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Trump Campaigns in Georgia; Trump Escalates Attacks on Harris; Trump Wanted "King of Generals that Hitler Had"; How Harris and Trump Tax Plans Could Impact Your Wallet. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired October 23, 2024 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:30:00]
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: We are 13 days away from Election Day, but more than 23 million Americans have already voted. In Pennsylvania, that number is more than 1 million. In Georgia, almost 2 million ballots have been cast. It's about a quarter of the total number of people who voted in that state in 2020, but compared to the same point, in 2020, early turnout is lower in 36 states this year and higher in one state. And in four battleground states that report party breakdown, more registered Republicans and fewer Democrats are voting early compared to last presidential election, at least that's so far.
Today, Former President Donald Trump heads to Georgia. His 11th visit to the battleground state this election season. During a campaign event yesterday, Trump escalated his personal attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her, quote, "lazy as hell."
Steve Contorno joins us now, covering the Trump campaign. Steve, what else is Trump saying? What else might he say today?
STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPOTER: Yes, I don't have a crystal ball in front of me, Jim, or nor do I have a copy of his remarks, but based off of how he has comported himself lately, I think it's safe to assume he will continue these very personal attacks on the vice president today when we see him later in Georgia.
This is a strategy that he has clearly leaned into in these closing weeks of the race. As we get closer and closer to Election Day. The meaner and nastier and more personal his attacks have become. He has said she is a low I.Q. individual. I was at a rally on Saturday in Pennsylvania where he called her an expletive vice president and continue to just lean into more vulgarity.
[10:35:00]
And take a listen to what he said yesterday when he was speaking about the vice president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's sleeping right now. She couldn't go on the trail. You know, you think when you have 14 days left, you wouldn't be sleeping. She's not doing anything today. She's lazy as hell and she's got that reputation. She's a radical left lunatic.
She's running because they want to be politically correct. Does she drink? Is she on drugs? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I have no idea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CONTORNO: Now, Jim, I should point out those accusations about drug use and drinking. Well, obviously, quite baseless. But it's part and parcel of how he has acted in previous races. We saw him make similar attacks against Harris -- excuse me, Hillary Clinton in 2016, clearly similarly against Joe Biden just a few months ago while he was still his opponent. And now, we are seeing him leaning into this once again, Jim.
ACOSTA: Absolutely. All right. Steve Contorno, thank you very much. Coming up, back to our top story from President Donald Trump reportedly saying he wanted to have the kind of generals that Hitler had. As more former Trump officials and GOP members are warning about a second trump term. More details on all that straight ahead.
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[10:40:00]
ACOSTA: This morning, the Trump campaign is vehemently denying a stunning and damning report in The Atlantic. The magazine cites two sources claiming to have heard the former president say he wanted the kind of generals that Hitler had during private White House conversations.
Trump's former White House chief of staff, retired Marine Corps General John Kelly confirms the report, and Kelly tells The New York Times that he does not take lightly Trump's recent comments on using the U.S. military against his political rivals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KELLY, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I think this issue of using the military to go after American citizens is one of those things, I think, is a very, very bad thing. Even to say it for political purposes to get elected, I think it's a very, very bad thing let alone actually doing it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Joining us now is Tom Nichols, a staff writer for The Atlantic. Tom, you write about international security and challenges to democracy in the U.S. and abroad. What -- I mean, did you -- what are your thoughts on this word that keeps coming up as it relates to Donald Trump, fascism, and coming from two respected retired generals, General Milley and General Kelly?
TOM NICHOLS, STAFF WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: I think it's really important to pay attention to them. It's a word that I was very hesitant to use for a long time because, as you know, I taught politics for many years before I became a writer and, you know, the word fascist has a pretty scalding meaning but there comes a time when Trump's behavior, when the shoe finally -- when the boot finally fits. And when you're hearing people like Milley and General Kelly and others use that word, people need to pay attention to it.
And I think that's part of the problem is that people really don't pay attention to it. They've become desensitized and kind of numb to it. And they think it's just part of the give and take of politics. And I think they just don't realize what deadly serious business this is and how dangerous Trump really has become.
Even if they hear it from people that worked side by side, even if they heard from a four-star general who worked side by side with Trump every day, they still just kind of shrug it off as, you know, just another episode of reality TV, unfortunately.
ACOSTA: No, you're absolutely right. And we've seen Republican lawmakers, power brokers showing this unwavering support of Trump, including his lies about the 2020 election being rigged. I was asking Congressman Castro about this earlier on, if Trump gets back into the White House, are there enough checks and balances in place to protect democracy if Trump gets in there and behaves like a fascist dictator? He has said that he would be a dictator on day one. You have generals saying he is fascist. Are the checks and balances strong enough? Will they hold?
NICHOLS: They're not strong enough because they're not made to deal with somebody like Donald Trump. We already saw that in his first term. You know, one of the great myths around the -- around Trump at this point is that we got through four years and it was fine. We weren't fine. Trump really assaulted the constitution. He tried to overthrow an election. He tried to undermine our constitutional order. He tried to assault the rule of law, and in a lot of cases, he got away with it and he's still getting away with it.
The guardrails in American political life are agreements. They're not really iron doors or, you know, concrete walls. They're there because we all agree to be decent people and to be responsible voters and to be alert citizens. And if -- as James Madison said, if there is no decency among us, then we are in a wretched situation.
Black letter law of checks and balances aren't going to matter if you have a lawless administration that just wants to tear up the constitution whenever they want to do whatever they want to do. And that's -- Trump has vowed to do that, and I think people should take him seriously.
[10:45:00]
ACOSTA: And I did want to ask you, Tom, do you think in a second term Donald Trump would use the military against Americans he identifies as the enemies within? And what do you make -- I wonder if you think that Trump is sort of -- for all of his deception and his lies and so on, whether he is being fairly candid with the American people heading into this election by talking about immigrants being poisoning the blood of this country by talking about going after his enemies, by talking about going after the media? He is quite openly saying it. It seems and leveling with the American people as to what kind of president he would be.
NICHOLS: Yes, there are two things. One is that Trump lies fluidly. But when he talks about immigrants, when he talks about the things he wants to do when he gets into office, he's not kidding. These are moments where -- you know where the truth sort of bumbles out of him because he can't help himself. And of course, his advisers are all freaking out and saying, oh, you know, he didn't mean that.
You've seen -- you've interviewed people who have said no, no, he doesn't really mean that, he meant something else. And of course, Trump can't help himself. He says no, no, that's exactly what I meant. But as for your question about trying to use the military, yes, he's going to try to use the military. Now, the good news is that the men and women of the United States armed forces are patriots and they understand their constitutional duty. But as I wrote some months ago in the magazine, Trump doesn't need the entire military on his side. He needs a handful of unprincipled people at very senior ranks who will then issue orders that will at least initially seem like legal orders and then they'll count on the chain of command.
So, you know, I have no doubt that the military would refuse blatantly illegal orders, but a handful of people carefully washing Trump's orders so that they are something palatable to at least a handful of people in the Defense Department is going to happen and he's going to provoke a civil military crisis at some point in those four years.
ACOSTA: All right. Of course, there's a Supreme Court decision that was handed out earlier this year that essentially says that a president, you know, whose actions in office could be called in question, what might be deemed legal because of that decision that we heard earlier this year. Tom Nichols, thanks as always. We appreciate it.
NICHOLS: Thank you.
ACOSTA: All right. Coming up, how will the candidates' tax plans impact your wallet? We'll break that down in just a few moments. Stay with us for that.
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[10:50:00]
ACOSTA: Here's a live look at a polling place in St. Paul, Minnesota. And yes, that is vice presidential nominee Governor Tim Walz voting. Vice President Kamala Harris will take the stage later tonight for a CNN town hall in Pennsylvania. She's likely to face questions on a key issue, of course, the economy.
A recent analysis of both candidates' tax plans shows that under Harris, lower income taxpayers could see their average income rise by more than $2,000, while those making more than $592,000 would see their income drop by about $900. Compare that to Donald Trump's proposed plan, where those same higher earners would see their incomes rise by more than $20,000. Lower earners would get a few hundred dollars more.
Joining me now to help break down all this is Justin Wolfers. He's a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan. Justin, your thoughts, when you look at these two plans, is that the kind of breakdown that you're observing? What are your thoughts?
JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: I think there's two levels that we want to think about. One is what's happening to the broad economy. So, the deficit and the debt. And then, how this impacts your viewers.
Let's start with the first one, Jim. You know, you could call the Harris campaign somewhat irresponsible. You could say that because the independent scorekeepers say that it's going to run up maybe a trillion dollars in debt over the next decade. A few election cycles ago, we would have said that was a lot. Well, they've also scored Trump is four or five times larger. It's just a promise of Palooza. No sense of where the money's coming from. It's like going to the Oprah show. And if you work overtime, you get a tax cut. And if you get Social Security, you get a tax cut. And it turns out every viewer gets a tax cut, but at the end of the day, we're going to have a ballooning government debt as a result.
ACOSTA: Yes, and I do want to jump ahead. The cost of living is still a big issue for a lot of voters. They've seen a lot change over the last four years. The cost of food has come down, we should note, after skyrocketing in 2022. Mortgage rates are still up almost 3 percentage points from where they were.
How do these conditions impact how voters see these proposals? And I guess, how did the -- how did -- how does Trump's tariff plan play into all of this, too? If folks are concerned about the high price of things, the tariff plan from Donald Trump may have a big impact on that.
WOLFERS: Yes, it's a huge factor in this election. Look, there's a real debate about tariffs in some domains, like should we have tariffs on electric vehicles? But on other things, the United States just doesn't grow coffee. So, if we put a 10 percent or 20 percent tariff on coffee, guess what, the price of coffee just went up 10 or 20 percent.
And that's true for an enormous array of things. And so, when you look closely at what Americans spend their money on, it looks like that Trump tariffs, which to be clear, should be called a tax, those taxes raise the cost of living for a typical family by about $2,000 or $3,000 each.
[10:55:00]
So, what you've got on the one hand is we're going to raise money with tariffs, which actually hit middle income families and working-class families the most because everyone buys stuff. And then we're going to spend that money on the Trump tax cuts, which mostly go to the corporations and the wealthy. And that's why when you do the math, it's this crazy thing. Trump may be cutting taxes in total. But in fact, 95 percent of Americans might end up paying higher taxes. It's just the richer 5 percent they're going to benefit at the end of the day.
ACOSTA: Fascinating. All right. Well, Justin, we hope to get you back because we're going to talk about this a lot over the next couple of weeks with everybody wanting to vote based on how it's going to affect their wallets. Highly important. Justin Wolfers, as always. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. And we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: All right. 13 days until the election, without a minute or a vote to waste. And we're just hours away from a critical moment in this neck and neck race. Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Pennsylvania for --
[11:00:00]
