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Campaigns Hone In On Swing States As Election Enters Final Weeks; More Than 11 Million Pre-Election Ballots Cast; Early Voters Turning Out Today In Gwinnett County, Georgia; Netanyahu Vows War In Gaza Will Continue "Until The End"; Flesh-Eating Bacteria Cases On The Rise In Florida; In-Flight Close Call Avoided Near Austin. Netanyahu Vows War In Gaza Will Continue "Until The End"; Fears Of Christian Nationalism Grow As Some Say Trump Chosen By God; 2nd Nationwide Blackout Hits Cuba Amid Worsening Energy Crisis. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired October 19, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

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CHER, SINGER & ACTRESS: -- no one likes you again, so I just had to keep doing this.

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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN ANCHOR: And that's all we have time for this week. Don't forget, you can find all our shows online as podcasts at CNN.com/podcast and on all other major platforms.

I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. Thank you for watching and see you again next week.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone, thank you so much for joining us. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta alongside my colleague Kaitlan Collins in Tel Aviv.

We're following the latest developments in the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and the intensifying Israeli military operation in northern Gaza. We'll have much more on that and join you, Kaitlan, in a moment.

But first, the race for the White House in this country heating up on one of the final critical weekends of campaigning. With just 17 days until the Election Day, both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are rallying voters in key battleground states, states that will be critical in determining who wins.

Harris barnstorming both in Michigan and Georgia today while Trump is in Pennsylvania. And the stakes in these closing weeks couldn't be higher. Polls showing razor thin margins, the campaigns looking to build winning coalitions. Voting is already underway in 42 states, more than 11 million ballots cast so far.

CNN's Steve Contorno and Priscilla Alvarez are following all the action on the campaign trail. Steve, you're with the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania. So what is his message to voters there?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: It's a fair question, Fred, because his message has been somewhat scattershot over these closing weeks of the presidential race. Events like these are often billed as an opportunity for him to talk about the economy and inflation and all these concerns that many voters are carrying into the election.

But Trump, when he gets on the stage, regularly says that he doesn't think the economy is the top issue. He thinks that it's immigration. Meanwhile, his campaign has stopped running ads linked to immigration and is instead pumping tens of million dollars into advertisements talking about Vice President Harris's past support for certain policies supporting transgender individuals.

And then Trump has also maintained these intensely personal attacks on the former, or excuse me, on the Vice President. He did so yesterday during a stop in Michigan. Take a listen to what he said.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Obviously I'm in the middle of a very big and very contentious fight. We're leading. I've given my health exams. I've also done cognitive tests twice and I've aced them, meaning a perfect score. I want to see her do a cognitive test because she couldn't ace, because she wasn't born smart.

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CONTORNO: Now, today, we are about 45 minutes east of Pittsburgh in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. This is an area that Trump won by about a two to one margin four years ago and eight years ago. So he has a strong base of support here.

However, it's a part of the state that they are hoping to continue to run up the score. Donald Trump's campaign has been reaching out to voters or Republicans here, or people who are conservative, people who they believe would be Trump supporters who have yet to vote for him in an election and are hoping that they can run up the score in these parts of the state because Pennsylvania is going to be very, very critical in a few weeks.

WHITFIELD: Especially there, Western Pennsylvania.

All right, Steve, thank you so much.

All right, Priscilla, to you now in Detroit with the Harris campaign and what's being said there?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the campaign officials that I've spoken with say that they really want to capitalize on early voting here. It kicks off today in Detroit for the first time. So this event today with the Vice President alongside Lizzo is going to be to try to gin up that enthusiasm for early voting.

This, of course, is a complicated state. It's a state that the Vice President spent a lot of time in yesterday and part of today. And there's a reason for that because they are trying to fortify the blue wall states and Michigan is crucial to that.

Now, yesterday, the Vice President was in three counties, one of which Donald Trump won in 2016, then Biden won in 2020, and then two other counties where Biden was able to win by wider margins in 2020. That's exactly what the Harris campaign wants to emulate and build upon.

And they're trying to also make inroads in the suburbs to try to capture some of those white college-educated voters, but also try to make inroads with union workers. That was much of the messaging from the Vice President yesterday, was trying to draw a contrast between her and her Republican rival on the issue of labor, highlighting, for example, Donald Trump's anti-labor comments, but also talking about promises that he made but didn't keep. That was the framing of the day for the Vice President.

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Now, of course, with a city like Detroit and Atlanta, where she'll be later today, these are majority non-white cities. The Vice President and her team want to try to get as much support as they can in these cities and the surrounding suburbs to try to, again, emulate what Biden did in 2020. This is going to be crucial to their path to victory.

So, today, the focus is on the Vice President doing the early vote, get out the vote events with the star power of Lizzo here in Detroit and then later Usher in Atlanta. But the Vice President also, over the course of the next several days, may be continue to ask about how she is going to be different from Joe Biden.

This has been a recurring question since she assumed the top of the party's ticket. It's also something she was asked about while in Michigan yesterday. Take a listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Biden said this week that every president has to cut their own path. What is one policy that you would have done differently over these last three and a half years than President Biden?

KAMALA HARRIS (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I mean, to be very candid with you, you -- even including Mike Pence, vice presidents are not critical of their presidents. I think that really, actually, in terms of the tradition of it and also just going forward, it does not make for a productive and important relationship.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

ALVAREZ: But sources tell me that she's going to continue to define herself through her policies and her policy proposals over the next several days, increasing her exposure on traditional and non- traditional media, as again, they look at these final few weeks of the election. WHITFIELD: All right, Priscilla Alvarez, Steve Contorno, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.

All right, right now, early voting is underway in several battleground states, including closely watched Georgia. Voters there have already turned out in record numbers, casting more than 1 million ballots since Tuesday. Former President Donald Trump is trying to reclaim the peach state after losing to President Biden by a small margin in 2020.

Plus, hours from now, Vice President Harris will be leaving Detroit and heading to Atlanta for a rally with R&B star Usher. CNN's Rafael Romo is joining me right now from a polling site in Gwinnett County, Georgia. All week, so many of these polling locations have seen very long lines. People have been very eager about voting early. What are you seeing there on a Saturday today, Rafael?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred, how are you? Not too bad so far. I just checked a moment ago here at this polling station, and there's only about a dozen people standing in line. But there are several reasons why we decided to come to this polling station. Number one, Gwinnett County is the most ethnically diverse county in the entire state of Georgia.

Also, it's a county that has had tremendous population growth in the last few years, surpassing the 1 million mark over the summer. And third, this is one of the reasons why Georgia is no longer a red state, but a purple. And it's a county that Joe Biden, President Joe Biden carried in 2020 and allowed him to get to the White House.

We chose this particular location, the Five Forks branch of the Gwinnett County Library System because it's been the busiest in the county with wait times of about an hour or so in the first few days of early voting. Again, not too far right now, but it's expected to get busier later on today.

Earlier, I had an opportunity to talk to several voters, including one naturalized American who told us she takes her voting rights very, very seriously. Let's take a listen.

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HANG "MOON" PHUNG, GWINNETT COUNTY EARLY VOTER: I want to make sure I do it because I want to prove my duty of my -- you know, of a citizen.

ROMO: Yes.

PHUNG: I let my responsibility to do it.

JOSEPH BROWN, GWINNETT COUNTY EARLY VOTER: Typically, you know, Gwinnett County is very well-organized. The process is really easy, so that's what we expect today. No long lines so far, right? So it's a good day to vote.

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ROMO: And Fred, more than 1.1 million voters across the state of Georgia have already cast their ballots here in Gwinnett County. This is the third county in the state as for the number of people who have already voted after, of course, Fulton County, where Atlanta is located, and Cobb County, the third most populated state in the country and also in the Atlanta metro area.

So, yes, things are picking up here. Let's see what happens in the next few hours. Fred, back to you.

WHITFIELD: Something tells me it's only going to get busier by the day.

All right, Rafael Romo, thank you so much.

All right, still ahead, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence targeted by a drone as he vows the war in Gaza will continue forward until the end. So what does this mean for the possibility of a ceasefire? We're live in the region next.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kaitlan Collins on the ground here in Tel Aviv, Israel, where new hopes, any new hopes for a ceasefire in Gaza following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar seem to be fading this evening. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that after Sinwar's killing, Israeli forces will continue in Gaza, he says, quote, "until the end".

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Hamas's remaining leaders are also vowing to fight on, saying that there will be no peace and no hostages will be released until Israel has withdrawn from Gaza and the Palestinian prisoners are set free. The war is raging on.

I should note, just a short time ago, rescuers were searching for survivors after an Israeli strike hit a school in northern Gaza where people had been sheltering. That's what we're hearing from Gaza's civil defense officials this evening.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is here with me in Tel Aviv. Julia Benbrook is in Washington. Jeremy, you know, all of this is coming as we heard. We woke up this morning to news here in Israel that a drone had been launched from Lebanon toward Netanyahu's residence, a residence of his. It's not clear that it actually hit, but what do we know about this?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, the Israeli Prime Minister, first of all, was not at this residence in Caesarea, which is not too far north of here, but it is dozens of miles south of the Lebanese border and it does just show the problem that Israel is having with intercepting these drones being fired by Hezbollah towards northern but also clearly central Israel as well.

There was actually a hit on a structure in Caesarea, the town where Netanyahu lives. We don't know if it actually hit his residence, but it was clear that he was not there at the time. Netanyahu put out a video afterwards that I think is worth looking at.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prime Minister, how is it going?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Well, two days ago, we took out Yahya Sinwar, the terrorist mastermind whose goons beheaded our men, raped our women, burned babies alive. We took him out and we're continuing our battle with Iran's other terrorist proxies. We're going to win this war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So will something deter you?

NETANYAHU: No.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

DIAMOND: But I do think it's important to note that, you know, he -- it gives you some insight into his state of mind right now, right? When you see the video like --

COLLINS: Yes, there's a bit of a swagger to them.

DIAMOND: There's a bit of a swagger to it. You know, just killed Yahya Sinwar, a big victory for him. But the question is, where is he going to take that swagger? Is he going to take that swagger in the direction of, all right, we've got total victory here.

We've killed the head of Hamas. We've killed a bunch of other senior leaders of Hamas. We've destroyed Hamas as a military entity in Gaza. They are now basically just a guerrilla force. It's time to make a deal to free the hostages, to end the war.

Or is he going to take the swagger in another direction, which is we're going to continue pressing on until absolute victory. And we did hear something quite similar about that from him today as he was speaking to reporters, talking about the notion of this war being a war of resurrection, that he's going to take this all the way to the end.

So for now, that golden opportunity that U.S. officials have been talking about with the killing of Sinwar, it appears that the Israeli prime minister wants to take this all the way through rather than striking a deal now.

COLLINS: Yes, he clearly seems to feel vindicated or justified in the sense of everyone told him not to go into Rafah, including Vice President Harris, warning that there would be consequences if they did. That is ultimately where Sinwar was killed and his DNA was found. There were the six hostages were murdered not long ago.

But in the question of, you know, we were just on Hostage Square where the hostage families gather almost every Saturday since October 7th. And I was speaking to one of them's father who said, you know, if this is not the moment to try to use this leverage that you have of Yahya Sinwar's death, then, you know, what difference is three more months going to make or six more months going to make for Netanyahu, saying it seemed to be a political strategy, not one necessarily focused on just the hostages?

DIAMOND: Yes, and that's been the biggest criticism of the Israeli prime minister from the Israeli public over the course of the last year is that he's putting his political interests above the interests of the country. Now, not everybody in this country feels that way, but certainly a sizable portion of the country does.

And I'll be interested to see how many people actually show up to the protests tonight, which usually start around 8:00 p.m. in Israel. We have seen these crowds swell to the hundreds of thousands before. Will we see something similar tonight?

But, ultimately, it's going to be a decision that Netanyahu has to make. What direction is he going to go in? And certainly those families of hostages like those you spoke to today are going to continue to pressure him to do so.

COLLINS: Yes, they want movement.

Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv, thank you for that.

Julia, you're over at the White House. Obviously, we just talked about Vice President Harris and how she's talked about this. It's a major question for President Biden and what's going to happen next year. And there was the phone conversation between Biden and Netanyahu. What are you hearing from officials about how they're looking at the fact that the idea of an immediate ceasefire does seem to be fading in this moment?

JULIA WENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that both Vice President Kamala Harris, like you mentioned, and President Joe Biden have spoken about this publicly as well. They know that the death of the Hamas leader is creating uncertainty, but they are also continuing to try to strike a tone of optimism.

They are saying that they believe that there is a potential opportunity to move toward a ceasefire deal. We have some of their sound to play now.

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HARRIS: We have got to end this war. And I think that what has happened now with the killing of Sinwar, creates an opportunity for us to end this war and bring the hostages home.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can probably deal with Israel and Iran in a way that is -- ends the conflict for a while.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

WENBROOK: And for months now, frustrated American officials who are hoping to end the war in Gaza have expressed that this scenario could loosen the deadlock ceasefire talks. But as you all are speaking about, that remains to be seen.

Hamas, who of course confirmed Sinwar's death, has said that they will not release the hostages unless Israel ends the war in Gaza and releases Palestinian prisoners. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he is going to keep fighting unless all of the hostages are released. Kaitlan?

COLLINS: Yes, major questions here.

Julia Benbrook, Jeremy Diamond, thank you both.

Hours from now, speaking of Vice President Harris, she's going to be making her fifth stop on the campaign trail. She's headed to battleground Georgia and she's going to be making a pitch there specifically towards black male voters that she has struggled to gain up support with, certainly to the level Biden has.

Donald Trump also has plans for that group. We'll talk about that right after this.

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WHITFIELD: All right, Florida is facing a potential health crisis amid rising cases of flesh-eating bacteria. This comes in the aftermath of hurricanes Helene and Milton. State Department data shows that there have been 38 confirmed cases since the hurricane struck, which doubles the number of cases for the entire year in Florida.

Cases typically stem from exposing open wounds to bacteria in contaminated waters. And according to the CDC, one in five cases are fatal and Florida health officials continue to urge residents to avoid exposure to floodwaters as recovery efforts continue.

The FAA is investigating a previously unreported in-flight close call near Austin, Texas. This is just the latest in a series of near misses that took place near the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

CNN's Pete Muntean has more.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Near collisions involving commercial flights have been making headlines since the start of last year and have had regulators and investigators on high alert, but most have involved flights on or near the runways of a major airport. Rarely are these close calls in midair.

This incident was on Wednesday, but is just now coming to light after new data from flight tracking site Flight Radar 24. It shows an American Airlines flight lining up to land at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas when a private Cessna 182 started to turn toward the commercial flight, putting the planes nose to nose.

Flight Radar 24 says the American flight passed over the Cessna, separated by only 400 feet. We're talking a little more than the length of a football field. The air traffic control recording from LiveATC.Net details that the American pilots received an in-cockpit alert of an impending collision called a resolution advisory, which requires immediate action by the pilots.

Now, this investigation is just beginning, but the FAA says the Cessna was operating under visual flight rules. That does not require constant communication with air traffic control. You may remember that Austin was the site of another near collision. In February of last year, a FedEx flight nearly landed on top of a departing Southwest flight that was obscured by dense fog.

Investigators said the quick reaction of the FedEx crew saved the day, and the lone air traffic controller in the tower simply could not see the problem playing out in front of them.

Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Pete.

All right, coming up, we're following the latest developments following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, how it will impact the war in Gaza, and the efforts to bring hostages home, straight ahead.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: I'm Kaitlan Collins in Tel Aviv, where tonight, the region is still assessing the fallout from the death of Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, and what it could mean for what's next for this war and the hostages.

Tonight, both Israel and Hamas remain entrenched, and the fighting in Gaza has continued. And just a short time ago, rescuers were looking for survivors after an Israeli strike hit a school in northern Gaza, as you can see here, where people had been sheltering. That's what we're hearing from Gaza civil defense officials.

Matthew Duss joins me now. He is the executive and vice president at the Center for International Policy. And also, I should note, is the former international policy advisor for Bernie Sanders in his 2020 presidential campaign. And you wrote an op-ed for "The New York Times," and you're talking about what Sinwar's death means, and what goes next -- and -- and what happens next year, what could be next?

I want to just quote from that. You said, if Mr. Sinwar truly was the obstacle to a ceasefire agreement that U.S. officials, including President Biden, have claimed that obstacles now gone and the Biden administration must press the Netanyahu government and remaining Hamas officials to end the war in Gaza.

Of course, that is not something Netanyahu seems to have been listening to, necessarily. He was saying, this is not the end. This is maybe the beginning of the end. Why do you think that the Biden administration still has so much leverage over what Israel does next year?

MATTHEW DUSS, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL POLICY: Well, I think the Biden administration, the United States, has leverage it's not choosing to use. We provide an enormous amount of ammunition for a start, arms, bombs, all kinds of ammunition, intelligence support, and, of course, diplomatic support in -- in multilateral flora like the -- the -- the United Nations.

And so withholding, or at least beginning to withhold some of that support as a way to change Netanyahu's behavior here, and push him to accept a ceasefire, I think -- I think it's something that should have been done long ago, when President Biden announced his ceasefire proposal back at the end of May, he said something very important, and that was Israel's goal of preventing another October 7th attack has been achieved.

[12:35:12]

At that moment is when President Biden made a -- a ceasefire proposal to end the war U.S. policy. And I think the failure to achieve that goal has -- has been really catastrophic, certainly for the Palestinians and for the region, and could get worse if this war continues to expand, as we've been seeing.

COLLINS: Can I ask you about the other side of this, though, because for months, we did hear from U.S. officials telling Israel don't go into Rafah. Vice President, Harris, Pramila Jayapal, a lot of influential lawmakers on Capitol Hill saying, do not go into Rafah. Obviously, that is where Yahya Sinwar was found, not as far as some intelligence operation, it was a routine patrol that was -- that was underway when they were able to -- to kill him, actually. But how does that decision and those calls reflect in that -- on that in hindsight?

DUSS: Well, I think it was the right call at the time. I mean, if we remember the concern from Biden -- from U.S. officials and from members of Congress, was that an operation in Rafah would have enormous civilian casualties. It would displace hundreds of thousands, if not millions more. And that is, in fact, what we saw.

I think there were some efforts to kind of suggest that the operation that Israel eventually carried out in Rafah was somehow not as bad as people feared. But we actually heard from the former Gaza humanitarian envoy, David Satterfield, when that operation was ongoing, that the casualties and the destruction was as bad or worse than the Biden administration feared.

So I think they were faced with the fact that Netanyahu, once again, rolled right over their red line, and they were forced to come up with a rationalization for it. But I think this problem goes back to the fact that they continue to say what they want. And Netanyahu then does whatever he wants, and there are no consequences.

This is a problem of -- of this relationship. The United States imposes zero costs on Netanyahu and on successive Israeli governments, not just over the past year, but over decades of this conflict. Israel enjoys complete impunity. And that is what I think part -- that is part of what got us to this situation in the first place.

COLLINS: Yes. And I spoke to -- to your former boss last week. He was saying that one area he would have liked to see Harris out of the campaign trail offer more of a -- a difference from Biden on is how the handling of this Hamas war. She is not really broken from him on that but.

But -- but the other question here, I was just talking to some hostage families down at hostage square. They give her -- gather every Saturday after Shabbat has ended, and one father who was there told me that he -- he was curious if the or wondering if the U.S. election is having an impact on what Netanyahu is doing here, just two and a half weeks away. What's your view of that?

DUSS: I think very clearly Netanyahu would favor a Trump -- a Trump return to the White House. He understands he'll have even more card -- even more freedom than he has right now, which his freedom right now, let's be clear, is pretty enormous from the Biden administration, unfortunately.

But yes, he understands that political considerations are going to make any administration, including this one, including a -- a Harris campaign, very cautious about getting into a public fight with him, and he is certainly exploiting that fact to the hilt.

COLLINS: Matthew Duss, thank you for -- for joining us. Thank you for writing that very interesting piece.

[12:38:32]

Still to come here on CNN, right now, all of Cuba is entirely dark right now. They have suffered yet another blackout. Major questions about the efforts to restore power to get the nation back on the grid. We'll take you to the ground next.

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FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All right. As we count -- as we count down, just 17 days now, before Election Day, some are raising alarms about the role religion is increasingly playing in politics. That includes some preachers who push the idea that former President Donald Trump was chosen by God to lead. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan has more.

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DOTTI DAVIDSON, TRUMP SUPPORTER: We have to take God and put him back into the very moral fabric of this country. Otherwise, we will continue to see the decay, just like Rome. Rome fell, and so will America.

SEAN FEUCHT, CHRISTIAN SINGER, SONGWRITER AND ACTIVIST: They said, why are you going to all these battleground states? Because I said it's not just a battleground, politically, it's a battleground in the spirit.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you think Trump was sent from God?

DAVIDSON: I do. I do. O'SULLIVAN: Tell me more about that.

DAVIDSON: It was divine intervention. God calls people, and they're not perfect people, so he has to call someone that's going to take a stand. And that's what Trump is doing. He is fulfilling his calling.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): It's a few weeks before Election Day, and Christian singer, preacher and Trump supporter, Sean Feucht, is here outside the North Carolina State Capitol.

FEUCHT: We're going to plead the blood over the Capitol.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Feucht didn't mention Trump's name at this event at all, but the political undertones were very clear.

FEUCHT: We plead the blood of Jesus. Your blood speaks a better word than whatever is happening inside that building.

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O'SULLIVAN: You're traveling to every state capitol?

FEUCHT: Yes.

O'SULLIVAN: Just tell us the significance of that.

FEUCHT: It feels like it's more acceptable a lot of times in capitols to have a drag queen -- a drag queen, reading this to kids, rather than Christians worshiping. And so I -- in my heart is like, hey, let's empower people in the church to understand the significance of what happens in that building. Really, we're, in -- in many ways, putting the politicians on notice in that building. Hey, the church is alive. We're aware. And, you know, there's -- there are things that we're going to stand for and things that we're going to stand against.

O'SULLIVAN: There's no official religion of this country. You would agree?

DAVIDSON: The religion that this country was based on is Christianity. I mean, for anyone to go and dispute that they're completely ignorant and blind.

O'SULLIVAN: But you believe in freedom and a religion?

DAVIDSON: Yes.

O'SULLIVAN: People can be --

DAVIDSON: People can be of different faiths and practice as they wish. But this is a Christian country, and this is what it was founded on, and that is what makes America so phenomenally great.

BEN MARSH, PASTOR, FIRST ALLIANCE CHURCH: What does that mean though, America is a Christian country? We have a constitution that is rooted in liberal democracy. You don't arrive at the American Constitution with just the Bible unless you're buying a Trump Bible, which already has the American Constitution in it.

This was the flag that went into the Senate when the doors were broken.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): I first met Pastor Ben Marsh, almost four years ago.

MARSH: The Christian flag.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): After I saw this sermon that was posted online where he explains the role of Christianity in January 6th.

MARSH: they thought they were doing the work of God, because pastors and leaders have lied to them.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Marsh says equating Christianity and American patriotism the way some of the Trump movement do is dangerous.

MARSH: It can create a cult like attitude towards the leaders that are there because they're no longer just, oh, that's the right guy, I like his policies. Now it's, oh, Jesus has chosen that person, so we have to follow that person to wherever they go.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): What pastor Marsh is describing is Christian nationalism.

FEUCHT: I believe that's a term that's been weaponized to cut it, try to put Christians into a corner, right, where we don't exercise our faith in the public square.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): But Pastor Marsh disagrees. He's worried that Christian nationalism could lead to more violence.

MARSH: We are in a time when political violence is just kind of the air that we're breathing. And people are so afraid, it comes back to fear. So Trump supporters looking at Democrats, if they win, they're going to commit all these atrocities. You have Christian leaders are saying they're going to lock you up. They're going to take away your pulpits, just rampant lives.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Promoting the god bless the USA Bible.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Far from distancing himself from Christian nationalism, Trump has embraced it, even selling a $60 Bible, complete with the founding documents.

MARSH: You brought me a Trump Bible, God bless the USA. And then we say, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, be with you all, Amen. And then all of a sudden you have the Declaration of Independence. What's the implication there, Donie? Do that government has been set in place to enact the will of Christ, somehow? Honestly, it breaks my heart.

O'SULLIVAN: What about people who say you're overreacting. I love my country. I'm a Christian. I love the Bible. I love the founding documents. What's so bad about putting them together in one book? MARSH: I think what's so bad about this not just this Bible, but the whole movement, is it is enticing people to do things that really aren't Christian, that make them feel like they're doing something that's Christian. You know, all this partisan nonsense that it's all designed to make people think that they're doing something for Jesus, when the when they're really not, they're doing something for Trump.

FEUCHT: We're not here to witness a failing nation. We're here to see God break in.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): An Fred, the big concern here, really is that election denialism, conspiracy theories, that if Trump loses the election, that it was stolen, that it blends with folks who truly believe that Trump is God's chosen candidate, that he was sent from God, that he's divine intervention. The concern is, well, we saw what happened last time, on January 6th, 2021 with people, Christians, with Christian flags and prayer groups, broke in to the U.S. capitol. And as you heard from Pastor Ben Marsh there -- there's concerns that -- that could happen again. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right. Donie O'Sullivan, thank you so much.

All right, in a new Fareed Zakaria special airing tomorrow, Fareed explores how the upcoming election could impact American foreign policy, he joins us now with more.

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA GPS: As Americans choose their next president, the world is wondering, will the United States maintain its decades' old alliances or turn inward. I look at how we got to this pivotal moment in my latest special, America First.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[12:50:13]

ZAKARIA (voice-over): After piloting the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The greatest star of all.

ZAKARIA (voice-over): Charles Lindbergh was an international sensation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most idolized man in the world.

ZAKARIA (voice-over): For "Time Magazine's" first ever Man of the Year in 1928, he was the natural choice. He parlayed his fame into politics, becoming the spokesman for the largest anti-war organization in U.S. history, the America First Committee. It included people from all walks of life, from the architect Frank Lloyd Wright to Walt Disney.

JON MEACHAM, AUTHOR, "FRANKLIN AND WINSTON": America First was the embodiment, the manifestation of this isolationist sentiment, and it was hugely important and popular.

ZAKARIA (voice-over): It was 1941 and World War II was raging. The Nazis had taken over most of Europe, but Americans wanted desperately to stay out of the war, 93 percent of them, according to one poll. The America First Committee grew to 800,000 members, and Charles Lindbergh was its champion.

CHARLES LINDBERGH: We cannot win this war for England. That is why the America First Committee has been formed.

ZAKARIA (voice-over): His biggest opponent, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who knew that if Germany took over Europe, America could be next?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAKARIA: I hope you'll join me for this special hour on American isolationism.

WHITFIELD: We will indeed. Fareed Zakaria, appreciate that. America FIRST: A Fareed Zakaria Special airing tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. right here on CNN.

All right. In the U.S., approximately 920,000 shelter animals are euthanized every year, and many are pets that have been surrendered because the owners couldn't find a temporary home for them when they desperately needed one. And that's where this week's CNN Hero steps in. Thirteen years ago, Stephen Knight, a former meth addict, agreed to rescue one dog to help a friend who was going to rehab, and that experience turned into his life's mission, making sure people can go into recovery and know that their pets will be safe.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHEN KNIGHT, CNN HERO: When somebody makes that decision to go into treatment, it's one of the bravest decisions they'll make.

Everything's going to be OK.

When people do need to go to rehab and they don't have a place to put the dog, what we're finding out is how big of a need it is. We provide free temporary fostering services for people that are ready to change their life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Guys, she hasn't seen me in so long. Hi.

KNIGHT: And it becomes their motivator to stay healthy.

Oh, that face.

When we find a foster, we will do a temporary foster contract. You're saving that dog's life and the owner's life, and we're able to prevent a dog going to shelter. We cannot have the solution to euthanize dogs. We can't. I want to be the voice of the dog and to help them, because they don't have that voice.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[12:53:45]

WHITFIELD: For the full story, go to CNNHeroes.com.

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WHITFIELD: All right, this morning, people in Cuba woke up to another day without power. A second blackout hit the island this morning, hours after officials said they were restoring power. And one of the country's major power plants failed yesterday, knocking the entire grid offline. People are lighting fires using flashlights and candles to get by. CNN Havana bureau chief, Patrick Oppmann, joins us now from Havana. Patrick, do officials know what's causing the power plant to fail?

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN HAVANA CORRESPONDENT: You know this has been a slow motion disaster in the making for years, Fred, you know, these power plants, like so much infrastructure here in Cuba, have been poorly maintained. They have constant problems. But it really is unprecedented for the entire country to be without power for so long, and not have there -- been a hurricane or some kind of natural disaster that hits.

And officials say they are working around the clock. They briefly restored power last night and this morning in some small areas, but that almost as quickly, was then knocked out again. You know where I live, where our office is, here in -- in Havana, we've been without power for more than 24 hours. We're on the air thanks to a generator and our wonderful staff that have been able to keep that generator going.

But most Cubans simply are not that lucky. Driving around Havana this morning, I saw much longer food lines than you usually would see. People not able to get water when there's not power -- when there's no power, they're not really able cook. Cubans are used to living in these very difficult conditions, but the reality is people are starting to get more and more worried because it is not clear when the lights are going to go back on.

[13:00:14]

WHITFIELD: All right. Patrick Oppmann, thank you so much. Glad you are able to have that generated power and get by, and kudos to your crew as well. All right. Thank you so much, Patrick Oppmann.