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Longer Fall Allergy Season; Trump Holds Latino Roundtable. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired October 22, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We should interview, because I'd find it interesting to see what he has to say. He's -- I don't know. They -- I -- they seem to have a problem.

But it would be nice to interview the father. He's a Marxist professor. And I think that's OK. That's good, fine. But I think it's appropriate that the father be interviewed by the fake news. They don't want to interview him. And I wonder why.

If we had a real press in this country, this wouldn't even be a race. And I'm not sure it is a race anyway. They just came out with -- "The Atlanta Constitution" just came out...

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: And that is former President Donald Trump holding what is being described as a Latino roundtable in Miami, although, as you just heard a few moments ago, it was sort of a rambling, incoherent string of consciousness or something close to that from the former president.

He went on a variety of tangents during that rant a few moments ago. He described Kamala Harris as -- quote -- "lazy as hell," saying she is a Marxist. She's not a Marxist. Obviously she's not lazy as hell. She was a district attorney in San Francisco, attorney general in California, senator from California and vice president. Can't really be lazy as hell if you're doing all of those things.

And, Daniel Dale, I want to bring you in because you're a fact- checker. One of the things that we heard from the former president a few moments ago, he was talking about how she was in favor of sex changes for prisoners.

One thing that we should note is that, during the Trump administration, the Bureau of Prisons, a division of the Justice Department, provided an array of gender-affirming treatments, including hormone therapy for a small group of inmates who requested it during Donald Trump's four years in office, that according to "The New York Times."

But, Daniel, there were a number of falsehoods, typical Trump stretching of the truth, bending of the truth, attacking the truth, but your thoughts? What did you pick up on" DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, I mean, that one about prisons and transgender people stood out to me.

ACOSTA: Yes.

DALE: He claimed that Vice President Harris is off today. She is off the campaign trail in terms of rallies, also taping two pretty high- profile interviews, so she's not like...

ACOSTA: She's not off.

DALE: She's not on the beach.

And then I think -- I fact-check both of these candidates, but I have fact-checked Donald Trump for eight-plus -- eight-plus years now. That's right. And I think any objective analysis of the level of lying done by these two candidates will find that Trump does way more.

He spoke for a couple of minutes there about how Harris is a huge liar. "The New York Times" did a side-by-side analysis of one speech from each of them, I think it was last week. They found something like 23 false claims from Trump, 15 or 16 misleading, 15 or 16 exaggerations. They found from Harris, it was like one false, one misleading, one exaggeration.

I might quibble with the specific numbers, but we're dealing with that kind of huge disparity, so I think important to point out.

ACOSTA: And, Daniel, we should also -- I mean, when Donald Trump was in office, correct me if I'm wrong, or if you have got the numbers handy, that's great, but "The Washington Post" found well over 30,000 lies, I think, uttered by Donald Trump when he was in office.

DALE: Yes, it was 30,000 false or misleading claims. I counted false claims in particular. I had like 7,000-plus from Trump.

So we're seeing just a deluge on things like FEMA and migrants, about immigration, about the legitimacy of American elections. So we're very busy with Mr. Trump right now to a far greater extent than we're busy with Vice President Harris.

ACOSTA: Yes.

And, Matt Mowers, you're here.

All right, let's go back to this. I want to hear the enemy from within from Trump. He's talking about that now.

TRUMP: We are an incompetently run country. We're led by a man that, first of all, look, I'm not a fan of his, but what they did to him was incredible.

He had 14 million votes. He won the primary fair and square. He had 14 million votes. And they came to him. They said -- he had a bad debate, he didn't do well, and his numbers went down, but I think he would do probably -- in the end, he might do better than her, because she's more incompetent than he is. I think she's grossly incompetent.

And I don't want to be nice about it because we can't take a chance. Nobody knows who she is. You say Harris. Her name is Harris. Who the hell is Harris?

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Nobody, even political people don't know. Rick Scott has no idea who the hell Harris is.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: No, people don't know who Harris is.

But now they're finding out that she's a radical left lunatic, and we can't take a chance on losing this election, because if we lose this election, we may not have a country anymore. We may not. And we never -- and I have heard this from a lot of very smart people that are very straight down the middle.

They say we may never have an election again in this country. This is where we're going. I used to say that, if we don't do something, we all know what's happened with Venezuela. This was 20 years ago one of the great countries of the world, and now it's troubled, to put it mildly.

And I said it would be Venezuela on steroids, meaning a bigger version. That can happen. Who would think it can happen? But I see it because I see the people that we deal with. And these people are -- they don't love our country. They don't love our country. And we're going to do something about it.

[11:35:02]

But we have to win the election. So, when they get up and they lie about every single thing, they tell you -- they know your position. And in my case, it's been my position for many years. One of the people said the other night on television, he's a great guy, Jesse, Jesse Watters, he said, well, you like Trump or not, his position has been the same for 30 years.

I mean, it's been the same. I want strong borders.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I don't want foreign countries to rip us off, Max. We're being ripped off by everybody, and our friends do it worse than our enemies. It's incredible. We had that very well going, and we did a good job on that.

But we're going to do the ultimate job. We're going to bring a lot of those jobs back. We're going to bring -- I think we're going to bring more than we lost back. And it's going to happen very fast through intelligent taxation, tariffs and incentives.

And you're going to have companies pouring into our country and they're going to be very happy. I think that's why I'm doing so well in Michigan. That's why the autoworkers like Trump so much. Their union head is a stiff. He's a total stiff. He has no clue.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: He has no clue. He wants to go all-electric. And all-electric cars, they want to have all-electric cars. And they're wonderful. I think they're great. They have an application, but we want gasoline- propelled cars. We want hybrids. We don't want hydrogen, Max, because they blow up and...

ACOSTA: All right. And there's the former president again.

We did want to dip back in for a few moments there because he was going on another rant about the so-called enemy within this country that he's been talking about in recent days.

And, Lulu Garcia-Navarro, I want to ask you about this, because one of the other things that he said during the course of his comments there -- again, he's rambling, just -- he calls it the weave, but it's really just sort of rambling around.

He said at one point we might not have another election again in this country if he loses. And he said what we would end up with is Venezuela on steroids. Now, set aside for the moment he is the one who has said that he would be a dictator on the first day of his administration if he gets back into the White House.

But why is that phrase, Venezuela on steroids, pertinent in front of this group and down in Miami?

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I mean, this is extremely pertinent. This was actually the entire point. He got there in the end. It took him a while, but he got there in the end.

This is really a message directed towards this group of people. You're in Doral, which is called Little Caracas. And it's filled with Venezuelans.

ACOSTA: Yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: These are people who left the Maduro government and previous to that Hugo Chavez. That is a socialist government. You have Cubans who fled Miami -- rather, who fled to Miami from Cuba, again, a communist government.

ACOSTA: Yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You have people from Colombia also right-leaning who fled that civil war.

So you have...

ACOSTA: A lot of abuelas, a lot of abuelos.

(CROSSTALK) GARCIA-NAVARRO: A lot of them, and not only that, but younger people too.

ACOSTA: Yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: The thing that Trump has managed to do is actually bridge that divide.

You saw during the Obama years in Miami there was a real movement towards Democrats, especially among the younger generation. That has now shifted back to Donald Trump. Donald Trump does very well among many demographics in Miami, and partially because you're seeing a big group of these kinds of immigrants come to that particular place.

ACOSTA: Interesting.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But Miami is not indicative of the rest of the country, the Latino vote.

ACOSTA: That's right.

And I do want to play a little bit of sound because, when we dipped in, we just missed when he made this reference to the enemy from within, a comment he's been making in recent days that is very antidemocratic-sounding, very authoritarian-sounding. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You hear this? They leaked all the information about the way that Israel is going to fight and how they're going to fight and where they're going to go.

And somebody -- who did that? Can you imagine somebody doing that? That's the enemy. I guess that maybe is the enemy from within, as I talk about. We have an enemy from within.

(APPLAUSE)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: They hate to talk about it. But could you imagine? Could you imagine?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: All right, so there you have it again, Donald Trump doubling down, tripling down, is it quadrupling down at this point on this comment the enemy from within.

And, Matt Mowers, I want to ask you about this because, I mean, it is chilling to hear a presidential candidate, here we are two weeks before the election, nominee of a major party in this country, talking about the enemy from within in this country.

Now, people who leak intelligence, obviously, folks who do that sort of thing, there's a law enforcement process for people like that. But to call somebody the enemy from within, calling Adam Schiff, calling Nancy Pelosi the enemy from within, shouldn't that be chilling to people who hear it?

MATT MOWERS, FORMER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION AIDE: No, I don't know if it's chilling.

I mean, obviously, in the context he spoke about today, I think most folks would agree. I mean, in fact, leaking classified information to undermine an ally actually is borderline treason, if you're undermining U.S. national security interests. I served in the State Department. I had a top secret security clearance. Had I leaked documents, I would have been prosecuted.

In fact, the Justice Department announced today they're investigating it.

ACOSTA: Prosecuted is one thing, but calling people the enemy is something different. And he's referring to Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi as the enemy from within, and he's still doubling down on it.

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: He's not backing away from it. I mean, that is very Trumpian of him to not back away from it. But it shouldn't that just be off- limits?

[11:40:08]

(CROSSTALK)

MOWERS: Yes, look, I would prefer that the rhetoric doesn't go that way once -- in the case of a political context and political adversary.

But I will tell you, the reason he's doing it is because there's not really a lot of undecided voters right now. People made up their mind. This is about juicing up your base and firing them up. That's what even events like today are about. It's about trying to galvanize the Hispanic support he already has to be committed and motivated to show up and support him.

ACOSTA: He's not doing well with women voters. And, I mean, that has been established in all of the polls.

And to describe Kamala Harris as a low-I.Q. person...

MOWERS: Yes, I'm not sure it's going to win many unpersuadable voters. But they're not persuadable, right?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But there's also a problem with that language. It's not only that it was low-I.Q. It was also lazy. It's not only misogynistic, but it also has to do with her being a woman of color.

ACOSTA: Right, racial dog whistles.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: This is racial dog whistles as well.

(CROSSTALK) MOWERS: He referred to the 81-year-old white male president as low- I.Q. in the past four years as well.

I don't think he's targeting specific individuals because of race or gender. If you don't like Donald Trump, he's going to use some sort of moniker to attack you. Just ask Jeb Bush. Just ask Rand Paul in the primary when he ran in 2015, 2016. Ask Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton. It doesn't matter who you are.

Trump is a Trumpist, right? If you like Donald Trump, he likes you. If you don't like Donald Trump, he doesn't. And he's going to throw an attack your way.

ACOSTA: I guess -- go ahead, Lulu.

(CROSSTALK)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: No, I just think women of color hear that differently, the use of lazy, the use of stupid.

ACOSTA: He used low-I.Q. to go after Maxine Waters.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yes, I mean, these are things that particularly are -- if you're trying to win over females, regardless of who they are, and especially women of color and especially in a place like Miami, I will say even with -- I have members of my family who are -- love Donald Trump.

That kind of stuff for them, they do not like. They do not appreciate it. It does not win him any favors. They might vote for him anyway, but it's not a great tactic.

(CROSSTALK)

JUAN CARLOS LOPEZ, CNN EN ESPANOL CORRESPONDENT: But the reaction of the crowd was applause. The reaction was applause and laughter when he was calling her low-I.Q., when he was saying that she was lazy.

So he's speaking to his crowd. And, right now, he's taking questions from friendly questioners. You were making the question about the Univision for him when he was facing voters.

ACOSTA: Yes.

LOPEZ: This is a completely different scenario. This is for Donald Trump.

ACOSTA: He's not really, -- I mean, I don't know if he's taken a whole lot of questions there. He's been doing a lot of the talking there, but I guess that is the weave. The weave is back.

But, I mean, Matt Mowers, I want to -- do want to button this up because I do have to take a break.

When you have a presidential candidate talking about the enemy from within, I just -- I think that, at some point -- I mean, and Liz Cheney was talking about this on the campaign trail yesterday. You were in the administration. There were so many people from the Trump administration -- I mean, Vice President Mike Pence won't even support Donald Trump now.

Some people from inside that administration, one of the reasons why they're not supporting Donald Trump this time around is because of that kind of rhetoric.

MOWERS: Yes.

And, look, they have got a right to make that determination.

ACOSTA: Yes.

MOWERS: But you have got to remember that that type of rhetoric is also why there's a lot of passionate supporters for him. So he is speaking to his base right now when he's talking about those issues.

When you go outside -- I helped run Michigan for Trump in 2016. When you go outside Detroit, there's a lot of no-nonsense folks who just speak to their mind and talk the way Donald Trump speaks. And that's the type of people he's talking to right now.

ACOSTA: Right.

But to -- but he's also injecting that kind of discourse into the national conversation. And I think that's what's unsettling with a lot of voters.

Anyway, Donald Trump continuing to have this conversation right now, doing a lot of the talk in there, mind you.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:48:02]

ACOSTA: All right, we are back. We have been listening to Donald Trump's roundtable with Latino business leaders, political leaders down in Miami.

I want to bring back in Matt Mowers and Juan Carlos Lopez to talk about this further.

And, Juan Carlos Lopez, I do want to ask you a little bit about what Trump has been saying over the past hour. I mean, he is trying to target some of this message to Latino constituencies in South Florida.

To some extent, when he talks about how, if Kamala Harris gets into the White House as president, it's going to be like Venezuela on steroids, I mean, that -- as we were talking about with Lulu a few moments ago, that is obviously targeting people who are exiles, people who are migrants, who are refugees from countries like Venezuela, like Cuba, where that kind of messaging might work. But, at the same time, I have to think it has to cut both ways,

because if you're Donald Trump and you're calling people the enemy from within and so on, that is using the language of a strongman. That is using the language of a dictator, of a Fidel Castro, of a Maduro, is it not?

LOPEZ: And then the irony of it all, Jim, is that he keeps referring to Venezuela, and then people will probably have to look it up if they haven't followed closely what's happening in that country.

But Nicolas Maduro just stole an election after he was defeated at the polls, and he used the government institutions, which he controls, to stay in power. So I don't know that that's the best use of an example to convey to people the risk that a rival can bring, especially when you have -- the Cuban vote is a very important bloc.

The Venezuelan American vote is -- they're more recent arrivals, so it's not as strong as other groups. But it seems more to try to trigger these inner feelings that many have about authoritarian regimes when you behave like an authoritarian, so it's very odd.

ACOSTA: Yes.

And, Matt, I do want to ask a little bit of a strategic question here and ask you, how does -- it all benefits Donald Trump nationally. I mean, he doesn't need to win Florida. Florida is -- I mean, if he can't win Florida, he's in big trouble.

[11:50:03]

And so why have this event in Miami?

MOWERS: Well, you have to remember, Donald Trump understands optics. He understands image.

And so, ultimately, what he and his campaign are trying to do is use other venues outside the traditional rally in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, et cetera, to set a backdrop for exactly what you're seeing right now, standing ovations, enthusiastic crowds.

Here, you have a well-organized, very supportive group of Hispanic voters that is going to be seen by voters in Arizona and Nevada, and also, by the way, Pennsylvania, which has a relatively sizable Hispanic population as well.

And so you're seeing the same thing play out when he is going to go to Madison Square Garden here pretty soon, when he was in Coachella, California. They are in the final few days and have determined that, in some ways, you can have a big, great enthusiastic crowd anywhere that is still seen by voters in battleground states, while they also go through the well-worn path that they will go through over the next few weeks in the seven final battleground states.

ACOSTA: Yes.

All right, Matt and Juan Carlos, thank you very much. We're going to take another quick break. We will talk about more of

this on the other side of the break. Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:56:24]

ACOSTA: The change in season brings about the beginning of the fall respiratory virus season, cold, flu, colds, COVID, of course, but those sniffles aren't always due to viruses.

In fact, you might have thought allergy season ended with the last of the spring pollen, but our Sanjay Gupta is on call and here to say that allergy season is far from over.

Sanjay, I don't know what it is these days when I'm sniffling or coughing. It could be all sorts of things, but allergies are still with us.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes .

I mean, there is a significant fall allergy season. And a lot of people do suffer. I mean, I have encountered so many people just in the building today, Jim, who are really dealing with this. Ragweed is usually the big culprit.

I think the headline, though, is what we're learning is that this first frost being delayed really changes things. It gives these plants that produce the allergens a longer time to grow. It prolongs the allergy season and actually makes it start earlier as well.

Take a look at this map, Jim. This is really interesting. Basically, it's making the case that allergy season as we know it is changing around the country. There are many places around the country where allergy season is extensively sort of widened, Reno, for example, 99- day longer allergy season.

Some of these places around the country, it's just always going to be allergy season, in Atlanta, 23 days longer, in New York, 21 days longer. Allergy season as we know it is starting to change. By the end of the century, over the next 75 years or so, Jim, there will be about 200 percent increase in pollen overall in the environment.

It's just something that we got to think about as the as the temperatures warm. One ragweed plant, Jim, can give off a billion pieces of pollen, just one, something to consider as well this time of year.

ACOSTA: And, Sanjay, I mean, one of the things that is difficult to determine is just the difference between allergies and a cold.

GUPTA: Yes.

ACOSTA: I mean, how do you sort that one out?

GUPTA: You know, I -- so let's put this up on the screen, the symptoms of allergies versus some sort of viral illness.

Everything that's on the left side of the screen can occur with both, with allergies and viral infections. I think what you really have to focus on is that, with viral infections, cold, flu, that type of stuff, the fever is a big one. Take your temperature. If you have a fever, that is going to be more likely to be a viral infection of some sort.

And, obviously, it hits you harder as well, so people will get the body aches and sort of the generalized fatigue. Some of that can happen as well with the allergies, but the fever, in particular, Jim, is something to watch out for.

ACOSTA: Yes.

And, I mean, I just got my COVID and flu shot, did that together. I don't want to take any chances. I mean, I guess that's your best defense too heading into this cold and flu season and COVID season. I guess now we have to call it COVID season too.

GUPTA: Yes, I think the vaccines obviously are crucially important. You did it at the right time, I think.

ACOSTA: Yes.

GUPTA: They say trying to do it before Halloween is a good time because that's going to give you that coverage into the months where you're going to get the highest levels of that viral activity.

But, yes, it's tough for people when they're also dealing with allergies. There are a lot of options now in terms of what people can do to try and combat these allergies either before you develop symptoms or after you have developed them. And, hopefully, we will get a chance to talk about some of that tomorrow as well, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, sounds good.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

And don't forget to submit your questions. You can use the Q.R. code on your screen right there. Look at that. Just hit that with your phone, and Sanjay will answer your questions. We will have Sanjay back to answer them later this week.

Thanks so much for joining me this morning. I'm Jim Acosta.

"INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts right now. Have a great day, everybody.