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Trump to Meet with Biden in Oval Office on Wednesday; Key Cabinet Picks Could Come at Any Moment; Biden Administration Tries to "Trump-Proof" Some of Its Priorities; A Closer Look at Trump's White House Chief of Staff Pick; Trump Strategy on Tariffs Still Being Figured Out; Black Americans Receive Racist Texts After Election; Talking to Latinos in Arizona about Trump's Win; Democrats Reckon with Sweeping Election Loss; Aired 3-4p ET

Aired November 09, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:17]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, again, everyone. And thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right, it's official. A long standing political tradition is returning to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Today the White House announced that outgoing president Joe Biden and incoming president Trump will meet in the Oval Office Wednesday morning. It's a meeting that did not happen in 2020 after Trump refused to admit that he lost the election to Biden.

This comes as Trump and his transition team are also working quickly to fill key White House positions. And sources tell CNN that we could learn some of the new names as early as today. Earlier this week, Trump made history by announcing Susie Wiles as country's first ever female chief of staff. And now there is a scramble underway at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida as members of his circle and the GOP sphere are battling behind the scenes for a spot on his team.

We've got a team of correspondents covering all of the developments for us. CNN's Alayna Treene is covering the Trump transition near his Florida home. But let's begin with Arlette Saenz in Washington and this newly announced meeting at the White House.

How is it expected to be carried out this week?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, there will be a return to tradition on Wednesday when President Biden hosts President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office for their first meeting since the 2024 election concluded. Now Biden had extended this invitation to meet with Trump in a phone call this past Wednesday where he said that he also was committed to having a peaceful and orderly transition of power.

It comes just four years after the former president, the then President Trump did not give the same opportunity to Biden. He threw up many roadblocks during the transition process and he never conceded this election. But now Biden is trying to return some normalcy to these relationships between a president and their successors and he will be hosting him in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

Now you'll think back to 2016, then president Barack Obama had actually hosted Trump for an Oval Office meeting just two days after the election. This is a tradition that's gone back for some time. Now we have also learned that the First Lady Jill Biden had extended the invitation to Melania Trump, Trump's spouse, and we're still waiting to see if and when that meeting might take place.

But for Biden, this is part of his goals to try to show that they are doing everything they can to have this orderly transition. But of course it also does come as there are their own complicated dynamics between these two men. Their last really substantive interaction was back on that debate stage in June. The debate really derailed Biden's candidacy and then Vice President Kamala Harris stepped in as the Democratic nominee.

They have had a few other conversations. Biden had called Trump following the assassination attempts. And then they did were at the same memorial service on 9/11 in New York City. But this certainly will have a more different and heightened significance as Biden is preparing to welcome his predecessor and now successor back to the White House.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you.

And so, Alayna, there near Mar-a-Lago, any updates on how Trump is building his team?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I do just want to add, Fred, that we have some new reporting in as well about how this White House meeting between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was set up. I was told by sources familiar with the organizing of this meeting that essentially Donald Trump's new incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles as well as Biden's chief of staff Jeff Zients have been the ones who have been in contact and coordinating this.

I was told that they have been in contact over the past several days and also that they've actually been in contact over the last several months. They have spoken in -- they spoke in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump's life in Butler, Pennsylvania, and also have discussions around Secret Service protection. And so it's not a surprise that the two of them have spoke but I am told they were the ones who were really working out the details for that Wednesday meeting.

I was also told that at least from the Trump side of things, they said that the conversations have been pretty easy going and straightforward. And so I keep that in mind as we look ahead to Wednesday.

As for what's going on, though, with how Donald Trump is viewing, you know, some of the jockeying behind the scenes, there's a lot going on at Mar-a-Lago right now. Donald Trump has been locked in I am told. He's been meeting -- the first formal meetings really with the transition team were yesterday but he's had a series of meetings with his transition team, going over the different candidates that he believes would be best to serve in some of the top roles that he cares about most.

[15:05:14]

I think the number one role that Donald Trump is the most locked in on and the one that he believes is going to be the most important in his next administration is the role of attorney general. Remember Donald Trump has said before that he does not believe the Justice Department should be run as independently as it has been traditionally. A big departure from what we've seen really from all recent presidents in modern history. But also, I think the part of attorney general as well is going to be carrying out some of Donald Trump's legal aims. And that includes potentially prosecuting his political opponents.

Now we do know that one name at the top of the list is Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt. He was previously the attorney general of Missouri. He knows Donald Trump very well. He was with him on Tuesday night on election night. Other names include the current attorney general of Missouri, Andrew Bailey, John Ratcliffe, someone who had served as Donald Trump's former director of National Intelligence.

We've also heard of the former attorney general Matthew Whitaker also who served in the Trump administration. A lot of, you know, many names floating around here. Mark Paoletta, he's an attorney. So I think that role, though, is the one to really keep in mind given how much Donald Trump plans to do as it relates to the Justice Department and how much power he wants that department to have.

And I'd also remind you, Fred, that, you know, in the aftermath of the 2020 election after Donald Trump had lost, he had said one of his biggest regrets was who he had put in that role in the first place referring to his former attorneys general Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much.

Arlette, back to you in Washington. So what kind of unfinished business does Biden want to attend to that can also help secure his legacy?

SAENZ: Well, President Biden and his team are really working to try to safeguard many of the initiatives that they've put into place before President-elect Trump takes office. A lot of this focus will be on implementing and getting a lot of the aid and assistance has been approved already out the door. That includes trying to surge military aid to Ukraine in these final weeks and months at a time when there are real questions about what U.S. support for Ukraine will look like going forward.

There is also a lot of money tied up as it relates to some of the legislation that they've passed on semiconductor chips, manufacturing, and also climate initiatives. They'll be trying to get that money out the door as well. And then there is the potential for trying to finalize environmental rules and regulations. Just this week the administration had announced that they were limiting drilling in Alaska's arctic wildlife reserves. And then there is the issue of judicial nominations. Biden trying to

see if he can try to get any judges across the finish line. That is something Senate Democrats are eager to do, though it's unclear how much cooperation they might have from Republicans. Biden also will turn his attention to the world stage in the coming week. Just the day after he meets with President-elect Trump in the Oval Office, Biden is set to depart for two major summits in South America, the APEC Summit in Peru, followed by the G20 Summit in Brazil.

This will really put Biden face to face with many of the world leaders who are grappling with what a Trump presidency will look like. Biden has often shared this anecdote that when he started to meet with world leaders after taking office, he has said to them America is back. And some of those world leaders has said in return for how long? And so now there is a new path that is going to be set when it relates to how the U.S. is involved on the international stage.

That is likely something that the president will have the chance to speak with world leaders as he heads to those summit next week.

WHITFIELD: All right. Arlette Saenz and Alayna Treene, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.

All right, and as we mentioned President-elect Trump has named Susie Wiles as his chief of staff. CNN's Randi Kaye reports Wiles brings a long resume of political experience to the job.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: Come here, Susie. Susie likes to stay sort of in the back, let me tell you. The ice maiden, we call her the ice maiden.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump's newly minted chief of staff, Susie Wiles, does not enjoy the spotlight like her boss. The 40-year veteran of Republican politics prefers to operate behind the scenes.

JOE GRUTERS (R), FLORIDA STATE SENATE: She's a steady hand and she's a loyal foot soldier.

KAYE: On her LinkedIn page under specialties, Wiles listed this -- creating order from chaos, a skill that came in handy while running Trump's presidential campaign.

SUSIE WILES, TRUMP'S CHIEF OF STAFF: Candidates matter, what they stand for matters.

KAYE: That was Wiles in 2020, speaking to CNN affiliate WPLG after she delivered a win for Trump in Florida as head of his campaign operation in the state.

[15:10:02]

She rarely gives interviews. Wiles first successfully ran Trump's Florida campaign in 2016, then again in 2020. WILES: The traditional Republican voter coalition just simply can't, I

don't believe, elect Republicans any longer. So beginning to bring into the tent a larger number of Hispanic voters.

KAYE: After his presidency, Wiles served as Trump's de-facto chief of staff, then led his 2024 campaign. One of her goals, keep a close eye on who had access to the former president. Wiles has a string of political campaign success stories. In 2010, she helped Rick Scott eke out a win to become governor of Florida. In 2018, she was tapped to save Ron DeSantis's campaign for Florida governor. He won by 32,000 votes, the closest governor's election in state history. After that, amid tensions, Wiles was ousted from DeSantis's inner circle.

She went back to work on Trump's Florida re-election team but was dismissed at DeSantis's urging. In 2020, Trump brought her back amid concerns about his campaign standing in Florida polls. He ended up winning Florida by more than three points against Joe Biden.

GRUTERS: Susie Wiles is the political version of Muhammad Ali. She does not lose. She is a relentless fighter.

KAYE: That fighting spirit was instilled early on. She grew up with two brothers and is the daughter of professional football player turned television broadcaster Pat Summerall.

Before agreeing to her new role in the Trump White House, CNN has learned Wiles insisted on certain conditions. Top of the list, more control over who has access to the Oval Office.

GRUTERS: She wants to make sure that the president's priorities are first and foremost followed through on and that there don't want distraction. She is laser-focused.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE (on-camera): Senator Joe Gruters also described Susie Wiles as calming. He says she's a real leader. He said that Donald Trump likes to surround himself with winners and that Susie Wiles has certainly earned her stripes as a winner given all of her campaign victories that she's stacked up here in the state of Florida and the most recent presidential election.

Now, keep in mind, though, of course that Donald Trump had four chiefs of staff during his first term as president. But Susie Wiles seems to want to bring anti-chaos environment to this next Trump White House, so we'll see how that plays out.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Palm Beach County, Florida.

WHITFIELD: All right. Still ahead, Democrats are playing the blame game with President-elect Donald Trump headed back to the White House. How should the party move forward? We'll discuss.

Plus, state and federal agencies are looking into racist texts sent to mostly black Americans including kids after the election. We'll have the latest on that investigation. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:17:26]

WHITFIELD: As President-elect Donald Trump and his team prepare to return to the White House, they are also looking at how his campaign promises might translate into policy. One of those promises, tariffs. During the campaign Trump proposed a 10 percent to 20 percent tariff across the board on all U.S. imports and an even steeper tariff of 60 percent against China. But sources tell CNN how strategy would be pulled off, well, that's still up in the air. Still, economists have warned that Trump's tariff plan will end up costing consumers. Research shows that his policy could cost the typical middle income household more than $2600 per year.

Joining me right now to discuss is CNN economics and political commentator Catherine Rampell. She's also an opinion columnist for "The Washington Post."

Great to see you.

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Great to be here.

WHITFIELD: All right. So we heard about, you know, massive tariffs on China throughout the Trump campaign. Now that he has been elected, do you see that it will cost consumers upwards of $2600 a year. And if so, how?

RAMPELL: Well, when you think about how these tariffs are implemented or would be implemented, they are remitted at the point of importation, right, so like I'm a wholesaler. I import a bunch of bicycles or something like that, and I have to pay a tariff on them if they are coming from anywhere outside of the United States. And then I can either take lower profits or -- and/or I can pass along those additional costs down to the retailers who buy from me who can pass them down to the consumers who ultimately purchase those bicycles, or avocados or whatever it is that we happen to import.

And the United States imports a lot of goods from around the world, not just from China but from our nearby neighbors in Mexico, in Canada, and elsewhere. Previous research looking at the consequences of his tariffs when he was president before found that either most or all of the cost of those tariffs were passed along to American consumers and businesses. They were not borne in fact by the foreign countries or the companies in those countries that sold those goods to the United States.

So that's how you would get that consequence where, again, everything you buy at Target or a lot of things at the supermarket for that matter would cost more money because these are taxes essentially. These are import taxes that are getting passed.

WHITFIELD: And then passed on to you.

RAMPELL: Exactly. [15:20:06]

WHITFIELD: Got it. All right, so you have a new opinion piece in the "Washington Post" titled "Why Trump Should Take Credit for Biden's Economy." Explain what you mean especially when for a very long time we heard Trump being very critical of Biden's economy.

RAMPELL: Right. So right now the U.S. economy is actually doing quite well. There's still this hangover from the inflation that we experienced as a country back in 2022, 2023. There was a huge run-up in prices then. But since then actually price growth has been very slow. Groceries, for example, have gone up only 1 percent from a year earlier. It doesn't mean that the prices are going back down. But they're not growing that much.

In fact for the past year, or more than a year, wage growth has been outpacing price growth overall. When you add on top of that the fact that unemployment remains quite low, GDP growth has been robust, it suggests that the economy is actually doing quite well even if people are kind of down on it. So my advice to Donald Trump is just take the win. Don't try to fix what ain't broke at this point.

You know, he has pledged that he is going to fix things. But he could just hype up the numbers that we already have, particularly as people get used to the prices that, you know, those higher prices that we saw a couple of years ago that have now basically plateaued. He could take credit, proclaim victory and do nothing else. Because if he does instead execute some of these key planks of his economic agenda like global tariffs, like politicizing the Fed or for that matter mass deportations and other things that his aides have talked about such as devaluing the dollar.

All of those things will either raise prices further or -- and/or crash the U.S. economy. So just go play golf, accept the win.

WHITFIELD: I got you. OK. He'll probably benefit but he is not likely to give credit to Biden.

RAMPELL: Take credit. I don't care. That's a better outcome than destroying the economy.

WHITFIELD: There you go. All right. So U.S. stocks, you know, closed at record highs on Friday, notching their best week all year after Donald Trump's election victory. So what is behind that surge?

RAMPELL: I think there are a few things going on here. One is that markets I think don't necessarily believe that Trump is going to execute all of those tariffs that he's talked about. And he may not. He has the power to do a lot of them but maybe somebody will be able to convince him otherwise. Markets do believe however that he is going to prioritize further corporate tax cuts.

And if you cut corporate taxes, that should basically arithmetically raise stock prices, corporate taxes and capital gains taxes because when you think about it, when you buy a stock what you are purchasing is essentially the future profits of a company after taxes. So if those taxes go down, the profits go up. So that in and of itself should lift stock market prices.

Now I would point out that that's not the only market signal that we've gotten recently. Almost immediately after the election was called, markets also began pricing in higher inflation over the next few years again potentially because of those risks about the things that Trump might do that are inflationary. We just don't know how much of his economic agenda he is likely to execute at this point. Again I hope it's a relatively small part of it but it remains to see who he surrounds himself with and how aggressively he decides to deliver on those tariffs among other proposals.

WHITFIELD: All right. We'll leave it there for now. Catherine Rampell, great to see you. Thanks so much.

RAMPELL: Thank you.

All right. Still ahead, a plane carrying a top 20 basketball team in college has to turn around in midflight because of an altercation between the players. How it all ended.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:28:25]

WHITFIELD: Federal and state agencies are trying to find the source of racist hate-filled text messages that were sent to mostly black Americans after the election.

CNN's Rafael Romo is here with the latest on this.

So what are you learning about these disturbing messages?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a situation where federal agencies are not yet ready to say we know who's responsible for this. They're investigating but it's very hard because all these servers are from across the world. It's just very, very difficult. And the messages appear to have been sent using free phone service and mobile data providers. One of these providers known as Text Now told CNN Friday the company believes this is a widespread coordinated attack.

The hate-filled texts have been reported in more than 20 states from New York to California and the District of Columbia. Students from at least three historically black colleges and universities, Hampton University in Virginia, Fisk University in Nashville, and Claflin University in South Carolina have reported receiving messages. And according to Nevada's attorney general's office the texts appear to be robotext messages.

One of the biggest questions here is, how is it possible to do something like this anonymously? Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told CNN Friday that whether this is a single person or a group, they're using anonymizing software to obscure their location which makes it very difficult to track them.

As you can imagine this is cause for great concerns for those receiving messages as well as parents and loved ones. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALYSE MCCALL, UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA STUDENT: This is truly disgusting. Whoever is sending it out is vile. No one should ever -- one think to send that message or receive that message. It just made me sick to my stomach.

[15:30:05]

JENNIFER GREEN, SON RECEIVED TEXT MESSAGES: We do talk about politics. It's not something that I hide from him because he is going to be a black man in America. So I make sure that he understands what the landscape of his adulthood could look like. The fact that it happened a day after, you know, election day, it really speaks to what I think is going on here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And Fred, the NAACP denounced the messages saying that they represent an alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric from racist groups across the country who now feel emboldened to spread hate and stoke the flames of fear that many of us are feeling after Tuesday's election results.

We have also heard from President-elect Donald Trump's campaign. Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told CNN that Trump's presidential campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages. One of the many reasons why the text message is deeply worry many people is that they address recipients by name. Cori Faklaris, an assistant professor of Software and Information Services at the University of North Carolina Charlotte told the A.P. that the senders likely collected personal data by buying it online and then used that into machine learning algorithms to increase the chances that those getting messages are members of a minority group.

So it seems like a lot of work went into it to target specific groups with the purpose again of getting people scared and uncomfortable and not to mention very offended.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Well, hopefully at some point the source is located, isolated.

ROMO: Right.

WHITFIELD: All right, Rafael Romo, thanks so much.

All right. Still ahead, President-elect Donald Trump saw historic support from Latino voters this election. What Latino and immigrant voters are telling CNN about Trump's win. And new developments in the race to recapture dozens of monkeys which escaped from a research lab in South Carolina. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:36:39] WHITFIELD: All right. As the dust settles from Tuesday's election, it's become clear that Latino voters embraced Donald Trump despite his antiimmigrant rhetoric and campaign promises on mass deportation.

CNN's Ed Lavandera spoke with Latino and immigrant voters in Arizona about why they supported the president-elect.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 2016, this happened at a Donald Trump rally in Arizona.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL-ELECT: Look at that sign, Latinos support Trump. I love you. I love you.

LAVANDERA: Next thing Betty Rivas knew she was on stage with the future president.

TRUMP: I love her. I've fallen in love. Melania, I've fallen in love with her.

LAVANDERA: Eight years later, Rivas remains fully enamored with the president-elect. Betty Rivas told us she felt a connection with Trump on that stage when they looked into each other's eyes.

Betty and her husband Jorge owned Sammy's Mexican Grill near Tucson. In this temple to Trump, they serve tacos and enchiladas and the popular MAGA burger.

If someone were to come up to you and say, you're a Latino immigrant, how can you support Donald Trump?

JORGE RIVAS, TRUMP-THEMED RESTAURANT OWNER: I will tell him that the man loved this country.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): He says. Trump speaks about the things he cares about faith, family and the economy.

RIVAS: I know he's not perfect. I know he's not like the Pope. We believe in, you know, teaching our kids about God, our Christian values, family values. And the Democratic Party is embracing all the woke, left-leaning ideas that it doesn't go with our values.

LAVANDERA: I think there's going to be a lot of people who have a hard time hearing you say, I like Trump because of family values.

RIVAS: I don't go by his lifestyle. I don't go by what he has done.

LAVANDERA: Do you think it's the Democrats pushing Latinos to Trump, or is it Trump bringing in Latinos?

RIVAS: I think more Democrats are pushing Latinos to Trump.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Tony Arias and Idelfonso Armenta are the host of a radio show called "Los Chavorrucos," which loosely translates to young geezers. On La Campesina radio network, which airs in five states, they take dozens of calls a day on a radio station founded by the iconic labor organizer Cesar Chavez. And they've sensed Trump winning over Latinos in the last few years.

Democrats do not impress people, said the caller. Donald Trump spoke well and stole their hearts. Another caller said I fought with my oldest son. He told me Trump is better than Kamala. I said, I cannot accept that.

Are you seeing that it's a generational divide?

TONY ARIAS, RADIO HOST: I see a lot of young people voting for Trump because they're thinking about the economy.

RAQUEL TERAN, FORMER DEMOCRATIC LEADER IN THE ARIZONA SENATE: We need to do a better job of engaging our communities.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Raquel Teran is a former Democratic legislator in Arizona. She recently ran for Congress and spent months knocking on doors trying to turn out Latino voters.

TERAN: What they're hearing from Trump is that there's going to be a better economy under his administration.

LAVANDERA: The night after Donald Trump won reelection, Jorge Rivas told us about their path to becoming U.S. citizens. He was born in El Salvador, granted asylum in the U.S. at age 17. Betty immigrated from Mexico. Now she thinks many migrants are lying and trying to take advantage of the asylum process. They want the immigration crisis fixed.

[15:40:07]

RIVAS: If they let in hundreds or thousands of people who already have criminal records, if deporting them creates a mass deportation, I'm all for it.

LAVANDERA: But what if rounded up and all of that are people who work on a farm? They're doing the jobs that Americans don't want to do. Does that worry you?

RIVAS: That wouldn't be fair of course. You know, they need to make sure that they don't throw away, they don't kick out, they don't deport people that are family-oriented.

LAVANDERA (on-camera): The question that persists is why is why Donald Trump's history of offensive comments hasn't fully turned off Latino voters. Some pointed out to us that younger Latino voters in particular don't know much about Trump, that they simply see him as a celebrity businessman. And others also pointed out that many Latino immigrants come from countries with truly dangerous and evil political leaders, and they view Trump as much more harmless.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Phoenix.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: All right. The border played a key role in shaping election night. But it wasn't the only factor. CNN's exit poll shows how Trump was able to broaden his base especially with first-time voters, Latinos, young people, and veterans. Now Democrats are doing a lot of soul searching to ensure 2028 doesn't end up like 2024.

Joining us right now the director of the Center on American Politics at the University of Denver, Seth Masket. His latest book, "Learning from a Loss: The Democrats 2016-2020" is available now.

All right. So, Seth, you literally wrote the book on what Democrats learned from losing to Trump in 2016. What lessons do you think they should be taking a hard look at now?

SETH MASKET, DIRECTOR, CENTER ON AMERICAN POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF DENVER: Well, there's going to be a lot of the usual round of pointing to different parts of the party and saying this is the reason we lost. At least some Democrats are talking about maybe the fact that Kamala Harris is a woman or that she's a person of color, that they need to nominate white men and that they tend to do better when they do that.

I don't know that that's necessarily true but it's certainly something that some people are considering. They're going to suggest that the party needs to pivot to the right on social issues or on economic issues. They're going to be considering a lot, although it's pretty interesting to note that the Republicans had a loss in 2020 and didn't really pivot at all. If anything Donald Trump kind of doubled down on his message and proved victorious this time around. So it's not clear that that any sort of pivot automatically yields a win.

WHITFIELD: Does it mean instead evaluating the candidate closer, it means evaluating America.

MASKET: Well, yes. In some sense they are considering things like, did we pick the right candidate? They're also thinking, did we do the right messaging? Did we campaign in the right places? Or did we simply misunderstand the electorate? Did we understand just what would work and what didn't? One of the things we've seen that, you know, Democrats knew, I think, that they had -- that they were facing a head wind this year, that President Biden was broadly unpopular, that they were facing difficult economic perceptions.

And they were sort of hoping that Donald Trump's sort of historic unpopularity, his association with January 6th, his association with the COVID pandemic, that all those things would drag him down. And that just proved not to be the case. And so I think they're wondering right now whether they need to be thinking, you know, thinking different thoughts about that, thinking anew or whether he's even the candidate they should be pivoting against for 2028.

WHITFIELD: On women, Harris actually did worse than Biden in 2020 and Clinton in 2016 as well. Why do you suppose that is?

MASKET: Well, I think there's kind of an automatic assumption that if you have a woman candidate she'll do better among women voters or if you have a candidate of color she'll do better among voters of color. And that's definitely not automatically the case by a long shot. I think what we've seen in the last few years since the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, that has helped produce higher turnout among pro-choice voters, particularly women. That has really helped Democrats out in a couple of races that are already normally pretty low turnout.

It gets people to vote who wouldn't have normally already voted. However, in a presidential election, that's pretty much by definition a high turnout race. Everyone is already going to turn out for that. So that didn't actually really produce a whole lot of new pro-choice voters or women voters for them. You ended up seeing, you know, women break down among other lines, among their party lines or their economic views. And it ended up not making that big a difference for the actual election results.

WHITFIELD: OK. All right. So when you talk about the, you know, the House, the U.S. House, there are about 18 races that still have yet to be decided. So some Democrats are feeling they still have a chance to maybe take the House even after Republicans, you know, won back power in the Senate.

[15:45:06]

What kind of message do you believe that is sending to either of the parties?

MASKET: Well, Democrats certainly have a chance at this. Probably the tide is in Republicans' favor right now for taking the House but we just don't know yet. One of the things we know is that the, you know, the overall votes at least at the presidential level swung a few points, about five or so points, in the Republicans' favor this year. But it will vary a little bit. There are at least some split ticket voting this year where, you know, there are people who voted for Donald Trump and yet nonetheless voted for a Democratic member of Congress or voted for Kamala Harris and voted for Republican member of Congress.

We've seen that here and there. And so if Democrats are able to hold on to the House, it will be pretty narrow but if they do that will definitely give some of them some messages to look for. They can look at what campaign messages they pursued, what sort of candidates they nominated that were able to beat the presidential tide somewhat. But otherwise if they don't and if Republicans have a trifecta control, Democrats are really going to be in minority position for at least the next two years and have a lot of thinking to do over that time.

WHITFIELD: All right. Seth Masket, great talking to you. Thank you so much.

MASKET: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, FEMA takes action after one of their workers told relief teams to skip hurricane damaged homes with Trump signs? And it sounds like a real-life game of Jumanji. In South Carolina the search is on for dozens of monkeys that escaped a research lab. And we just got an update in the race to catch them. That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:51:23]

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. New today at least 25 people are dead and more than 50 others are injured following a suicide bombing at a busy train station in Pakistan. A separatist militant group claimed responsibility for the attack that took place early this morning in the city of Quetta. Government officials say passengers, railway employees, and security personnel are among the dead.

And new this hour a FEMA employee has been fired after reportedly telling relief teams to skip homes with Trump signs after Hurricane Milton hit Florida. The agency did not identify the employee but says she was canvassing the state following the devastating storm. A FEMA spokesperson told CNN the employee who issued this guidance had no authority and was given no direction to tell teams to avoid these homes. And we are reaching out to people who may not have been reached as a result of the incident. FEMA's administrator called her actions reprehensible. The agency says it helps all survivors regardless of their political affiliation.

And the Cleveland Cavaliers just keep on rolling, getting off to their best start in franchise history.

CNN's Andy Scholes has a look at that and so much more in sports.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Fredricka, the Cavs were a good team last year but in the offseason they changed coaches bringing in Kenny Atkinson, and he's just turned them into an offensive juggernaut. The Cavs were hosting Steph Curry and 71 Warriors last night. They just pounced them from the get-go. Starting the game on a 20-2 run. Cleveland was up 17 after the first, they were up 41 at half time. Cavs is the first team in NBA history to start 10-0 scoring least 110 points in every single one of those games. They walloped the Warriors 136-117 and remained the NBA's only undefeated team.

All right. College with now huge matchups, top ranked Kansas and ninth ranker UNC meeting for just the 13th time in history. The Jayhawks jumped out to a 20-point first half lead, but the Tar Heels they came all the way back, actually led by three with under four to go. But then Kansas big man, Hunter Dickinson, the big time (INAUDIBLE), put the Jayhawks back up two with a little over a minute left.

North Carolina down three in the final seconds. Their shot to tie it no good at the buzzer. Kansas survived winning 92-89 giving Coach Bill Self his 590th win tied for the most in program history.

And finally 11th ranker Auburn, they jumped on a plane last night to head to their big game with fourth ranked Houston today. But get this, according to multiple reports the plane had to turn around and go back because the players were fighting each other. Per ESPN the apparent scuffle was over before it became a serious situation. But the flight personnel still decided to divert the plane back to Auburn. They did then take a replacement flight late Friday night. But, Fredricka, not sure I've ever heard that one before where the

players were fighting each other turning their trip then to a travel nightmare. We'll see how they end up playing today in Houston.

WHITFIELD: Well, good luck to them. That is really embarrassing. I know the coaches don't like that.

Andy Scholes, thank you.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Terrifying new video showing the moment -- whoa -- a highway worker near Binghamton, New York, had to run for his life narrowly being -- narrowly avoiding being hit by an incoming rental truck there. The truck missing him by just inches. Right there. New York State Police said the driver failed to observe a work area and two DOT vehicles parked on the shoulder. Thankfully no serious injuries were reported. Boy, hard to look at that.

All right. And this just in, just one, one, of the 43 monkeys that escaped from a South Carolina research facility earlier this week has been captured. Workers are trying to lure the other 42 monkeys back with food and nonlethal traps. Yemassee Police say the primates have been --