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CNN This Morning
Rain and Wind Move East; Humanitarian Crisis Worsens in Gaza; Trump Holds Lead in Iowa; Musk Restores Jones' X Account. Aired 6:30- 7a ET
Aired December 11, 2023 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are my kids, you know? Everything else is replaceable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Just terrifying for them. That same storm system now headed to the Northeast, bringing rain and snow throughout the day.
Derek Van Dam following all of this with some new information on these twisters.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS CERTIFIED METEOROLOGIST: Yes, after this weekend's killer tornadoes, this is the most number of deadly twisters in a single year since the year 2011. So, that really say something. And that includes this beast of a tornado that tore a path across the state line of Tennessee and Kentucky, clocking winds of 150 miles per hour, traveling nearly 43 miles per hour. All encompassing, there were nearly 30 reports of tornadoes across the deep south this weekend. And as Poppy just mentioned, a lot of that energy is transferred to the East Coast. But, of course, not the severe threat. It's more of a flood threat as well as heavy snowfall for northern New England.
Here's a look at the I-95 corridor. It is extremely wet. Boston, New York, all the way to D.C. The good news is, the rain is quickly coming to an end and we'll start to see a clearing trend in the sky later tonight.
Poppy, back to you.
HARLOW: Thank you, Derek. Appreciate it.
VAN DAM: OK.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, just in this morning, a new poll showing us the state of the 2024 race in Iowa. We're going to break down what it means just five weeks until the first in the nation contest there.
HARLOW: And the U.S. urging Israel to do much more to protect civilians in Gaza. How is Israel responding to that pressure, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:35:05]
HARLOW: Welcome back.
In Gasza this morning the death toll is nearing 18,000 people. That is according to the Hamas-run ministry of health. A top U.N. official says hundreds of thousands of displaced people do not have just the basic necessities, like food and water and medical supplies. That is allowing disease to spread very quickly. Israel continues its air strikes and its ground offensive in Gaza, now in the central and southern regions. All of this as the United States is pushing vocally for many more protections for civilians.
Jeremy Diamond joins us live from Sderot, Israel.
Jeremy, good morning to you.
I mean the words that Secretary Blinken chose to use in the Sunday interviews yesterday were striking, talking about the gap between what Israel says and what it is actually doing. However, all of the U.S. actions, including the vote on the U.N. ceasefire resolution, are in lock step with Israel.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No doubt about it. I mean, look, the U.S. is trying to bring to bear significant pressure on Israel, but only to a certain point. And we are seeing the limited impact of that pressure on the ground here. Israel is very much pressing forward with its offensive in southern Gaza to much similar effects as what we have seen in the north, particularly as it relates to civilian casualties. Very similar images of women and children being pulled out of the rubble, rushed to hospitals in southern Gaza as we saw in the northern part of the strip.
And, yesterday, Israel's national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, saying that Israel's offensive likely can't be measured in weeks and perhaps not even in months, making very clear that Israel is going to continue to push forward up until it reaches its goal of destroying Hamas and capturing or killing Hamas' leader.
As you mentioned, the U.S. secretary of state saying that he believes Israel does have an intent to protect civilians but that on the ground the reality is very different.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: I think the intent is there, but the results are not always manifesting themselves. And we see that both in terms of civilian protection and humanitarian assistance.
Israel needs to be able to deal with this, to protect itself, to prevent October 7th from happening again. But, as it does that, it's imperative that civilians be protected.
(END VIDEO CLIP) DIAMOND: And Secretary Blinken also making clear that Israel needs to establish better deconfliction routes and times for humanitarian aid to get into Gaza for civilians to be able to flee. Look, Israel has been directing civilians to move to Rafah, for example, in southern Gaza, but the ability of Gazans to actually do that is very, very difficult.
And then, when they get to Rafah, humanitarian aid officials are warning that the shelters there are overcrowded, they are under resourced and the bombing, even there, is continuing.
Poppy. Phil.
HARLOW: Jeremy Diamond, live for us in Israel, thanks very much for the reporting. We'll get back to you soon.
Phil.
MATTINGLY: Well, brand-new this morning, on a story that has continued to gain momentum over the course of the last several days, nearly 600 Harvard faculty members signed a petition in support of Harvard's President Claudine Gay. The letter urges officials to resist the growing pressure to remove her. She's one of the three university leaders who declined to testify that, quote, "calling for genocide" would violate their school's code of conduct. That came last week at a congressional hearing on anti-Semitism. The University of Pennsylvania's president stepped down amid outrage after the hearing.
HARLOW: Ron DeSantis trying a new line of attack on Donald Trump. His new pitch to try to win over some of Trump's primary votes. That's ahead.
MATTINGLY: And the man who called the Sandy Hook shooting a hoax and then profited from it returns to X. Alex Jones gets a warm welcome back from Elon Musk himself.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:42:46]
MATTINGLY: Well, just moments ago we got more numbers, more polls. This one from "The Des Moines Register." A critical poll showing the state of the race in Iowa. Of course, only five weeks to go until the caucuses. In that poll Donald Trump leading with a majority 51 percent. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley battling it out for a distant second with 19 and 16 percent respectively.
David Chalian is back with us because we have more polls.
David, when you look at these numbers, and I was trying to compare and contrast to the October "DMR" poll, Trump has been a runaway frontrunner in this race. We see it again here. But dig into the numbers. What do we need to know?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, well you showed the top line there, Phil. And just take a look at it again, this lead, 51 percent over 19 percent for DeSantis and 16 percent for Haley, this is the largest lead any Republican has held this close to the caucuses in the history of "The Des Moines Register" Iowa poll. So, it is a commanding lead and an historic one. And he's at majority support. That's key.
You've noted there's been change over time. Trump is up eight points since this same poll in October, from 43 to 51. DeSantis is up 3. Haley is holding steady at 16 percent.
And I would just note, guys, when you dig into these numbers, things that have been true throughout this year remain true. Trump's supporters are the most committed and the most enthusiastic. They are least likely to say they're going change their minds. In fact, half the Republican electorate in Iowa says their mind is made up.
And the other key point, 63 percent of first-time caucus goers say they're backing Trump. That's 50 points ahead of anybody else. It shows Donald Trump still has the ability to bring new people into this process.
HARLOW: Yes, so interesting. David, we'll get back to you soon. Thank you so much.
As for Governor Ron DeSantis, he went after Trump in Iowa this weekend.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He spent his first full day in office arguing with the media about his crowd size at his inauguration. That's a lack of focus, that's a lack of discipline, and I have that focus and discipline. You know, sometimes -- I think most of the time -- he's his own worst enemy by not being able to control his mouth. And that has consequences for governance and us being able to get things done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[06:45:01]
HARLOW: DeSantis doubled down. He took to X and he slammed Trump for denigrating American troops with this comment about the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: When I went on to that stage just a few days later and the general, who's a fantastic general, actually said to me, sir, I've been on the battlefield, men have gone down on my left and on my right. I stood on hills with soldiers were killed. But I believe the bravest thing I've ever seen was the night you went on to that stage with Hillary Clinton after what happened. And then that woman asked you the first question about it and I said, locker room talk. It's locker room talk. What the hell. (END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Braver than those who sacrifice their life for this country? What a comparison.
Lee Carter, Jamal Simmons, Laura Barron-Lopez back with us.
So, given comments like that, still people sticking by him, so many Republican voters in Iowa. And what I thought was really interesting from this Iowa poll, about half - 49 percent of likely caucus goer say their minds are already made up. So, unless that changes dramatically, this isn't going to change dramatically
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. And it shows that also the debates have not been helping these candidates, the rivals of Trump, because of the fact that since October he has increased by, what, David said eight points or so.
So that means that more and more are rallying around Trump, including new caucus-goers. I mean Trump, right now it looks like, is going to be the nominee unless, as you said, Poppy, something dramatically changes. And it just shows you that Republican voters are very much behind what he is proposing for the country, which is to install loyalists at the Justice Department, to totally overall the civil service and install a bunch of loyalists there, which, you know, scholars say could lead to corruption. And he's made very clear that this campaign is about retribution and revenge.
MATTINGLY: I am fascinated by Ron DeSantis' turn last night in Waterloo.
HARLOW: Yes.
MATTINGLY: I thought it was very sharp. Our embed out there, Ken Mars (ph), sent a great feed, and it was just a very different Ron DeSantis. And I want to get to that in a second, but I want to go back because I wish we had iso (ph) cameras on all of your faces as you listened to what he said to the New York Republican event. Apparently it was a black tie affair.
Lee, does it matter? If you listen to that, and you're just like, you've got to be kidding me right now, in part because that was the worst moment for 2016. He won. Props to him for that.
LEE CARTER, STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: Yes.
MATTINGLY: But now we're joking about it. We're citing unnamed generals. We're - like, what are we doing here?
CARTER: If Hillary Clinton hadn't, just a couple days after that, said that Republicans who support Donald Trump -
HARLOW: Deplorables.
CARTER: Are a basket full of deplorables, he would not be president today. And I think that to make light of this whole thing, locker room talk, it's a mistake.
But here's the thing that so many people don't understand, when you look at that Iowa poll, one thing that I saw that just really jumped out to me is three in four likely caucus goers say that Trump's views strike the right balance. We saw a similar thing in the - in the polls in Georgia and Michigan. People believe his policy aligns of what they want regardless of what he talks about.
They talk about his temperament. People are saying, you know what, I'm willing to write that off because things were better three years ago for me than they are today. And no matter what we want to talk about the economy, we were talking about before, it is -- the numbers are staggering on how bad people view the economy.
Fifty-six percent of voters in both states, Georgia and Michigan, say that Biden's policies have made the economy worse. That means they feel worse today than they did three years ago. And that's going to be hard to overcome.
JAMAL SIMMONS, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: You know, I don't know if you guys have listened to - if y'all have listed to "The Astead Herndon" podcast, sort of Thanksgiving Day podcast that he gave (INAUDIBLE) -
MATTINGLY: Yes.
SIMMONS: It's the most compelling thing I've ever heard of a bunch of African American voters talking about the president, talking about what's going on, and Trump.
HARLOW: Yes.
SIMMONS: Democrats don't talk about the economy in many ways the way people think about the economy. We talk about getting rid - you know, lowering prescription drug prices, we talk about inflation. Where's about making money? We don't talk about building wealth, buying a house, sending your kids to school. Like, the things that most people care about when they think about the economy.
And if there's one thing I would want the White House and the president to start talking about is, who's getting contracts out of all this infrastructure spending that we're - that we're doing? How many jobs are being created? How much more money are these jobs paying than they used to pay. How are people - what are people doing with these jobs? Are they buying new houses. And talk about the money. Get the bag. People want to talk about getting the bag.
HARLOW: That's such a good point.
CARTER: Yes.
HARLOW: Especially in terms of having a shot to start building generational wealth.
SIMMONS: Absolutely.
HARLOW: Tie that to how Trump is polling among black male voters right now, which is fascinating.
BARRON-LOPEZ: Yes, I mean, Republicans, especially under Trump, have been trying to pull away at the margins. Some black voters and Latino voters, And Trump has been somewhat successful at the margins with particular male black voters and Latino voters.
HARLOW: Yes.
BARRON-LOPEZ: You know, overall, majority of black voters vote Democratic. I think we can expect them to still vote Democratic come 2024.
[06:50:03]
But a part of that is, you know, the economy and a part of that is whether or not these young men feel as though President Biden or Democrats are doing enough for them to as you said create, you know, some type of generational wealth or create a future for themselves in an economy where interest rates are up, you know, people my age or younger can't really buy houses and they're still dealing with student debt, which the president has taken some action on, but not the one that he initially wanted to. So, it's definitely something that he has to close the gap on to keep that coalition together that helped him in 2020.
MATTINGLY: Yes, because -
CARTER: And -
MATTINGLY: Real quick.
CARTER: And he was ahead by 20 points with - with these -- and now he's losing them. Not losing them. I mean it's obvious he's still ahead, but that gap is what -
HARLOW: The spread is much thinner.
CARTER: The spread is much, much thinner. And that's going to be a big problem because he ran -- he won by narrow margins.
MATTINGLY: Listen to Astead Herdon's Thanksgiving podcast.
HARLOW: I know. I just wrote myself a note.
MATTINGLY: It's (INAUDIBLE) while also - also -
HARLOW: This is what I do.
MATTINGLY: Our pal Audie Cornish has a great podcast from last week on this exact issue with Ashley Allison (ph) that is fascinating, nuanced and super smart.
Jamaal, Lee, Laura, thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
And you can hear directly from the candidates in Iowa town halls this week on CNN. Ron DeSantis will sit down with CNN's Jake Tapper tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. And on Wednesday Vivek Ramaswamy will speak with CNN's Abby Phillips also at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.
HARLOW: Elon Musk bringing back the man who called the Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting a hoax. What the return of Alex Jones means for society as he will be back on X.
MATTINGLY: And Rudy Giuliani facing the music for defaming two election workers in Georgia. Why the case could be a preview of what's to come in his election interference case.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:56:12]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX JONES, FAR-RIGHT RADIO SHOW HOST: A lot of people attacked Musk on Twitter. You know, I trend all the time, hey, if you're - if you're such an absolutist on free speech bring back Alex Jones. I understand that if he did that the ADL and others would really be able to probably shut down Twitter. So, I understand that he needs to, you know, go through a process before he does that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: So that was right-wing extremist Alex Jones days ago making the case to Tucker Carlson that users want him back on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. He was banned for posts that were previously cited for violence, harassment and hate speech. This morning, though, he's back on X thanks to the new owner Elon Musk. Musk did an very unscientific poll of asking people on X if Jones should be reinstated. Seventy percent said yes. And this move comes days before the families of victims, child victims in Newton, Connecticut, will mark 11 years since 20 children and six adults were shot and were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary.
MATTINGLY: Now, Jones promoted and then profited off of conspiracy theories, calling the shooting a, quote, "hoax." He was ordered to pay the families of the victims more than a billion dollars in civil damages over those lies. And, overnight, Jones and Musk took part in an audio chat on X, which included Vivek Ramaswamy, Mike Flynn and Andrew Tate, a self-proclaimed misogynist influencer.
CNN correspondent Donie O'Sullivan joins us now.
I'm having a bit of a tough time keeping it - go ahead, Donie. Please tell us what we need to know before I start talking.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN: Well, I - well, I think if you bring back up that full screen there of that cast of characters who were on that Twitter audio stream last night, I mean, that is Twitter right now, to be honest with you, That's Elon Musk, Alex Jones, Flynn. I mean the platform is obviously a mess. And, you know, people don't have to use this, but they do use it and it is still very, very influential. It still drives a lot of the news agenda. And what we're really seeing is become now I think is this. You know, after the January 6th attack, a lot of these big conspiracy theorists, including Donald Trump, got kicked off the platform. And that drove a lot of people to these kind of alternative platforms, some places where extremism and hate can really fester. Now X, one of the biggest platforms the world, that is the platform, that is the alternative platform, but it's mainstream. And I think, you know, we also have to stop thinking about this stuff like -- somebody like Jones now as a fringe character. I mean he's not. You saw how big a role she played in the stop the steal movement. He has an ear to former president, essentially.
HARLOW: And 70 percent of now qualifying this with that's what X is now, but 70 percent of users on X said, put him back on, after Elon Musk said just last November, quote, "I have no mercy," explaining why he wasn't reinstating Jones' account - "I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame." So, what changed?
O'SULLIVAN: I mean I think what we're seeing with Elon Musk is a very public journey down the rabbit hole.
HARLOW: Journey, yes. Yes.
O'SULLIVAN: You know, I mean, I think he's going deeper and deeper. And you sort of see the cast of characters that he's hanging out with. I mean quite concerning if, you know, one of the richest most powerful men in the world is amplifying these voices and choosing to amplify that. So, I think that's what we're seeing here.
And, look, I think, just pulling this back very broadly, we can talk about how, you know, crazy some of the stuff Alex Jones says, but I really -- this paints a picture, it sets the stage, I think, as we go into 2024 for a platform like X, which is just going to be totally off the rails, but also then we've seen YouTube and Meta, other platforms allowing election lies.
[07:00:04]
