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Harris, Trump Focus On Southern Swing States Of Georgia And North Carolina Today; Harris Campaign Sees Gold Mine Georgia Voters In Quiet County; Do's And Don'ts Of Voting; Final Jobs Report Before Election Day Shows Economy Added 12K Jobs; How The U.S. Elections Is Perceived Inside China; Harris, Trump Campaigns Target Michigan's Youth Vote In The Final Push. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired November 02, 2024 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:01:39]
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, again, everyone, and thank you so much for joining me this Saturday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
And we're just now three days away from election day in America. And with the countdown clock ticking, both candidates are barnstorming key southern states today, making their last-minute pitches to voters.
In the last hour, former president Donald Trump held a rally in battleground North Carolina. It's one of two rallies he will hold in that critical state today and then he's moving on to Virginia. Vice President Harris just finished a get-out-the-vote rally in Atlanta. And now she is headed to North Carolina on that final day of early in- person voting.
We've got a team of correspondents out on the trail covering both of these campaigns. Steve Contorno is in Virginia where Trump will be arriving for a rally in a few hours. And Priscilla Alvarez in Charlotte where Vice President Harris will rally later on today.
Priscilla, you first.
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, this is of course a battleground state, one that the vice president is keen on winning and she is tailoring her message to those swing voters who are still making up their mind on who they're going to cast their ballot for. Trying to convey the campaign's messaging that hers is a campaign that encompasses all voters and all Republicans, Democrats and independents. And that is exactly what she said as well to our colleague Eva McKend. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Honestly, there are a lot of people here who have already voted. But I am talking to everyone and reminding people of the stakes in this election. I think this is one of the most consequential if not the most consequential elections of our lifetime.
And there is a huge contrast. As I talk about it, to encapsulate the point, look, on January 20th it is going to be Donald Trump or me sitting in the Oval Office. He will be sitting there with an enemies list, plotting over it, stewing over an enemies list because it is all about himself. I will be there with my to-do list working on behalf of the American people to bring down the cost of living, bring down the cost of groceries and housing, invest in small businesses, invest in young American families.
That's the work I plan to do and that's the work the American people deserve from their president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALVAREZ: Now the Harris campaign also launched an ad today, their closing ad that's going to be running during NFL games today that tries to capture all of that. Again, trying to cast a picture of a former president who is consumed with revenge while she stays focused on the American people. That has been the closing argument for the vice president and it's one she's also going to bring here to North Carolina.
Polls show that she is deadlocked in the state. But as I've talked to senior campaign officials over the course of this cycle, they have always said that they have maintained bullish on North Carolina. Of course this is a state that has voted Republican for the last three presidential elections. They're hoping that they can change that this time around -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much.
Let's go now to Steve Contorno in Virginia where Trump will be holding a rally in the next few hours. So what is his goal there?
STEVE CONTORNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a surprise to a lot of Virginia Republicans that Donald Trump is coming here at all and especially with just a few days left in the presidential race. This is not one of the seven battlegrounds that these candidates have been fighting for.
[15:05:00]
And, you know, many of them expected Virginia would not be part of this presidential map. But Donald Trump's campaign insists that he will be competitive here and that the race is much closer than a lot of people think it is. And, you know, both of these campaigns at the end of the day are just trying to get to 270 electoral college votes. And if Donald Trump is not able to win one of those blue wall rustbelt states, even if he carries the entire sunbelt, he will need to find another win somewhere else across the country.
And Virginia is one of the states where they hope that if it is close at all that they might be able to foot the state and get over 270. And right now the governor of the state Glenn Youngkin is speaking to this crowd trying to rally them up, get them excited and enthused so that they will potentially pull Donald Trump over the top here.
He's coming to Virginia, though, sandwiched in between two trips in North Carolina. A state that they did not anticipate spending so much time in at this stage of the race. A state that has become remarkably competitive with Vice President Harris as his opponent. Trump there speaking about the economy and actually thanking God for a jobs report that showed just 12,000 new jobs created in the last month. Take a listen to what he told the crowd there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Economically, she doesn't know anything. In fact what she's proposing -- well, wait a minute. You just saw, you were going to over in a second. The worst numbers I've ever seen. How good was that? To get those numbers four days before the vote is -- was -- thank you very much, sir. Thank you. Thank you, sir.
(CHEERS)
TRUMP: Now, you would've liked that in one of your races, wouldn't you? But no, to get those numbers, we had the worst numbers, I think, maybe, like, sort of ever?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CONTORNO: Now these candidates often show their cards with their schedules. And you can look at where Donald Trump is going to be over the next -- today, tomorrow and Monday to get a sense of where they are concerned. It's North Carolina today, North Carolina on Sunday, North Carolina on Monday. Clearly, North Carolina is a state where they feel like they need to put a lot of effort into these final days -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: Indeed. All right, Steve Contorno and Priscilla Alvarez, thanks to both of you.
All right. So who wins the presidential election on Tuesday will likely come down to four letters, GOTV, which is get out the vote. And CNN's Phil Mattingly takes a deep dive into the effort to energize voters in battleground Georgia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is not the center of Georgia's political universe. But drive 250 miles from Atlanta, down Interstate 16, and you'll find a key component of the Harris campaign strategy to keep the state blue.
You said don't sleep on I-16?
DEREK MALLOW (D), GEORGIA STATE SENATOR: Yes, don't sleep on I-16, baby. When you ride down I-16 on that little two-lane road to get to Savannah, you'll find out we're doing something down here.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Savannah operates at a decidedly more leisurely pace of life than the Atlanta metro area. And Georgia's oldest city remained largely outside the political spotlight four years ago. Fulton County, Gwinnett County, DeKalb County.
(Voice-over): Atlanta and its suburbs did fuel Joe Biden's win. But Chatham County quietly served as a goldmine for Democratic votes. Nearly 16,000 more than turned out here for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
MALLOW: One of the things that we started saying was, hey, the coast matters. This is important. What we do here matters. Our folks matter. And we need to get this engagement here down on the coast because we can turn out voters, too.
MATTINGLY: That message from local officials like State Senator Derek Mallow was received. So while the Harris ground campaign here leverages massive star power to try and match the massive 2020 turnout in Atlanta and its surrounding area --
MALLOW: Hey, what's going on, Georgia?
MATTINGLY: They have deployed Mallow and a roster of popular local leaders to boost Chatham's impressive 2020 numbers. Just this week, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz rallied supporters here. The same place Walz embarked on his first joint campaign events with Harris in August.
HARRIS: Oh, it's good to be back in Savannah.
MATTINGLY: Capped off with a packed rally here where the first HBCU grad to lead a ticket --
KATELYN GREEN, HBCU STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT: I couldn't be more excited to welcome a fellow HBCU alum to our beautiful city of Savannah.
MATTINGLY: Was introduced by the student body president of the state's oldest HBCU.
Located just a few miles down the road, Katelyn Green is a window into the burst of enthusiasm on the campus of Savannah State University sparked by Harris's elevation to the top of the ticket.
Do you think Joe Biden giving way to Kamala Harris changed how people on this campus felt about the race?
GREEN: Yes, absolutely.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Her role at the rally a nod by the Harris campaign to the critical place young voters in this state have in the Democratic coalition.
[15:10:05]
Do you think that had an impact on people wanting to vote or wanting to support?
KAYLA JORDAN, STUDENT, SAVANNAH STATE UNIVERSITY: To rally?
MATTINGLY: Yes, to support the vice president. JORDAN: Definitely. I think I went with, we went together, a group of
our friends, we actually --
MATTINGLY: Snuck into the VIP section, right?
JORDAN: Yes, we did. There was treating students, they were treating students like royalty. It was -- it felt so amazing.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): That wasn't an accident in one of the youngest states in the country by median age. Where young voters helped propel the state's first black senator, Raphael Warnock, to victory in 2022.
GREEN: I think I received more campaign messages than, you know, like actual notifications on my phone.
MATTINGLY: On this campus, it wasn't the campaigns that drove critical registration and early vote efforts. Inorganic and nonpartisan effort driven by students, including Kayla Jordan and Taniya Henderson, had been in place for months.
JORDAN: We had chalk for people, we had music out, like people came really over just to dance. And then we'd be like, hey, are you registered to vote? Like, come inside, get registered.
MATTINGLY: Outside the friendly campus confines, Mallow has confronted more acute and pervasive obstacles. The campaign's expansive full state ground operation racing the clock to make the case.
MALLOW: We assume everybody knows all this stuff, but the actual reality is most people don't.
MATTINGLY: Often eclipsed by a more daunting and time consuming barrier.
MALLOW: You know, I probably spend at least, you know, two or three conversations a day putting out that fire of disinformation.
MATTINGLY: The concern is real for a campaign laser focused on shoring up signs of sagging support with black men. But one Mallow has found can be countered.
MALLOW: The former president, he wants, you know, law enforcement to be totally immune. Well, once I explain that to black voters, especially to black men, they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. We don't agree with that. No, no, that's a bad idea. And I'm like he said that and I pull up the clip and they're like, I didn't know that.
MATTINGLY: An urgent push from a campaign that isn't really necessary back on campus.
GREEN: Yes, Kamala HQ is my favorite TikTok page right now.
MATTINGLY: Really?
(Voice-over): And where Katelyn Green is still marveling at her once- in-a-lifetime role at the Harris rally here this summer, despite the consequences for skipping a day of class.
There wasn't a note you could send a professor saying like, sorry, I have to introduce the vice president of the United States?
GREEN: No, no. Student first. Yes, they actually, you know, they don't really care that I introduced the president. You know, they're more worried about their analytical chemistry so, yes.
MATTINGLY: And they may write a note to professors?
GREEN: Yes, if you could, please, because it's hard.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY (on-camera): Georgia is a study in contrast when it comes to the ground game, not just between Trump and Harris. Obviously, what we saw from Harris, very different from what you've seen from the Trump campaign, largely reliant on outside groups, largely reliant on Governor Brian Kemp's organization, the detente between the two Republican camps. Pretty critical a few weeks ago, but also the contrast between the Harris campaign and the 2020 Biden campaign.
The current campaign, the largest in-state coordinated campaign in Democratic history, pushing out much further, trying to target rural voters to take down Trump's margins in his strongholds, very different from what we saw in 2020. Obviously, Biden won in 2020. Harris hoping to do the same this time around.
WHITFIELD: Phil Mattingly, thank you so much.
And be sure to tune in for CNN's special coverage of "Election Night in America." It starts Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. right here on CNN.
More from the campaign trail right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:18:13]
WHITFIELD: With early voting underway, the U.S. Supreme Court this week made rulings that will affect voters in certain states. In battleground Pennsylvania, the court upheld a rule to expand options for voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected for technical reasons. If a voter there made a mistake in how they prepared their mail-in ballot, a provisional ballot may count as a backup option for them. It's a move that's seen as a major defeat for Republicans in that critical state.
Joining me right now is CNN contributor and professor of law at Stetson University College of Law, Ciara Torres-Spelliscy.
Great to see you. So can you explain why Republicans wanted to block that ruling?
CIARA TORRES-SPELLISCY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Republicans have been very strict with voting in Pennsylvania. And it was Republicans who actually required the secrecy envelope in the first place. And this ruling is more forgiving to voters who make a really simple mistake. They forget their secrecy envelope inside of the bigger envelope that they use to mail in their mail-in ballots. So this gives those voters a chance to cure and have their vote actually counted.
WHITFIELD: Aha. OK. So now let's turn to Virginia where some U.S. citizens were caught up in a voter purge. The U.S. Supreme Court revived the governor's effort to remove about 1600 suspected non- citizens from the state's voter registration. CNN got access to the list of voters who were purged and found that there were some U.S. citizens who had been mistakenly been removed. So what are they supposed to do now?
TORRES-SPELLISCY: So fortunately, in Virginia, they have same-day voter registration, which means that you can register to vote on election day.
[15:20:05]
So if you think you are one of these people who's been wrongfully purged, I would encourage you to re-register on election day and vote. Now if you're given a provisional ballot, then you need to get the information of how you make that provisional ballot count. In some states, you have as little as 24 or 48 hours to get that information to the state. So when you get a provisional ballot, you have to realize that that is a homework assignment.
WHITFIELD: OK. And for those who are heading to the polls on Tuesday they've got to know there are rules. So here's some rapid-fire questions for you for voters nationwide to help them know how to navigate, you know, trying to vote. So here are some of them. First, can you take a selfie in the voting booth or at the drop box? Can you wear campaign accessories or politically-themed clothing?
We're going to do one at a time. Sorry about that. I was about to just go through all of them. All right, so first off, tell me about, you know, your behavior at the drop box. What's allowed?
TORRES-SPELLISCY: OK. So taking a selfie with a ballot is legal in 25 states and either illegal or questionable in the other half. So you really need to check your local election rules. So for example in my home state of Florida, it is illegal to take a ballot selfie and you could face up to a year in prison. That's the same in Georgia and in Ohio. But every state is different so check your local rules before you try to get a selfie because that could get you into some real trouble.
WHITFIELD: OK. All right. Now, can you wear campaign accessories or politically-themed clothing?
TORRES-SPELLISCY: So once again, this comes down to which state you're in. In 21 states, it's a problem. And I would just suggest that you wear a plain shirt to vote so that you don't have to get into a fight with your poll workers who are already pretty stressed out this year.
WHITFIELD: Right. Not call any more attention to yourself. Right. OK. And then, you know, this has actually happened before. People who are in long, long lines in some places. You know, the doors were closed on them, et cetera. So what should you do if you are in line and the time for the end of the voting should happen? Do you stay in line? What are your rights as a voter?
TORRES-SPELLISCY: So if you are in line at the moment that that polling place closes, you should stay in line. Be patient. Bring a book, bring a fully charged cell phone. It could be a while in certain locations. But you've taken the effort to vote, you should be patient and wait for them to let you in.
WHITFIELD: OK. And hopefully this doesn't happen to anybody, but what should you do if the voting machines are malfunctioning or not working?
TORRES-SPELLISCY: So with that, I would ask for a paper ballot. And if you run into a situation where there is no working voting machines and no paper ballots, then I would call 1-866-OUR-VOTE, and that's an election protection line and they can give you some advice. What you would probably need to do in that situation is vote in another location. But that's a little tricky because in some states if you vote in the wrong precinct they don't count your ballot. So you're going to need a little advice if you run into something that dire.
WHITFIELD: All right. And heaven forbid you forget your I.D. on election day, what should you do?
TORRES-SPELLISCY: So either, if it's early in the day, I would say go home, get your I.D. and bring it back. But if it's late in the day, then you're probably going to end up voting one of those provisional ballots. And once again, if you get a provisional ballot, that is a homework assignment. That means you're going to have to bring in your I.D. later to a particular official. And so you need to get guidance on how do I make my vote count. So you need to talk very politely to your poll worker and ask them, I've gotten a provisional ballot, I'm voting provisionally, what do I do next so that my vote is counted?
WHITFIELD: OK. We want everybody to get it right. Especially when you make that effort to go cast your ballot. You want all the, you know, dotted I's and crossed T's.
Professor Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
TORRES-SPELLISCY: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right. Donald Trump is speaking about the latest jobs report today. What the new numbers show and how they could impact the upcoming election next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:29:13]
WHITFIELD: On this final weekend before election day, voters are taking a long hard look at the state of the economy. The latest jobs report just out on Friday shows the U.S. added just 12,000 jobs in the month of October, falling far below expectations. But unemployment is holding steady at 4.1 percent. Here is CNN's Julia Chatterley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: It was certainly a jarring jobs report. Strikes, storms and some degree of slowing in the jobs market. The challenge we've got is it's tough to pinpoint precisely how much of each. And that was the forefront of what the Bureau of Labor Statistics told us Friday, and that was, look, we know there was a severe impact of the storms. We couldn't quantify quite how much. And that leaves us just looking at the numbers.
[15:30:02]
So as you said, just 12,000 jobs added for the month of October. Just a fraction of what was expected. And even if we add back what was estimated to be deducted as a result of those challenges, which was somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 jobs, it still looks like it's a slowing jobs market. It's a weaker than anticipated number.
Now, come the revisions. We also saw 112,000 jobs less added for the months of August and September. So, again, we're building this picture of a cooling, not collapsing, and I will be very clear about that, jobs market.
What's interesting to me, too, is the unemployment rate. 4.1 percent, exactly what we got in September. So perhaps that's the number that you need to look at to read through some of the noise that we got this month. Just a quick flavor of the sectors, too, as you would expect, manufacturing took a hit this moment. Temporary health and services took a hit. On the plus side, we saw job gains in the government sector and healthcare, too.
Where does this leave us three days out now from a presidential election? Well, it leaves us plenty of room to politicize. The Trump campaign called this catastrophic. It's not. But it is a curve ball. Of course for the White House they would have preferred a less messy and a stronger number heading into the presidential election.
Take a step back. This is a solid economy. We're still adding jobs. Prices have been painful. The silver lining here is that the expectation is the Federal Reserve will cut rates next week by a quarter of a percentage point so borrowers, fingers crossed, something to look forward to there.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right. We look forward to that, Julia Chatterley, thank you so much.
All right. So let's talk about how this could impact the state of race. Joining us right now is Ryan Patel. He is a senior fellow at Claremont Graduate University's Drucker School of Management.
Great to see you. So we saw three big economic reports released this week, on the GDP, the inflation gauge, and now the jobs report. So what should voters be taking away from all this about the health of our economy?
RYAN PATEL, SENIOR FELLOW, DRUCKER SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY: Well, great joining you, Fredricka, as always. And what I would take -- for the voters to take away is that the candidate you want to pick is for long-term growth. We are in a position, the economy is pretty resilient when you think of the numbers, the reports that you just saw, the positive news, wages have continued to grow faster than inflation and people are spending more. That means there's some resiliency.
And we are no longer doing in that complete recovery mode. So what I mean by that is the candidacy that you're voting on for is how can you take out and be more in a growth mode? No longer a reactive mode. So policies matter. Understanding what each candidate is trying to do is important for the average consumer when it comes to how much money they're going to have saved in their pocket.
WHITFIELD: And then this week, you've got more than 300 economists who signed a letter opposing Donald Trump, citing, you know, a danger to democracy and what they called a misdiagnosis of the economy, saying struggling workers would actually be, and I'm quoting now, "better served by a president who is willing to engage with reality rather than one who constructs elaborate fantasy world filled with enemies around every corner," end quote.
So what do you say to that?
PATEL: Well, let me break down what that means. So what that means is stability matters. And I think when Trump had his first, you know, his presidency the chaos that occurred of tariffs really kind of, you know, causing this tension. Kind of helped in his behavior. Now, it's not really working. Countries and businesses do not -- they're putting money on the sideline because they don't know what to expect.
And if you want to recover growth-wise as a country from a GDP or other countries, it is clear that people are sending signals that they don't want this. They cannot be in a position to do this again, otherwise we are going to go backwards. So in essence is what I would say is that the voters want to say to the next president don't mess it up. Whoever it is, don't mess up the current economy. Build up off of it because it's taken a long time to get to where we are today.
WHITFIELD: And then even though people are, you know, still complaining about the pinch and really feeling the realities of the pinch, the "Wall Street Journal" put out a piece earlier this week kind of underscoring what you just said, which is the next president inherits a remarkable economy. So how -- you know, how do you convey that to voters who are saying, I am hurt by this current economy and that's what's driving my vote, when the headline is it's actually a remarkable economy that the next president inherits?
PATEL: I think it's fair because when you see prices right now and how you feel in the U.S. and the consumer and all-time high debt, credit card debt, you know, the thinking is we, the average -- you know, we don't think about the past. How we got here and where it could have been. I think when we look at the future, you look at your current situation.
[15:35:05]
And I think, you know, part of it is there is a job insecurity even though the employment rate is there. I think you've got to believe in what policy has led you to get there better and so I don't disagree with kind of the sentiment of how the, you know, the middle-class and lower income, you're feeling it at the pump or at the grocery store. And so there needs to be more stability behind that.
And I think, you know, the way that you want to move forward, I would say to the voters, who do you believe is going to be -- give that uncertainty away, who do you want leading that and whose policies do you believe in.
WHITFIELD: Fascinating. OK. We are going to find out what the majority seems to believe and think very soon.
Ryan Patel, thank you so much.
PATEL: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up, the world's other major superpower China will be watching next week's election very closely. We'll go to the streets of Beijing and ask people how they view the U.S. vote. Their answers might surprise you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:40:38]
WHITFIELD: No matter who wins next week's presidential election, it will have a critical impact on the contentious relationship between the U.S. and China. The relationship has been strained. Not just with the Biden White House, but also going back to the Trump administration. Inside China, U.S. election news is heavily censored, but it's frequently focused on the idea that the relationship with the U.S. will remain tense.
CNN's Marc Stewart has more from Beijing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARC STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As someone who lives and works in China, there is no question there is curiosity about the U.S. election. People often ask me, who is going to win, who are you supporting, yet at the same time there are other concerns facing Chinese citizens. The economy, their families, their health.
Let me share with you some of the reactions we got when we took to the streets recently here in Beijing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I know about it, but I do not pay too much attention to it. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I don't think it will make any
impact on our life here. To us ordinary Chinese people, whoever becomes the president, whether it's candidate A or candidate B, it's all the same.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: The reaction on social media a bit more pointed. One person saying, the U.S. is about to split. Another response, doesn't matter who it is. The containment of China won't ease. And another, there is no perfect system, but at least they allow people to question them.
On this topic of the American election, social media isn't always censored when it shows the political tension in the United States. The Chinese government takes a neutral approach. You could argue there's appeal in Trump, as he's been critical of alliances like NATO. This as China tries to establish itself as the leader of a new world order.
Harris could also be appealing because of the predictability and the ongoing conversations with China from the Biden administration.
Yet, regardless of the winner, the issue of tariffs is likely to be a thorny issue between the United States and China.
Marc Stewart, CNN, Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: All right, China isn't the only major global power watching this election closely. Even key allies in Europe and in the Middle East are waiting to see if their relationship with the U.S. might radically change.
Let's talk more about all of this, joining us now is David Singer. He is a CNN political and national security analyst and a "The New York Times" national severity correspondent.
Great to see you. And, oh, and there's more. He's also the author of the book "The New Cold Wars." I got to get that in there.
Hi, David. All right. There's a lot there. So you wrote this week, you know, that a second Trump administration would likely be a return to chaotic foreign policy-making and policy decrees. Can you give us a sense of what you expect that might look like?
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Sure. Well, in the first Trump administration, what did we see? We saw that the weekends were feared by many of the White House staff because the president would frequently tweet out new policy. We're leaving Afghanistan before Christmas he said in late 2020. He announced a withdrawal from Syria that he had to then backtracked on, not much earlier than that.
We saw many examples of this where it was a policy by impulse. But, you know, there's one area in which I think the Trump campaign, I'm sorry, the Trump presidency and the Biden-Harris presidencies have had considerable consistency. And it's China. Just what you just heard in the last report. And for the Chinese citizens who said I think no matter which one gets elected, the policy of containment will continue.
I think that that one got it just about right because many of the policies you've seen enacted in Biden's years had their start in the Trump years.
WHITFIELD: And then what's known about Kamala Harris's approach to foreign policy? How do you make an assessment of how, you know, she might approach major policy points?
SANGER: Well, on one big issue, which is support of Ukraine, she has been completely steadfast with President Biden and completely opposite the position that we've heard from former president Trump.
[15:45:10]
She has said she will continue with the Ukrainians for as long as it takes and with whatever it takes. But the fact of the matter remains that even if she gets elected, I think it's going to be very hard to get through Congress another package of arms and aid similar to the one that we saw passed earlier this year. And of course if former president Trump gets elected, he's made clear he's going to solve the war in 24 hours.
I only know one way to do that, Fredricka, which would be call up Vladimir Putin and say, what do you need in the way of territory? He'll say, how about the 20 percent of the country I already have my troops in? And then, the next call will be to Zelenskyy to say why don't you take that great deal? So it's a very different approach and I don't think anyone is more nervous about this election than the Ukrainians and the Eastern Europeans who worry that they're the next one in Russia's target.
WHITFIELD: All right. The "Art of the Deal" approach. So now as it pertains to the Middle East and the war in Gaza, what are the distinctions of the two candidates?
SANGER: Well, what I'm struck by as you hear former president Trump talk about the war in Gaza, and to a lesser degree, what's happening in Lebanon, you hear him describe it as a public relations problem. He keeps saying the Israelis need to stop this or get out of there or get peace because it's really bad PR. When hear Vice President Harris talk about it, you hear her talk about it in terms of the human cost of this conflict on both sides. The terror attack that took place on Octobers 7th, 2023, and then the bombings in Gaza that have caused more than 40,000 lives now.
But she's been very careful not to get too far apart from where President Biden is, even though she is under huge pressure from the left to basically announce that she's going to use American leverage to cut off arms to Israel if it continues bombing civilians. And that is going to be where the rubber hits the road I think in -- as she comes in.
WHITFIELD: All right. We'll leave it there for now. David Sanger, great to see you. Thank you so much.
SANGER: Great to be with you.
WHITFIELD: Vice President Kamala Harris will head back to the battleground state of Michigan tonight, where she will hold a series of campaign events on Sunday. Still ahead, what college voters in the swing state are telling CNN about their plans to vote.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:52:39]
WHITFIELD: Three days to go and John King is counting down his all- over-the-map series, visiting five battlegrounds in five days. Here he is in battleground Michigan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm calling to ask --
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michigan Republican headquarters five days out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- if President Trump can count on you in your support in this election?
KING: A basement phone bank shift, Ralph Brennan among the Michigan State students helping turn out the vote.
RALPH BRENNAN, MICHIGAN VOTER: I think there's a red wave coming, and especially in Michigan. And I think people will be very surprised on how many people vote Republican in this election.
KING: Brennan is 21, a junior economics major from Ohio, but he registered in Michigan for his first vote for president.
BRENNAN: I was a sixth grader when Trump got elected in '16, and I watched him, you know, come to the White House. I watched the inauguration. I watched all the great things he did.
KING: Trump struggled with young voters in 2016 and 2020. Brennan predicts better numbers this time especially among young men.
BRENNAN: Good-bye, boys. Thank you, guys.
KING: And especially after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ended his campaign and backed Trump.
BRENNAN: I've heard a lot of young guys say how important RFK was to their President Trump vote. You know ever since Trump kind of brought RFK onto the team, onto the campaign, a lot of young men voters really liked that and kind of resonate with RFK and what he's done.
KING: In a dead heat race organization can be the difference.
JADE GRAY, DIGITAL ORGANIZING MANAGER, PROGRESS MICHIGAN: Hey, did you go vote yet?
KING: Halloween spirit helps.
GRAY: These cookies, too.
KING: Treats as well.
GRAY: Will you fill out one of our pledge to vote things?
KING: Jade Gray is a progressive organizer, former co-president of the College Democrats here at the University of Michigan. Back on campus to encourage early voting.
GRAY: We know that when we vote, we win, and quite frankly, we're getting a lot of people out to vote.
KING: Gray's optimism is a big shift. This is our fourth Ann Arbor visit in a year. Back at the beginning, she was down about President Biden's prospects, and later she was worried Vice President Harris would still lose too many young voters because of student anger over the Israel-Hamas conflict.
GRAY: Have you guys voted yet? OK. Yay. Thanks.
KING: But she is upbeat now and credits a mix of constant organizing and a smarter approach from the Harris campaign.
GRAY: It was not just the candidate that switched but it was really their whole approach to the campaign. And leaning into this idea that memes and internet culture is a, you know, a mode of communicating about politics has totally transformed this race, and I think will be, you know, one of the biggest reasons to -- one of the biggest things we should credit, I'm saying when but if she wins.
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WHITFIELD: All right. John King, thank you so much for that.
And thank you for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The CNN NEWSROOM with Jessica Dean starts right after this.
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