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What Do Harris, Trump Need to Do in Tomorrow's Debate?; House GOP & Dems Release Separate Documents on Afghanistan Withdrawal; Tropical Storm Watch Expands to Parts of Texas. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired September 09, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Monday, September 9, right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

[06:00:48]

A new major poll showing Donald Trump with a slim one-point lead, within the margin of error, heading into the first debate. It's a statistical dead heat.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We're run by stupid people. And we're going to find it out again on Tuesday night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Only one day away from the highly anticipated showdown. It may be the only time the two candidates meet on the debate stage.

And the former president threatening election officials with criminal prosecution, potentially, if he winds up victorious in November.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, U.S. SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: I think it really feeds into a sense that this is something they're using as a political football.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: New reports out of Congress on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as Donald Trump makes it a central issue on the campaign trail.

All right, 6 a.m. on the East Coast. A live look at the nation's capital on this Monday morning.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. Tomorrow, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will face off in Philadelphia for their one and only presidential debate. Stop me if you've heard this before: the stakes could not be higher.

There are just 57 days until election day. Does that feel like not much time? Well, consider where we were 57 days ago.

It was July 14th. It was a Sunday. Donald Trump had just held a rally the night before in Butler, Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Take a look at what happened --

(GUNSHOTS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down, get down, get down, get down.

(GUNSHOTS)

(SCREAMING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: There you see him shouting, "Fight."

Trump had narrowly avoided death. His life was spared by mere inches.

Days later, the RNC kicked off in Milwaukee. Trump received a hero's welcome. For a week, defiant Republicans celebrated Trump -- and there's really no other way to say it -- Trump was winning the election.

But less than a week later, President Biden stepped aside, and Democrats rallied around Harris with lightning speed, their joy fully on display at their weeklong convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The last 57 days have shown us that everything can change in mere moments. And Trump and Harris have just 57 more days to change American minds, and just one day until what could be the really last opportunity for a big moment, on the debate stage in Philadelphia Tuesday night.

This weekend, new polling from "The New York Times" and Siena College found Donald Trump with a one-point lead over Kamala Harris among likely voters. This is a national poll. Well within the margin of error, no clear leader, but potentially showing the electorate drifting back in Donald Trump's direction after a month of Harris riding high.

Is that what's happening? And what do Harris and Trump need to do onstage in Philly tomorrow night?

Joining us now to discuss: Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst, national political reporter for Axios; Dana Bash, CNN chief political correspondent, co-host of "STATE OF THE UNION"; Meghan Hays, former director of message planning for the Biden White House; and Matt Gorman, former senior adviser to Tim Scott's presidential campaign. Welcome to all of you.

MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING FOR BIDEN WHITE HOUSE: Hello.

HUNT: Just 57 days. It's head-spinning to think of where we were 57 days ago to where --

(CROSSTALK)

HUNT: -- where we are now. Yes, our thanks to crack producer Jimmy Carr (ph), who -- who did the math and figured that out.

Dana Bash, I am interested in this "New York Times" poll. It's obviously one poll. We don't want to put too much stock in it. But it is something that's got at least my Democratic sources --

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR/CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

HUNT: -- chattering about, hey, is this sort of high that Harris has been on kind of coming back to earth. Are we seeing where this race really stands, which is extraordinarily neck-and-neck? What are you hearing?

BASH: Same, same. And what I'm hearing isn't, you know, panic that she's dipping. It's plateau. It's that the rise, the surge, as so many people have said that the sugar high, perhaps, from Joe Biden dropping out, her getting in and everything that has happened since, could be kind of leveling out.

[06:05:07]

I'm sure you're going to get to a lot of the numbers inside the poll. But there are larger concerns. Maybe concern is too strong. Targets for her inside the poll with regard to people who are not yet decided; why they're not decided.

And the fact that they still don't know a lot about her policies, which is one of the many reasons why tomorrow night is so crucial.

HUNT: Yes.

Alex Thompson, speaking of that question, OK. People are saying we're not sure that we know a lot about her policy. That actually has been a Republican message.

I'm kind of curious what your take is and what you're hearing from your sources about how is this race to define Kamala Harris going for her right now?

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, the poll highlights, really, why this debate is so important.

Now, the debate, it will be impossible to up the impact of Dana's debate.

BASH: It's impossible.

HUNT: Well, I don't know, Dana.

(CROSSTALK)

HUNT: It's a tough act to follow.

THOMPSON: So tough news for ABC. But -- but I do think what the poll does show is that this is high risk, high reward for Kamala Harris.

And they know that. That's why she's been down all week doing debate prep, because people -- people really know what they think about Donald Trump at this point. And there's -- the poll show that there's openness to rejecting Donald Trump, to not going back, as Kamala Harris would put it.

But there's also a lot of ambiguity, and they don't know if she's up to this. And that's why this debate is going to be so important.

And she's also built this up into a bigger moment because she, with the exception of Dana's interview, has not really been accessible to reporters. So, she has also made this into a bigger moment because of that.

HUNT: Interesting. So obviously, Meghan Hays, both sides, Trump -- well, Trump less so. Harris has been hunkered down, right? Doing very traditional, classic debate prep in Pittsburgh.

She's been working with friend of the show, Philippe Reines, who played Donald Trump in prep for Hillary Clinton. He's now doing it for Harris.

He was on the show a couple of months ago. I was trying -- I was desperately trying to get him to explain what it's like. Because I remember when I was covering Hillary Clinton's campaign, him getting into the back of a car. We were going out to dinner. We were having a source meeting. And he's literally wearing the Trump cufflinks and the shoes, looking the part.

Here's what Philippe said about what it's like to play Trump on the show a couple of weeks ago. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILIPPE REINES, POLITICAL CONSULTANT: I mean, Trump would be like, no, I'm not -- I'm much better. But he's going to do a thing with the mic. He's going to be like, why is my mic off? They gagged me. They want to put me in jail. They turn off my mic. This is -- MATT GORMAN, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO TIM SCOTT'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Even when he -- he's supposed to do what he does, he says it like -- he channels it.

REINES: You know what -- he knows damn well. He's big on, you know, why are they playing with the teleprompter? Why are they playing with the mic? He will play dumb as part of his, you know, they're out to get me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: What do you make of that, and what do you think Harris -- how do you think Harris is going to -- needs to interact with all that?

HAYS: Yes. I mean, I think he's going to do whatever he can to blame the rest, right? That's, like, kind of what he does. That's his shtick: everyone's out to get him. He's the victim.

I think she needs to continue to do what she's doing and being out there. But to your -- to their point, it's -- she needs to introduce herself.

She's still -- people are still getting to know her. And if there's room to move, this is a really great opportunity. You're not going to get 10 million plus viewers ever again in the next 57 days.

So, she needs to take that opportunity. And let Donald Trump be Donald Trump, and let him play the victim, and do all the things. And she should focus on her and focus on getting her voice out there.

HUNT: Matt Gorman, "The New York Times" reported over the weekend in terms of Harris's strategy that, quote, "Ms. Harris has ditched Mrs. Clintons unsuccessful strategy of denouncing Mr. Trump as a racist and a misogynist. The vice president's aides believe it's a waste of time to tell voters what a terrible person Mr. Trump is, given how hard it is to find a voter who does not already have a fixed view of his character, good or bad."

GORMAN: That clip was before that first debate. I think that would even be a mistake for the Harris team to base their Trump kind of impression or characterization based on the 2020 debate and less so on this last one we had with Dana, where he was practiced. He knew to let Joe Biden go and talk and interject, but do so on his own time.

If you remember, I don't know what he did just said, I don't think he does either. He wasn't boorish. He wasn't interrupting.

I think it's -- I would caution them to be very, very careful of which Donald Trump they choose to have go against her.

HUNT: Yes.

GORMAN: I think that's a very interesting point.

HUNT: Very interesting. You have to -- sorry.

BASH: Sorry.

HUNT: Go ahead.

BASH: He also felt that he could take his foot off the gas there when he saw what was happening on the other side of the aisle.

GORMAN: I think you're right, but I think one of the underrated things about that last debate, which obviously got lost in the whole stuff with Joe Biden afterwards, was he prepped and practiced far more than people gave him credit for.

He was ready for it in a way where the advisers, I think, didn't let it known.

THOMPSON: I mean, you're seeing both sides, basically, try to downplay expectations.

Oh, Trump hasn't prepped at all. Oh, and Harris, now that they don't have the mute are -- or now that they have the muted mics, she can't do it. They're -- they're tossing out the new playbook.

The one stat in that that really highlights what we're talking about with Kamala Harris in that poll was 31 percent of people said they needed more information about Harris before they made up their mind.

Of that 31 percent, 67 percent said policy was the one thing they wanted to know more.

[06:10:04]

HUNT: Yes. We will see.

All right. Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, surprising presidential endorsements continue to roll in. A former Republican vice president -- and not just any former Republican vice president -- announcing he's switching sides and supporting Kamala Harris.

Plus, Republicans and Democrats set to release dueling reports today on the deadly U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. We'll dig into that.

And the former president on social media already to try and sow doubt about the 2024 election results.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think that it is appropriate to be threatening election workers in this way before the election?

GOV. DOUG BURGUM (R-ND): I think what President Trump is saying, we're going to have free and fair elections. Everybody's got to follow the rules.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:20]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTTIGIEG: I haven't seen what's in the report coming out tomorrow, but I do have a question about what they're doing over there. If they've had three years to assess what happened, why are they delivering a report after Labor Day in a presidential election year?

I think it really feeds into a sense that this is something they're using as a political football.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. House Republicans and Democrats releasing dueling documents today on the August 2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The chaotic exit led -- left 13 American service members dead and abandoned thousands of Afghans who had worked with the United States.

Donald Trump's campaign, trying to make this a key issue ahead of the November election.

Meghan Hays, I will say there are some damning details in the Republican version of this report. Obviously, 13 Americans were left -- were left dead at Abbey Gate after that horrific attack.

This is going to be something that Harris has to -- is going to have to answer for on the debate stage. How do you think she needs to do it?

HAYS: I mean, I think that day was tragic. I remember being in the White House. It was awful and horrible for all of us and for the president and vice president.

And I think the one way people -- people need to be reminded of the sequence of how this all came about and how we ended up where we were.

And I think that, you know, the vice president has said it was a courageous thing to -- to withdraw from the war, from our country's longest war.

But I also think she needs to remind people that Donald Trump had four years to also withdraw. She -- he also cut a deal with the Taliban that freed 5,000 prisoners.

So, I mean, there's a lot of facts here. It's very nuanced. And I think that she needs to find a succinct way to remind folks of how this all came about and how we got to the place we were at.

HUNT: Yes.

Matt, I mean, this is -- this is clearly tricky territory. I mean, the Harris campaign is releasing a letter from 10 -- we had one of the generals who signed the letter on earlier in the program. They clearly understand that this is a vulnerability. GORMAN: Huge vulnerability. I mean, this was Joe Biden's really first

and most, I would say, permanent polling swoon in August of 2021. His numbers never recovered at the -- to the extent they were at before then.

And look, I think what we're also going to hear is not just about the conditions-based withdrawal that the Trump team had and that the Biden team tore up, but also how they did it. Right?

Closing Bagram Air Force base forced a bottleneck into Kabul. It's like trying to get people out of New York City but closing LaGuardia and Kennedy and having everyone go through Newark.

And so, it forced a bottleneck that made Kabul, obviously, a massive target, as we saw.

So, look, I think the Trump team absolutely feels like this will be on offense. And I expect to hear a lot about this during the debate. This thing by the Harris campaign, obviously, in a sense, to both pre-but it and maybe inoculate a little bit, somewhat, too.

HUNT: All right.

Still to come here on CNN THIS -- THIS MORNING, the first and probably only opportunity for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump to face off ahead of the November election. How each is preparing for tomorrow night's must-see debate.

Plus, an NFL star handcuffed and detained. Now, a Miami-Dade police officer's on leave. It's one of the five things you have to see this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:22:41]

HUNT: Twenty-two minutes past the hour, five things you have to see this morning.

The star receiver for the Miami Dolphins, Tyreek Hill, handcuffed and lying on the ground just hours before Sunday's game.

Miami-Dade Police are investigating why Hill was detained following a traffic stop. One officer has been placed on leave.

Hill was released in time to play and later celebrated an 80-yard touchdown by pretending to be handcuffed once more. Wow.

OK. Now there's this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BUILDING CRUMBLING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The skyline of Lake Charles, Louisiana, changed as a 22-story skyscraper tumbles down. It was a planned demolition this weekend.

The Capital One Tower was badly damaged after back-to-back hurricanes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEL BOPPEL, ATTACKED BY ALLIGATOR: All of a sudden, I had a premonition. I'm telling you. It was like, Uh-oh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Uh-oh. An 84-year-old Florida woman injured after a gator attack in North Fort Myers.

It happened while she was walking her dog. The gator bit her legs and fingers. She is expected to recover.

And also hope that the dog is OK, considering that the woman is going to be OK.

All right world No. 1, Jannik Sinner of Italy, capturing his second Grand Slam singles title, defeating American Taylor Fritz in straight sets to win the U.S. Open.

Fritz was trying to become the first American man to win a Grand Slam singles title in 21 years.

And California experiencing excessive heat, causing wildfires to spread in parts of the state. Evacuation orders in effect for thousands of residents in San Bernardino County.

More than 17,000 acres have burned.

And that's -- brings us to weather. As those wildfires spread in California, parts of Southern Texas now under a tropical storm watch. Let's get to our meteorologist, the weatherman, Derek van Dam.

Derek, good morning.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kasie.

We are just a couple of days away from the statistical peak of the hurricane season here in the Atlantic. So, we are right on cue to see development now over the Western Gulf of Mexico.

And that is where our focus is. Potential Tropical Cyclone Six likely to become Francine later this morning.

As you mentioned, there are tropical storm watches for extreme Southern Texas coastline. This will likely be expanded through the course of the day today into Louisiana.

[06:25:02]

The reason we have tropical storm watches is because the outer wind field from soon-to-be Francine could lightly -- likely clip into Southern Texas through the course of the day today. But we're really focused in near the border of Texas and Louisiana,

where we could experience tropical storm-force to low-end Category 1 hurricane conditions as the storm is forecast to strengthen as it approaches the Gulf Coast and the mainland of the U.S.

Lots of rain associated with the system. Flash-flood potential as we head into the middle parts of the workweek across the Gulf Coast states from Texas to Louisiana.

Bringing you to the other side of the country, this is California. Of course, we've been keeping a close eye on many of the fires that are ongoing.

The Line Fire right now, 20,000 acres burned with 0 percent containment. This all being fueled by record high temperatures and strong winds that will continue through the day today -- Kasie.

HUNT: All right. Derek van Dam for us. Derek, thank you so much for that. See you tomorrow.

VAN DAM: OK.

HUNT: Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, Donald Trump, once again, casting doubt and making threats about the upcoming election. We're going to show you what he's promising to do if he wins another term.

Plus, with the debate coming up tomorrow, each candidate getting ready in their own way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS (R-AR): I think every day is debate prep for Donald Trump. He'll go in, game-time ready, just as he does for every interview, every rally that he does.

This is not something that is a heavy lift for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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