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CNN International: Today: Harris & Trump Hold Dueling Events In Wisconsin; Harris: Trump Does Not Respect Freedom Or Intelligence Of Women; Trump Campaign Defends Violent Comments About Liz Cheney. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired November 01, 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]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RAHEL SOLOMON, "CNN NEWSROOM": Good morning or good evening, depending on where you're watching. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York.
Ahead on CNN Newsroom, we are now just four days out from Election Day here in the US, and Donald Trump is going after political foe Liz Cheney with some of his darkest language yet. This as Kamala Harris tries to win over even more voters. I'll discuss with my panel. Plus, the new jobs report is out today. It is the last one before the election. So, what does it show and why did this one look so different? And we're live in Tel Aviv with the latest on Israeli airstrikes that hit the suburbs of Beirut today. What this means for the push towards a truce?
It is the Friday before Election Day here in the U.S., and both campaigns are heading to the Upper Midwest as they jockey for last- minute support in key battleground states. Vice President Kamala Harris is heading to the blue wall state of Wisconsin, where she will deliver remarks at rallies in several cities. Recent CNN polling shows a tight race in the state. Harris continues to drive home some of her key messages that a second Trump term would bring chaos and spell danger for women, in particular. On Thursday, she repeatedly slammed the former President for saying that he will protect women, whether they like it or not.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It actually is, I think, very offensive to women in terms of not understanding their agency, their authority, their right and their ability to make decisions about their own lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Trump, meantime, not shying away from women's issues Thursday, while on the campaign trail. He said that if he wins the election, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is not a medical expert and is known for embracing health-related conspiracy theories, will work on women's health issues. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The greatest Robert F. Kennedy Jr., we have, and he is going to work on health and women's health and all of the different reasons, because we're not really a wealthy or a healthy country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: And Trump also ramping up his violent rhetoric, suggesting that one of his most prominent critics, the former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, should be fired at with a gun.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: She is a radical war hawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. OK? Let's see how she feels about it when the guns are trained on her face. They're all war hawks when they're sitting in Washington in a nice building, saying, ooh, gee, will, let's send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Cheney, meantime, responding to Trump's comments, saying today, this is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death.
Let's bring in Kevin Liptak, who is at the White House. He is going to join us in few moments with more on the Harris campaign. But first, let me actually go to Steve Contorno, who is in Warren, Michigan. So, Steve, talk to us about what we have heard from the Trump's campaign about his violent comment toward Liz Cheney. What are they saying in response?
STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: The Trump campaign, Rahel, putting out a statement, clarifying that Donald Trump was, quote, "clearly explaining that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them, rather than go into combat themselves." I will point out that the former President has previously said that members of the January 6 Select Committee should be tried for treason, and obviously, Liz Cheney was one of those members.
And these attacks on Cheney are coming as she has become a key surrogate for Donald Trump's opponent in this race, who has leaned on Cheney to make the case to Republican voters that they should be choosing country over party, and a big piece of Vice President Harris' outreach to Republicans in this race, trying to win over some of those soft Republicans and convince them that this election is different. And Donald Trump, meanwhile, is using their alliance to tell his supporters that it's evidence that Republicans and Democrats have lined up against the American people, and they need someone like him to shake up the status quo.
SOLOMON: All right. Steve, talk to us a little bit about what's on the agenda for Trump today. Where can we expect to see him and what can we expect?
CONTORNO: Well, he will be appearing right behind me at a rally in Warren, Michigan, and then from there, he will hold an event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, visiting those -- two of those three big blue wall states.
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Polls in recent days, including one from CNN, show that the Vice President has a slight edge in this state, and it's very critical for her to hold these Rust Belt states. And Donald Trump would love to pick one of them off, and if he can't, he needs to find success in the Sun Belt and out west, which is where he was yesterday. Take a listen to the message he shared with a New Mexico audience about why he was courting Latinos in that part of the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm only here for one reason. They all said, don't come. I said, why? You can't win New Mexico. I said, look, your votes are rigged. We can win New Mexico. So, I'm here for one simple reason. I like you very much, and it's good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CONTORNO: Those remarks coming, of course, as Trump has come under fire for the offensive remarks by a comedian at his Madison Square Garden rally aimed at Puerto Rico, and a bit of clean up there by his campaign in recent days, trying to ensure that the gains they have made with Latino voters hold through to the election, Rahel.
SOLOMON: OK. Steve Contorno, we shall see, Warren, Michigan there. Steve, thank you.
Let's now go to Kevin Liptak, who is at the White House, for more on the Harris campaign. So, Kevin, talk to us a little bit about what we can expect from Harris today, and who is in Wisconsin.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. And I wouldn't be surprised if we hear from Harris about those comments from Donald Trump about Liz Cheney. Wisconsin is a place that Harris has actually campaigned with Cheney over the last few weeks. Cheney was born in Wisconsin. So, I wouldn't be surprised if she uses that moment to address those quite alarming comments that Trump made about the firing squad. And Harris has, over the course of this campaign, tried to respond in almost real time to some of the most outrageous comments that we've heard from Trump. And so, that will be an interesting moment. Of course, part of her campaign in this final stretch is about consolidating support among women, and particularly conservative women in the suburbs.
She has tried to use Liz Cheney to that effect, and Wisconsin is one of the places where that will be most critical, as she tries to build up her margins among women voters. That has been something of an imperative in this final stretch of the campaign, whether it's conservative-leaning women in the suburbs or black women or white women, really, all of these constituencies that she hopes to win over, and that will be part of her closing message in the final stretch of this campaign, where we are learning more about exactly where she will be spending time in these final couple of days, and it is in the blue wall states, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, all of them sort of critical, as she looks to consolidate support there.
In Wisconsin today, she'll be speaking with union members. That's a critical constituency, as she looks to run up her margins there, and then it's onward to Michigan later in the week, and she will close her campaign on Monday with a bunch of stops in Pennsylvania. So, it does give you a sense of where the Harris campaign sees this race going, where it sees its winning path to 270 in the closing stretch. They do say that they have a number of different pathways, but certainly, the easiest and the most likely, in the view of the Harris campaign, is through those blue wall states, and that's why she will be campaigning so heavily in those states in the lead up to Election Day.
SOLOMON: Yeah. And Kevin, as you point out, I mean, one thing we have heard repeatedly from the Vice President this last week or so, if not longer, is her focus on reproductive rights, her focus and her targeted messaging toward women.
Talk to us a little bit about what we heard from her last night. We know she appeared with Jennifer Lopez. Give us a sense of what we heard from her last night.
LIPTAK: Yeah. And the focus on reproductive rights was really noticeable at her stop in Arizona. She was speaking to a group, in addition to making the case for her own candidacy. She also urged voters there to vote on a ballot proposition on the state there that would expand access and enshrine abortion access up until the point of viability in the state's Constitution. And the real hope among Democrats is that voters who are turning out, who have reproductive rights on their mind as their number one issue, as they turn out for these ballot propositions, that they will also cast their vote for Harris.
But, in her remarks, she really did sort of ramp up the warnings about what a Donald Trump presidency might portend for women. She seized on that remark that Donald Trump made the day before that he would protect women, whether they liked it or not.
Listen to a bit more of how she framed that argument.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: He simply does not respect the freedom of women or the intelligence of women to know what's in their own best interest and make decisions accordingly.
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But, we trust women.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LIPTAK: So, you really do get a sense of how central the Democrats
really do view this issue of abortion in the final stretch of the campaign. At the end of the day, this has been the issue that they have looked at for the last four years almost, and pointed to when they said that this will be a motivating factor for Democrats this year in this election. And of course, the economy is a big one. Immigration is a big one. But, the fact that we're talking about abortion in these final days of the campaign really gives you a sense of how critical they believe it will be for voters on Tuesday.
Of course, the gender gap has been one of the biggest factors in this year's contest. And you can really hear Harris there talking to women, making sure women understand that, in her view, a Donald Trump presidency would be very dangerous for them, and certainly they hope to make that argument all the way up until Election Day.
SOLOMON: Yeah. And then Kevin, you think about the 10 or so states where abortion-related measures are directly on the ballot. You have to wonder sort of how and what impact that ultimately will have.
Kevin Liptak live for us at the White House. Kevin, thank you.
Let's bring in our panel now to discuss. Joining me now is Republican Strategist and CNN Political Commentator, Shermichael Singleton, and Democratic Strategist and CNN Political Commentator, Paul Begala. Good to see you both.
But, Shermichael, I got to start with you.
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, & REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: That's speed.
SOLOMON: Your reaction to what we just heard from the former President and Liz Cheney. Even when you compare that to some of the more extreme things he has said, Shermichael, that is beyond. I mean, what do you say to that?
SINGLETON: I saw that clip circulating earlier this morning on social media, and the first thing I want to do is like, there is no way the former President said what I saw and what the first five or seven minutes of the clip. So, I wanted to find the entire clip. I found the entire clip, and I did end up posting it on my personal social page, because I think the context matters.
Now, you obviously don't want a candidate phrasing a topic as sensitive as this the way Donald Trump did, for obvious reasons, but I think the premise of the point which is that you have war hawks that have traditionally made very poor decisions in terms of foreign conflicts that have led to thousands of deaths, I think there is some legitimacy to that argument. But, I think that argument has lost, Rahel, based upon the way Donald Trump phrased the premise of the point. And so, we're not talking about that. Instead, we're talking about him saying, well, if Liz Cheney were to go to war and had a bunch of guns pointing to her, maybe her decisions would be different. And that's not what I think you want the argument to be at this closing stage of a campaign. SOLOMON: Paul, what do you think? Because of the context that I've
seen, the war hawk was included, and so, it has been contextualized where I've seen it. But, talk to me about your reaction and what we just heard from Shermichael.
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, & DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yeah. Look, I bitterly opposed that war, but I didn't call on violence against the people who supported it. Mr. Trump should know better. Thank God he has survived two assassination attempts. Anybody should understand it's him. And Rahel, it's really just a math problem. OK? 73 million people voted for Mr. Trump. Shermichael and I are both from Texas. So, we know lots and lots and lots of people who support Trump. And I would say literally, 99.9 percent of them are really good people, the patriotic, the kind, by the way, they're not all bunch of bigots or any of that stuff that you hear.
But, let's say one tenth of one percent could be moved to violence, that's still 73,000 people. Mr. Trump knows that. There is a tiny fringe in this country that loves him, and it was in all the papers. Some of them were so moved to violence that they attacked police officers at the Capitol. They attacked Officer Michael Fanone, who is a friend of mine. They tased him until his heart stopped. OK? So, it's a tiny, tiny fraction, but he should know better, and he does know better. He is doing it because he wants to incite violence because he thinks he is losing the election. That's what I mean.
SOLOMON: Shermichael, let me ask sort of, to Paul's point there, I mean, for months, folks have questioned like maybe yourself, but pundits, for sure, why Trump wasn't using Nikki Haley more? Why wasn't he trying to reach out to moderates, independents, to bring in more women, white voters, for example? And when Trump makes comments like that, or when he says things like, I'm going to protect women, whether they like it or not, when J.D. Vance says things like, Trump may earn what he called the normal gay vote, Shermichael, does it suggest that maybe they're not trying to go after independents or moderates? Maybe they think they have better odds just firing up the base and getting out their diehard supporters. I mean, what is the strategy?
SINGLETON: Yeah. I mean, it does suggest a different strategy. And I think -- I don't know if this is every single person on the campaign, because I do know that there are some of the senior advisors who would preference trying to reach more moderates. I mean, it's just a traditional math thing.
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Republicans have typically done well with that voting bloc in the past. You certainly would expect -- you would like a continuation of that. But, if you're betting on a different strategy, which is to turn out your base, but to also micro target low-propensity voters to get to a victory, I can entertain that as a strategist. I guess the question that I would beg though, is, do you have the apparatus in place to effectively micro target those low-propensity voters?
I mean, Rahel, that's a huge bet that I personally wouldn't be comfortable willing to make as a consultant. If I were advising Donald Trump, I probably would say, let's stick with what works. And if we're not going to stick with what works, and we better damn sure hope that we have everything in place to turn out those people who don't typically vote. They have outsourced a lot of those efforts to outside groups. The jury is still out, however, if whether or not those outside groups would be effective. If he wins, then I would surmise that they were effective. If he loses, I think a significant part of that will be because they decided to bet on a new strategy versus traditional Republican strategy, as it pertains to winning presidential elections.
SOLOMON: Yeah. I just want to read for our audience, since we were just discussing it, the Trump campaign has come out with a new response just within moments. I'm going to read it. "President Trump is 100 percent correct that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them, rather than to go into combat themselves. This is a continuation of the latest fake media outrage days before the election, and a blatant attempt to interfere on behalf of Kamala Harris."
Paul, let me ask, what keeps you up at night at this point, with four days left before the election? Is it the Biden garbage gaffe? I mean, what are you stressing out about at night?
BEGALA: Everything. Are you kidding? Everything. I -- but, I -- here is what I do, and again, Shermichael and I are pros, one of things you do when you do this is like, what would I do if I were on the other side? Who would I rather be? And you'd much rather have Kamala's problems and potential than Mr. Trump's problems and potential. Trump is baked in. He got 45.9 percent against Hillary. He got 46.9 percent against Joe. OK? He is going to get 47 percent nationally. The question is, will that be enough to win? It was against Hillary. It was not against Biden. So, he is baked in and he just -- he is doing nothing to reach out to voters he doesn't already have.
Kamala, meanwhile, she is holding together a coalition from AOC, who is a socialist, to Liz Cheney, who was a war hawk and supported that war. By the way, when I was opposing that war, I never saw Donald Trump speak out. He was hiding in the tall grass when the war was being pushed on this country. So, I'm a little skeptical of that.
But, there is a piece of data that you should know, and I got it from a private source. So, I did this for a living. In Georgia, 19 percent of the early voters, key swing state, 19 percent, one in five did not vote in 2020. They're new voters. So, you dig into them, and we run through the data analytics, and the Democrats are winning those new voters by over 20 points. So, these are -- they tend to be younger. They tend to be female. They tend to be people of color, and Trump is doing everything he can to alienate them, and Kamala is doing everything she can to welcome them. And the key here is to try to get those the low-propensity voters, that Shermichael talked about, on your side to come out, and the data is telling me that Kamala is doing it and Donald has not done it yet.
SOLOMON: And Shermichael, same question. But, I actually want to pick up on something Paul Begala there said about these new voters who have not voted before. One thing that I think is really interesting is we've talked a lot about the sort of hidden Trump voters who won't tell pollsters that they are going to vote for him, but they do vote for him, or now we're talking about hidden women voters who may not tell their husband --
SINGLETON: Right.
SOLOMON: -- that they're going to vote for Trump, but -- or vote for Harris, but they are going to vote for Harris. One thing that I think is really interesting is you've seen young people, for example, on TikTok, who are now sort of getting around the Access Hollywood tape, and for the first time, they're seeing it. And so, you're seeing that seem to energize young voters, or you're seeing young voters on TikTok. Shermichael, I don't know if you've seen it. It's a TikTok trend. It's a cancel out trend, where basically young voters are going to the polls to try to cancel out what they think are the votes of their parents.
I'm just curious sort of, how you think that factors in, these new voters who may be mobilized or energized by something they're seeing on social media, perhaps for the first time this cycle?
SINGLETON: I mean, look, in 2020, to pause point, you had a bunch of voters who were not of age. Now, they are of age. What percent does that represent of the overall electorate? I'm not necessarily sure. But, if I were to create a voter profile, Paul is familiar with this, essentially, I'm segmenting voters based on their behaviors, their views, their beliefs, values, etc. I'm almost certain most of those young voters will probably fit in a voter profile that would tell me as a strategist, yeah, they're probably going to vote for Vice President Harris over Donald Trump. So, look, that is a bit of a conundrum.
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If you're a Republican strategist and you're trying to do the math to figure out if I'm looking at, let's just say five percent, I'll just try to random the number, let's say five percent variability that may go for Vice President Harris. Then what I'm trying to figure out, to go back to my original point of those low-propensity voters or disengaged voters, where are they? How do I connect with them? The data, the science, tells us that you need to hit target, penetrate them at least seven to eight times to ultimately sway them to get out to vote. That takes a lot of time and a lot of money, which goes back to my point, Rahel, you have to have the infrastructure in place to be able to do that.
Now, if you have the infrastructure in place, now you're talking about a dawn competitive race, but without it, you can see how the other side could potentially have a numerical advantage. That does make this thing really, really difficult in certain places.
Now, I'm looking at two things in particular. I'm looking at Vice President Harris and the Harris campaign really take advantage of the joke by the comedian. I think they're going to utilize that in places like Pennsylvania, other places where there are large Latino, Hispanic, Puerto Rican populations. I'm also looking at Trump and the Trump campaign targeting President Biden's comments about his voters, and trying to utilize that to turn out his base as well. I think both campaigns are going to be using this outrage, if you will, to try to increase turnout, and hopefully they hope it'll hope and work to their benefit.
SOLOMON: Yeah. So, what it sounds like, Shermichael, and we're going to leave it here, is what keeps you up at night is the math. Will the math math on November 6?
SINGLETON: The math, yes.
SOLOMON: All right. We'll leave it here. Great to see both of you, guys.
SINGLETON: Yes. Yes. Yes.
SOLOMON: Paul Begala, Shermichael Singleton, thank you.
All right. Still to come for us after a break, Israel bracing for a possible strike from Iran, as its war on Hamas and Gaza continues. We're going to have the latest. Plus, dozens of buildings bombed into rubble. Israel strikes Beirut's southern suburbs. What does this mean for the latest ceasefire push?
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. Lebanese state media report that the Israeli military targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut overnight. They're the first strikes on Beirut in more than a week, causing massive destruction, with dozens of buildings leveled to the ground. In Gaza, at least 13 people were killed Thursday and dozens more injured after an Israeli strike near Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. That strike occurred as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel's supreme objective is preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons, outlining his strategy against Hamas and Hezbollah in a speech to graduating soldiers. All of this comes as U.S. officials continue efforts on a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah and Lebanon, but doubts remain that any deal will be reached before the election
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ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: On Lebanon, let me just say that we are working very hard and making progress on reaching understandings of what would be required for the effective implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
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This would be the basis of a diplomatic resolution to the crisis. And I can tell you that based on my recent trip to the region, the work that's ongoing right now, we have made good progress on those understandings. We still have more work to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SOLOMON: All right. Let's get to CNN's Jeremy Diamond, who is live for
us in Tel Aviv. Jeremy, let's start with what's the latest on these strikes in Lebanon. What do we know?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, dozens of buildings were leveled, according to Lebanon's state news agency, following a night of very intense airstrikes carried out by the Israeli military in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, which is, of course, a Hezbollah stronghold, but also, of course, home to many residential buildings. And for the first -- this was the first time in nearly a week that we have actually seen Israel carry out strikes in the Lebanese capital.
But, it is part of a trend of what we have seen over the last week, in particular, as some of these diplomatic discussions have intensified, of the Israeli military intensifying its airstrikes in Lebanon. We saw, of course, not only the strikes in the Lebanese capital last night, but over the past week, we've seen strikes in southern Lebanon, as well as in the northeastern city of Baalbek, where 19 people were killed in a series of Israeli strikes there.
We should note that these strikes overnight came following a particularly deadly day of Hezbollah rocket attacks in northern Israel. Seven people were killed in both the border community as well as just north of the major northern city of Haifa in the series of rocket attacks, and beyond that, of course, the intensification of Israeli military activity in Lebanon isn't necessarily an indication that Israel isn't serious about these ceasefire talks.
Instead, Israeli officials have really made clear to me that they believe that this is kind of hand in hand with that diplomacy. They believe the military pressure that they are bringing to bear on Hezbollah in Lebanon has brought Hezbollah to the negotiating table, has brought them to abandon their previous position where they weren't going to stop firing rockets unless the war in Gaza stops. Now, they seem to be willing to engage in standalone ceasefire talks related to the Israel-Hezbollah war. And so, expect those strikes in Lebanon by the Israeli military to continue, even as the diplomacy does as well.
SOLOMON: And Jeremy, as Israel braces for a possible retaliation from Iran, what are we learning in terms of when that could happen?
DIAMOND: Well, a high-level Iranian source has indicated that there could be an attack by Iran before Election Day in the United States. So, that is just a few days away, of course. And with that potential warning that has been reported now, the Israeli military is certainly on high alert. It was described to us by an Israeli military source as being at a high level of readiness. But, the Israeli government is still working to try and better understand Iranian decision-making at this juncture, and it still seems unclear whether or not Iran has truly made a decision to carry out a strike in retaliation for Israel's retaliatory strike last week that targeted Iranian military sites inside of that country, including in and around the Iranian capital.
But, even if Iran does carry out some kind of a strike, it's really going to be a question of, what kind of strike actually does that look like? How -- is it escalatory? Is it de-escalatory? Is it kind of a tit-for-tat? That's going to determine whether or not Israel then feels compelled to fire back and whether or not this cycle of attacks between these two countries will continue, or whether perhaps it could be stemmed with some kind of a symbolic move by Iran. Rahel.
SOLOMON: Yeah. That does seem to be the big question right now.
Jeremy Diamond live for us in Tel Aviv. Jeremy, thank you.
Well, still to come, the number of people killed in Spain's worst floods in decades continues to grow. We're going to have the latest from the hard hit Valencia region. Plus, U.S. jobs take a hit from extreme weather and labor strikes, although the Dow is up a good 500 points, at 1.3 percent. We will break it all down after this break.
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. You're watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. And here are some of the international headlines we're watching for you today.
Emergency crews are on the scene in Novi Sad, Serbia, where a railway station roof has collapsed. Eight people were killed. Rescuers are in contact with other people who still may be trapped under the rubble. Serbia's Prime Minister offered condolences to the families of the victims, and did say that those responsible for the collapse will be held responsible.
And in a shock result, Botswana's Democratic Party President has conceded defeat in the country's general election after nearly 60 years in power. The ruling party lost its parliamentary majority by a landslide. Some analysts say that young voters seeking change helped fuel the party's downfall. A lawyer of the opposition coalition, Umbrella for Democratic Change, is Botswana's President-elect.
Taiwan is cleaning up after the strongest typhoon to hit the island since 1996. Kong-Rey made landfall on Thursday along the southeast coast. Two people were killed, dozens were hurt. In that last report, the storm was lashing the coast of China.
And the death toll has risen sharply in Spain, where more than 200 people were killed after the worst flooding in decades, a year's worth of rain falling in just a matter of hours this week in the country's southern and eastern regions. Emergency crews have been desperately trying to rescue trapped survivors and recover the dead. 500 extra soldiers have been deployed to affected areas to try to help with the efforts. Spain's Prime Minister urging people to try to stay safe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PEDRO SANCHEZ, SPANISH PRIME MINISTER (Interpreted): To the citizens who live in the provinces of Valencia and also Castellon, please, the damage continues and please stay home. Don't leave. Stay home and heed the calls from all the emergency services. Heed all their requirements, all of their recommendations, because now, the most important is to save the largest number of lives possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: OK. Let's get the CNN's Pau Mosquera, who reports from the worst hit Valencia region.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAU MOSQUERA, CNN SPAIN CORRESPONDENT: Volunteers and Civil Defense personnel are working against the clock in many different towns of Valencia to try to find those dozens of missing people, and also working to clean up the different roads that lead to these cities. This is the case, for example, where we are right now. We are four kilometers away from Chiba, one of the most affected towns by this devastating flooding. Here in the image, you can see some of this volunteers and personnel are right now working, trying to remove all the mud, the water, the debris that was blocking this road. And this is important because that's the only way that the emergency service can get inside of these cities. Mayors of these towns are asking for immediate help, to get some water or some food for their citizens.
Also, it's important to highlight, in this road, as in many others, here there were tons of cars of bands that were blocking the traffic. We were told earlier, but some of the officers deployed in this point that they have worked severally over the last hours, and while they were towing away some of these scars, they found some bodies inside. Now, this is what the authorities are feeling the most, the finding of bodies in different parts of these very affected cities.
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Right now, the toll by the latest update from the authorities is that 202 people died because of this flood water. So now, it's a task of rescue against the clock to try to find with life all these people that were reported missing.
CNN, Pau Mosquera, Chiba, Spain.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: All right. Let's turn now to the markets and see where they stand on this Friday before the election. The Dow is up 1.3 percent or a nice 500 points. That is despite a cooler-than-expected jobs report, which showed that the U.S. economy added 12,000 new jobs in the month of October. That is far below what economists on Wall Street were expecting. Now, economists did warn that two major hurricanes last month, as well as a major labor strike, would impact the data. The Biden administration says despite these events, the U.S. economy is in a strong position.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JULIE SU, ACTING U.S. LABOR SECRETARY: Even the numbers from this
month, which were, again, affected by the hurricanes, by workers being on strike, they do not undercut the overall picture of a very strong labor market.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: OK. Let's get a fuller picture of this report on this Friday before the election. Let's bring in CNN's Julia Chatterley. So, Julia, what did we learn? What did it tell us?
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: We were right to expect the unexpected, Rahel. I think that's the bottom line here. Strikes and storms were absolutely key to this report. As you pointed out, 12,000 jobs added net for the month of October. That was just a tenth of what we were expecting, even with the impact of the strikes over at Boeing, of course, and the impact of two hurricanes. So, it does, on the surface, look like a pretty weak number. We also saw downward revisions to the months of August and September to the tune of 112,000 jobs. It's a signal of a cooling labor market. We know that. We've seen that in other data. It's not collapsing despite that headline figure, which I appreciate, is pretty jarring for people.
What's also interesting, though, and you pointed it out, a 4.1 percent unemployment rate, unchanged from September. So, I think if you take a step back and you take a deep breath, that's perhaps the number that you focus on here, because that shows that there doesn't appear to be that much impact, if any, from these strikes and storms on the overall unemployment rate. So, hold on to that.
Take a look at the sectors too, and you can see the impact very quickly. Manufacturing, we saw a big plunge there, as you would expect, down some 46,000 jobs. Temporary help services also down 49,000 jobs. Government and healthcare, the big gainers. A jarring jobs report, Rahel, I will say it. But, it is 34 days until the next one, and I think that will hopefully be clearer than this one.
SOLOMON: And it's just a few days before voters --
CHATTERLEY: Yes.
SOLOMON: -- head to the polls. It's just a few days before we hear from Fed Chair Jay Powell.
I'm curious, Julia, what investors seem to be seeing in this? As we said, the Dow is up about 500 points. And I did want to point out something that the BLS said when talking about the hurricanes. They admitted that it's not possible to quantify --
CHATTERLEY: Yeah.
SOLOMON: -- the net effect of the storms, the impact it had on the jobs total. So, what are investors seeing in this, and why are they up?
CHATTERLEY: And that's a great point, by the way. They also said a severe impact. And just very quickly, the estimates of what kind of impact we were talking about, somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 jobs. If you add those back to the 12,000, perhaps you get some sense of where we're headed.
I think the good news is being reflected by investors. As you can see, stock markets are up. I think it guarantees a quarter of a percentage point rate cut next week. Maybe, given the inflation numbers this week, they've got a room to do a bit more, should they choose to. The big caveat, as you point out, the presidential election, and if we have a result, and if we don't, and if we see volatility. But, at least as far as the economic data is, quarter of a percentage point rate cut. Let's call it that.
SOLOMON: All right. We will soon know. We will soon surely know. Julia Chatterley, thank you. Good to see you.
All right, the U.S. presidential race is getting, as we just said, closer and closer to the finish line, and it is as tight as ever. Coming up, we will zero in on battleground Wisconsin, and look at the state of the race there. And we'll also bring you the bigger picture and dissect the latest in the campaign trail with CNN Political Commentator and host, Michael Smerconish, our favorite on a Friday.
Don't go away. We'll be right back.
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[11:40:00]
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SOLOMON: Just four days until the election here in the U.S., both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have been criss-crossing the handful of battleground states that experts say are likely to decide the election. The two held dueling rallies in Nevada on Thursday, taking shots at one another, and urging voters to cast their ballots as soon as possible, and they'll do the same today in Wisconsin. In a new CNN Poll of Polls among likely voters in Wisconsin, there is no clear choice for President or a clear leader. Harris has 49 percent. Trump is close by with 46 percent.
Let's get to CNN's Jeff Zeleny, who is in Milwaukee, where Trump and Harris will both be today. Jeff, great to see you. I feel like whenever we talk about these states, they always feel so important. Georgia feels really important. Pennsylvania feels so important. But, how about where you are and how important that is to both campaigns?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Rahel, there is no doubt that Wisconsin is as important, if not more important, than some of the seven battleground states, and here is why. It was the closest margin of victory for Joe Biden and defeat for Donald Trump four years ago. It was the same eight years ago when Donald Trump won over Hillary Clinton in 2016. So, the sort of specter and the ghost of that campaign still sort of is informing this campaign. That's why Kamala Harris is coming back to campaign today.
But, we've been talking to voters as they make up their minds, exhausted by this noisy campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVE FLANNERY, WISCONSIN VOTER FOR HARRIS: I'm ready for it to be over.
ZELENY (voice-over): Dave Flannery is exhausted by the election.
FLANNERY: It's getting more and more difficult to listen to all the vitriol and that sort of thing.
ZELENY (voice-over): From his apple orchard in battleground Wisconsin, he is at a front row seat to the caustic campaign.
When we met earlier this year, Flannery was fed up with the political division and dysfunction.
FLANNERY: What else can you think about it? It's a mess.
ZELENY: How does it get fixed?
FLANNERY: I wish I knew.
ZELENY (voice-over): With the election days away, we paid another visit. He said he is voting for Kamala Harris.
ZELENY: Is it a vote for Vice President Harris or against Donald Trump?
FLANNERY: For Harris. No. Let me rephrase that. Both. Both. Yeah.
ZELENY: It's a vote against Trump and for Harris.
FLANNERY: Yes.
ZELENY (voice-over): The fight is on for Wisconsin --
HARRIS: Are we ready to win?
ZELENY (voice-over): -- with Harris and Trump set to make dueling visits Friday --
TRUMP: We're winning. We're winning.
ZELENY (voice-over): -- for the second time in three days.
CAROLINE QUINLAN, WISCONSIN VOTER FOR HARRIS: I don't want to make any predictions, because I think it's that close.
ZELENY (voice-over): Caroline Quinlan does not see a perfect option on either ticket. When we spoke this summer, her frustrations were clear.
QUINLAN: Both parties have their extreme side, and no one is in the middle.
ZELENY (voice-over): From her vantage point in the critical suburbs of Milwaukee, no longer dominated by Republicans alone, she said issues are driving her decision.
QUINLAN: I'm going to vote for Trump. When he talks in the big arena, sometimes I'm like, I wish he would tone down his rhetoric and everything. But, at the end of the day, I want a person that's going to fix the economy, border, and then national security.
ZELENY (voice-over): A year-long conversation with voters paints a more nuanced picture of the electorate. For one, the gender gap is hardly absolute.
BRUCE NEAD, WISCONSIN VOTER FOR HARRIS: January 6, which was a direct threat against our democracy, trying to overthrow a legal election. That was it for me.
[11:45:00]
ZELENY (voice-over): To win, the Harris coalition depends upon people like Bruce Nead, raised in a Republican family front yard makes his disdain for the former President clear, and Tiffany Koehler, a Republican who is casting a rare vote for the Democratic presidential candidate.
TIFFANY KOEHLER, WISCONSIN REPUBLICAN VOTER FOR HARRIS: We used to be the party of women to government. We used to be the party of fiscal responsibility. I know there is a lot of Republicans voting for the Vice President, because we really want to close this chapter in history.
ZELENY (voice-over): For Trump, the path to victory not only depends on strength in deep red rural areas, but whether he diminishes Democratic margins in the suburbs outside Madison.
Brandon Maly leads the Republican Party in fast-growing Dane County.
BRANDON MALY. CHAIR, DANE COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY: People think of Madison as such a traditional liberal bastion, but you get outside of Madison, Dane County is the second most populated county. If he does not get at least 23 percent of the vote in Dane County, he will not win Wisconsin. If he gets 25 percent or above, he wins, guaranteed.
ZELENY (voice-over): The campaign draws to a close with many wildcards, including third-party candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose name remains on the ballot.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., FORMER U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't want your vote. I want you to vote for Donald Trump.
ZELENY (voice-over): Back at the Apple Holler Orchard, Flannery sees a hopeful light at the end of a dark campaign.
FLANNERY: It's more than about politics. The future of the country is more important than whether you're Republican or Democrat.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZELENY: Now, there is no question that for Harris, her best route to winning 270 electoral votes is here in Wisconsin, along with Michigan and Pennsylvania, but for Trump, that's his best route to block her from that path.
So, Rahel, one thing is very clear, even though more than a million voters here in Wisconsin have already voted, many more need to do by Tuesday, and those final decisions could determine the outcome in this razors edge race. Rahel.
SOLOMON: Well, yeah. Jeff Zeleny live for us there in Milwaukee. Jeff, thank you.
All right. Let's bring in Michael Smerconish, who was the host of CNN's Smerconish on Saturday mornings, and he joins us live from Philadelphia. Michael, always good to see you on a on a Friday. Let's start big picture here. It has been an especially wild week with the controversial comments from both Democrats and Republicans. How are you viewing things now four days out?
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, "SMERCONISH", & CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's been an especially wild year, I mean, the most tumultuous, unpredictable presidential campaign in the modern era. I've been paying close attention since 1980. You know what's amazing, Rahel, is that nothing seems to have mattered. There have been so many ups and so many downs and so many things we could never have anticipated or foreseen, and yet, the race is pretty much where it was pre-Biden-Trump debate when President Biden had that unfortunate night.
I most want to know, I most want to know if the Donald Trump vote is being underreported, because when you look at the data, in comparison to 2016 and 2020, he is in the strongest position that he has ever been. And in 2016, he was undervalued. And in 2020, the same deal. So, on one hand, you could say he is going to outperform the polls again, and he wins. On the other hand, you could say, perhaps there is a shy Kamala Harris vote or that the pollsters have corrected for their past mistakes. That's X, the unknown.
SOLOMON: Yeah. And I mean, to that end, what can you infer from the polls at this point, because they seem really all over the place? I mean, it is really hard to sort of get a firm conclusion about Tuesday from the polls so far, what do they and don't they tell us so far.
SMERCONISH: So, if they're to be believed, if they're accurate, they tell us that in the popular vote, and that's not the way we elect the American President, but it's interesting, nonetheless, that she probably has an advantage somewhere in the two percent range, according to CNN's Poll of Poll, the battleground states, the seven states that matter most because we elect by the Electoral College, are all within the margin of error.
And Rahel, I go beyond that. I look at the betting markets which seem to favor Donald Trump. I look at the stock market, and there is a way of looking at the stock market performance as an indicator of whether the incumbent party is going to survive. That's in Kamala Harris' category. There is a more subjective quotient, which is to look at cultural touchstones. Are we living in a Ted Lasso era, or are we living in a Yellowstone era, to pick out two very popular American TV shows? And then you've got all the pundits and all the modeling and so forth.
Frankly, when all is said and done, and I'm conversing in each one of them, I have no idea how it turns out, and there is no outcome that would shock me. If Kamala Harris wins by a slim margin, I wouldn't be shocked. If she wins by a large margin, I wouldn't be shocked. The same for Donald Trump. And if it goes on for several days next week, that wouldn't surprise me either.
[11:50:00]
SOLOMON: And yet, it's interesting, Michael, because you just said that some of the polls might suggest to Trump supporters that he has this in the bag, that not only might he win, but he might win in a blowout. And you posed a question on your show this morning that I thought was really interesting, and the question was, whose supporters will, and certainly correct me if I'm wrong here, but will be able to better cope with the outcome of this election?
SMERCONISH: Right.
SOLOMON: Talk to me about that conversation.
SMERCONISH: Wow. Rahel, it was unbelievable. I could not keep an open telephone line on my program, which ended just a short time period ago. And it was interesting because the callers suggested, the callers suggested that it would be the Harris. And this is an emotional question. I wasn't talking about violence. I just meant the morning after, who is going to have the bigger hangover? And most of the callers said that the Harris voters are so committed to taking down Donald Trump. They view him as such an anathema that they will have a more difficult time dealing with the outcome.
And yet, in the poll, nearly 25,000 have already voted, it's the complete reverse, and people are saying, no, no, it's the Trump supporters who aren't going to be able to deal with the aftermath.
SOLOMON: Yeah. I mean, it is really interesting. I think one thing that we can all sort of agree on is whether you're a Trump supporter, whether you're a Harris supporter, I think a lot of us are just having fatigue and sort of anxiety about just where we are as a nation, and ultimately, obviously, what happens? Maybe no one will be happy, Michael Smerconish. Half the country won't be happy, regardless.
SMERCONISH: I agree with you. Rahel, I don't know. I think I had hair when this campaign began. I'm not sure. But, it's been a long, strange trip. That's how I would sum it up.
SOLOMON: Yeah. Getting even stranger.
Michael Smerconish, great to see you. Always appreciate your insights. Thank you.
SMERCONISH: You too. Thank you. SOLOMON: And by the way, you can catch Smerconish every Saturday
morning at 09:00 a.m. Eastern Time right here on CNN. That's 01:00 p.m. in London this week. I'll talk soon.
All right. Who needs Sleigh Bells when you have the siren sounds of the Queen of Christmas? Of course, we are talking about powerhouse singer Mariah Carey ringing in the holiday season.
Stay with us. We'll be right back.
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SOLOMON: All right. Before we go, one more thing. The light hasn't even gone out of the jack-o'-lanterns yet, but celebrity singer Mariah Carey wasting no time.
[11:55:00]
(VIDEO PLAYING)
SOLOMON: Already? So soon? There it is, the unmistakable voice says, signals, Christmas time is near and here. It seems that Mariah Carey could not wait to ditch her Halloween costume and bring out her signature Christmas couture. It has been 30 years since the Queen of Christmas released the hit song that has come to officially ring in the holiday season.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
SOLOMON: The song spent 65 weeks on Billboard Top 100 and it is a must have on the playlist of anyone who is truly into practicing musical holiday cheer, some say. I think most of us like the song. We love the song.
Well, we know your time is money. So, thank you for spending some time with me today. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. Stick with CNN. One World is coming up next.
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