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Harris and Trump Hold Dueling Events in Battleground Michigan; Harris Says It's Been a "Very Difficult" Year for Arab Americans; Israel Denies Blocking Medical Specialists from Gaza; No Consensus among Quad Leaders on Ukraine's Use of Long-Range Weapons; Chinese Coast Guard Surrounds Taiwan in Blockade Drills; Recent Polling Says Michigan Too Close to Call; Nearly 2K Pages Redacted Documents Released in Trump's Election Subversion Case; Global Water Cycle "Off Balance"; Sports Highlights. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired October 19, 2024 - 05:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and all around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

Donald Trump responds to claims that he's ducking interviews due to exhaustion. That and what he said about a mic mix-up at his rally in Detroit.

Kamala Harris appeals to Arab American voters at a dueling rally in Michigan. Why she says a diplomatic solution to the war in Gaza may still be possible.

Plus, Arab leaders at the United Nations have a new warning about northern Gaza. We will hear their concerns and what Israel has to say in response.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from Atlanta this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: We are now only 17 days away from the U.S. presidential election. More than 11 million Americans have already voted, that's according to data from 42 states.

California leads the way with more than 1.5 million ballots. More than 1.1 million ballots have been cast here in the battleground state of Georgia. Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are working to shore up support.

And later today, Harris heads here to Atlanta, Georgia, for a rally with R&B star Usher. Meanwhile, Trump is expected to court voters Saturday evening in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

CNN's Poll of Polls still shows a very tight race with no clear leader among likely voters. But have a look at this. In one CNN poll, 12 percent of those surveyed said they have chosen a candidate but could still change their minds.

Harris and Trump held multiple campaign events in the critical state of Michigan Friday. The vice president questioned whether Trump is fit to hold office after "Politico" reported he's canceling interviews because he's exhausted. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has more.

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PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Vice president Kamala Harris visiting the crucial battleground state of Michigan as her campaign tries to fortify the blue wall state.

The vice president on Friday to think three key counties, one of which voted for Donald Trump in 2015 but for Biden in 2020. The two other counties were counties that Biden won by wider margins in 2020.

And her campaign right to emulate that and build on that with a message targeting union workers. The vice president talking about manufacturing, talking about union jobs and trying to draw a stark contrast with former president Donald Trump, at times talking about criticizing the former president's anti labor comments.

Now here, the vice president at her rally, also leading with remarks on the Arab American community. Of course, Michigan has a large Arab American population. It has been a community as the vice president and the Democratic Party has grappled and struggled with given the ongoing Israel Hamas war.

The vice president telling this to the American community, given this week's developments with the death of Sinwar. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And listen.

I know this year has been very difficult given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza. And given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon. It is devastating. And now Sinwar's death can and must be a turning point.

Everyone must seize this opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza, bring the hostages home and end the suffering once and for all.

And I continue to believe diplomacy is the answer to bringing lasting stability across the Israel-Lebanon border. And as vice president and with your help as president, I will do everything in my power to achieve these goals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: The vice president also delivered pointed attacks at the former president, talking about him ducking debates and canceling interviews. That a quote from her rally that is going to be an ongoing message by the best vice president in the closing weeks of the election.

As again, they try to lock in their coalition but also peel off voters from the former president -- Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Michigan.

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And Donald Trump pushed back on Harris' claims that he's exhausted, saying he's in excellent physical and mental condition. Here he is.

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TRUMP: What events have I canceled? I haven't canceled. She doesn't go to any events. She's a loser. She doesn't go to any events.

[05:05:00]

She didn't even show up for the Catholics last night at the hotel. It was insulting. They, all they are is sound bites.

I've gone 48 days now without a rest. And I've got that loser, who doesn't have the energy of a rabbit.

Tell me when you've seen me take even a little bit of a rest. Not only am I not -- I'm not even tired. I'm really exhilarated, you know why? We're killing her in the polls.

Because the American people don't want her. She didn't pass her bar exam. She's not a smart person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The former president went back to Detroit Friday after insulting the city last week in front of voters. But he did try to clean up his previous comments. Also, at one point in the rally, Trump's microphone cut out for nearly 20 minutes. The crowd chanted his name as they waited for things to get worked out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Hello.

Thank you, everybody. Thank you.

So now what happens is I won't pay the bill for this stupid company (INAUDIBLE). I don't like the mic anyway. I didn't like it from the minute I started. If it goes out again, I'll sue their ass off, that company.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Well Harris and Trump are getting support on the campaign trail from some high level surrogates. Former president Barack Obama campaigned in the battleground state of Arizona on Friday to get out the vote for Harris and for Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego.

Obama mocked Donald Trump's behavior at a town hall earlier this week, seen in this video here. And as you can see, during that event, Trump swayed and listened to music for around half an hour. And here's what Obama said about it.

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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I do have to point out that, along with his intentions, there is also a question of his competence.

Have you seen him lately?

He just decided, you know what, I'm going to stop taking questions and then he's swaying to "Ave Maria" and "Y.M.C.A." for about half an hour. You would be worried if your grandpa was acting like this.

No, no.

I'm not joking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk is campaigning on behalf of Trump, speaking at a town hall in Pennsylvania, the Tesla CEO and owner of X urged voters to support the former president while repeating debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being stolen.

Here he is.

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ELON MUSK, TWITTER OWNER: Because it was a question of like, say, the Dominion Voting Machines. It is weird that the -- I think they're used in Philadelphia and in Maricopa County but not in other places. That seemed like a heck of a coincidence.

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BRUNHUBER: And joining us now is Thomas Gift, the director of the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London.

Good to see you again. So first, both candidates held dueling events in Oakland County in Michigan. Talk to me about where they were.

Why is that county specifically so important to them?

THOMAS GIFT, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: Well, it's great to be with you, Kim, as always, thanks so much for having me. You know, Michigan is definitely going to be tight. FiveThirtyEight has the odds of Trump or Harris winning Michigan as dead even. So, Oakland County and I'll add to that, Kent County, are really two places to watch.

Oakland County, that includes suburban Detroit; Kent County includes Grand Rapids. Both have really been trending blue in recent elections. But some polls show that Trump is making some inroads there.

I think both Oakland and Kent Counties could really be leading indicators for the rest of Michigan. In 2020, Joe Biden won those counties by combined 130,000 votes and his statewide margin was about 154,000.

So Trump doesn't have to win these counties. He just needs to improve his performance by maybe 10,000 or 20,000 votes, perform a bit better than he did four years ago in Michigan's rural counties. If he does, I think he could crack Michigan.

On the flip side, Harris can actually cede Biden's margin in some of these counties, Trump will have a significantly harder time outside winning.

BRUNHUBER: So obviously, margins so close in that state. There's a huge Muslim population there, huge Arab American population. Obviously the war in Gaza, very important with many voters there.

We heard Kamala Harris addressing that in that clip. We've already seen several large, high-profile Arab American groups decide not to endorse any candidate.

So how much do you get a sense that the war in Gaza will hurt Harris?

GIFT: Well, there are certainly Democrats who say they won't vote for Harris because of what they allege has been her insufficient support for Gaza. These are by-and-large single issue Democrats who likely won't vote for Trump. They just might not vote at all.

And they're taking a very uncompromising line, that basically if a candidate doesn't meet the threshold to what they consider acceptable on Israel-Palestine, that they're just going to abstain from voting.

I do think that that ignores trade-offs that sometimes you have to attack the middle to reach a second best outcome. During the Michigan primary back in February, there were more than 100,000 Democrats who voted uncommitted when Biden was the nominee.

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That makes up about two-thirds of the vote disparity by which Biden beat Trump in 2020. And it's not just Michigan, Kim. North Carolina as well had more than 80,000 votes come in uncommitted during the primaries in Gaza. So this is a real concern for the Harris campaign and one that they are taking very seriously.

BRUNHUBER: Yes and, you know, Gaza is one issue that she's tried to kind of distinguish herself from President Biden, although the distinction is quite slim. And it's something that keeps coming up. She, she's always asked what she would have done differently from President Biden and she seems to struggle with that question.

GIFT: I agree. I mean, that's true on Gaza and it's true on other issues as well. When she was asked that on "The View" and basically she said that she

would support everything that Joe Biden had done, I do think that that's a problem because she's saying that she wants to turn the page for the next generation.

Of course, she's also tethered to all of the policies of Joe Biden. I think she needs a clear, snappy response to that question. It's such an obvious one. But I'm not sure why political advisors haven't figured out what the response to that when she's asked is.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, exactly. It is an obvious one. She should have a top three lists of things and she seems to devolve into some vagaries there. In terms of the Democrats, they seem to be leaning into this narrative about Trump being exhausted.

As I mentioned off the top, we've seen some reporting around that. Trump's canceled several interviews. He's pushed back on that, of course, but it must be a risky thing for Harris to do, considering President Biden is still the actual president.

GIFT: Yes, absolutely.

And of course, those criticisms keep coming in by Republicans, that Joe Biden should step down. If he's not fit enough to run for office, then he's not fit enough to serve. I also think that it's just a distraction.

Kamala Harris can make this case all that she wants but she really needs to focus on policy. I just don't understand why she's getting into these games with Donald Trump about personality and kind of ad hominem criticisms.

It's not reaching out to any swing voters. It's only appealing to the base of people that believe that Donald Trump is washed up, that he's tired, that he's fatigued, that he's crazy, that he's senile.

Those Democrats are already a vote for Kamala Harris. She needs to make inroads with swing voters who are going to be motivated, I think, by other issues.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, great point. We'll leave it that there. Thomas Gift in London. Thank you so much, really appreciate it.

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BRUNHUBER: We're following a developing story out of Israel. There are no reports of casualties after a drone was launched from Lebanon at the home of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His spokesperson says the Israeli leader and his wife weren't at the residence in the city of Caesarea this morning.

Meanwhile, U.S. and Israeli leaders are starting to see a long shot opportunity following Israel's killing of the top Hamas leader. Israeli sources tell CNN that returning Yahya Sinwar's remains to Gaza could be used as a bargaining chip to free the hostages still held there.

Israel's president and prime minister say there's a significant window of opportunity to bring the hostages back and eliminate Hamas for good while U.S. President Joe Biden says, there's now a road to peace, even though it won't be an easy one.

The family member of one hostage says, Sinwar's death is giving him some hope.

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MICHEAL LEVY, BROTHER OF HAMAS HOSTAGE: It was a big shock and the first second and then my second thought was, OK.

Now we have a real chance to find a way to seal the deal.

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BRUNHUBER: Concerns are growing over IDF activity in northern Gaza where officials say at least 33 people were killed in a strike on the Jabalya refugee camp Friday. The Palestinian observer to the U.N. says the entire civilian population is facing extreme danger.

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RIYAD MANSOUR, PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: We have a large delegation of Arab ambassadors, 10 of us, that met with the secretary general based on a decision that we made in an emergency meeting of the Arab investigators a few days ago.

In that meeting, we assessed the situation, especially the extreme danger of large-scale genocide in the northern part of Gaza, in which there are 400,000 Palestinian civilians being threatened, either to be killed or to be starved to death.

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BRUNHUBER: While Israel is denying accusations that it's blocking medical specialists from entering Gaza, on Friday, the World Health Organization told CNN that more than 50 specialist medical personnel had been denied entry between August and October.

But the Israeli agency that coordinates the inspection and delivery of humanitarian aid says they don't limit the number of humanitarian teams.

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It argues that significant efforts have been made to allow medical personnel into the enclave. Melissa Bell joins us now live from Paris with more.

So Melissa, as I just said, there more questions about Israel allowing aid and medical NGOs into Gaza.

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's certainly a dire situation that continues to get worse inside the enclave.

Of course, Kim, what we understand from health sources inside the Gaza Strip this morning is that Israeli forces continue this morning to take on through airstrikes two of the northern Gaza hospitals.

After of course, as you mentioned, overnight, we saw those airstrikes that killed 33 in the Jabalya refugee camp, including say Gazan health officials, 21 women.

So the violence against the enclave has not lessened as a result of what's happened over the last few days and neither has the rhetoric on both sides. Kim.

We've been hearing also this morning from the deputy of Yahya Sinwar about what his death will mean, saying that the demands of Hamas remain as they have been for the last year, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, the liberation of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

Essentially the same demands they've been making throughout. The question now, of course, what the succession will choose to do, who it will be, first of all, whether it will be Yahya Sinwar's brother, still believed by Israeli forces to be inside the Gaza Strip, or some of those Hamas leaders who are currently in exile in Qatar.

It's unclear who takes over. Certainly the message this morning is that their fight and their demands remain the same, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Yes.

So still waiting to find out what will happen with Hamas. We're also still waiting for Israel's response to Iran's attack.

So what more are we learning about the timing there?

BELL: Well, we understand from American officials is that they believe the response will come before the American election with a lot of pressure being brought to bear as we understand it on Israeli officials to show restraint in that response.

Many questions Kim, of course, about whether Israel will stick to targeting military facilities, whether or not it will target nuclear or oil facilities, which, of course, would have a big impact, specifically the oil facilities on oil prices.

And that, of course, itself would be an impact, could have an impact in the forthcoming poll. We do expect a response before but just in terms of what American officials have been saying and the president himself have been saying about what Yahya Sinwar's death might mean.

Initially we'd heard from President Biden, hope that this might represent something of a breakthrough, an opportunity certainly to start looking for a ceasefire since the comments have been a little bit more tempered, that whilst the possibility of a cease-fire with Lebanon is there in Gaza, says the American president, looks more difficult. And I think that gives you an idea of what I mentioned a moment ago.

That is what we've been hearing from inside the Gaza Strip itself in response to the death of the Yahya Sinwar.

BRUNHUBER: All right.

So appreciate those updates. Melissa Bell, thanks so much.

U.S. President Joe Biden just made a quick trip to Europe for meetings with some of America's closest allies. We will have details about what he talked about with the leaders of Germany, France and the U.K.

And Donald Trump and Kamala Harris targets swing states and undecided voters in the final stretch of the U.S. presidential race. A lot more on that coming up, stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Russia's war in Ukraine was on the agenda during President Biden's meeting with European leaders on Friday. Biden said he and the leaders of Germany, France and the U.K., who together form the so- called Quad, expressed unanimous support for Ukraine.

But he said there's still no consensus on whether to allow Ukraine to use long-range range weapons to hit targets deep inside Russia. Here he is.

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BIDEN: As Ukraine faces a tough winter, we must, we must sustain our resolve, our effort and our support. I know the cost is heavy. Make no mistake. It pales in comparison to the cost of living in the world where aggression prevails.

OLAF SCHOLZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): Our stance is clear.

We are supporting Ukraine as strongly as possible. At the same time, we are ensuring that NATO does not become a party to the war, so that this war does not lead to an even greater catastrophe.

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BRUNHUBER: Biden and his counterparts also discussed their plans to provide additional security, economic and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.

There was a show of force this week, literally encircling Taiwan. China's Coast Guard played an unprecedented role in military drills around the island as its ships and jets participated in a simulated blockade of Taiwan.

The maneuvers came just days after Taiwan's president rebuked China's claims of sovereignty. CNN's Will Ripley picks up the story and reports on China's bizarre propaganda image of the exercises.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On Friday, the president of Taiwan, Lai Ching-te, paid a visit to the island's Coast

Guard, where he thanked them for their service and pledged to build 11 new Coast Guard vessels over the next seven years, significantly beefing up the

island's Coast Guard defense at a time that Taipei is sounding the alarm about China's Coast Guard and the key role it played in the Joint Sword-

2024B drills that simulated a Taiwan blockade earlier this week.

This was the first full encirclement of Taiwan by China's Coast Guard, Taipei says, including using a 12,000-ton vessel, one of 17 vessels that

Taipei says it detected around it's territorial waters during the drills. They also say China's Coast Guard intruded into restricted waters near

Taiwan's outlying Matsu Islands.

Now this is not the first time this year that China's Coast Guard has been accused by Taipei of playing an increasingly large role in intimidating the

island.

[05:25:00]

It was back in February when China's Coast Guard actually boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat, checked everyone's ID and detained them, giving

people quite a scare and sparking an online frenzy here about the role of China's Coast Guard, something that Taipei has long referred to as a gray

zone tactic, nonmilitary but nonetheless, coercive and intimidating force sanctioned by Beijing.

In addition to the Coast Guard activities near Taiwan, they posted a propaganda image showing the track of the vessels that encircled this self-

governing democracy that appeared to be in the shape of a heart. In fact, Chinese propaganda even referred to Taiwan as sweetheart, seen as creepy by some locals here in Taiwan.

Taiwan's Coast Guard has called the Chinese Coast Guard actions harassment, not law enforcement. And they say that this is being stepped up at a time

that Beijing is trying to put pressure on Taipei while falling short of triggering an actual military confrontation.

The Taiwanese Coast Guard even said they intercepted a Chinese smuggler near the outlying Kinmen Islands, another suspected gray zone tactic that

they say this island and the world needs to be on the lookout for, because it's not just happening in Taiwan there have also been confrontations

between China's Coast Guard and other Coast Guards particularly in the Philippines over disputed shoals there -- Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.

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BRUNHUBER: Still to come, both presidential nominees hit the campaign trail in Michigan on Friday, hoping to bolster support across the important swing state.

Plus hundreds of documents in Trump's election subversion case have been released. We've seen most of them before but there are some new nuggets about Trump's behavior. We'll have details on that after the break, please stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: And welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world.

I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are battling for voters in the critical state of Michigan, holding multiple campaign events on Friday. The vice president questioned whether Trump is fit to hold office after "Politico" reported he's canceling interviews because he's exhausted.

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KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And now he is ducking debates and canceling interviews.

Come on. His own campaign team recently said it is because of exhaustion.

Well, if you are exhausted on the campaign trail, it raises real questions about whether you are fit for the toughest job in the world.

(ENDS VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, former president Trump is trying to chip away at Democratic support in blue wall states. He held a rally in Detroit and a roundtable in Oakland County on Friday. He said he'd boost American auto manufacturing by slapping steep tariffs on imported vehicles.

The U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and her rival Donald Trump are targeting swing states, including Pennsylvania and Michigan, while trying to appeal to undecided voters. Harris is also planning another campaign appearance with Liz Cheney in an attempt to sway disaffected Republican voters concerned with Trump.

This comes as recent polling shows the race and Michigan is too close to call. And despite the close race, Donald Trump has continued to take an interesting approach during his campaign stops in Michigan. Listen to his thoughts on Detroit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The whole country is going to be like, you want to know the truth, they'll be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she's your president. You're going to have a mess on your hands.

You know Detroit has such great potential but Kamala and the Democrats have been wreaking havoc on this place, this very, very, in many respects, it's a sacred place. So many things happened in Detroit and it's been treated so badly.

And they've been talking about comebacks for so long but we're going to bring it back better than it ever was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Well, the battleground state of Michigan has had historically narrow election margins. In 2016, Trump won the state by less than a percentage point. That's the equivalent of about 10,000 votes between him and Hillary Clinton.

And four years later, he lost the state to Joe Biden by around 150,000 votes.

All right.

I want to go live now to Michael Traugott, research professor emeritus at the Center for Political Studies of the University of Michigan.

Thanks so much for being here with us. So this time around, I mean, it's a historically close election, within the margin of error basically in Michigan as well. Part of your expertise is on polls and polling.

So what are the numbers telling you?

MICHAEL TRAUGOTT, RESEARCH PROFESSOR EMERITUS, CENTER FOR POLITICAL STUDIES, UMICH: Well, the national polls show a very close race, although Kamala Harris may be slightly ahead.

But, of course, we've learned in recent elections that is not the popular vote that elects the U.S. president. It's the Electoral College vote. And there are seven key states, the so-called battleground states, in which the difference within each except perhaps one is within the margin of error.

So it's a very, very tight election all around.

BRUNHUBER: And, of course, Michigan is so vital. Take us through why Michigan is so important to these candidates and specifically why they would both have events in the same county, in Oakland County.

TRAUGOTT: Well, Michigan is one of the seven battleground states. It has been very tightly contested recently. And as you just mentioned, it was won by Donald Trump in 2016 and then by Joe Biden in 2020.

Joe Biden's victory of 150,000 is at risk this year for Kamala Harris, because there are probably over 100,000 Arab Americans in the state of Michigan, actually quite concentrated geographically in the southeast part of the state, who are going to abstain from voting for the president because of the Biden administration's policy toward Israel.

And then the conflict in Gaza. So that puts the state right back into toss-up.

BRUNHUBER: It's interesting that it would have such a pronounced effect and we can see Donald Trump's side trying to take advantage of this, you know, perhaps indecision over this issue they've seen.

We've seen sort of pro Trump organizations running campaigns basically in different neighborhoods, trying to portray Harris as either pro Israel to, in Muslim areas, and then pro-Palestinian in Jewish areas.

[05:35:04]

I mean, it seems fairly cynical but how effective do you think that might be?

TRAUGOTT: Well, there aren't very many undecided people left. But I would say that there are two different groups of undecideds by party.

On the Republican side, there are undecided voters who are trying to figure out whether or not they can support Donald Trump because of personal characteristics, some of his positions and also because of his age and his recent speeches.

But on the Democratic side, especially among critical groups like Arab Americans, there are policy related concerns, especially in this case foreign policy related concerns. And they'll probably abstain from voting as well.

So one of the strategies each candidate has turned to is trying to reduce the plurality that the other candidate has had in certain areas. And that's why we see Kamala Harris going into some Republican areas like Grand Rapids and Donald Trump going into some traditionally Democratic areas around Detroit suburbs.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, despite insulting the city while he was there, although he tried to kind of walk those back last night.

Now, before we go, I wanted to ask you, a few weeks ago, we saw a Democratic congresswoman admitting that Harris' campaign in Michigan was underwater. Those were her words.

Was that just sort of a fundraising tactic do you think or are there problems there with her campaign in your state?

TRAUGOTT: I wouldn't say it was related to fundraising.

I think it's motivational with the goal of stimulating turnout. In other words, you know, you need to work harder to make sure that Democratic voters get to the polls and cast their ballots.

BRUNHUBER: Interesting.

Well, we'll see whether that'll work. Such a vital state. Really appreciate getting your insights on Michigan. Michael Traugott, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

TRAUGOTT: Good to be with you, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right.

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BRUNHUBER: Nearly 2,000 pages of heavily redacted documents in the 2020 election subversion case were made public on Friday.

Now most of the visible information has already been released. But there are few new details, including the moment an employee gave Trump a Diet Coke while he watched the riot on TV in the White House dining room. More now from CNN's Katelyn Polantz.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The federal court in Washington on Friday released nearly 2,000 pages of evidence in the 2020 election case against Donald Trump.

But much of it looks like this. Blank or sealed, redacted. That's because this evidence is backing up what the Justice Department says a trial court must look at that would be shown to jurors at a trial to try and prove Donald Trump was conspiring against the federal government as a candidate for office, not as the president.

At this point in time, we've heard the narrative from the Justice Department.

They've written that and they've described what Trump was doing and the evidence that they've gathered. But now, as of Friday, the Justice Department has this evidence put into the court record in largely these blank pages, these sealed records.

There are some things in this evidence that we can see, that we know the Justice Department wants to rely on for their case that's already been public, things like Donald Trump's tweets, speeches and transcripts of speeches he was giving after the 2020 election, saying he didn't believe that he had lost.

Even though the Justice Department says he knew very clearly that he had. There are other things like Mike Pence's book.

That is also in this court record that we can see publicly, photocopied pages of Pence's book, where things that Trump was saying to him that he wrote about as when he was during the vice presidency, that are highlighted by the prosecutors.

All of this is going to be looked at by the trial judge as she considers whether this case can move on to trial. It also is very likely to be looked at by appeals courts in the future, again, to determine whether Trump can go to trial or whether he has protection because of the presidency.

But his team has been digging in. They do not like the fact that any of this has been released in court at this time, especially before the election. They claim it's election interference, which the judge says it absolutely not -- is not; it's litigation.

But they also are trying to build a record to say this judge has just not handled things appropriately. Whether that is going to be an argument that goes far in the appellate courts, we will have to see.

[05:40:00]

But it's very likely this case is going to go back to the Supreme Court before a trial is even on the calendar -- Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Scientists are warning that the world's water cycle has been thrown out of balance and human activity is to blame. Consequences would be disastrous. We'll have that ahead. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: For the first time in human history the so-called global water cycle is off balance, causing a crisis that could wreak havoc on our lives and the world's economies. The water cycle refers to the way water moves around the Earth from evaporation to condensation to precipitation.

The Global Commission on the Economics of Water published a warning in a new report, which outlines the risks of the imbalance.

And the commission says disruptions to the water cycle are already causing water scarcity and they warn this could impact more than half of global food production, which in turn is projected to shave off a chunk of countries' gross domestic product by 2050. And low-income countries could see the worst of the impacts.

And joining us now from Stockholm, Sweden, is Johan Rockstrom. He's the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Thank you so much for being on with us here. So the global water cycle is off balance. I gave a brief explanation of what that is.

But can you help us understand how exactly this is happening?

JOHAN ROCKSTROM, DIRECTOR, POTSDAM INSTITUTE FOR CLIMATE IMPACT RESEARCH: Yes, thanks, and great to be with you.

Well, as you summarize, we have a very challenging starting point with half of the world's population already facing water scarcity and 1 million people dying just because of mismanagement and water pollution.

And now we're facing the challenge that climate change and land use change is shifting the very supply of all fresh water, which is rainfall. And rainfall is shifting. We see more droughts, floods; heat waves causes water to evaporate, which tends to trigger fires.

[05:45:02]

And all of this together leads to even worse situation with regards to water supplies. So we assess in the new Global Commission on the Economics of Water that 3 billion people are sliding toward even worse water scarcity situations.

And we can see that in the southern parts of the U.S. We see it in India, we see in the Mediterranean, African regions, where the water scarcity situation is worsening because of climate change and land use change.

BRUNHUBER: OK, so it sounds like it's a vicious cycle, I guess. Climate change skeptics say, listen, there have always been fluctuations with temperatures and the water cycle. The world looked very different millions of years ago when you look at the oceans and so on, the lakes.

Is there evidence that this is new and it was caused by humans?

ROCKSTROM: The answer is yes. We have the U.N. International Panel for Climate Change, the IPCC, showing that we've now reached 1.2 degrees Celsius. So global mean surface temperature rise caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel burning. In particular, we've just touched 1.5 degrees Celsius in the year

2023, the warmest temperature on Earth over the past 100 years. That is well established. And 2023 was a record year on water extremes. Insurance companies estimate that this has cost the global economy $200 billion U.S.

And all of these extremes caused by climate change are in one way or another related to water. Storms, floods; if you look at Helene and Milton, it's not verified that these were reinforced by climate change but we know that it's exactly what we're expecting.

Warmer oceans lead to more fierce storms and more downpours of extreme rainfall, resulting in flooding, which impacting on people's livelihoods and assets. So I would say that this is now well established that we're causing imbalance in the global energy balance on planet Earth, which causes an imbalance in the water cycle.

BRUNHUBER: When we think of the water cycle, it sounds very abstract. But I was noticing in some of the information that you put out -- and it seemed to have a pronounced effect on rivers. And those effects seem to spill out, especially on the human population.

Is that right?

ROCKSTROM: Oh, yes.

I mean, remember that water is life. Water is fundamentally what enables us to have food, good health, all functioning ecosystems, all biodiversity. Everything depends on fresh water. And what we're seeing is that river basins around the world are running dry.

We have the Colorado River, we have the Limpopo River, we have the Yellow River. If you go from China to Africa, to the U.S. we see massive changes in the flow in these rivers, which is because of land use change. So deforestation.

I mean, just one statistic, 50 percent of the rainfall on land is not originating from the ocean but it's originating from healthy nature, healthy forest systems in upwind countries.

And you have atmospheric rivers flowing the water downwind. So we see that the way we degrade nature is impacting on the water availability in downwind regions.

And this is affecting economies across the world. So, yes, it's very concrete. It's very localized and it's having major impacts.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely and it sounds like limiting climate change, obviously that's the long-term solution.

But in the meantime, I mean, what are we going to have to do in order to adapt and mitigate some of this damage?

ROCKSTROM: We have many proposals in the Global Commission of Economics of Water report. We talk of a number of missions and mission number one is actually to manage the food production in the world in a different way.

Because over 90 percent of your and my fresh water need every day is actually not for drinking water, is not for health. It's for food. We calculate it's quite a dramatic number. The U.N., the United Nations, shows we need some 50 to 100 liters of high-quality fresh water each day for our human health.

But if you want to have a healthy diet, you need another 3,500 liters per person per day. So there you see what an enormous jump.

If we can manage water and agriculture for irrigation, drip irrigation systems, having more efficient management of water for food production, that's one way of really saving water and building more resilient economies around the world.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. A great message to end on. Johan Rockstrom in Stockholm, thank you so much, really appreciate it.

ROCKSTROM: Thanks.

BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll be right back.

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BRUNHUBER: The Minnesota Lynx held off the New York Liberty in another nail-biter, keeping their season alive, enforcing a winner- take-all game five in the WNBA finals. Andy Scholes joins me now with more.

So Andy, incredible backs -- back and forth between these two teams all series.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORT CORRESPONDENT: Yes and, Kim, yes.

This has been a great series. Both teams have already come back from 15 point deficits to win games. Game four though, it was tight throughout, we had 14 lead changes and 13 ties. No team led by more than six points.

Liberty were down by three with under 90 seconds to go. Jonquel Jones gets the bucket plus the foul there. She hit the free throw to tie it up. The Liberty, they had three chances with under a minute to go to take the lead. But Brianna Stewart misses twice.

Now on the Lynx next possession, Courtney Williams is going to miss. But Bridget Carleton gets the rebound and gets fouled by Sabrina Ionescu. Carlton makes both free throws.

So could we get some more Sabrina magic this time to win the title? No. Her shot no good at the buzzer. Lynx win 82 to 80 to force a

winner take all game five on Sunday. After the game Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello, not happy with the officiating.

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SANDY BRONDELLO, HEAD COACH, NEW YORK LIBERTY: If we're getting hit, that's a foul. And that -- I'm one of the nicest bloody coaches in this league.

But this pisses me off.

[05:55:00]

Just be fair. If they're getting hit, it's a bloody foul. But you know, in the end, we could -- twice again, things we could have done a little bit better. We all could have done better, including me getting that fucking time-out.

Sorry, I shouldn't say that. Don't repeat it.

But so we just have to go back to New York and win.

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SCHOLES: The Yankees meanwhile are a win away from their first World Series since 2009. Game four another nail-biter in Cleveland and Carlos Dan just continuing to be one of the best post-season hitters ever, homering again. This was his fourth of the postseason.

That put the Yankees up 6-2 in the sixth. Bottom eighth now, two outs, Guardians down a run. David Fry gets a dribbler but Mark Lauder Jr., a bad throw, Cleveland ties it at 6 on the air. But the Yankees get lucky themselves in the ninth. Brian Rocchio drops the ball here trying to make the play.

New York would end up getting two runs in the inning. They win it 8-6. They can close out that series tonight.

Over in the NLCS, the Mets staying alive with a big win over the Dodgers in game five, Pete Alonzo setting the tone from the get-go with a three-run home run in the first. The Mets then put up five in the third. Starlyn Marta, he was 4 for 5, 3 RBIs in this one after getting no runs off Jack Flaherty in game one of the series.

Mets getting eight off of him in just three innings last night. New York wins 12-6. So what we've learned, Kim, you can never count out these Mets. The Subway Series still alive. We could get a Mets-Yankees or we get Dodgers-Yankees or Guardians. Guardians still have a chance to come back.

But baseball postseason has been great thus far.

BRUNHUBER: Lots of permutations there. We'll have to keep an eye on it. Thank you so much. Andy Scholes, really appreciate it.

All right.

That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. For viewers in North America, "CNN THIS MORNING" is next. For the rest of the world it's "AFRICAN VOICES: CHANGEMAKERS."