rights sometimes come up in his barbershop debates.

JONES: The Good Old Party feels that they have a monopoly over the Christian vote. The Democratic Party feels they have monopoly over the Black vote. The problem is there are a lot of Blacks that are Christians and the Black churches are one of the strongest institutions in the community.

So, you have this tug-of-war in a city that I'm pretty sure the Black vote will decide who wins that city and more likely the presidency.

KING (voice over): Yes, turnout time in a community that matters big time.

John King CNN, Milwaukee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: John, thank you.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:56:56]

DEAN: Since 2020, roughly 12,000 Haitian immigrants have moved to Springfield, Ohio. Trump and his running mate, JD Vance has been a large portion of their campaign targeting these legal immigrants, spreading misinformation and threatening to deport them if elected.

In this week's "The Whole Story," CNN's Omar Jimenez, takes viewers inside the community.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jessica, so yes, there has been a lot of talk about Springfield. A lot of it has come since the presidential debate in early September, but a lot of the issues, the central issues in Springfield started way before any presidential debate.

And that has come with an increase in Haitians that have come to Springfield legally either under humanitarian or either under the Biden administration's parole program or they've then been able to acquire Temporary Protected Status.

Regardless, it has led to a population increase there and as you may know, the population in Springfield is around 58,000 in 2020. The city estimates that anywhere between 12,000 and 15,000 immigrants are in the county where Springfield is, of course, the biggest city.

So that understandably, regardless of any immigrant status that increase in population has put stresses on things like education, health care, housing prices, things of that nature. and then you add the fact that there's a language barrier here that I think, based on my experience, there has helped contribute one, to a lack of understanding in some cases. But also, just difficulty in adjusting to life in Springfield.

There is one unmistakable effect they have had on Springfield that we've heard from many people from city officials and business leaders and that's their effect on the economy. Take a listen to some of what we found.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ (on camera): When would you say you hired your first Haitian immigrant?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three or four years ago, post-pandemic era. As we came out of the pandemic, there was this huge demand for production. And we were struggling to find people to come in and work with us. They might work a day or two and then we'd never see them again. They just would disappear.

And that is a real problem when you're running a production facility. You need to have a reliable workforce that you can count on to be at work every day.

The influx of the Haitian population has allowed companies to expand and grow from an economy standpoint for the community, they are shopping, they're paying taxes. It just boggles my mind the people that think that they're just getting this incredible free ride.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: You know, and that's some of what we heard from the governor of Ohio who we spoke to for this as well, that the influx of Haitians, while they have put stresses on different aspects of society, they have revitalized the economy there, one that was declining in recent years as many officials on the ground explained to me.

So I'm excited for you all to see it tonight. I think we do hit at a lot of what the real issues are in Springfield, which of course has been at the center of this national discourse that hasn't always been. Let's just say preferential to facts -- Jessica. DEAN: Omar, thanks. So, "The Whole Story" with Anderson Cooper, one whole story, one whole hour airs next only on CNN.

Thank you so much for joining me this evening. I'm Jessica Dean, we're going to see you again next weekend. Have a great night.

[20:00:27]