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CNN International: Harris, Trump Target Battleground States With 15 Days Left; Today: Trump Making Campaign Stops In Battleground North Carolina; Today: Harris Campaigns In Pennsylvania, Michigan & Wisconsin. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired October 21, 2024 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
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OMAR JIMENEZ, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Omar Jimenez in New York.
Just ahead on CNN Newsroom, we've got 15 days until the U.S. election. Kamala Harris steps up for her attacks, and Donald Trump steps into a new role as a fast food worker in the final stretch of their campaigns. We'll explain. Plus, Israel vows to keep pounding Hezbollah until it collapses. This as Israel expands its war against Hezbollah, to include financial targets in Lebanon. And the U.S. Defense Secretary makes a surprise visit to Kyiv, announcing a new aid package for Ukraine. We'll have a live report on the importance of this visit.
All right. We've got just 15 days left until Election Day. Both the Trump and Harris campaigns are zeroing in on voters in the key battleground states that will likely decide the race. Trump will make stops in North Carolina, multiple stops, including the city of Asheville, which was devastated by Hurricane Helene recently. Next, he'll head to Greenville for a rally, which is expected to focus on the economy. And later, he'll be joined by his son Eric and Dr. Ben Carson for a meeting with faith leaders.
Trump's team had billed this past weekend as the start to his closing argument for the campaign, but at his events and media appearances, his messages quickly veered into topics ranging from the late golfer Arnold Palmer to working at McDonald's. Trump also, once again, claiming, without evidence, that Kamala Harris never worked at McDonald's in the 80s. That dispute inspired this campaign stop.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm looking for a job, and I've always wanted to work at McDonald's, but I never did. I'm running against somebody that said she did, but it turned out to be a totally phony story. So, if you don't mind, I want to work the French fry counter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: Meanwhile, Harris will be joined by former House Republican Liz Cheney for a series of moderated conversations across blue wall states. The pair starts in Chester County, Pennsylvania, then they travel to Oakland County, Michigan, outside of Detroit, followed by a stop in Wisconsin. Now, the Vice President spent much of her weekend in the swing states of Georgia and Michigan, where she sharpened her attacks on Donald Trump's fitness for office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He is becoming increasingly unstable and unhinged, and it requires that response. I think the American people are seeing it, witnessing it in real time. And we must take note of the fact that this is an individual who wants to be President of the United States, and I think the American people deserve better than someone who actually seems to be unstable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: And we are, of course, tracking both campaigns with CNN's Kevin Liptak and Alayna Treene.
Kevin, I want to start with you first on what's happening with the Vice President. Essentially, what's on the -- what is on the agenda for Harris today?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. And it's interesting, you mentioned she'll be with Liz Cheney, probably the most prominent Republican to have endorsed the Vice President at this point, but what's perhaps more interesting is where she is appearing with Liz Cheney. She is in these suburban counties across all three of those blue wall states, and the Harris campaign really views these as places where there remain some persuadable voters as they try and squeeze out as many votes as they possibly can before Election Day. All three of these counties swung away from Donald Trump between 2016 and 2020, but they also had thousands of votes for Nikki Haley in this year's Republican primary contest, including after Haley had dropped out.
And so, in the eyes of the Harris campaign, these are places where there are voters, in particular, conservative-leaning women, who may be turned off by what we're hearing from Donald Trump on the campaign trail. And it really does show you how the Harris campaign is really sort of methodically going from group to group to try and see who they can bring over to their side before November 5th. We saw that over the weekend, focusing very much on black voters in Georgia. We're seeing it today, as she focuses on these conservative voters in these suburban counties in the blue wall.
Now, she did get some good news on the fundraising front over the weekend. We learned that she raised a billion dollars over the last quarter. That's far and away a record for any presidential candidate. You don't hear her campaign necessarily crowing about it. They are taking a cautious approach. They don't want any of their donors to think that they don't need to help Harris in the lead up to Election Day, in a race that's this neck and neck. She will continue to need to raise money at a rapid clip heading into Election Day. But, what it does allow her to do is spend less time trying to convince donors to donate to her campaign, and more time on the campaign trail, really honing her closing argument.
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And we have been hearing her sharp in that contrast with Donald Trump, calling him unfit, even suggesting he could be mentally unstable. She did that last night in an interview on MSNBC. Listen to what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: And what you see in my opponent a former President of the United States, really is it demeans the office. And I have said, and I'm very clear about this, Donald Trump should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States. He has not earned the right. He has not earned the right, and that's why he is going to lose.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIPTAK: So, that right there is the closing argument for the Vice President. You've heard her sharpen it over the last several weeks, and certainly it's something that she will be continuing to hammer away on right up until Election Day.
JIMENEZ: Yeah. It's interesting to see how these messages have gotten more focused. That's why I want to bring in Alayna Treene now with more on the Trump campaign, because Alayna, Trump is in North Carolina today. I mean, what are we expecting from him?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, you mentioned seeing some of these messages become more focused. I'd actually argue the opposite with Donald Trump. His speeches over the last not just 48 hours, where he did make that Arnold Palmer anecdote that you mentioned, he has been using more profanity, vulgarity, but it's also been what I've seen over the last couple of weeks now. His speeches are getting more meandering. His rhetoric is becoming far darker. His attacks on Harris are getting far more personal. And I'm kind of told that's what we should expect between now and Election Day that Donald Trump is only going to lean into that further.
Now, I do also want to address some of, like I said, the dark rhetoric he made, but he repeated some comments yesterday during an interview with Fox News about the enemy from within. And the reason, Omar, this is so important is because we've seen a lot of high-profile Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who was on air with Jake Tapper yesterday, tried to argue that Donald Trump isn't talking about political opponents. He is not talking about Democrats when he says that.
However, Donald Trump, I think this is the third time now in an interview where he has made it clear that he actually is talking about Democrats. Take a listen to how he put it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HOWARD KURTZ, FOX NEWS HOST: But again, he is a political opponent.
TRUMP: No, no.
KURTZ: He is the enemy.
TRUMP: He is not. No, no. No. He is a -- well, he is -- of course, he is an enemy. He is an enemy. That's an enemy from within. That's really -- that is a threat to democracy. These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people. But, when you look at shifty Schiff and some of the others, yeah, they are, to me, the enemy from within. I think Nancy Pelosi is an enemy from within. She lied. She was supposed to protect the Capitol.
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TREENE: Now, Omar, in some of these remarks, particularly when you're looking at his speeches that he gave this past weekend in Pennsylvania, I will say, similar to what Kevin was arguing about the Harris campaign wanting to deliver their closing arguments, so does the Trump campaign. Just moments before Donald Trump took the stage on Saturday in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Jason Miller, a senior Trump advisor, told reporters that this would be the start, this weekend of him campaigning would be the start of him delivering that closing argument.
Again, however, though, it was a little bit scatter shot. We saw glimpses of what that argument would be tucked into more of the kind of over -- all over the place remarks that he was given. At one point, he said, quote, "With your support, we will bring back our nation's strength, dominance, prosperity and pride." He went on to say that this will be America's new golden age.
So, clearly, I know that is the strategy and that is kind of the rhetoric that they want him to be using. But, again, it was kind of lost in some of the broader conversation that he was having on Saturday. And just to very quickly turn your attention, because you mentioned this, to North Carolina today, I mean, I think there is no question how important the Trump campaign sees North Carolina. He won it in 2016 and 2020.
But, I think the fact that they're having not just three events there today, but they're also going to be in the state tomorrow for a rally, shows how much they may be worried about it, how much they recognize that they really need to turn voters out for the former President. It also comes, of course, as we know that early voting has taken off in North Carolina despite the hurricane that recently ravaged major parts of it. Trump will first be going to Asheville today, a city that, of course, was very much impacted by Hurricane Helene. You'll hear him talking about that. But, I do think you can expect some of the rhetoric that we've been discussing to slip into his messaging at some of these other events. Omar.
JIMENEZ: Well, and as you talked about having a strategy is one thing, sticking to it is something else entirely, as we're seeing.
Alayna Treene, Kevin Liptak, really appreciate you both.
I want to bring in our panel now. Tia Mitchell is a Washington Correspondent for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Justin Carter is a host and investigative reporter for The Shade Room. Good to see you both.
Justin, I want to start with you, because Vice President Kamala Harris was in the Atlanta area yesterday, rallying at a Baptist church on her birthday.
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But, we've seen support for someone like Trump growing among black men. I know you have interviewed the Vice President. Do you get a sense of why we are seeing that, again, reported growth among support of Trump among black men, and how the Vice President sees that reported rise in the support?
JUSTIN CARTER, HOST/INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, THE SHADE ROOM: Yeah, and I brought those numbers, Omar, to her directly, and I said, listen, Vice President Harris, you have to pay attention to the polls, and the polls suggest, at least when I interviewed her a week ago, I said, 81 percent of black men voted for Hillary Clinton back in 2016, and then in 2020, it rose to 87 percent, and you're not getting as much support, at least in the polls, from black men. And she said, you know what, Justin? That is not my experience. I am on the ground. I'm talking to business owners and families about what I can do to show them, to show specifically black men that I am the candidate to vote for.
And again, I just want to quote, she says again, this was not my experience. Election Day hasn't happened yet. I want to earn the votes of black Americans. People think that I'm supposed to have black men in my back pocket in terms of their vote and that -- I should be taking that for granted, because I don't take that for granted. Black men are no different from anybody else. They expect that you have to earn their vote, and that's what I'm out here doing. And of course, that was on the heels of her releasing her opportunity economy plan, which, again, I'm sure you guys covered. It just listed a number of things, including $1 million -- or one million loans forgivable of up to $20,000 specifically for black entrepreneurs.
So, again, that was her message, and she is just trying to go gas pedal forward and trying to make sure that she earns people's votes.
JIMENEZ: Yeah. And a lot of the conversations some of our teams have had have centered around the economy, sort of, I had much more money in my pocket under Trump, and now here is where I am, and that seems to be where a lot of the at least increased support has come from.
And Tia I want to talk about Georgia as well, if we could stay here, because obviously it's going to be a critical state. But, one thing I think about there is Republicans who find themselves caught because they don't support Trump or they disagree with him in many cases, and when Harris is on the campaign trail with someone like Liz Cheney, how much of an impact do you actually think that's going to have in this election? Do you see that impact in the people that you speak to as we head towards this election?
TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: Yeah. I -- that's a good question, because we don't know how many Republican voters are truly persuadable, are truly open to voting for a Democrat. However, in a state like Georgia, that is expected to be close, where Biden and Trump basically had, after all votes were counted, roughly a percentage point difference, then even one percent or two percent of Republicans willing to vote for Kamala Harris could be a difference maker, and the AJC will have some new polling out actually tomorrow on this.
So, I think Kamala Harris, her strategy is every vote counts, particularly in the swing states. She is not just going after her face. She is not just going after black men. She is targeting multiple key demographics. There are surrogate events today targeting Asian American voters, rural voters, and of course, black voters. So, Republican voters are part of the map again, because we expect it to be close, which means just a small shift could make a difference.
JIMENEZ: We are having a little -- a few issues with your audio. So, we're going to work on that real quick.
But, I just want to play a quick soundbite from, I mean really just that sort of embodies the rhetoric that sort of we've seen from both campaigns in this final stretch. Trump seems to be getting a little bit more explicit, grasping at a lot of different concepts. One of our reporters described it really as meandering, while the Vice President seems to be a little bit more direct in attacking his capacity to serve. Take a listen to a little of them both here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: So, you have to tell Kamala Harris that you've had enough that you just can't take it anymore. We can't stand you. You're a (BEEP) Vice President, the worst. You're the worst Vice President. Kamala, you're fired. Get the hell out of here. Fired. Get out of here.
HARRIS: When he does answer a question or speak at a rally, have you noticed, he tends to go off script and ramble, and generally, for the life of him, cannot finish a thought, and he has called it the weave. But, I think we here will call it nonsense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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JIMENEZ: So, just seeing, again, that contrast right there, Vice President Harris clearly sees an opportunity in sort of what we're seeing from the former President. Did you get a sense from either speaking to her or otherwise of what they believe is going to be effective, closing things out in this final stretch?
CARTER: Yeah, yeah. I think, ultimately, it's just about making sure that they are clear about, of course, separating her from him, essentially, and just making her seem like she is the most level headed, the most competent. I think that is the biggest thing I think even her campaign and strategists within her camp are trying to do. They're trying to separate that and show them that her rhetoric and his rhetoric are completely different.
I mean, we heard a lot from the former President just this past week, I mean, calling January 6 the day of love and peace, saying the S word, Vice President, the enemy from within, going after people within our country and calling them the enemy from within, and even talking about Arnold Palmer's naked body. So, we heard a lot.
And also, I question too, because we talk on The Shade Room. We talk a lot about millennials and our audience, our generation Z, and millennials. And you think, are they latching on to this? Is this maybe something that goes viral and something that millennials or Gen Z snack on? Is this being done on purpose, these kind of viral moments being done on purpose, so that millennials, young voters, can snack on this kind of content? Some of them think it's funny. People, many young people who don't know anything about politics or policies or anything like that, they see it as funny, and it could be something that moves the needle forward for Donald Trump.
JIMENEZ: Well, and it seems like with either of these candidates, no matter what appearance they have, they're looking for that clip. They're looking for that moment. And then, yeah, as you mentioned, if it can go viral, it can have similar of an impact as it would be if someone was actually sitting there and watching it play out live.
Tia, I think we got your audio phase. We got your back, because speaking of those snackable moments, I got to ask about the McDonald's visit, because Donald Trump, he went and made an appearance there, worked the drive through. Obviously, this is Trump trolling Kamala Harris, who said she previously worked at McDonald's. Plenty of jokes around this. But, I wonder, do you think the visit was actually effective? Do you see it actually translating over to voters' perceptions of him?
MITCHELL: Well, I think the visit is just going to reinforce what a lot of voters already believe about Donald Trump, whether positive or negative. So, his supporters, again, without any evidence, they believe that Kamala Harris is not telling the truth about working at McDonald's. So, for them, this troll is likely an own of Kamala Harris. But, for those who aren't inclined to support President Trump, are backing Harris, I've seen them. The truth of it is, this was a photo opportunity. It was very staged. There weren't real customers. There weren't real orders. And it -- so, a lot of people are saying this shows how out of touch Donald Trump is. He can't even fake work for McDonald's for a few minutes.
So, I don't think it's going to move the needle. It's just reinforcing what people already believe about either candidate.
JIMENEZ: And I think you either accidentally or purposely stumbled onto what I think is the theme of this election. For a lot of these moments, people to see what they want to see. It's is the Rorschach test election that we've got going on here.
Tia Mitchell, Justin Carter, really appreciate you both. Thanks for being here.
All right. Coming up, vowing to collapse Hezbollah, Israel pounds Lebanon with more strikes over the weekend. We're going to have the latest on the escalating crisis just ahead. Plus, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, personally delivers a new military aid package to Kyiv. It comes amid reports North Korea is sending troops to join the Kremlin's war in Ukraine.
Stay with us.
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[11:20:00]
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JIMENEZ: Israel is ramping up its attacks in Lebanon, as the Israeli Foreign Minister vows to keep pounding Hezbollah until it collapses. Israel says the IDF struck more than 15 buildings in Beirut over the weekend, targeting financial institutions linked to the Iranian-backed group. Lebanese state media reports more than a dozen people were killed, bringing the death toll in Lebanon to more than 1,800 since last month. The IDF says it will continue to defend Israeli people, saying Hezbollah fired about 200 projectiles into Israel on Sunday. This as a U.S. envoy is in Beirut for talks on the increasing violence. Amos Hochstein said Washington has long been warning that things could get worse, and they have.
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AMOS HOCHSTEIN, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY: While we spent 11 months containing the conflict, we were not able to resolve it. In each of my visits, I cautioned that the situation was urgent and the status quo was not sustainable. We were either going to reach a solution or things were going to escalate out of control. I stood at this very podium time after time, including as recently as August, and cautioned about the urgency. A resolution was possible, but it was rejected, and the situation has escalated out of control, out of control as we feared that it could.
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JIMENEZ: CNN' Paula Hancocks is following all the threads of the crisis today, and she joins us from Abu Dhabi. Paula, I want to start with these latest airstrikes in Lebanon. Because why is Israel deciding to expand to financial targets here?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Omar, this is because this particular financial institution, the IDF says, is affiliated with Hezbollah. So, what they're doing is they're showing that anything that can be linked to Hezbollah is considered a target. Now, this is the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association. The IDF says that it holds funds that have been used by Hezbollah for military activities. We know it has been sanctioned as well by the U.S. in the past. But also, we know that this is a financial institution which is used by much of the Shia community. It organizes, for example, interest-free loans for some of the poorer elements of the Shia community. So, it does have those two elements to it.
We have heard from one senior Israeli intelligence official that they are trying to break the trust between this institution, this banking institution, and the Shia community with Hezbollah. So, this is the reason that they are going after a wider element of Hezbollah, not just the military targets, and certainly, it will be felt by many in the Shia community, especially at a time when the economy in Lebanon has been so dire. And of course, many of those in the southern suburbs, for example, of Beirut and also in southern Lebanon, have had to move away from their homes by the Israeli military for their own safety.
So, it's an interesting tactic by Israel saying that this is affiliated with Hezbollah. It is helping them fund their military activities, which is why it is a target. Omar.
JIMENEZ: And we've heard from Israel that they are going to be striking Hezbollah until it collapses. I mean, I guess the question within all of this is, what does that mean for the people in Lebanon trying to escape this war? We already know more than a million have been displaced.
HANCOCKS: So, it's interesting, because the initial war goal of this, what we heard from the Israeli government, was that they wanted to allow tens of thousands of Israeli residents to be able to move back to northern Israel to their homes.
[11:25:00]
They had been displaced since October 7th, just after the Hamas attack in Israel, and that was the war goal. We're now hearing something slightly different. We heard, for example, from the Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, meeting with Israeli troops just along the border with Lebanon, saying that they are moving from defeating the enemy to destroying it. Also, as you mentioned there, the Israeli Foreign Minister saying that they will continue with the fight against Hezbollah until it collapses. Gallant saying that they're moving from a phase of fighting militants in surrounding villages to a situation of destruction.
So, what this effectively means for people of Lebanon, potentially, is that this could last longer than had been originally feared, that this may not just be trying to push Hezbollah back from the border, as was stated originally, to let those tens of thousands of Israelis move back home, but it is more of trying to destroy Hezbollah itself, very similar to what we heard with Hamas in Gaza as well, that the war goal was to destroy Hamas.
So, this is what we're hearing from Israeli officials at this point, and we know that those, more than 1.2 million displaced, have been told by the Israeli military not to move back to their homes until they are told that it is safe to do so. So, certainly, for the civilians in Lebanon, especially those who are displaced at this point, it could mean that the goal has expanded on the Israeli side, and so, the hostilities and this war could continue for even longer. Omar. JIMENEZ: Paula Hancocks, thank you so much for the reporting.
Meanwhile, the United States is looking into how highly classified intelligence documents said to detail Israel's preparations for a strike on Iran were leaked. Now, the documents marked "top secret" began circulating online Friday, describing preparations Israel appears to be making to strike Iran in retaliation for the Iranian missile attack against Israel on October 1st. Now, it's not clear whether the documents were hacked or deliberately leaked. But, House Speaker Mike Johnson telling CNN yesterday, he is following the matter closely.
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REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): The leak is very concerning. There are some serious allegations being made there. Investigation underway.
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JIMENEZ: And America's top diplomat is heading back to the Middle East today. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will make another push for a ceasefire in Gaza, and the U.S. hopes to breathe life back into stalled negotiations to release the hostages and end the war in Gaza, in the wake of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's death. This will be the U.S. Secretary of State's 11th trip to the region since the October 7th attacks by Hamas last year.
And U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has unveiled a new military aid package to Ukraine on a surprise visit to Kyiv. Meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Austin announced an extra $400 million of supplies for the Ukrainian military, including ammunition, artillery shells and missile systems. The latest U.S. support comes just weeks before the presidential election, with the prospects for future aid to Ukraine now in the hands of American voters. A victory for Donald Trump over Kamala Harris next month would put continued U.S. support for Ukraine in doubt.
Meanwhile, North Korean troops may soon be on the battlefield in Ukraine alongside Russian soldiers. There is new video that appears to show troops sent by Pyongyang receiving uniforms and equipment at a facility in Russia. Another video shows soldiers arriving at a training base close to Russia's border with China. The pictures appear to back up Kyiv's suspicion that North Korea has been preparing to send military help to Russia.
CNN's Clare Sebastian has been following all the developments, and joins us from London. So, Clare, let's start with North Korea, because what can you tell us about the report that North Korea could be sending up to 12,000 troops to Russia? What do we know?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, I think it's hard to overstate the potential significance of this. This would be the first time in this two and a half year old war that a third country officially got involved, if indeed we do get strong evidence that North Korean soldiers end up on the battlefield, which, of course, we don't have yet. As of now, the information is coming from Ukraine and also from South Korean intelligence. President Zelenskyy himself was the first to raise this about a week ago. He says that up to 10,000 North Korean troops are preparing to be deployed. South Korea estimates it could be up to 12,000.
Now, the numbers themselves are not huge. Russia, at any given moment, has some several hundred thousand troops deployed in Ukraine, but it is being seen by Ukraine's allies and by Ukraine as a major escalation, because it offers a potential future pipeline for Russia to replenish its forces without having to resort to a controversial mobilization at home. So, it sort of speaks to this ongoing strategy of attrition, Russia trying to extend this war as long as possible to outlast Ukraine.
[11:30:00]
South Korea also extremely concerned. They even summoned the Russian ambassador to Seoul today to urge them to back down on this.
As for the Kremlin, well, they are not explicitly denying this. The Kremlin spokesperson saying today simply that the partnership with North Korea is not directed against a third country, but President Zelenskyy certainly hoping that this will be viewed by his allies as an escalation, urging from them a strong response. Omar.
JIMENEZ: Well, and I want to talk about U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's visit to Kyiv as well, because as we alluded to before coming to you, I mean, this is just two weeks out of the U.S. election. He is announced a new funding package for Ukraine as well. We have known for a while that a lot of folks in Ukraine, on the Ukrainian side, have paid very close attention to what's happening in the United States, especially on Capitol Hill, because of funding packages that have come out. What can you tell us about the state of things now?
SEBASTIAN: Well, look, I think the reason why this visit is so important is because of the timing of it. Right? This is an election in the U.S., certainly, that Ukraine sees as existential. I think the joke in Ukraine is that many people follow U.S. politics more closely than their own politics because of just how important it is for their future. And obviously, they have been watching with some alarm the rhetoric coming from former President Trump that he wouldn't even say outright that he wants Ukraine to win. His running mate, J.D. Vance, has been very openly opposed to sending aid to Ukraine. So, that is very concerning for Kyiv.
And obviously, this is coming at a very critical moment on the battlefield. Russia is inching forward on multiple fronts, counter- attacking in Kursk. The aerial bombardments have gone up exponentially in recent months. Just hours before Secretary Austin's visit, Russia fired some 116 drones and three missiles at Ukraine. So, statements like this from Secretary Austin will be very welcome in Ukraine, even though Kyiv will be looking for more. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: We've moved heaven on earth to help Ukraine, and their inspiring coalition of more than 50 allies and partners continues to stand united to provide your country with the security assistance that Ukraine needs to prevail. Under President Biden's leadership, the United States remains committed to keeping up this support. And so, I'm pleased to announce today the commitment of a $400 million presidential drawdown package to provide your forces with additional munitions, armored vehicles, and any tank weapons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SEBASTIAN: Well, it's clear that the Biden administration has been trying to sort of accelerate to front load aid to Ukraine ahead of the election. I think what Zelenskyy and Kyiv authorities will be watching out for, which hasn't happened yet, is the issue of long-range missiles. Will permissions be granted to use them on military targets inside Russia? And then, of course, the question of an invitation to NATO, which is a core tenet of Ukraine's victory plan. Neither of those have been part of the discussions yet.
JIMENEZ: Clare Sebastian, thank you for keeping us honest on that reporting. Appreciate it.
Meanwhile, anger is mounting in Cuba as the nation's electric grid collapses four times in just a few days, power outages, protests and a tropical storm raging. We're going to have a report from Havana. Plus, daring rescues in Italy after a heavy rainfall. Crews saved a three- month-old baby trapped by rising water. We're going to have the latest from Rome, ahead.
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[11:35:00]
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JIMENEZ: Welcome back, everyone. You are watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Omar Jimenez in New York. Here are some international headlines we are watching today.
In Moldova, voters have backed joining the EU, but by a razor-thin margin, with nearly all the votes counted in a weekend referendum. 50.4 percent have endorsed putting Moldova on a pro-EU path. It may be a little too close for comfort for Moldova's pro-EU President Maia Sandu, who accused foreign groups of trying to undermine democracy. Now, in the presidential race, she failed to win her reelection bid outright. While she did come in first, she faces a run-off on November 3rd.
Meanwhile, a heckler loudly disrupted an appearance by Britain's King Charles in the Australian Parliament earlier, yelling at him, you are not my king.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIDIA THORPE, AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS SENATOR: (Inaudible). You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: Now, the protestor was Lydia Thorpe, a Senator of Indigenous Heritage. In his speech, the king had paid tribute to Australia's first nation's people who lived on the land for tens of thousands of years before British settlers came. Thorpe was escorted out of the parliament after her intervention.
And the man who Turkey blamed for trying to overthrow its President in a deadly coup in 2016 has died at the age of 83. The Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who had lived in the U.S. since 1999, was a bitter rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, though he had once been a close ally. A news outlet linked to Gulen announced he had died in hospital, and said he had been undergoing treatment for some time.
Also, we're following parts of Cuba that remain on high alert at this hour, reeling from the impacts of what is now known as Tropical Storm Oscar. But, on Sunday, Oscar hit Cuba's eastern shores as a hurricane, packing winds of nearly 130 kilometers per hour, and in the coming days, Oscar could drop as much as 18 inches in some spots. Now, all of this is exacerbated by the failure of the nation's power grid. It's collapsed four times since Friday, leaving millions in the dark. Some Cubans protested in the streets overnight. Schools are shut down. Food, fuel and medicine are scarce.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann is in Havana for us. So, Patrick, can you just give us a sense of what's going on where you are now?
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a very challenging situation for people who are not as fortunate as we are that we have a generator, have stores of food and water. They're really having a very difficult time, because most Cubans are perhaps a meal away from going hungry, and over the last three, four days, most people here have not had any power. The government has tried to restore it on a couple of occasions. Right now, they have more power in Havana. Hundreds of thousands of people have gotten power back for the first time this morning.
The issue really, though, has been keeping the power on, not so much restoring it, because this aging, ailing grid that, for years, has been failing. Over the last several days, we've just seen complete failures where -- as authorities get the power grid back online, they just cannot continue to keep it online that it gives out because it is essentially is jerry rigged monster that they have nursed along over the years.
But, as you have just a series of events, Cuban officials blame U.S. economic sanctions, but as well, they are getting less oil from allies like Russia and Venezuela. That is a very important factor, because these power plants, many of them run on that fuel. So, there has been an energy crisis that has been brewing now for months that has really come to a head. So, for your average Cuban that we've been speaking to the last several days, people say their food has spoiled.
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They cannot find any place that is selling food, or if they do, they have to wait in line for hours. It's very difficult to find diesel, petrol for generators, if you're lucky enough to have a generator. So, people are hoping the power will be restored, as the government has promised. But, at this point, millions of people remain in the dark.
JIMENEZ: Wow. I know you've been documenting the updates on social media as well.
Patrick Oppmann, please keep us posted on the situation there.
Meanwhile, we're also following daring rescues underway in Italy, following heavy rain and severe flooding. We're going to show you some images. Take a look here of emergency crews rescuing a three-month-old baby by helicopter. You can see the baby holding the hand of that emergency worker there. This happened in Bologna. Now, the baby and its family were stranded in their home in Sicily. Some residents say, quote, "all hell broke loose after heavy flooding, and the rains are triggering deadly landslides." You see some of those images there. And in northeast Italy, at least one person is dead, swept away by the water.
CNN's Barbie Nadeau joins us from Rome. So, Barbie, can you just bring us up to speed with the scale of the rescue operations and the scale of devastation we've seen as well?
BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: Yeah. The devastation is just unbelievable. That victim was a 20-year-old young man who was swept away in his car in a north central part of the country, unable to get out of his car. But, we've seen some -- just incredible images down south in Calabria, a giant sinkhole opened up in a very busy highway, swallowed a car. Luckily, no one was hurt there.
In Sicily, in the city of Catania, that's right below volcano Mount Etna, the streets were turned into rivers. Back up in the north central area, though, that's where it's really, really still difficult because it's still in a red zone. Civil Protection just put out a notice that until tomorrow, Tuesday, they will be in a red zone for flooding. And this is Italy's heartland. This is a big agricultural area. And so, this is a time the year when people are harvesting their crops and things like that. All of that, of course, is up for grabs. What's going to be able to be salvageable when and if these waters reside?
This is also an area that was recently hit by that Hurricane Boris that came through. And even worse, last year, they suffered incredibly difficult flooding, which means much of the infrastructure from the flooding last year that killed 17 people isn't even back online yet. So, they've got a difficult time ahead, once these rains stop, once they can really survey the damage. There hasn't been a great loss of life. That's lucky. But, the damage and that loss to agriculture and people's homes and properties will be devastating when they come to the end of this terrible road. Omar.
JIMENEZ: And we're seeing a lot of that devastation through some aerial footage that we've been playing during your report.
Barbie Nadeau, thank you so much. All right. Coming up, an explosive and damning report lays out
multiple failures in the lead up to the July assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump. We're going to have the details. Plus, how politics is playing a role in the way social media companies respond to election misinformation. That's just ahead.
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JIMENEZ: A pretty damning report was released this morning. It's laying out the multiple security and communication failures that led up to the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Now, the U.S. House Task Force investigating the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, says by its assessment, the incident was preventable.
CNN National Security Reporter Zachary Cohen joins me now. So, can you just tell us a little bit more about what's in this report?
ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah. Omar, this report contains testimony from local officers who were interviewed by the Joint Task Force, and that testimony really details the chaotic sequence of events between when the gunman was first spotted at Trump's rally until that moment that shots were ultimately fired. And look, that includes a moment when a local officer was pushed up onto that roof and first laid eyes on Thomas Crooks with a rifle in his hands. And this part of the testimony is really compelling. It says, quote, "I tried to get him up on the roof", speaking about the officer. "He is kind of on the side, however he is up there. He comes back down screaming, THERE'S AN AR. AN AR. A GUY WITH AN AR", obviously referring to the assault rifle.
But, it's stunning, because this report says that to date, the task force has not received any evidence to suggest that the message was received by Trump's Secret Service detail about the gunman until after shots were fired. So, that really does underscore the broader communication breakdowns that are littered throughout this report and have been echoed by other investigations into these assassination attempts.
Look, this report comes to a very similar conclusion as those other investigations that, as you said, this incident was preventable and should not have happened, and it really does increase the already existing pressure on the U.S. Secret Service, right? We just had an independent panel convened by the Department of Homeland Security that recommended the entire -- an overhaul of the entire Secret Service leadership as a result of their investigation into the Butler rally assassination attempt. And that's more of a longer term recommendation.
But, in the short term, the Secret Service has faced immense pressure to ramp up security around Donald Trump amid these existing threats that he still faces. I mean, it raises questions, this report included, raises questions about the Secret Service's ability to protect Donald Trump during this home stretch of the election cycle. That's something that we really never thought we would see, right, a presidential candidate who has this level of threats against his life and questions about the agency that's tasked with protecting them.
And so, ultimately, I think you're going to see a lot of big changes at the U.S. Secret Service as the result of these investigations. But, in the short term, still a lot of questions about whether or not the Secret Service is up to the task.
JIMENEZ: Well, and I guess you touched on it a little bit at the end there. But, where does the investigation go from here?
COHEN: This congressional investigation, as you said, is still ongoing. And look, the first half of this really focused on the local law enforcement element. They spent a lot of times interviewing about 23 different officials and officers. They collected thousands of documents from these local law enforcement agencies. The next phase of this investigation, I'm told, is focused on the U.S. Secret Service itself. So, without a doubt, more details to come from that side of it, and frankly, in terms of the long term impact, and this -- really the spotlight that's been on the Secret Service in the wake of this assassination attempt, more details and more relevant details coming from this congressional investigation, as well as the other oversight efforts that are already ongoing as well.
JIMENEZ: All right. Zachary Cohen, appreciate the reporting, as always.
For everyone else, we're going to take a look now at the real world impact of social media companies scaling back their policing of misinformation online. So, as we take a step back, in 2021, when crowds stormed the U.S. Capitol, the major platforms, including Meta, Twitter and YouTube, responded with decisive action and suspended thousands of accounts and posts spreading election lies. Since then, the industry has pivoted away from many of those safeguards, and the evidence is pretty clear to see. So, this year, when social media sites were flooded with misinformation after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the platform said and did almost nothing. The scale back happened, really didn't happen, I should say, in a vacuum, and it's got a lot to do with politics.
So, we're going to bring in CNN Technology Reporter Brian Fung, who joins me now. So Brian, experts who study election misinformation say their jobs have gotten harder, since 2020, not easier. Why?
BRIAN FUNG, CNN TECHNOLOGY REPORTER: Yeah. Omar, what we've seen since 2020 is a gradual shift away from the policies and commitments that, as you said, powered a lot of the anti-misinformation efforts surrounding the 2020 election. As you might remember, after 2016, a lot of the social media platforms came under fire for facilitating and spreading content that had been promoted by Russia to just -- to undermine the U.S. election. And they spent the last -- the four years between 2016 and 2020 really building out a ton of infrastructure to prevent that from happening again.
[11:50:00] Now, what misinformation researchers say is that companies like Elon Musk' X and Meta and YouTube have rolled back policies, or shut down tools that were used by researchers to monitor these social media platforms for rumors and misinformation and understand really how they spread across networks.
But, that wasn't all. There was also an effort by GOP officials at all levels of government to try and undermine content moderation by social media platforms, particularly against election misinformation, and that includes things like lawsuits filed against the Biden administration when it tried to warn social media platforms about misinformation. It also included state laws passed by Texas and Florida that tried to force some of these platforms to mainstream hate speech and other election lies. It also included efforts to intimidate social media researchers, some of the same academics that had flagged these foreign influence operations on Twitter and Facebook and other platforms in the run-up to the 2020 and 2016 elections.
All of this, Omar, ended up creating a culture of fear and intimidation that ultimately raised the political cost of these platforms engaging in anti-misinformation investments, and it made it a lot easier for them to pull back. And as one academic -- one fact- checker told me earlier this year, he said, "The impact of layoffs, budget cuts in journalism programs, and the crackdown on trust and safety teams at X and other major platforms have set troubling precedents as we approach the upcoming elections."
Now, as these platforms have pulled back, what we've seen is also the rise of a vocal group of Silicon Valley financiers and venture capitalists who have generally promoted a message that they're not on board with corporate social responsibility, and that too has created more political space for some of these companies to retreat from some of their earlier commitments and policies. And as one academic from George Washington University told me, look, this is only ever going to be as convenient to -- this is only ever going to be supported by tech platforms as long as it was going to be convenient to them. And this is -- now, we're seeing just the amount of investment that they put in is really proportionate to the amount of political pressure they're under to maintain these programs. Omar.
JIMENEZ: And we're already seeing a lot of misinformation around voting practices, early voting practices online likely is only going to intensify as we get to Election Day and afterward.
Brian Fung, really appreciate the reporting.
Speaking of Elon Musk, the tech billionaire has announced that he will give away a million dollars every day to a registered voter in a battleground state. The only catch, they've got to sign a petition supporting the First and Second Amendment. It was created by his political action committee. Experts say, though, the giveaway could be illegal. One CNN contributor says, however, that most states only make it a crime to pay people to vote, and it's rare for federal prosecutors to bring election bribery cases.
Musk is making the offer to those voters in the states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The first million dollar winner was named on Saturday in Pennsylvania. So, we're going to see how that develops over the course of this election cycle.
All right. For the first time in history, the New York Liberty clinch the WNBA championship, and it was a thriller. You know how I know that? I saw it myself. Details about the overtime win, ahead.
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JIMENEZ: All right, everyone. Before we go, one more thing. Celebrations in New York after the Liberty came out on top in game five of the WNBA finals.
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It was a long time coming. The New York Liberty became the WNBA champions after defeating the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in an overtime nail-biter. Breanna Stewart clinched the trophy for New York after hammering two free throws with just over 10 seconds left in overtime. It's the Liberty's first title in franchise history, after making the finals five times before its -- during its 28 years in the league. And let me tell you, I was there. I shot that video. I've never seen a team win a championship. There were people crying in the stands. The city was waiting for something like this, and they got it. Beautiful.
Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I hope your day is beautiful. I'm Omar Jimenez in New York. Stick with CNN. One World is up next.
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