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Harris and Trump Crisscross Swing States 15 Days from Election; Harris Rallies Black Churchgoers to Vote for Democrats; Democrats Face Years of Declining Support Among Black Voters. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 21, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: With just 15 days until Election Day, more than 13 million Americans have already voted. And for those who haven't, both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump are sharpening their closing messages, Harris shifting her strategy to inject a sense of urgency as she leans into the Democrats argument that Trump is unfit to be president.

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KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He's becoming increasingly unstable and unhinged. And it requires that response. I think the American people are seeing it, witnessing it in real time.

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HILL: And the message from Donald Trump is this.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: 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 (BLEEP) vice president.

Arnold Palmer was all man.

He took showers with the other pros. They came out of there. They said, oh my God.

But when you look at Shifty Schiff and some of the others, yes, they are, to me, the enemy for weather.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Good Monday morning. You're live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Erica Hill in for Jim Acosta.

A busy start to the week for both Harris and Trump on the campaign trail. Let's dive right in with CNN's Danny Freeman, who's in Malvern, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. Kristen Holmes is in Concord, North Carolina, which is just outside of Charlotte.

Kristen, let's start with you here. So, Donald Trump making a campaign stop over the weekend at a McDonald's, clearly continuing perhaps with this trolling that he's done of the vice president. Walk us through what happened in that photo op.

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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, Erica, this should be described for exactly what it was, which, as you said, was a campaign photo of the restaurant itself was closed. Unsurprisingly, the Secret Service does not really allow him to do these kind of off- the-record events unless the venue itself is closed.

But it gave him an opportunity to focus on something that he's really been fixated on for the last several months, and that is Kamala Harris's tenure at McDonald's. She has said that when she was younger, she worked the French fry machine at McDonald's. Donald Trump has said that that's simply not true. He has absolutely no evidence of that, but he has continued to hammer that point almost to a point of obsession. And, of course, he did it again when he was in McDonald's over the weekend at this franchise in Pennsylvania. Take a listen.

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TRUMP: 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.

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HOLMES: Now, Donald Trump and his team relish in these kind of photo ops. They relish in this kind of trolling and how the voter sees it really largely depends on where you fall on the political spectrum. Conservatives, Republicans, they loved that he did it. Democrats, they said that it was silly. We heard some Democrats saying that he was making fun of McDonald's workers. But, again, we live in such a polarizing time that it really depends on where you stand.

Now, one thing I do want to note, as you noted, I am here in North Carolina, a state that is considered a critical battleground state and one that when Joe Biden was at the top of the ticket, Donald Trump and Republicans felt like was in the bag. I will let you decide or let our viewers decide how they feel now, given that they have two events, two days of events in North Carolina, this close to the election. Obviously, they are feeling some heat in this state today.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. Danny, when we look at the schedule for Kamala Harris today, right, she is really pressing hard in these blue wall states.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Erica. If this past weekend for Vice President Kamala Harris was all about rallying black voters in cities like Atlanta and Detroit, she had Lizzo, she had Usher, she had Stevie Wonder singing her happy birthday, today is really all about the suburbs, specifically of these blue wall or these rust belt states.

And the goal of the Harris campaign, you can see by the tone of some of these events, is really aimed at targeting some of these suburban, moderate, and, frankly, conservative women. And this area that we are in right now is really indicative of what the day is going to be like. We're in Chester County, Pennsylvania right now, one of these all important suburban collar counties.

Interestingly enough, make no mistake, Chester County is a blue county, but back in 2012, it was actually one of the counties -- one of the only suburban collar counties that went for Mitt Romney. And it was considered a big problem when former President Donald Trump lost this county back in 2016. It was considered a step backwards for Republicans in this particular area.

This area is affluent. It's highly educated. And most interestingly, perhaps for the purposes of this campaign, Erica, is that this collar county had the highest percentage of Nikki Haley voters voting in that Pennsylvania Republican primary this past year. All the more reason why you can expect to see Vice President Harris here alongside former Congresswoman Liz Cheney in just a matter of maybe an hour and a half or so.

The goal here is to again rally conservative and moderate women.

[10:05:02]

And it's been a strategy that we've seen the Harris campaign employing not just today, but also last week as well. I was in Bucks County, not too far from where we are here, another suburb of Philadelphia where she held an event with a hundred Republicans trying to say that this ticket, the Harris-Walz campaign is a unity bipartisan ticket. The messaging there was all about putting the country over party. I think that that's exactly what you can expect to hear from the campaign today again from this event and perhaps the others along the Rust Belt states as well. Erica?

HILL: Let's look at Harris' day. You know, Kristen, as you mentioned the fact that the former president is there in North Carolina today, what more specifically do we know about these stops and who he's hoping to really connect with?

HOLMES: Well, one thing I think is very interesting when you hear Danny talking now is this idea of Harris trying to reach out to these moderate women voters, particularly suburban women voters. One of the things that Donald Trump's team seems to really have realized in the last several weeks is that this gender gap is real. It's not just real for Donald Trump. It's real for Republicans across the board, and they're trying to make up for it in any way that they possibly can.

Now, here in North Carolina, what I would expect for us to see from him is, one, he is going to an area that was hit by Hurricane Helene. As we know, he is again, without evidence, claimed that FEMA is not helping. He has said that there is no federal response in these areas, something that we know not to be true from the people that are actually on the ground, but expect him to be talking about that. Then he is going to potentially take questions there. Then he's going to a faith event here where we are in Concord, which is just outside of Charlotte.

Again, when you talk about these faith events, we know Donald Trump himself is not a particularly religious man, but they are trying to reach the suburban voters, particularly the suburban women voters by trying to soften his image. Now, whether or not that works by attending an event here when over the weekend he was talking about Arnold Palmer's genitalia during a rally there, it really doesn't make the gap, doesn't close the gap when it comes to women voters.

But one of the things they're really going to try to do in these last final weeks is, one, try to reach those women suburban voters and to try to also reach those low propensity voters, people who don't usually engage with politics in a traditional way, and drive them to the polls in November, trying to make sure they actually cast a ballot when they head to those polls.

HILL: Yes. Every vote -- we know every vote counts in every election, but especially this year. Obviously, both candidates want to see as many people go out and vote as possible.

Danny these comments that the former president made over the weekend, railing on her time as vice president, he had some more choice words, but, you know, it's still early in the day, so I won't say those, she is pushing back on that.

FREEMAN: That's right. Former President Trump made vulgar comments. He also, specifically, I should say, about Vice President Harris and her time in the Biden administration. He also made those comments in a rambling anecdote about Arnold Palmer. As Kristen noted, that was back on Saturday on the western part of Pennsylvania.

Take a listen to how Vice President Harris addressed specifically those vulgar and odd stories in an interview just yesterday.

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HARRIS: And what you see in my opponent, a former president of the United States, really, is it demeans the office. And, 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's going to lose.

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FREEMAN: So, Erica, when this event kicks off in, like I said, about an hour and a half to two hours or so, I think you can not only expect that unity message, but also probably hear some of the same messaging addressing those vulgar comments from over the weekend. Erica?

HILL: Danny Freeman, Kristen Holmes, I appreciate it. Thank you both.

Donald Trump has made protecting Social Security part of his campaign platform. A new report, though, finds his plans could actually do the opposite and make it potentially run out of money in just six years.

CNN's Matt Egan joining me now. So, Matt, some 68 million Americans get Social Security benefits now. Could that money really dry up by 2030?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Erica, Social Security already faces a serious funding crisis, right? It's projected to go insolvent in nine years, no matter who wins this election. But this new analysis finds that that insolvency date would not be nine years from now. It would actually be six years from now if President Trump's agenda is enacted here.

So, this is coming from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and it finds that Trump's campaign promises would increase Social Security's cash shortfall by $2.3 trillion over a decade. It would advance insolvency by three years and it would lead to 33 percent across the board benefit cuts in 2035, so all of those clearly moving in the wrong direction.

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This report summed up the situation by saying we find President Trump's campaign proposals would dramatically worsen Social Security's finances.

And, obviously, this is a major concern because Social Security's finances were already in dire shape. And as you mentioned, more than 60 million Americans receive benefits from Social Security last year alone. Whenever there is an insolvency here, if it happens, that means that they would no longer be able to fully pay out those benefits.

Now, to be fair, the committee says that neither former President Trump nor Vice President Harris has put forward proposals to fix Social Security. However, they're not projecting any new additional financial pressure on Social Security from Vice President Harris' agenda. They are not saying that there would be any acceleration for when there's an insolvency.

Now, I've reached out to the Trump campaign, they have not responded. As you mentioned, Trump, he has promised to protect Social Security. He's talked about bolstering it by ramping up oil and natural gas drilling and speeding up the economy. But the committee here does not believe those promises. And they're warning that not only would former President Trump fail to fix Social Security, he could actually make the situation even worse. Erica?

HILL: That is something, Matt. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Coming up, paying for votes. Election law experts crying foul on Elon Musk's million dollar giveaways to registered voters in key swing states.

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[10:15:00] HILL: The vice president's spending her birthday on the trail Sunday, visiting two churches in the Atlanta area, where Stevie Wonder joined her.

Part of the nationwide Souls to the Polls push here to rally black churchgoers in battleground states, Democrats have been steadily losing support among African-American men, and, of course, every vote could help decide the presidential race, especially in those crucial states. Harris saying she does not take any votes for granted.

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HARRIS: I am very clear, I must earn the vote of everyone, regardless of their race or gender. And what can be frustrating sometimes is to have journalists ask me this question as though one should assume that I would just be able to take for granted the vote of black men. I think that's actually an uninformed perspective because why would black men be any different than any other demographic of voter? They expect that you earn their vote.

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HILL: Joining me now, Brandon Johnson, the Democratic mayor of Chicago. It's good to have you with us this morning, Mr. Mayor.

I know you were out campaigning for Kamala Harris at churches in Detroit yesterday. I saw some of those photos you posted on social media. You know, as the vice president points out, every vote matters, right? It's not just about breaking it down by demographic, but there is some real concern within the Democratic Party about slipping support Kamala Harris. How concerning is it to you?

MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON (D-CHICAGO, IL): Well, first of all, good morning. And the vice president, Kamala Harris, has earned my vote as a black man, and she has earned the vote and support of black men across this country. One thing that I know for sure as a black man is that we always recognize our responsibility and role in this democracy, providing, preparing and protecting. And that's really what this moment is about, is about providing real opportunities for black men, but all Americans to have a right to health care, mental health care, good paying jobs, protecting our democracy, right?

You know, we're talking about the former president, who made it very clear, if you vote for him, you don't ever have to vote ever again. As a black man, you don't have to dog whistle. I know exactly what he's saying. And then, of course, the ultimate desire provide or protect as well as prepare, we have to prepare the next generation of workers.

Look, the Inflation Reduction Act, we're talking about billions of dollars to transform our infrastructure, particularly green in the blue economy, something I'm doing here in Chicago, where we have reinstituted the Department of the Environment, $20 billion of new investment since I've been mayor. What Vice President Kamala Harris essentially had done, she's already laid the groundwork to create opportunities for black men to actually rebuild this country. And she has a partner in Chicago. She has partners across this country that recognize that when we fight for the things that we want, we win them.

HILL: You paint a very positive picture. I know you said the vice president has earned your vote. We have heard from her the proposals, to your point, over the last week or so that she is specifically putting out there. But that doesn't take away from the fact that we have seen support for Donald Trump grow over the years, support for Republicans grow among black men, and this is a major point of concern within the party.

The comments from former President Obama just a few days ago also facing some backlash. Do you feel like you're forced to play clean up in some ways with this?

JOHNSON: Well, look, let me just say it like this. We're not just going to elect Vice President Kamala Harris. We're going to keep the Senate and win the House, which then puts us in a position to have the first black speaker of the House in Hakeem Jeffries.

Look, black men know our assignment in this moment. This is not just about securing the White House. This is about having the president's back when she becomes the president. That's what black men do. We have always had the backs of our sisters. We've always had the backs of our daughters, right?

Look, I'm blessed because I'm born of a black woman. I'm in love and sleep with a black woman every night, and I'm raising a black woman.

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The fact that the women in my life get to see a reflection of their being and their values in vice president Kamala Harris, as she works to put more money in education, as she works to make sure that we have more behavioral healthcare, as she works to create home ownership for people.

You've talked about cleaning up a mess. Yes, we're cleaning up a mess of decades of disinvestment. It's why I put forth a $1.25 billion investment for small businesses and building affordable homes right here in Chicago. Chicago is very much aligned with Vice President Kamala Harris. It was Chicago where history was made. And so me being in Detroit, me being in Las Vegas, this is about us carrying the message of what true leadership looks like. And that leadership is in Vice President Kamala Harris.

HILL: As you carry that message, we are, though -- it is impossible to ignore the fact that the message from Donald Trump, whether you agree with it or not, is resonating, and in some places is resonating with black men. What do you think it is? What do you think it is that he speaks to for certain men?

JOHNSON: Well, he certainly doesn't speak for this black man. Now, look, are there black men, yes, disgruntled over the course of decades of disinvestment? Absolutely. When our country -- when we were in the Great Depression -- you know, I'm a social studies teacher, just like Governor Tim Walz, and that should be another note, we have to elect more social studies teachers. There, I said it. But during the Great Depression, unemployment for white men was 30 percent and our country called it a national crisis. And white men received shovels before there were things to dig. They received education support, housing support.

Black men are simply saying that we are Great Depression era level of crisis, and we need real investments. Yes, that frustration is real, but you're not going to get it through a president who's made it very clear that he has no interest in supporting our agenda. That's why Vice President Kamala Harris, Governor Walz, social studies teachers, like myself, are the best pathway to give black men shovel so that they can dig stuff, give black men an opportunity to actually own homes and give black men an opportunity to start their own businesses.

That's what this moment is about. That's why the only choice is Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz.

HILL: Mayor Brandon Johnson, I appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.

JOHNSON: You're welcome.

HILL: So, just how worried are Democrats overall about the crucial black vote coming up in this presidential election? CNN Senior Data reporter Harry Enten joining me now to break down those numbers.

So, Harry, put this in perspective, put the data behind it. For Kamala Harris, how troubling are these trends, if at all?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I think they should be somewhat troubling, Erica. Look, let's start with the bottom line. And it is Kamala Harris still leads among black voters, but it's the trend that is so worrisome, right? You go back to Obama in 2012, he won it by 90, then Hillary Clinton, 85, Biden, 81. Look at what Kamala Harris is today. She's down 15 points from where Biden was just four years ago, and she's down, get this, 24 points from where Obama was 12 years ago. So, look, Kamala Harris is ahead but the margin is shrinking among a core Democratic group.

Now, you know, you were talking about black men, but let's start off with black women here because I think it gets rather interesting here. The Democratic presidential margin among black women, look. Obama won them by 93. Clinton won them by 93. Biden allowed a little bit to 85. Look what Kamala Harris is right now. This isn't just about black men. It's about black women as well. She's only up by 71 points among black women, which, again, is a rather large lead, but given the history of how black women have voted in this country in the last few elections, it's significantly smaller.

Now, let's get into black men a little bit, all right? Let's get into black men. What do we see here? The Democratic margin among black men, again, we see the shrinkage. Again, Kamala Harris is ahead by 54, but that's way down from where Joe Biden was four years ago, 69 points, 71 for Clinton, way down from Obama, that 85 point margin.

And how about young black men? Look at this, Kamala Harris up only 41 points among black men under the age of 45. That is down 12 points from where Biden was four years ago, but way down. We're talking about half of the margin that we were looking at back with Obama in 2012, Erica.

HILL: Harry, another group of voters that we have been talking about nonstop for months, with good reason, are those undecided voters. Where do they stand right now?

ENTEN: There are so few of them. If you can find an undecided voter, good luck. Only 3 percent of the electorate is undecided at this point. That's half the level of 2020. That is well less. That is only a third of the level of 2016. These campaigns are trying to find them. It's like trying to find gold in New York City by digging up the dirt. It's just really difficult to find. If you find an undecided voter, consider yourself a little bit lucky, Erica.

HILL: Oh, well then maybe I'll buy a lotto ticket if I also find an undecided voter, Harry.

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I'll take you out for a Carvel ice cream. I know it's your favorite.

ENTEN: Ah, thank you. A root beer float would be a plus.

HILL: Consider it done. Harry, thank you.

ENTEN: Thank you.

HILL: Just ahead here, the fight to save a Texas death row inmate. I'm going to speak with the state lawmaker who started the effort to hear directly from Robert Roberson. That's going to happen today.

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HILL: This afternoon, a Texas death row inmate is set to testify before a group of bipartisan lawmakers just days after his execution was halted at the 11th hour. A state house committee has subpoenaed Robert Roberson as they reconsider his murder conviction.

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It is still unclear whether he will testify in person or virtually today.